Buying Audio CDs

When I was in college, I used to buy new audio cassettes (esp of ARR) as they get released and keep listening to it. Later, with the spread of computers, internet and TV channels, this habit was gradually reduced. However I used to purchase select audio CDs (mostly albums).

Here are the audio CDs recently purchased by me in the last 5 years:

Albums

Thiruvasagam by Ilaiyaraaja
A musical rendering of the epic Tamil verses. This is a Classical Crossover album and Ilaiyaraaja seamlessly fuses both Indian classical and western classical.

Mozart meets India
After Thiruvasagam, this album was widely publisized. But it was disappointing.

Maaya - Sikkil Gurucharan and Anil Srinivasan
Indian classical songs with piano accompaniment. Really very nice. I especially like the soothing numbers "Suttum vizhi" in Rathipathipriya and "Hari tum haro" in Darbari kaanada.

Resonance - V S Narasimhan
Carnatic songs performed by a String Quartet headed by V S Narasimhan. Again different and really nice.

Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia - Flute (I don't remember the exact name)
If you like Hindustani music, then you will like this instrumental album. This has got an hindustani rendering of 'vatapi ganapathim bhaje' in raag Hansdhwani. Very nice rendering.

Classically Mild - Sonu Nigam
Semi-classical songs in hindi with western orchestration. Appealing.

Rafi Resurrected - Sonu Nigam with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
This is a tribute to Mohd. Rafi. An Evening in London - Classic old hindi songs rendered by Sonu Nigam along with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Kavithai Gundar - Tamil Hiphop
oops... Rs. 500 for this. Not worth in my opinion.

Movie Albums

Ada - A R Rahman
This was not because I want to listen to it but because I was participating in this remix contest.

Modhi Vilayaadu - Hariharan and Leslie (of Colonial Cousins fame)
Pretty decent. Except 1 or 2 songs, rest were nice.

Modhi Vilayadu is one of the first filmi albums that I bought in recent times. I heard it was good and went for it. It was a nice experience of buying it, listening to it excitedly for the first time (on my car system) and liking it. Reminds me of the olden days. So next time if I badly want to listen to a movie album, may be I will directly purchase it.

It is also interesting how they promote CDs these days. It has almost come down to the cost of cassettes. Audio CDs are available for Rs.55, Rs.75, Rs.99, etc. Modhi Vilayadu was priced at Rs.99. It had a free audio CD of another recent movie. The free CD was of Panthayam by Vijay Antony. Couple of songs were nice in that. There was also a Rs.200 gift coupon from "naturals" beauty saloon/spa. These are some nice approaches to tackle piracy. 'Kavithai Gundar' CD included a free belt (with large letters of KG) and a DVD (probably their music video). Still the Rs. 500 price tag is not worth it.

Are you listening to songs by purchasing CDs / cassettes? If not, give it a thought.