With their new video out, their album should be the most talked about thing right now. Unfortunately, something has gone wrong.
By Manal Faheem Khan
Artist: Seige
Album: Police**
So here seems to be a common problem among our music albums. Mostly, artists make 2 to 3 videos before the album is released. Those videos are of songs which are fun, catchy, and probably the best songs from the entire album. Then people are deceived into getting their hands on a copy since the first two singles sounded so good! Finally the fans put the CD’s into their laptops or burn the songs on their ipods, and they stare at their screens, thinking how they’d been fooled.
Yes, that has probably happened to all of us one too many times, and with Seige, we’re probably about to face the same disappointment. Why it’s more disappointing this time, is because these guys are actually fairly good. I mean, who doesn’t remember singing `Armaan dil keh jaanay kyun pooray na huay’ and tapping their foot enthusiastically while singing this song that gained so much popularity back in 2006, even though the video was rather plain and unattractive? It was talent that drew the audience to them.
Unlike other deceiving albums, however, Police isn’t that bad. It’s just that the rest of the songs are simply (for the lack of a better word) a little different from what we were expecting. The album opens up with the title track, `Police’, which is probably the catchiest song in the album even though the video was an unfortunate disaster.
The second track is `Armaan’, which needs no description. This was the song that rose the band to fame and won them awards as well. However, that was four years ago, so the song’s magic is slowly wearing off.
The next song is `Arzi’, which completely takes the listener by surprise because it’s completely different from what we’ve heard Seige do with their music. After listening to it for a few seconds, one is transported into the Bollywood realms of wide wheat farms and a boy serenading to the love of his life, who happens to be running around in a sari. Now, Bollywood isn’t bad at all. But this is the old school Bollywood, where every movie had at least one song in some far off location where despite the weather being cold, the lead actress would be dressed in a not-so-warm sari. Remember Shahrukh Khan’s Mohabbatein anyone?
That’s pretty much the general feel of Police, which is the disappointing part. Most of the tracks sound like sad love songs from Bollywood movies. For instance, there are two tracks that have almost the same name. One is called `Teray Bin’ and the other is called `Tum Bin’. That is some serious lack of originality right there. Both the songs are similar and one can’t distinguish them from each other. Plus having similar names hasn’t helped them either.
Seige then tried to step it up a bit, reminiscing about the old `Armaan’ days, and added `Marna Vi Naee’. The song has the foot tapping music, with the tablas doing their thing. However, the vocals sound a little off. It seems like a forced attempt at producing another `Armaan’, which wouldn’t have been so bad if only the song had been fun to listen to.
One song that’s not so memorable is `Tanhai’ which simply slips away from one’s memory as it isn’t anything special. The lyrics are clichéd; the music isn’t half bad but nothing special.
Then there’s `Kaya Maine’. The song is nicely paced, with some interesting guitar and tabla sequences. The focus isn’t on the vocals, but instead, it’s on the music. The singing merely blends into the background. It’s definitely one of the better tracks of the album.
`Faaslay’ isn’t half bad either, but then again, this was the second video that Seige came out with back in 2008. The song didn’t do so great, but the video and the bands new image was much appreciated by their fans. However, amid all the other unsuccessful tracks, `Faaslay’ sounds pretty good. The lead singer, Junaid Younus displays vocals that sound much clearer and crisper in this track, and he’s able to hit the high notes without any difficulty.
The last track which seals the deal is a remix version of `Police’. The remix is definitely a lot of fun! It’s catchy and the music has some interesting dance-y feel to it. However, usually remixes are put in to fill out the space in the album. After you’ve compiled 12 to 13 tracks, you can throw in a remix or two of the two best songs of the album. However, Police only has 9 tracks. The argument here could be that they believe in quality rather than quantity. But all we’d say in return is, really?
So the album seems to have no certain theme or common element. It seems as if the album is called Police simply because it was the most interesting song name. There is nothing thematic about the album at all.
Also, considering the amount of time the band has taken to finally release their album ever since their first single came out, it is only natural to have high expectations from them. There is no doubt that these guys can sing and perform, but perhaps they should experiment with different types of genres, than sticking to the slow ballads which aren’t so bad, but not so great either. Junaid Younus also sounds better when singing in Punjabi. His vocals are better suited for singing complex Punjabi lyrics, as can be seen by his singing in Police where he sounds pretty good.
In conclusion, the album might work for die-hard Seige fans, and for people who like slow lovey dovey songs. But in actuality, the best songs of the album are the ones we’ve already heard before.
*YUCK
**WHATEVER
***GOOD
****SUPER
*****AWESOME
