Artist: Leslie Lewis
Album: Tanha Sa Hoon
Label: Universal
Release Date: 2012
The scene seems to start out like a meme – Gopher Holes, Gopher holes everywhere… And inside each one of these holes lays a musician: someone whose career peaked somewhere around the turn of the century. Circa 2004, they all seemed to take shelter like a nuke had just gone off. In musical terms it had – and again like last week’s review, I shall abstain from saying much further. But now, slowly, gradually, they’re starting to emerge, albeit cautiously. Lucky Ali released a new album without much fanfare and made it a free download, Shubha Mudgal had a lovely collaboration with Swarathma on Dewarists, Colonial Cousins performed a new single at the IPL and slated their new album for 2013. And then there’s this – an album by Leslie Lewis: one half of the aforementioned Colonial Cousins and probably one of India’s most renowned musical figure.
The thing about Leslie Lewis is, he’s like an iceberg – there’s music you’ve seen him do but there’s also this huge body of work where he’s been composer or producer or both that very few know of. So, on the one hand while we know he’s done songs like Krishna and Sa Ni Dha Pa, lesser known is that he’s responsible for KK’s iconic album Pal (the title track would have done Journey proud) and the not so iconic Band of Boys efforts. And then you suddenly realize the breadth of genres this man has successfully covered during his stint in the music industry. So what does a man who has such a broad palette to choose from decide to do on his own album? The answer in the end is quite simple: music he loves.
The album itself isn’t very long – at 7 songs, it just tips the half hour scale. But with each song, Leslie tries to take us to a different part of the world – there’s everything from the blues to bossa nova, from Bollywood folk to classical. It feels less like a coherent album and more like a collection of songs, a compilation of sorts – and that’s a very good thing; the album never gets monotonous or repetitive at any point. One of the main features of this album is that for the first time Leslie Lewis has sung all the songs in Hindi – and that’s a very good thing also; this album then will appeal to a much larger demographic, something I think the folks from Universal will keenly pursue. But for all the good things I find about this album – the diverse styles, the top drawer musicianship, the mature songwriting…. I don’t know…. It just doesn’t manage to stir up any emotion in me.
As the album finished playing, I was left quite puzzled. I mean, no one can deny it is good music – everyone’s playing the right notes – but… I think the best way to put it is that it probably lacks character. What do I mean? The songs on this album sound very neutral – like Leslie Lewis the composer wrote and produced the songs and then Leslie Lewis the singer showed up and sung them; had any other artist sung these songs, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. And as usual, it is the exception that proves the rule… an exception by the name of Saawariya Calling. Jazz, Indian classical and a touch of Sting, this song makes you acutely aware of the depth of emotion missing in the other tracks – something I think he knows; he hinted as much in an interview.
To sum up then, I’m just a bit disappointed –Tanha Sa Hoon lacks the character and earnestness that Lucky Ali’s Raasta Man has (reviewed here) – being Leslie Lewis’ own, I expected a bit more. But, ladies and gentlemen, the question is – should you get the album? The answer is yes, you should. Definitely. Most certainly: Because although it sounds like Leslie Lewis just showed up for work, let there be no doubt – he is good at his job.
