Maryan - My thoughts and observations

For the past few days, I have been listening to Maryan on and off. Some random thoughts and observations (in random order) on the album. I am not reviewing this album as such, but just registering my observations from a technical point of view.

• Rahman has been using acoustic guitar and accordion more and more now-a-days. May be he wants to feature more acoustic instruments in his songs. I think Guitarist Keba is working with him now-a-days.
   
• Innum Konja Neram is quite good. The way AR has made the singers to sing softly is interesting. One cannot judge that the singer is Vijay Prakash from the soft singing. There is some Kadal hangover though, may be it has a slight resemblance to the template of Nenjukkulle (the guitars, the accordion, the flutes, the scale chosen, etc).
   
• Rahman has been experimenting with songs in different time signature of late. Previously, most of the songs will be in 4/4. But if you look at the Kadal album, the number of songs in 4/4 is lesser than the rest. There were songs in 6/8 and 3/4.
  
  With respect to Maryan:
  
  Innum Konja Neram is in 6/8,
  
  Netru Aval is in 3/4. I can sense a little resemblance to Sahana from Sivaji in the higher ranges - may be the chord change.
  
  Yenga Pona Raasa is interesting. It is in 7/8 with the pattern as 123 123 1 | 123 123 1 ||. The serene guitar backing is really nice. From the interlude, it switches to 4/4 with the pattern as 123 123 12 | 123 123 12 || and continues the same in the Saranam. During the last 2 lines of the saranam, the melody switches to 7/8 while the guitar rhythm continues in 4/4. And then back to pallavi in 7/8. The music totally stops and Yenga Pona Raasa line in this pallavi has absolutely no backing which creates a good impact. The chord (maj 7th?) at the next line 'Sayngalam aachu' actually conveys the feeling of saayngalam (dusk). Wonder how that came about. This song also reminds me of Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya from Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya sung by Karthik. That one is also predominantly with guitar backings. And there is also a play in the time signature in that song as well. It is 4/4 with pattern as 123 123 12 | 123 123 12 and then it between changes to 3/4 with the pattern as 123 123 | 123 123.
   
• I like Nenje Ezhu. The song has that motivational feel to it.
  Sonapareeya was interesting during the first listen itself.
  Kadal Raasa Naan - still not hooked to it. But good to know that he has used IR's son Yuvan in this song. 

On the whole, I like the album. It has a mix of fast and slow songs, with the slow ones being the ones that stand out. It also has a lot of dynamics with soft passages and loud passages. And one needs to listen in a calm environment to appreciate the slow songs better. Related post: http://www.backgroundscore.com/2013/05/naetru-aval-irundhal-maryan-arrahman.html