Jeans

This album has 6 tracks
Reviewed by Sriram & Arvind.

Sriram	Arvind

Sriram's Thumbs Up Rating: By now Madras should be going 'gaa gaa' with Columbus..Colombus!   Vav.. this song is so arresting with thumping beats on the first listen itself.   Especially in the 2nd interlude.. Ye Ye Ailasaa.. mmm this is for sure a runaway hit.  The voice modulation by ARR to suit such a song is so good.  Yeah, it is same formula as Oorvasi Oorvasi, Take it Easy but it does click.  A sure party song!

Kannukku mai azhagu has been casually lifted and replaced as Poovukkul olindhirukkum...   This song flows like breeze into the ears, thanx to Unnikrishnan and Sujatha.   The lyrics by Vairamuthu are catchy too in this song.  This is another song which is arresting in the first listen itself.  Adhisayamey asandhupogum nee endhan adhisayam is a good karpanai.  The hard team work is evident in this song.  Do you notice that lyrics simulating Chinna Chinna Aasai, Poo Pookkum Osai, Kannukku Mai Azhagu easily attract audience?

Kannodu kaanbadellaam... goes very fast, in my opinion.  Also the background beats simulate 'thavil' which makes the song sound harsh (though many may feel otherwise).  Does one need Nityashree to sing this song?  Though this song is a good Carnatic based song, I would say that both Bombay Jayashree (rendition of Narumugaiye in Iruvar) and Nityashree have not been utilised to their capacity by ARR.

Vaaraayo thozhi... starting with a bang from Gnyaana pazhaththai pizhindhu is superb.  Who has rendered the start piece? Is it a male or female, if female, is it Harini or Sangeetha?  Kudos to the person who starts the song.  The song as such simulates O merey sonaa re sonaa re sonaa re sung by Asha Bhonsle, an old hindi number.  Did ARR choose this tune to make hindi listeners happy?  The rest of the song is very ordinary.

Anbey Anbey.. by Hariharan and Anuradha Sriram is a different song remembering one of the olden days.  It takes one to Vaaraai nee vaaraai kaalathu style.  Is it purposefully done to suit the mood of picturisation?  Excellent song.  Aana mellisai paatu maadhiri irukku enbadhu oru kurai.  Naduvil oru piece by chorus resembles Naadhaswara osai, devan vandhu paadukiraan, serndhu varum nerathiley devi nadamaadugiraal.  Definitely an off beat song from ARR.

Enakkey enakkaa.. Hairaa Haira Hairabbaa.. is an average song.  No more comments.

My CD has an excellent song from Uyirodu Uyiraaga.  The song is Poovukkellaam sung by K.K., Srinivas and Harini, a lovely one tuned by Vidyasaagar.

I am relieved that Jeans is not another recycled album.   Expectations have gone multi-fold and hopefully ARR keeps it up. Yeah, it is of LEVI's quality.

With a flop hero and heroine (Prashanth and Aiswarya Rai) on the lead, if this film becomes a hit, Shankar-ai piddikavey mudiyaadhu.  All the best to him.

Sriram

Arvind's Flat Thumb Rating: The movie has been hyped up so much that I was expecting much more than what I got to hear.  It is true that you have to listen to almost all of AR's albums at least a couple of times before you start humming the tunes.  Jeans is no exception.  I almost gave a thumbs up rating.  But almost doesn't quite cut it and I don't think I would be doing justice with a thumbs up rating, just for Aish Rai (^_^).  Flat thumb it is.  There are six tracks altogether and it does start off well with Columbus by AR - One of the two songs I liked in the album.  The reason could be that it sounds like Musthafaa from Kaadhal Desam.

Kannodu by Nithyasree is the best of the lot - a very catchy number.  Here again, I found the maelam background to be very annoying.   Vairamuthu has let his imagination run wild in Hairaa sung by Unnikrishnan and Pallavi, even though there are lot of English words.  Vaaraayo thozhi is another fast number in the album and I was not too impressed with it.  Accepted that Poovukkul and Anbe are melodious numbers but I don't have the patience to listen to them, time and again.   Hats off to Harini - Starting from Nilaa Kaaigiradhu in Indira to Hello Mr. Edhirkatchi in Iruvar to Jeans, she just rules.  Rumour has it that AR is a very good sound engineer and this album proves it to be true.  But I'm not sure if AR can sustain long enough scoring mediocre music like in this one.

Arvind

Original Photograph (Jeans/Genes): Audio CD cover.
Photograph scanned/restored by: Sandya
Photograph effects by: Krishna