There’s a famous saying that goes “Every musical experiment and innovation comes from the solid foundation of popular songwriting”. Fine, that’s not actually a saying, but it’s also not complete nonsense. Most musical moments over the years in different parts of the world have generally grown out of a dislike for or experiment with the ‘flavour of the day’; house music came out of soul (so did disco, by the way), the hyperpop craze came out of vaporwave and 2000s pop, and almost every new genre or sound has its popular, stable counterpart. It’s usually called pop. India’s indie scene does carry influences from all over the globe, but its geographical counterpart has always been one thing; popular film music. Even music that doesn’t have a film to accompany it often lives squarely in that lane. This new track ‘Aashiyaan’ from Mumbai’s (via Jaipur) Abhin and Tanish, for example.

It is almost impossible to even think of anything else influence-wise while listening to this tune. The piano tone, the vocal melody, the minimal but very sterile and glitzy production, the small snatches of Indian classical ideas (just for tone, not detail), the slow-ish chorus… This is the Bollywood love song blueprint to the letter. If one were to start singling things out, the sitar and bass on the song sound especially warm and colourful. There’s a cool groove on the hook as well. But this is almost definitely not the point of ‘Aashiyaan’ and music of its ilk. Abhin & Tanish are sincere enough in their writing, but music like this is engineered for one thing and one thing only: listens. This is something almost of all us can listen to at almost any time and in almost any situation without being particularly turned off by it. There’s a reason it works, and it works pretty damn well here. As it should.