Best of Blue
Blue
EMI/Virgin; Rs 125

A chocolaty reputation and a few million record sales balancing their cutting edge positioning as pop’s current blue-eyed boys, Blue aims to swell their pot with an intermediary rerun of their designer hits. All rise, Too close, If you come back, Fly by II and the ubiquitous One love (with an insipid variation towards the end) are tossed together, sticking to the winning formula of liquidating a drool of back-to-back monster singles and backing them up with spurts of plainer hits. Other memorable spots are the Elton John supported ballad, Sorry seems to be the hardest thing, and the revision of Stevie Wonder’s Signed, sealed, delivered I’m yours featuring the virtuoso himself. Breathe easy, Guilty and Bubblin’ from their last smash album Guilty are expected turnouts but they could have included When summer’s gone and Alive and made it a creamy treat. The question is where do the boys go from now? There is very little scope for any sort of headway in the ‘boy band’ musical domain and it already looks like Blue has stoked the best off their palate. If they were to follow trends, then the band should break up soon with each member plodding up ultra-hyped solo projects. And if trends end up holding true, then we should see at least one of the Brits living out the American dream, a la Robbie Williams.

Parichay
Sushmita and Subhankar Bhaskar
Raga; Rs 40

Parichay is primarily Sushmita’s album. Though she shares a song or two with Subhankar Bhaskar. The inlay of the album has the veteran singer Mrinal Bandopadhyay speaking highly of Sushmita’s mellifluous voice and gayaki, and so does the lyricist Deboprasad Chakraborty who has written five songs. Mrinal has provided music for the songs ? Megher baalish (duet), pakhi dakish na and Ek sagaar. Sushmita comes off as a combination of talent and dedication. The best song however comes from Subhankar-Mrinal-Deboprasad combo ? Ek sagaar.

Gopono Charini
Bratati Bandopadhyay and Babul Supriyo
SaReGaMa; Rs 50

Goponcharini speaks of all those women in Rabindranath Tagore’s life who, in one way or the other, inspired the incessant flow of compositions from this great poet. In several writings he has admitted about his quest for a soul-mate, his inspiration, his muse. At different phases of his life Rabindranath came across beautiful and intelligent women like Anna Tarkhar, Lucy Scott, his sister-in-law Kadambari Debi, his niece Indira Debi, the little lady Ranu Mukherjee or the young Victoria Okompo, each of whom he has immortalised in his songs and memoirs. Bratati with her inimitable voice reads out excerpts where he reveals his women unhesitatingly. Babul Supriyo pipes in with a line or two from several songs composed during those phases (the songs ,Aami chini go chini tomare and Phule phule dhole dhole, have distinct foreign influence), a give-away of his feelings. Babul is accompanied by Subhomita.

Madhuparna Das

E Parabashe
Abhirup Guha Thakurta
Bhavna; Rs 40

E Parabase is an exercise in melancholy ? and a real treat at that. Abhirup Guha Thakurta uses his rich, mellifluous voice well to bring out the sense of separation ? biraha ?which is an intrinsic part of the experience of listening to Rabindrasangeet. The sitar, which plays as a prelude to many of the songs, is used to good effect. E parabase robe ke hai is particularly exquisite as it gently unfolds to the listener the effect of isolation and how it burdens the human spirit.

Satadru Ojha