| Rock On!! | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live album by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy | ||||
| Released | 7 July 2008 (India) | |||
| Genre | Film soundtrack | |||
| Length | 37:58 | |||
| Label | Big Music | |||
| Producer | Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani | |||
| Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy chronology | ||||
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Rock On!! is the soundtrack to the 2008 hindi film Rock On!! directed by Abhishek Kapoor, starring Farhan Akhtar. The original score and songs were composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. Lyrics of the songs are penned by Javed Akhtar.
The album was released on 7 July 2008[1] by Big Music. Despite getting cold shoulder from the critics, the album went on to become a cult favorite selling over 120,000 copies in India.[2]
Contents |
The songs of the movie were composed in five days. Since the movie is about a rock band, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy composed the music in a similar fashion, with the drums and bass set-up and played live to the recorder without any programming.
"Pichle Saat Dino Mein," a song about how one loses everything but can't afford to lose love, was the first song composed, where they jammed on the guitar riff that Ehsaan Noorani came up with and the song fell into place in about 20 minutes. This was followed by "Socha Hai" and the title track "Rock On!!" All the above are crooned by Farhan Akhtar, who made his singing debut. "Yeh Tumhari Meri Baatein" is sung by Dominique Cerejo, which falls in an ambient genre. "Zehreele," performed by Suraj Jagan, is a hardcore metal, which is often a rarity in the mainstream Bollywood soundtracks.
The rock ballad "Tum Ho Toh" was sung by Farhan Akhtar. "Sinbad The Sailor" is the song that features in the climax of the movie, which is along the lines of "Achilles Last Stand" and "Tales of Brave Ulysses". The song is performed by Farhan Akhtar and Raman Mahadevan. The serene "Phir Dekhiye" is performed by a long-time favorite of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Caralisa Monteiro. The album also has a live version of "Pichle Saat Dino Mein".[3]
The lyrics of "Rock On!!" were penned by Javed Akhtar like a modern rock band’s output — and yet acceptable to the film audience — and have some depth without sounding like spoofs, parodies or comedy numbers.[4]
The music was released by worldwide by Big Music. The launch took place on July 7, 2008 at Infinity Mall, Andheri, Mumbai. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Farhan Akhtar performed live at the launch along with rest of the cast.[5]
| Track # | Song | Singer(s) | Duration | Picturized on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Socha Hai" | Farhan Akhtar | 4:11 | Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Luke Kenny, Purab Kohli (Promotional Song) |
| 2 | "Pichle Saat Dino Mein" | Farhan Akhtar | 3:12 | |
| 3 | "Rock On!!" | Farhan Akhtar | 3:55 | Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Luke Kenny, Purab Kohli, Shahana Goswami, Nicolette Bird |
| 4 | "Yeh Tumhari Meri Baatein" | Dominique Cerejo | 5:29 | Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Luke Kenny, Purab Kohli, Prachi Desai |
| 5 | "Zehreele" | Suraj Jagan | 3:42 | Suraj Jagan, Band |
| 6 | "Tum Ho Toh" | Farhan Akhtar | 4:15 | Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Luke Kenny, Purab Kohli, Shahana Goswami |
| 7 | "Sinbad The Sailor" | Farhan Akhtar, Raman Mahadevan | 6:32 | Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Luke Kenny, Purab Kohli |
| 8 | "Pichle Saat Dino Mein (Live Version)" | Farhan Akhtar | 6:35 | Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Luke Kenny, Purab Kohli |
| 9 | "Phir Dekhiye" | Caralisa Monteiro | 3:27 | Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Luke Kenny, Purab Kohli, Shahana Goswami, Prachi Desai (Closing Credits) |
| 10 | "Musafir" | Radio Band | 3:31 | Radio Band |
The music was not well received by the mainstream critics. Raja sen of Rediff was critical of the album calling it "a nothing album with pedestrian lyrics"[6] Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama echoed similar sentiments saying "The soundtrack just doesn't work and is quite a shocker from SEL - Javed Akhtar team"[7]
Though a few reviewers like Planetbollywood's Atta Khan was impressed by the album, who described the album as bold and daring and concluded The only thing that remains is for listeners to open their ears to a unique genre especially if they have been drummed with too much regular stuff from Pritam / Anu Malik and dare I say it Vishal and Shekhar…[8]
In contrast to the mainstream critics, the celebrity music bloggers like Karthik of Milliblog! was ecstatic about the soundtrack. In his 200 word review, which he reserves for the best albums, he said, "With minimal direct references to conventional and well known rock idioms, the musical trio are truly the heroes of this lively, innovative and thoroughly enjoyable soundtrack. Despite the cliché, I’ll take this as the most appropriate moment to say, Rock on dudes!"[9] Similarly, Harry of HarryJerry, in his favorable review, stated "This is just some brilliant stuff as usual from Shankar Ehsaan Loy and the lyrics are simply amazing. On the whole an album as expected. Go get it! You’ll love each and every song!"[10]
Despite the poor reviews from mainstream critics, album became a chart-topper selling over 120,000 copies in India.[11] The sales of the soundtrack surged further once the film went on to garner positive reviews from the critics.[12]
The album became popular amongst the urban masses and slowly started building a cult following. Shankar Mahadevan commented on the initial negative reviews saying, ""Even in the past, we have faced such situations when some people have rejected our music in the first couple of hearing", including Dil Chahta Hai and Kal Ho Naa Ho which earned them several awards and accolades, and are considered as one of the best bollywood soundtracks of all time.
The Rock on! team featured on the cover of the popular music magazine Rolling Stone's 2008 September issue. Farhan described it as a "dream come true " for him, since as a teenager, he had always dreamt of being in Rolling Stone.[13]