Pune singer-songwriter Aayushi Patil channels a common indie trope on her new single ‘Rise’ that was a breath of fresh air in the over-produced 2000s and rather annoying in the low-effort-indie 2010s: voice, guitar, sad. In the age of rap-rock and painfully glitzy pop, bands like Neutral Milk Hotel and Fleet Foxes (and a long list of names any mildly disgruntled teen could reel off from memory) brought a more honest, simple and bare form of storytelling that was like being returned to the essence of what music even was. Until it was run into the ground by approximately a zillion singer-songwriters who sang about nebulous nonsense in the following decade, of course. Thankfully, Aayushi lands on the right side of the fence here, and the sincerity of this song sticks out.

Produced and composed by Aniket Patole, the song is pretty bare as aforementioned except for small embellishments; a bit of keys here, a layered vocal there. Aayushi has a solid and well-executed vocal delivery here; there is a slightly strident and strong touch to her voice that makes her separate from the guitar a bit more than you might expect. The track is also simple in structure and other assorted music terms, with a short singalong section and a few subtle and quiet transitions from section to section. But besides all that, what gives ‘Rise’ impact is its genuine air. There’s no pretense here or desire to do anything new and fail (which absolutely isn’t the way to go in most other cases), and that’s what prevents Aayushi from falling into the specific indie is so cool trap.

Listen to 'Rise' here.