Quratulain Balouch – One and Only (KM Single Review)

By Ahmad Uzair

Adele is definitely one of the big things of our generation when it comes to international music scenario. Her soulful and melodious tracks are always a treat to listen and every one can relate to them. Recently it has become quite a trend to cover her songs ranging from random non-professional youtube singers to as huge as Linkin Park.

In Pakistan the trend is not so different too and we see many artists covering Adele’s songs. This time around it is Qurutulain Balouch (a.k.a QB) who has taken the task of covering “One and only”. And one would say that she actually manages to pull it off quite neatly.

Produced by Jarar, who happens to be a new comer into this industry and has also performed on Ufone Uth Records, this song really gives the feel of the original one, perhaps the only drawback of this song.

Her husky and unusual coarse voice was the plus point in doing this cover and people will surely relate it to the original one after listening to QB’s cover. It really takes you down the memory lane. But more or less the real feel and the agony which can be associated with the original track were missing in the cover and it seems that QB didn’t really try to put in an extra effort. There wasn’t any improvisation shown by QB on this track and it all went with the flow quite smoothly just like the original one.

Mostly it is seen that whenever an artist tries to attempt at a cover, he or she tries re-inventing the original track to give it a new dimension and make it sound different and refreshing. But that certainly is a risky thing too and you never know how the listeners will react to it. Keeping this in mind, I think QB has taken a safe route to cover up the song. By not doing some extra variations to the song, she has made it just another of the covers. But as far as her own talent is concerned, that is pretty much un-questionable as she thoroughly displays her wide vocal range and versatility through out the track.

Also it seems that it’s time for QB to move on and come up with her original songs. She should really get out of this cover song stigma as it is affecting her career and if she continues to do so it won’t last too long. She debuted with a couple of Reshma covers, then [she] appeared in a jazz advertisement with Bilal Khan which was once again a cover song. Even the much hyped and the super hit Humsafar OST was also a cover as it was originally sung by Abida Parveen. So it’s time for her to look forward with something originals because when you are covering other people’s song, comparisons are always being drawn and no matter how good you do it, you just cant take it as your own thing.

All in all, “One and only” was a pretty decent effort by QB but not as good as someone would have expected from her seeing her track record and the beautiful versatile voice she is gifted with.