Notes from an album

(From left) Lotus members Robert Alex, Siddharth Amarnath, Collin Francis and Abhishek Mujumdar. Pic/Siddharth Chavan

What makes an album different from a playlist is that there is a deeper coherent thought process that goes into making one. It's like a fashion designer displaying a themed collection on a ramp, instead of disparate clothes being dumped in a box at a discount store. Take, for instance, an album that Pune-based indie act Lotus released last month. It's called Dear Diary, and each song is presented as an entry in a journal, collectively encompassing a mix of emotions. It's a cohesive effort that takes the listener into the inner recesses of the band's mind.

These are emotions that people will easily be able to relate to, says bassist Robert Alex. "The loss of a loved one, confusion, a sense of numbness where you feel disconnected from the world, the detachments that occur whether between friends or family - those are [the aspects of the human condition] that we addressed, which were amplified during the pandemic."

It's an interesting exercise because what they have essentially done is turn the medium of a written journal into a musical product. "It's like putting your thoughts and ideas in the form of a song, and if you read the track titles, they will feel like entries made on a particular day in that journal," Alex says, adding that the band took shape in early 2020, after which they asked themselves that if each of the four members were to write a journal entry, what would they be like. Well, when we heard it, it seemed that the emotions don't stem from a person with a sunny disposition, but from someone who's developed shades of grey because of lemons served by life. But you can draw your own interpretation of what this musical diary embodies when you check out the link below and give it a listen.

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