Is Farhan Akhtar's new album luck by chance?

Farhan Akhtar

Farhan Akhtar doesn't need anyone to tell him that he is a great actor and director. His movies speak for themselves - Dil Chahta Hai changed the landscape of Bollywood, and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag made us gape in amazement. But he is also a singer.

After singing for the film, Rock On!!, and performing across the country with his band, he has now released his first album, Echoes. We heard the whole album, which the Apple Music description says is one where "the versatile Bollywood star gets personal", and this is what we thought. The production standards are great, with the mixing and mastering done to perfection, but Akhtar's voice is bland, lifeless and flat.

The writing is tepid and clichéd. But, what made it worse for this writer was that every song reminded her of a song she had heard before. For example, the track Pain or Pleasure was so similar to that classic by Wilson Pickett's Mustang Sally, that we had to hear the original to make sure we weren't overreacting. It's a bit startling to have that happen with what is meant to be a debut original album. It would seem that Akhtar has let his inspirations, which could have been the music he heard as he was growing up - we can hazard a guess: The Doors, Tom Petty and Sting - to seep into his music, a bit too much. Our final word: Listen only if you are a big fan of Akhtar. We reached out to a few experts to find out if their experience matched ours.

'It's a vanity project'
Amit Gurbaxani, Music writer
He is good director and a decent actor, but to put it politely, a less-than-awesome singer. I haven't listened to the whole album, but I heard Rear View Mirror. The track has over 25,000 views on YouTube, on which he sings in a rather affected way. I'm quite sure that he's well aware that many people don't think he should be singing, but he, and his fans, probably dismiss such "critics" as "haters gonna hate". Why has he released an album of original English songs that nobody really asked for? Because he can afford to. In short, it's another celebrity "vanity project" that will receive way more press than other better releases by the hundreds of Indian independent acts out there.

'This album is a business move'
Sidharth Raveendran, member of Tadpatri Talkies,
Vocalist for hardcore act Pacifist, runs a metal music podcast called Haramcore Inc
He is trying to leverage the music from his movies to pass himself as a live act, and this album will add more content to get bookings. This album is a business move. The music sounds like a failed SoBo band playing rock, and he is trying hard to be Jim Morrison from The Doors. The voice is the most off-putting, and the lyrics are very milk and toast - average, actually. He has the means to get an A-grade studio, and hence, the quality of production is great. The backing tracks are clean, and it's mixed well. But the riffs remind you of other songs, one particularly reminded me of Jimi Hendrix. It's a bit of a khichdi.

'A crude mixture of sounds'
Akshay Kapoor, Founder and Editor, The Indian Music Diaries
As Farhan Akhtar releases his debut 11-track album, it is important that we talk about what good music does to the listener: it makes you bob your head, instantly takes over your mind and makes you want to hear the music incessantly. Farhan's music is far from that. It is uninspiring and seems like a crude mixture of the sounds of all of his favourite bands. The lyrics seem weirdly put together, the choruses are vapid and none of the songs have even a tinge of genuine passion behind them, in spite of stellar international production. It seems unclear to me why Farhan would choose to write in English; Hindi would have been so much better and more expressive. Art for art's sake should be discouraged, and Farhan's music fits into that category according to me. It doesn't matter if you hear this album or not. It does nothing for the listener, no one will remember it in a year, nor does it add any substance to the pool of beautiful music coming out from independent musicians in India.

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