OVERALL COMMENTS:

Ever since I heard that "PopCarn" had music scored by Yuvan Shankar Raja, I've been looking forward to the album. It's an album that's supposed to have Eastern-Western fusion, and I thought if there's any music director who could do that theme well, it's YSR.

And on several levels, several songs in "PopCarn" satisfy. "Kaadhalaagi Kaninthathu" is no doubt one of the best songs I've heard in a very long time.

And as a whole, the album is very good. Unfortunately, "PopCarn" does not meet the (possibly unfair) very high standards I set for it. It's an album I like a great deal, and already have listened to many many times, but it's not excellent. It's no "Nandhaa," for example.

So it's a great album, just not a historic one.

SONG-BY-SONG REVIEW:

1. Amma Inga Vaa.
Oh why, Yuvan? Why? Why do you have to write such soft melodious music, and when you have some okay lyrics to go with it, why would you give that song to someone with an unmelodious voice like Nasser? This is a good song -- except for Nasser. His voice just isn't suited for singing, I'm sorry. He wrecks the song and really brings it down. This is a: Between a Mediocre and a Nice.

2. Antha Seema Durai.
The song starts as a nice village song with something to say. But then the REAL song starts and what we have is the usual dappaanguthu folk love song with dumb lyrics. It's not bad; it's just not my kind of song. This album is not meeting my expectations AT ALL yet. It's a: Nice.

3. Kaadhalaagi Kaninthathu.
Listening to the other songs, I was bored by "PopCarn." And then, I put in this song, and my God -- I sat rapt, hooked on every word. What else can I say? Excellent lyrics, excellent music (which build slowly to a heck of a climax as the song progresses), and excellent singing by SPB; this song is, simply speaking, another feather in his cap. It's just beautiful, and is probably the song I most like released in recent times. Just beautiful. Best song of the album? Almost certainly. I can't wait to see this one picturized. Excellent.

4. Kaneeyan Ponkundraan.
And here we have a semi-Carnatic semi-Western number with some very interesting lyrics. The song is about how all the songs of the world are, in the end, the same. It's a very good (if not likely to be popular) number, and even involves a duel between a mridangam and a Carnatic vocalist. However, the worst part is that at the end of the song, the functional Carnatic music gives way to folk, and the lines "Bompuchukkum Bompuchukkum," and nonsense like this. Yuvan, the song's pretty good until the end, and then it's not. Very Nice.

5. Theme Music.
Some nice music here for the theme. It's around two-and-a-half minutes long of instrumentals. Some very soft nice stuff that was good for the ear. However, nothing spectacular, and somehow, there doesn't seem to be a perfect line of continuity through the music; it seems more like a collection of different music than one musical piece. Nice.

6. Naan Vachaen Laysaa.
And what would a modern music album be without at least one suggestive slightly raunchy song? "Naan Vachaen Laysaa" fills that role in this album. It's got pretty good music, okay lyrics, and good singing by the two leads. It's not going down as one of my favorites, but it's all right. Between a Nice and a Very Nice.

7. Poovellaam Paaraattum.
Some new innovative music, a great beat, great singing, and some okay lyrics (though sometimes they get really funny -- "Boys and girls, neettunga / Old ways-kku tata ... / Oh white folks, naamellaam / Oh singing stars-thaan"). This has a great beat, though, and is very danceable. This one's a: Very Nice.

8. Nee Vaitha Poovil.
I gotta hand it to you, Yuvan, on this one. That first instrumental is absolutely amazing, taking "inspiration" from countless soundtrack sources (I recognized the "Thus Spake Zarathustra" tune from "2001: A Space Odyssey" as well as several other tunes from English and Tamil soundtracks) and then mixing them all together. The real song, however, doesn't start until one-minute and fifty-seconds into the track, when we get the main tune. What's funny about that is that the main song is also heavily "inspired" from the song "Nee Paarttha Paarvai" from "Hey Ram", MD: Ilayaraja, YSR's father. In total, the whole song is "inspired" (never "exactly" copied) from several sources. However, let me say this -- "Nee Paarttha Paarvai" was a great song, and if you're going to take inspiration from something, that's a great place to do it. The lyrics are good, the music is good (though "inspired"), and the singing is good. This one's nice to listen to, even though it's not exactly original. Very Nice.

VIJAY VANNIARAJAN