Suneeta Rao - Waqt

Rating: 5/10

For: Everyone as such but especially women and people who religiously follow indi-pop.

Strengths: Solid vocals by Suneeta, rocking title track, a social message.

Weaknesses: Slightly outdated genre/sound dominates the album. Other songs don't keep up with the rocking title track.

Best Songs: Waqt, Lage More Nain
Avoidable Songs: Aaj Mohe, Ye Zameen

The lady who gave us 'Pari Hun Main' and 'Ab ke Baras' is back and after quite a long gap actually! To start off, the album was better than I expected and the title song surprised me, but it all dies down by the time you reach the end. Nevertheless, Suneeta does very good on the vocals and some songs are enjoyable. And a decent attempt at sending a social message across with a song called 'Sun Zara'. So let's go to the songs..

Easily, the best song of the album is 'Waqt'. It simply rocks and Im sure most people will like it - I hope they make a video of this. It's got a very heavy and divine sound with a constant bass guitar rhythm backing it. The beats are crisp, the intermittent distortion guitar seems in place and the vocals are just fine!

The next song 'Ishq Da' is pretty run-of-the-mill except its got a nice hookline ('Ishq da maar mere..') which she renders pretty well in several variations throughout the song but the rest as I said, is pretty ordinary. It's totally a 'Mehboob Mere' (Fiza) kinda song and she infact sounds a lot like Sunidhi Chauhan at the beginning :) - so if this suits you, please go ahead and listen to this.

'Lage More Nain' is sweet, right from the start. It is very raag-based and is a very soothing and innocent song which deserves some praise - especially for the vocals and the use of baansuri and a very different bright piano sound.

'Sun Zara' is the most talked about song which already has a video released on TV I guess - it's on youtube at least. The idea behind it is noble and it's got support from an NGO called 'UNFPA' too as a protest against female foeticide, but this message could have been delivered with a more powerful and catchy composition. The video is good enough to catch your attention but as a song, you won't really listen to it on repeat - pretty outdated dhol beats, ordinary melody and really everything is just ok.

'Indian Girl' is another tribute to Indian women and this one is actually better than the earlier song. It doesn't really come off as a strong anthem for the woman but works well as a modest tribute to her. This again has a very classical sound mixed with good use of distortion guitar and a table/drums combination. It at times reminds you of a very famous Parikrama song - 'But it rained' and is another one worth giving a shot.

Out of the last three, 'Aaj Mohe' and 'Ye Zameen' are something I won't recommend and they sound like just bonus tracks waiting to be skipped. The sound is the same - dhol mix level beats and just regular tunes. The awkward pitch bends in the background in Ye Zameen are actually very annoying!

'Ye Dooriyan' is something which might stick and you can listen to a lot and like the ones that do sound good in the album, this song is also raag-based and I don't think it's just me but this formula (classical based composition mixed with catchy beats and fillers) actually works these days! Only that this song is pretty long and gets a bit monotonous.

Overall, for an album which took 9 months to make (as per Suneeta Rao), it is very ordinary, but the title song rocks and 2-3 other songs are not too bad either and since she's released an album after quite a while and I respect her as a singer and a performer, I don't regret buying this album!