Jaiditya Jha is a young singer-songwriter from Delhi who clearly loves a classic; this is apparent from his debut single ‘xy’, which is dedicated to his dog. He has a strong singing voice, songwriting foundations rooted in decades past (the late 1900s), and a simple presentation that lends itself rather well to his aforementioned ‘classic’ sonic influences. Basically, you should go and listen to the three-and-a-half-minute track right now if these words are enough to sway you (link is at the bottom). If not, well, here’s a short-ish digression into why the 90s were cool and so different from the decade that preceded it.

To put it simply, the grunge/indie era has had a staying power that has extended for three decades now. Not in that it has retained its listeners, but in that young artists now are still turning to the sound to write expressive, easily relatable songs. To list the elements that comprise ‘xy’ would be a waste of time; there’s a guitar and Jaiditya’s well-honed vocals. That’s it, but… there’s the soul of the early days of MTV and a time where songs were written for both open mics and arenas. Jaiditya can go and sing this in almost any room and its purity will speak for itself, and that is where it shines. He even, in the best old-school traditions, adds some talking points to the tune. There’s a bit of Grohl in his vocal layers and a quite lovely guitar solo that takes the song to its conclusion. While the synced and reverb-drenched barks of his dog are pretty fun, they are also genuine. That’s the rub, and that’s why you should click out of this page and give this song a play.