Hindi music album reviews

Pure Christmas
Pure Christmas is a 3-CD compilation containing 48 tracks by greats such as Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, The Beach Boys and Ella Fitzgerald. Come Christmas and you are sure to be surrounded by special collections based on reggae or country.

This offering by EMI boasts of a wide range of Christmas songs, some classics and some newer tracks. The standard of the music, however, never falters. The first CD starts off with The Christmas Song by the Nat King Cole Trio, Matt Monro follows with When a Child is Born and Dean Martin comes up with Let it Snow and The Christmas Blues.

The second CD has favourites likes Mary's Boy Child and Rudolf, The Red-Nosed Reindeer while the third CD offers tracks like Silent Night and Silver Bells. A diverse range of artistes present some lovely tracks. For example, The Beach Boys with Little Saint Nick, Glen Campbell's Blue Christmas and Vera Lynn's Little Donkey. The Treorchy and Morriston Orpheus Choirs sing See Amid The Winters Snow.

All three CDs offer variety and are an astute blend of
the old and the new. This ensures that the listener is not subjected to repetitive stuff. The tracks are pretty interesting and explore a range of emotions.

This is a good investment if you need some help getting merry this Christmas.

Dasvidaniya
Various artistes
Popular singer-composer-lyricist Kailash Kher teams up with his composing partners – Paresh and Naresh – to create some memorable songs for this non-mainstream film. Sonu Nigam starts off the album with Aawara Raahi Gumshuda – a stylishly fluffy song, urging listeners to live life on their own terms. With its spunk and sparkle, this is Sonu's best song for the year! Kher then lends his voice for Mumma – a simple ballad, serving as a sincere ode to a mother, and Alvida –
a heartrending number bidding a final good-bye!

Heroes
Various artistes
Monty Sharma and Sajid-Wajid compose a soundtrack dishing out mostly uninspiring clichéd situational fares like Badmash Launda – a UP-Bihar folk-styled item song, Makhna – a Bhangra-dance track, Mannata – a romantic number with a Punjabi touch and What's Up Bro – a breezy on-the-road buddy-song. Only the presence of top singers like Sonu Nigam, Sukhvinder Singh and Kunal Ganjawala salvages these numbers from being total write-offs.

Pure Gold Romance Vol.1
Mohd. Rafi
This excellent compilation brings together some of the romantic gems from Mohammed Rafi's extensive repertoire. Composed in the 60s by masters like Naushad, Shankar-Jaikishan, O.P. Nayyar, S.D. Burman and Ravi, these songs like Mere Mehboob Tujhe, Is Rang Badalti Duniya Mein, Pukarta Chala Hoon Main, Khoya Khoya Chaand and Chhoo Lene Do Naazuk Hothon Ko have already been acknowledged as evergreen classics!