Strings - Koi Aanay Wala Hai

Rating: 5/10

For: College/School Crowd. Strings Fans.

Strengths: The youngster friendly sound - U2 mixed with indi-pop sounds pretty good as usual, the best songs are actually pretty good!

Weaknesses: Mostly bad lyrics, most songs sound very amateur, too much weird experimentation/wannabeness

Best Songs: Koi aanay wala hai, Keh Diya, Sonay Do
Avoidable songs:Jab Se Tum Ko, Jago, Jab Bhi Main, Ek Do Teen

Note: Excluding 'Zinda' and 'Aakhri Alvida' from the review coz they just happen to be in this album but not intended for this album.

Actually, I wasn't too surprised with this album. Typical Strings and Euphoria - Really good title track, couple more songs worth listening to and the rest mostly crap.

Although, this one is actually pretty worse than their earlier albums, plus after a 4 year wait, you don't expect this from an 18 yr old band.

Strings' strength has always been the sound and not much has changed with that and thats good for the album - at least the fans will like it - I am one too and will listen to it a bit (the good part only that is :P) but as a reviewer I would still be very careful with the level of appreciation.

The songs, yes, the title track is pretty well done, 'Koi Aanay Wala Hai' is a typical flowy Strings song - start to finish. Good melody and vocals, constant distortion and chords keep it going well. Also good use of voices and harmonies makes it sound richer too. Lyrics go with the song and not bad at all. The video is not too bad either but some people might have problems with John Abraham turning angel! Clearly the best song of the album and certainly worth listening to!

'Keh Diya' uses a very nice and different groove from what these guys usually use and its turned out very well because of the sweet sounding guitars and melody around it. Nice melody especially around the hooklines and again, the voices are in place - these kind of songs sometimes need them and this is one has them. Good use of the muted acoustic guitar on the hooklines - makes it sound peppier. You can actually rank this right alongside the title track.

'Sonay Do' is this soothing track. Bilaal (the guitarist) does all the vocals for this and I didn't find it too bad. It's a good song but it depends on how you digest the hookline ('aankh lagi to....') - the melody here is too elementary but is executed well so you might love this song or hate this. Again good acoustic guitars, or rather the keyword - soothing acoustic guitars - even the chords are on just a light distortion for a change.

The only other track worth mentioning is probably 'Titliyaan' - seems like a theme song for a child NGO or anaath ashram and it is very good if it is that. Good track to listen to - well arranged music, with everything in place and good vocals, lyrics and everything. But not something memorable.

Quickly going through the crap:

'Jab Bhi Main' goes 'Jab bhi main tujhko dekhun, lagta hai mujhko aise, baahon me khilti kaliyaan, phoolon me sabnam jaise' and so on- on a papa kehte hai beat which goes on and on and on. Bad attempt at rock and roll. However, you wont hate it if you're not judging it - if it plays when you're on shuffle mode - you can actually make it to the end of the song coz its not too bad to generally listen to.

'Jab Se Tum Ko' is crap. Big Crap. If you can get to beyond 1 minute in this song, hats off!

'Ek Do Teen' starts off OK and thats it. Seems to be the long awaited title track for Son Paree. Wrong song in wrong album.

'Jago' - bad bad drum sounds, bad bad lyrics, the only time I can imagine listening to this song is on a treadmill - might go with the jogging. Bad Song for most people.

'Hum Hi Hum' makes me feel they should have spent more on the drummer. It's not just this song, many others - drumming is very average - needs to be much much better. Very average song this one too, don't wanna break my head analyzing this song.

Other than these, luckily this album houses two more tracks - 'Zinda' (Title track of the Sanjay Dutt movie Zinda) and 'Aakhri Alvida' (Title track of Shootout at Lokhandwala) both of which are really good and the overall percentage of good in the album goes up significantly when you count these!

So, Strings fans must buy it as usual. People wanting to try Strings should not start with this album. First like Strings and then listen to this. If you have too much pocket money buy it for the best 2-3 songs and the 2 extra ones - 5 good songs is not too bad for a studio album.