Singer-songwriter Raghav Meattle has been entertaining crowds with his melodies for quite a while now. With an eclectic range of singles and a full-length album in his rearview, the Mumbai-based musician has established himself as one of the foremost singer-songwriter acts to emerge from India’s sizeable independent music scene (and sizeable crowd of indie singer-songwriters to boot). His recent endeavours have seen the musician join forces with Punjabi playback singer and lyricist Raashi Sood on a recently released collaborative single ‘Ho Jaane Do’ (released via Big Bang Records). If you’ve been a lover of his music for a while, the new single will be familiar to you and definitely live up to your expectations.

Recorded in Sood’s rooftop studio in Ludhiana, the acoustic number boasts a dreamy and upbeat soundscape, capturing a very simple yet profound idea in its lyrics – freedom from all the things beyond one’s control. With Meattle’s simple, expressive guitars and Sood’s silky vocals, it hits you just in the right spot. The duo has also collaborated with musician and producer Ashish Zachariah and mixing/mastering engineer Vivek Thomas, who have worked their magic to bring out a clean and smoothly produced product. A bed of comfortable, catchy chords cushion Sood’s vocals; eventually, some reverb-y guitar ambience joins the arrangement. Raghav’s voice has some subtle layering on it, and when both he and Raashi finally sing a refrain together, the results are expectedly lovely to hear. Some drums (basically a kick and a shaker) also make an appearance closer to the outro section of the track, nicely accentuating it. The song is pretty relaxed but cathartic in its essence and one might take away a few positively reinforcing life lessons if they pay a tiny bit of attention to what it has to say. ‘Ho Jaane Do’ is that kind of tune.