Sonorous Strings
Strings’ Dhaani
Review
***1/2
Pop in Dhaani, the latest CD – buy it, it’s great – from Strings, the much-loved pop duo of Bilal Maqsood and Faisal Kapadia and the band’s two most prominent strengths quickly come to the fore: One, that Faisal has an utterly awesome deep basso voice (too many people sing much too high these things) and two, that Bilal has a gift for a memorable melody that is second to none. Dhaani amply showcases both and by playing to the band’s strengths manages to come through with flying colours.
The odds were previously stacked
highly against the duo. Duur, the album before Dhaani was a tough act
to follow. It had taken them long years to come up with Duur and the album had garnered almost universal critical
and commercial acclaim. When news broke that that Strings were soon going to
release a proper new album - there had been makeshift not-too excellent commercial releases (World
Cup songs, etc.) in the interim - one was half worried that the one
consistently brilliant pop band of
In the case of Strings, one need not have worried. While the album does
not have the transcendent ability so grandiosely claimed (this music is not
passionate enough to transcend) in the above blurb, Dhaani
really is quite a great pop album. Actually what the band possibly and somewhat
clumsily was referring to was the rejuvenating joyous quality of pure pop
music. That is certainly in evidence on several of Dhaani’s
tracks, and nowhere moreso than on the utterly
brilliant Sohniye. The song is an utter joy and
coupled with Junoon’s funky and awesome Pappu Yaar (allegations of
plagiary in the latter notwithstanding) provides the crank-up-loud-and-drive-fast-in-your-car
soundtrack of the year.
That being said, I have come across a number of people already who
utterly hate Sohniye. Their prime beef with the song,
they claim, is that it is rather silly. How could Mr. Anwar
Maqsood who wrote most of the words on the album come
up with such juvenilia, they ask. I think they miss the point: when they say
that the song is silly they miss that that is precisely the point. A song that
goes Na Na Na Na Na Na
Na Na Meri
Sohniye is not to be taken seriously. Remember the
other NaNaNa song? Roxette’s
the Look. Hitting like a hammer? A juvenile scam? What
was that song about and how many IQ points did that lyricist score? Yet we
still loved the song. Great pop songs often actually rise past the risible
precisely because they are not weighed down with heavyweight meaning. In all of
this, Sohniye actually reminds me of the exuberance
of Strings II or Haroon’s
Raat Khait Main for
their joyous qualities and lightweightness. The truth
of the matter is that such songs are not to be taken too seriously. Even Bilal Maqsood who sings the song
quite brilliantly demonstrates that on the fade out where his singing is truncated,
quite off the cuff and brilliant. In short the tongue in clearly in the cheek
and if you miss that then you will probably never appreciate most of the more sublime
pop music on offer anywhere and especially here.
In effect, there are a number of other songs on the album which also achieve
pop perfection through similar joyfulness and relative lack of substance. The
title track is another case on point. Dhaani? Chunarya? A green chunarya?
And the point is ? It is not through the lyrics that Dhaani, the song scores: it actually scores several points
through its fun music (notwithstanding that it at times treads too close to the
song Duur, the acoustic riffs brilliantly make it
sound chuggalong like a train) and its cultivated use
of language (Bilal’s aunt Zara Nigah wrote this). Plus
Faisal sounds really good in this one. The same is the case with Chaaye Chaaye, the first single.
It is more or less in the same vein and more or less the same arguments apply.
I mean look at the video. Bilal is being interrogated
therein and tortured. You can either take it seriously and sit down and say ‘Ai
Hai, becharai pai kyoon zulam
ho raha hai?’ or ‘What a bad video’ or just laugh and enjoy its silliness. Overall,
so, be forewarned: if you look for too much meaning in these songs, you really
will not find much and in the process you will not enjoy the songs. At least that is the case with the
songs already mentioned. More on the others a little later.
The most memorable feature of the album and its saving grace at times against the lyrics is clearly its music and more particularly the album’s melodies. Bilal’s talent is stupendous: Few would have dared play with the single word of ‘Duur’ and stretch it into ‘Duuu-uuu-uuu-uuur’ in the manner Bilal did to mold the same into one of the most memorable melodies in recent memory. Dhaani too is shot through with memorable melodies and infectious melodic phrases: I have found myself today humming and singing ‘Yeh mitteeee mangai aur’ (Mitti) and notwithstanding that I hated the song and its lyrics ‘Bolo bolo bolo, bolo na’ from Bolo Bolo. This infectiousness makes pop music made by Strings stands head and shoulders above any other pop band in the land.
Beyond the melodies too, this is an excellently musical album and demonstrates a broadening of style. It shows musical growth on part of the band and varied instrumentation. However, it is certainly not experimental, groundbreaking or innovative a la Fuzon/ Mekaal Hasan as claimed by the band in a recent interview. In the same interview Bilal mentioned a change in emphasis towards groove and away from melodies. That is not really the case here. Admittedly the songs are more rhythm-oriented (foot-tapping) now but they really are not groove and dance-oriented like the bhangra boys (Ibrar, Jawad) or say Haroon and Fakhir. The emphasis on rhythm is increased but the melody still remains prime and this is a very good thing.
