‘Picnic’ came out at the end of January and is Mumbai singer-songwriter Utsavi Jha’s second single, so to speak. The first five seconds of the track inspire thoughts of neverending jams in 6/8 time, but that is far from how she uses the good ol’ blues. The sound is as timeless as ever, of course, but it has developed a partial connotation of being generally long-winded and self-indulgent (yes, every jam band that camps on the blues blueprint/scale for hours on end, that’s on you). However, Utsavi very smartly uses it as just something that informs her music and very sensibly writes an accessible, agreeable tune on top of it. That is a good route to take where songwriting is concerned.

To be fair, the 6/8 time, driving piano and rolling bassline are very much there to be enjoyed for those that enjoy it. It’s just that besides the format, ‘Picnic’ is at its heart very much a soulful and pretty catchy pop song. Utsavi’s voice does flutter and modulate a bit, but her melodies are absolutely in the world of the modern, quiet pop-soul that went from niche to huge over the last decade. That’s a good thing in this case, because the hooks and bridge are what actually sell the song. They’re endlessly hummable and the pre-chorus flows into the hook in a satisfying way. There is a little saxophone for flavour and the aforementioned bridge is rather smooth. There aren’t any real hiccups to the transitions either. All said and done, ‘Picnic’ is possibly a good way to go as far as selling genre is concerned. It doesn’t particularly do anything ‘bluesy’ other than use a few of its simple core principles, but that is more than enough, because having a good song is paramount. It’s not going to stretch any fedora hatbands, but it is going to stick in your head a bit.