Velaikkaran music review: This Anirudh Ravichander album is a mixed bag

The songs from Velaikkaran were launched on Sunday.

The songs of Anirudh Ravichander’s latest album Velaikkaran starring Sivakarthikeyan, Nayanthara, and Fahadh Faasil was unveiled on Sunday. With two singles launched earlier, the three new songs are more of the usual fare from the young musician who has made a name for himself making commercial music for the youth. “Idhayane” sung by Neeti Mohan and Anirudh himself is a melody that joins the list of anthem-ish melodies from the young composer such as “Ennai Matrum Kadhale” from Naanum Rowdy Thaan. The simple track has a charm that will make you hit the repeat button. But it might not have the longevity to stand the test of time.

As it is with Anirudh, there is one song that provides the grunge to the album; the song you head-bang to. In case of Vivegam, it was “Thalai Viduthalai” and it is “Vaa Velaikkara” for Velaikkaran. The song is not as intense as the former, but Shakthishree’s voice is a great value addition. It is great to listen to her deep, sonic rich voice in a number that is not like one of the soulful melodies that the singer is famous for.

“Ezhu Velaikkara” is a classic ‘rise to the top’ song. For the uninitiated, every commercial Tamil movie has the hero in a situation in a fix where his arch-nemesis has the upper hand; or he has an insurmountable task on hand to accomplish. To accompany this situation, we have an encouraging number that sees the hero slog it out on screen. To give a few classic examples, there was “Vetri Kodi Kattu” in Padayappa or even “Ethir Neechal Adi” from Anirudh’s own album ‘Ethir Neechal’ which also had Sivakarthikeyan. Sung by Siddharth Mahadevan, “Ezhu Velaikkara” will definitely be an addition to this list.

#Velaikkaran album is out now.. Hope you enjoy it :)

Gaana – http://t.co/iqpvt4dUvQ
Saavn – http://t.co/LpUYVRsSNd

— Anirudh Ravichander (@anirudhofficial) December 4, 2017

Another notable aspect of the Velaikkaran album is that Anirudh is credited as one of the vocalists in almost every song. Anirudh does have an interesting voice; I still the remember the punch his voice added to “Come on girls” from his film album ‘3’. But it would be great if he could experiment with male voices in his tracks. Almost all of his recent releases have his vocals in it creating the desire to seek something new in the listener.