Dev D OST

I am surprising myself by talking about a hindi movie OST. Well, I can't NOT write about this varied compilation which I bumped into when switching channels and heard this funky track called "emosional athyachar". The song was so catchy that I downloaded the OST right away.
The first few days were dedicated renditions of athyachar in spite of protests from near and dear ones! Little did I know that there were 16 other songs on this album, each one different from the other. The album is a melange of folk sounds, western classical pieces, rock ballads, groovy rhythms, classic pop and closer home melodic hindi music. It is basically a soundtrack for a Devdas flick and has songs of love, desperation and eventually madness.

More than the vocals behind the songs, which any review will talk about elaborately, I was floored by the arrangements for songs. This includes instrumentation, their timing and feel, and the rhythm which gives a particular groove to a song.
If you don't know what I am talking about, please get the Dev D Soundtrack and give it a listen. I think you'll find something interesting in it for you.

This post ain't complete without writing about some of the songs themselves. Here are a couple of reviews:

Emosional Athyachar:
The cover song of the movie if you can call it, the brass band version as they call it, will catch you in splits. It has the feel of orchestra bands that play during processions in marriage ceremonies up in north of India. The sound is not really original but what is, is it's adaptation to the theme song of the movie. Who would have a conceived such a thing?
The rock version of the same song has a serious rendition in a rock balladish way. It is after all a Devdas story. On a first listen, I was somehow drawn to compare it with 'Die,die,die my darling' by Metallica mainly for the drumming and the tempo. The song is not great if you've grown up listening to Queen, The Who et al. But it's still good.

Paayaliya:
I pressed the next button on my pod, and what started as an old classical song with a touch of violin, moved into a faster tempo with a little synth and sounds of shehnai here and there, then the veena with carnatic chants and some Ghatam with the Shehnai still playing hide and seek, suddenly breaking off on a western chorus and being lulled back eastwards and finally heading for a climax with a delightful mix of everything! Wow! Never heard so much in one song! For me, this song is a must listen.