As ubiquitous as acoustic singer-songwriter music has become in our indie scene the last decade, one can’t ignore its staying power. So many movements have made a splash and then slowly gone back to their niches; even well-established genres like metal, rock and EDM had lulls before their current returns to form (Yes, hip-hop is deservedly on track to have a solid lasting fanbase over the coming decade, but we shall see). But there’s always been this common thread of simple indie-folk or indie-pop with almost no instrumentation, absolutely no aggression or loudness and simple storytelling that has endured. It still pulls crowds, fills playlists, soundtracks reels; it’s also made its way into lots of film and OTT content. Mumbai’s Saachi Mendon walks the exact same road on her hushed single ‘Letters To Christchurch’ and this might blow your mind, but it goes over well. Of course it does.

On the song, Saachi plays a nylon acoustic guitar and sings about the difficulty of moving somewhere unfamiliar by oneself and dealing with the shock of being in an essentially alien place, far away from people or things one knew so well. That’s pretty much it.

It’s obviously not negative or reductive to describe ‘Letters To Christchurch’ so simply, because that simplicity is exactly how the song presents itself. Saachi sings clearly but with restraint. Her words do have a bit of fantasy to them, but they’re mostly simple and grounded. There’s just some ambience, a bit of piano and some vocal layering for flavour, but otherwise, this is a pretty bare arrangement. Maybe that’s why people love this genre so much; no frills, easily understandable storytelling, familiar themes, and that familiar vibe of someone just singing a song without ‘performing’ it. Well, if you love that, you’ll definitely enjoy this.