Jal – Dil Harri (KM Single Review)
So finally after a long wait that seemed to be eternal, as always the case with Jal, they are back on to the music scene. When their last video “Mahiya” released, they were confidently announcing through their video that Jal’s 3rd album ‘Pyaas’ will be out by March 2012. But at the end, they only managed to release it exactly one year after the given date. I guess keeping in view the current scenario, musicians like Jal should be extra careful not to give any deadlines which they simply cannot meet.
Any how the track which is in spotlight right now is ‘Dil Harri’ which was released as a part of album launch with a video starring band members and UK based model Jasmine May. There is nothing special about the video as it turns out to be pretty routine stuff that comes out of videos that are made in India. Shot in Mumbai, this is totally an indoor video showing Goher and Jasmine in the lead, reminiscing about their broken relationship in the past, and the joyous moments that they have spent together.
The new thing about this video is the fact that here Goher goes all out with his new full time role as the vocalist for the band together with holding the status of the lead actor in the video too, where he some how seems to fulfill his long lasting desire of getting the whole air time in the video, which he was unable to do with two of his previous band mates.
From the lyrical point of view the song is a pretty decent track but Goher is capable of doing much better when it comes to writing. Dil Harri might not get along with you on the first listen but it gets better with the passage of time, still I don’t consider this track to be on the same level when compared to the title tracks of previous two albums by Jal. With an Arabic feel to it, the song gains the momentum slowly, and then reaches the climax in the middle only to get an abrupt transition there with the addition of out of sync lines. Goher seems to have this habit of adding the word ‘Jal’ lately in most of his songs; but it doesn’t work out here.
Now coming to the vocals that are given by Goher, I would say that he hasn’t done a bad job with vocals in the video but it would take some time for Jal fans to adjust to his voice. Goher, as a singer, has improved a lot but I won’t hesitate to say that I still doubt the authenticity of the alaaps taken out by Goher and there seems to be massive toning of his vocals with studio equipments in this song. Still the real mettle of the singer comes out in the live concerts. Hope he has improved in that arena as well because few of his recent live performances as a singer were miserable.
I had a chance to listen to their third album and I would say that Goher’s voice, with no variations at all, sounded too monotonous. It might be okay for few filler songs in the album like in the past, but definitely not doing any trick when it comes to the whole album. I think with this song and to be more precise, with this album Goher has freely tested himself as the main lead vocalist but now for the future sake of Jal, I would really suggest them to look out for a new vocalist. Yes, it might sound weird to have a 3rd vocalist for your band but after almost a decade, this is the perfect time to re-launch Jal in a big way by introducing some new voice as its vocalist. With the music they have been creating, a powerful vocalist can once again do wonders for them and might help them regain their lost glory.
And lastly I would like to congratulate Goher and co. for at least having the guts to release a full length album in a time where no other musician is taking the risk. Despite not having a proper vocalist, they still managed to strike a record deal with the leading ‘Universal Records’ which is even a bigger thing for a band like Jal which is passing through a bad patch.