This increased emphasis on rhythm is achieved in part through increased use of loops and programmed drums, but it is most evident in the guitars. The guitars in fact are a revelation. Shallum was somewhat involved in the album but by most accounts most of the guitar duties fell to the multitalented Shuja Haider and Bilal himself. These two manage quite nicely. There is a marked shift in emphasis from solos in songs and the guitars seem to take on the role of driving the rhythm more and more. Funky little riffs (often on nicely recorded acoustic guitars) now either drive or underpin the songs and the guitar fills added also continue to be tasteful. One must salute them on that count.
The compositions in themselves are excellent: Pal and Bolo Bolo are musically excellent. Pal particularly is another highlight to the album. The song is a duet featuring Indian singer Sagarika. It has an ominous intro and then nicely explodes into life. There are a number of disparate elements (Suresh Lalwani’s outstanding violin, Shallumesque delay guitars, throbbing bass, tastefully mixed down strings, Faisal’s deep voice, Sagarika’s vocal gymnastics on the outro) and all of these come together quite brilliantly. The vocal interaction works a charm and the feel actually reminds one of Prince’s Arms of Orion which is another good thing.
The
compositions do however show the sequenced studio recording mentality. They are
more along the lines of tracks being stacked on top of each other, rather than
linear organic recording. One wonders how several of these songs would be
reproduced live and whether they would work as well. Moreover, there are times on
the album that one feels live drums would have been a better option than drum
machines and loops. Sequenced music and metronomic drums can convey only so
much passion. Moroever, the loops and programmed
drums feel will put Strings at a disadvantage too I imagine in the rural
markets. Despite using some eastern elements in their music, Strings’ music is
modern music. So it seems that the band will still remain popular in the
urban centres with this album but one does not see
this album breaking them in the rural heartland of the country. That having
been said, the instrumentation otherwise remains quite effective. String pads
(keyboards actually) are well-used throughout as is the flute. Sajjid Baqir works a charm
on Mitti with his flute playing. The arrangements
despite the use of several instruments continue to be airy and the music always
sounds spacious and the instruments well-separated.
The vocal duties on the albums are shared. This provides a good contrast
throughout the album. Furthermore when the two share
lead singing duties on a song (Chaaye Chaaye) their voices play off of each other quite well.
Admittedly, compared to Faisal’s hugely deep voice, Bilal’s
voice is rather insubstantial (most voices would suffer this fate in
comparison). Yet Bilal comes up trumps on Sohniyee precisely due to lighter voice. Faisal’s heavy, at
times monotone voice would have killed Sohniye (sort
of the way say Ghullam Mohyuddin
would do irreparable damage to an Ibrar lyric just by
reading the same). Strings therefore unlike Junoon
where Salman Ahmad insists on singing and torpedoing his
own ship sail through fine. That being said, I must also add that Mera Bichara Yaar
would have sounded better and would have had more gravitas with Faisal singing
it. Bilal unfortunately with his vocal limitations
struggles to sound convincing or substantial enough on the said song.
With this we come to back to the lyrics. Earlier I had mentioned that the some of the songs on the album are joyous. One must also add that Dhaani is not a through and through happy-happy, joy-joy album. Actually, far from it, it seems to bear a quite discernible shift in mood. It might be due to the onset of artistic maturity with the boys or a concerted effort on part of Anwar Sahab that despite the generally joyous music on the album, some of the words and topics now have a more world weary and jaded edge. Whereas on Duur the band sang of joyous arrival (Duur sai koi aye), on Dhaani there are songs about people leaving or having left. Kahani Mohabat Ki is lyrically desolate and shot through with loss: ‘Gaya Dil Se/ Phir Wo Na Aya Idhar.’ Mera Bichara Yaar may well be more abstractly about a dead loved one or more literally about the yearnings of someone who moved to the city and is missing all those that he left behind in the village. In this the album has also lyrically somewhat broadened Strings’ horizon.
In general, Anwar Maqsood Sahab’s
lyrics are effective and often simplicity incarnate. A strength is demonstrated in the ambiguity contained in
the lyrics. For example, this precise feature saves Mera
Bichra Yaar. One wonders
what is the singer singing about? What starts off
sounding like a straight love song is more about loss and longing and pretty
soon one gets the feeling that it may even be perversely be about someone who
lost a lover and is now waiting to die and join him. And then one may wonder
why is the person who has been lost is being sung about in the masculine?
