Thank the Lord!! Rock is here

I know I haven’t written for a long time, been busy (aka been lazy) but a recent Bollywood music album has compelled me to shout out again. And I’m pretty sure it’ll come as no surprise to those who read this blog that that movie is ‘Rock on’. I heard small excerpts of the songs on trailers and stuff and then finally got my hands on the whole album and I must say I like it, quite a lot.

I don’t think this is this is the best album ever made in Bollywood (too many of Rehman’s tracks would come back to haunt me if I said that) but it is SUCH a pleasant break from the usual crap that we’ve been hearing in Bollywood for the past decade. Bollywood has been far too obsessed with hip-hop and that God awful Punjabi rap collab’s, and if it’s not that then it’s your plain old run-in-the-middle pop. Which is why it was quite the pleasant surprise to hear such a decent rock album from Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy who’ve been such a core part of the Bollywood pop music.

There are other reasons why I like this album too. Here’s a confession bout myself – I am a sucker for the guitar, anything to do with that six stringed gift from God be it a good riff in a song, a good couple of notes in between, a good solo or just a that pleasant ring of an acoustic; I melt, I literally melt for it. She is my muse, my love and I wish my life. She is like a gorgeous girlfriend who’s fabulous but who I unfortunately ignore far too much and take for granted far too easily. I should be flogged in hell for it but hey it’s a fault that I try to correct and it’s a work in progress. But coming back to the point, I’m a sucker for the guitar and am not used to hearing it that much in Hindi music and this had nice little riffs and arpeggios and as soon as I heard them I was hooked.

The second reason I like this album is because they didn’t go with a conventional singer, like your Sonu Nigam or somebody for the vocals. Instead they went for a coarse voiced Farhan Akhtar which is such a magnificent touch, cause rock isn’t about silky smooth vocals, it needs an element of the jagged in there, all rock bands had it. Having a smooth vocals on a rock album is not rock it becomes a smooth edged pebble and that’s about as much rock as the Jonas Brothers are.

The third reason I like this album is ‘cause its Indian. Let me explain, of late for some reason it seems every movie that has a song with even a minute rock element in it is done by a Pakistani rock band, and don’t get me wrong they’re good and all, but why peek into the neighbours for resources when you got them right here in your own kitchen cabinet?

Now the so called “proper rock fan’s” are gonna be saying it’s a “wanna-be” album etc etc, and to those I have this to say - get of your stupid high pedestal and appreciate it for what it is, something out of the ordinary, something not conventional something bold and different and that my friends is very very rock. So let’s all whip out those Zippo lighters and raise it in the air for ‘Rock On’.