The era of slow, cathartic arena rock is long since past, of course; the two-odd decades that preceded the 90s was a simple case of anyone and everyone driving a genre and a sound into the ground. However, Naaz Sultana, a Guwahati sing-songwriter, takes all the right cues from that genre on her huge-sounding new single ‘Duur’; to be fair, there is only one cue worth taking, which is to retain that sense of awe and epicness. ‘Duur’ does this while taking stock of modern, uplifting anthems and the classic power of the rock ballad. And it doesn’t sound dated at all.
This tune takes its time. The song’s intro isn’t the blast of guitar you’d expect to be bored by, but it has a quiet energy to it that raises anticipation. There are some lovely chords to be found and Naaz’s voice is on the breathy side. She uses great control to open it up shortly after and add some layers to it. When the big chords do come in, it’s a huge moment and is supported by a fantastic groove. The track only picks up from here; the drama of it all slowly gets turned up until the refrain kicks in with some big chords behind it. If this isn’t epic, not much else could be; she lets her voice soar and layers all sorts of background vocals behind it. The riff that supports it all is excellent too, building and building to that most wonderful of rock ballad endings – everything just cutting out and leaving the listener on a precipice of sorts. There’s a lot of moving parts here, but Naaz gets them all right. ‘Duur’ is going to be fun to watch live.
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