Tejas Menon has been around and making music for a few years now, and his output has mostly gone from strength to strength. 2017’s ‘Make It Happen’ was a fun and bubbly pop album that got him a lot of deserved recognition and acclaim. His new album, ‘Outlast’ is coming out later this year; if this single ‘Lead’ is anything to go by, it’s going to be rather well-crafted.

If ‘Make It Happen’ was all about songs that worked by virtue of their heart and personality, ‘Lead’ shows a much more focused approach. There’s a lot of attention to detail and a sort of precision that you can tangibly hear. Something about ‘Lead’ gives the impression that nothing has been stumbled upon, nothing left to chance. Tejas has always been a strong vocalist in the crooner tradition; here his voice continues to lead the show. He has enough technical proficiency to make sure his vocals grab enough attention over what is a very dense, layered instrumental. The entire buffet can be seen here. There are multiple synths, a groovy bassline, relatively restrained drums, trumpets and a couple other horns; there is not an iota of space that doesn’t have a lot going on. The horns are especially compelling in the track’s intro, where they instantly introduce a vibe that is essentially very sugary and poppy but has a cinematic feel to it. If there was ever a song for you to live your wind-in-your-hair coming-of-age movie moment, ‘Lead’ is emphatically it.

Indie music has long since loved to use the trick of having something sad hidden in something happy. Tejas does have a slightly bittersweet tinge to his vocals and lyrics, but at the end of the day, ‘Lead’ is cheerful and fun. It doesn’t need some high level of involvement to enjoy it, and it’s simple. Sometimes, you like simple.