TL;DR: MJ has released her latest new song: KBKT. Listen to it here.
Kuch Baat Karni Thi: The Song
Indulge me a little...
Have you ever been through times when you have had great conversations with someone you liked romantically? Both of you had flirted a little and skirted around a lot, waiting for the other person to make a move. Meanwhile, many seemingly small things had happened. They had made you dream a bit about a future together. Every day before falling asleep, you recollected your conversations and slept with a smile. Receiving their texts always made you light up, and also grin on an otherwise grumpy day. You had, perhaps, woken up every day whistling in anticipation of the day ahead when you would be talking to them again.
Then one fine morning you were in Chennai and clarity struck. Like it always does at 5:46 a.m. on a wintery dawn in Chennai. The lazily warm sun brought with it the wafts of fresh filter coffee decoction mixed with the fragrance of flowers, strains of violin played at the local temples, and an indescribable feeling that filled your heart with hope and optimism...they all coincided at clarity. Clarity that told you nothing could go wrong that day. Clarity that enough was enough and today was the day that you would tell them how you felt.
(Side note: if you are a Harry Potter fan, then it's like taking a swig of Felix Felicus).
Kuch Baat Karni Thi (I don't think I like using KBKT) is exactly about this feeling and everything you felt that led you to that moment. A breezy sweet love song that captures those little things, those butterflies, and those subtleties of liking someone but not telling them, yet. The strings: violin, guitar, bass, and viola add a lingering lilt and euphony: specifically making the verses Kuch Baat Karni Thi super memorable.
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All the people behind the song
1. Credits, taken from here:
The whole team has woven a symphony here! The mixing, the arrangement of the instruments, the vocals, and the album artwork by @_margazhi_ have been done with a lot of thought and heart. They evoke a super groovy, dancy, I am perhaps kinda sorta in love- jittery but excited feeling :).
The beats and the strings concoct a mellifluous yet heady feel to the song. The portions where MJ's voice weaves around the strings, especially the violin (and perhaps the viola?), are soul-stirring and make you take a walk down nostalgia. I, specifically, liked the the end of the second paragraph, when MJ sings "Mujh Ko" you hum/sing Kuch baat karni thi, but she doesn't. The instruments take over :).
I always enjoy Elroy's way of arranging the music. It has a unique and joyous quality to it. Two instances that immediately come to my mind are the whistling in Heer Ranjha and the opening of Tu Na Aaya.
2. MJ, has written, envisioned, and sung the song. I love all the verses in this song. I must add that I flipped at the romance in these verses: Ek hi ho, Par mera ho, Us lamhe ko mein shaam bana doon. I was also, reminded of these verses of MJ's from Mera Mann: Saanj teri, mei bas tara.
Something about the poetry incorporating the dusk/evening makes it beautiful and romantic for me. They also make me imagine a setting where someone softly incandescently whispers Mi Amor/My love- you know those soft whispers that could almost be unheard unless you are listening carefully because your senses are hyper-aware about the other person and their presence drowns out every noise around you.
I also loved the verses, Chot tum sey, marham bhi tujh mein. It's a sublime thought: the person you love can both hurt and heal (obviously, the verses have said it more poetically).
MJ, the singer, is simply brilliant in this song. Her voice, interlaced with the violin and viola, takes you on a journey. You can sense the love of the poet who wrote the poetry, and you can palpably feel the love of a singer who found the quintessence of a song: a perfect melody :).
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Fun coincidence: Chennai perhaps has only one month of winter/cold weather, roughly between December 15 to January 15th. This lunar month is called Margazhi in Tamil. Seeing that the artwork handle had Margazhi made me smile as this song evoked images of this month for me.
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What Kuch Baat Karni Thi makes me imagine:
Needless to say, I love the song. It is the first of Mj's originals that I had heard. I have always felt that whenever I was a little in love and reaching out to a Cadbury's ad to convey what I felt, this song was what I was missing. For me, it encapsulates all the trippy, groovy, butterflies-in-the-stomach sensations pretty accurately.
There is this ineffable sweetness about the whole song. It made me wonder how it would sound with an Oboe added or perhaps have the entire arrangement only with wind instruments. For me, Oboes stand for a non-aching sweetness. I feel there is a certain delight they bring in, even to sad songs as if saying that the pain itself has been woven as music- so nothing can yet be so wrong or irredeemable. Unlike a haunting melody with a violin: which can wrench your heart out.
This song made me imagine two of the most romantic confession scenes I have seen in movies. If I were to recreate the morning of the day the protagonists decided to 'fess up, then I would be adding Kuch Baat Karni Thi in the background. I would also play this violin portion from the song in the background when they actually admit their love.
https://youtu.be/RESwG23_YGw (BGM from time snap: 1:36) and
https://youtu.be/15DQMfCAxls (BGM from time snap: 6:14)
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This year is certainly off to a great start! Looking forward to more of MJ's music and originals!
TL;DR: MJ has released her latest new song: KBKT. Listen to it here.
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