Secondly, the lyrics work well as at least in Mitti
they demonstrate a move away from the topic of amour and problems involved
therewith. What may seem like your standard patriotic songs has a more deeper message, a plea to people thinking to immigrate
to stay on perhaps? In this Strings demonstrate social consciousness (if not,
as yet, social and political conscience). I just now hope they do not proceed
to sell Mitti to Pepsi to feature in their ads: the
song is tailormade for the Cola company
to co-opt as having already incorporated their ‘mangai
aur’ slogan.
Yet the simplicity and lightness that is also effective in the lighter pop songs also become the Achilles heel of the album on the more serious songs. The flipside of the more lightweight lyrics is that when put in a more serious context they appear pedestrian and therefore bad. Kahani Mohabat Ki is an example of this. Moreover, what is often missing from the lyrics is deeper insight, something one expects from Anwar Sahab. This has rather consistently been the case with Strings’ music. This was the case with Duur. This is the case here. The video for Anjane I maintain gave the song the substance which the lyrics never really had in the first place. What substance is present in this album is yet to be pointed out. My prime objection therefore is that Anwar Maqsood is after all Anwar Maqsood Sahab. His pen is one of the mightiest and the wittiest around in other genres of writing. Here too he should make a bit more of an effort lyrically and use themes other the same old well worn ones of amour. For now it seems he turns in lyrics that are in the final reckoning more or less tossed off. Kahani Mohabat Ki is poor on this count. Najanay Kyoon is similarly so. Lastly, while he does generally keep it simple Anwar Sahab’s vocabulary sometimes tends to move towards the more cultured words. Sometimes this cultured use of language sits uneasily on the bed of uncultured modern pop-rock music Bilal puts together. Words like Ghata, Jhonka, Panchi, and other formal Urdu words sometimes do not gel with the music’s feel.
Strings now
also seem to have developed an irritating reliance on repetition of trite
phrases: Bolo Bolo the classical number with Hari Harran is the chief example
of this. Despite its excellent music, I hated the song. Bolo Bolo Bolo Bolo
Na repeated time and again is irritating rather than anything else. Faisal’s voice
which sometimes tends towards a monotone almost becomes monotonous here. Sung
in concert the song is sure to get crankups and
catcalls from the audience: ‘Bol wi
chuk’ in
It is interesting to note that Strings too have
released this album through Sadaf Stero.
Khalid Sadaf seems to have
cornered the market on great artists. First he released noori,
now Strings and soon to be followed, one hears, by EP and Mizrab
albums. One just wishes that he would afford these latest releases a more
lavish production a’la Karavan’s
Gardish on VJ Gold. The Dhaani
package is competently put together. The pictures are reproduced well and
definitely an improvement on the horrid noori sleeve
for Suno Kai Main Hoon Jawan. The lyrics to Dhaani are
provided and the sleeve has been proofread well, which is saying a lot. The
logos are tastefully small on the cover. The cover picture however is not all
that impressive. For a band that proffers a boy next door appeal, the band with
a faraway look on the cover is not appropriate. This is not an epic rock band
that needs that look. The rest of the sleeve is nicely shot though.
It appears that the duo’s
return to music has now brought renewed focus and commitment to their music to
and the poise and calm is well in evidence on this album. Claims
of tiredness notwithstanding, the band certainly seems to have put
themselves about well in the studio. The album shows studio mastery and
inspiration in equal measure. The mixing
is sonically brilliant and so a tip of the head to Shahzad
Hassan on that count. However, the recording at times
seems to lack edge or overt passion. I guess that is something inherent to the
band. They are tasteful and nice (unlike the braver and more passionate Junoon). The climax of Pal, for example, goes up to a safe
high and no higher. No over the top pyrotechnics here which means it is all
elegantly tasteful (Arms of Orion as mentioned earlier) but not soulwrenching (Beautiful Ones also by Prince). Strings
overall rarely rock out but remain content with being the best pop band in
The upside of the band taking pains in the studio has also been that there is really no filler on the album. There are a few weak tracks, but none of the tracks qualify as filler. It is quite curious to note that various people dub various tracks as weak and love others which someone else might find weak. Sohniye is case in point. I love it. A lot of other people apparently don’t. A lot of other people love Bolo Bolo, I can’t stand it. In this Dhaani has at least something for everyone. The downside of working hard on tracks is that this album from Strings who were never really prolific is also on the short side with only ten tracks, not very great value for money.
In conclusion, just a
general point: there are many who have already concluded that this album is not
as good as Duur. I do not agree with that. What most
of the detractors are primarily saying is that this album is not Duur. True. This point is that album is Dhaani.
Expecting more of the same is unfair. Initially I reacted adversely to a large
part of Duur because I thought that album,
notwithstanding the singles, lacked the exuberance of Strings II, their best
album in my opinion and close to my best pop album by anyone in
(One last word of warning. Visit www.stringsonline.net,
an awesome site for this melodically infectious band, with care. Apparently
pages there are infected with Backdoor.Coreflood.dr
virus.)