Songs from a Room – Leonard Cohen

Once, I was confined to a room for a few months, recovering from certain self-inflicted wounds. It was then that the Patron-Saint of modern poetry came and healed me with the balm of this album. Released in 1969, ‘Songs from a Room’ was Leonard Cohen’s second album, after the cracker debut of ‘Songs of Leonard Cohen’. Musically sparse and poetically rich, it is a worthy successor.

Blood On The Tracks – Bob Dylan

While the man has finally acknowledged Nobel Committee’s decision, I thought it’d be a good idea to bask in the glory of some of his finest material with an album that celebrates the ‘inward-poet’ in him

Rock Your Baby – George McCrae

There is no music like the 70's music, its timeless, you just love it. Compared to today's musical geniuses, there’s nothing like what happened 40 years ago. George McCrae’s Rock Your Baby has always been one of my faves of all time

Pyaasa (Thirsty)

Hindi Film music has two major components, the music composer and the lyricist and usually, it’s the music composer who gets more prominence. But in the case of ‘Pyaasa’, it’s the other way around.

Elvis – A Canadian Tribute

On my recent visit to Canada in July – August this year, besides bringing back a few Canadian souvenirs of the country, I brought the best souvenir of all, a 1978 pressing of an Elvis Presley gold LP, a timeless piece of music, made more memorable by inclusion of songs the King sung at his three concerts in Canada in 1957.

1942: A Love Story – Rahul Dev Burman

The 80s had chewed away melody (and poetry) from the Hindi Film Industry and Rahul Dev Burman aka Pancham, had become irrelevant for obvious reasons.

Mahal – Khemchand Prakash

One look at the cover of this 45 RPM Vinyl and you know that there is mystery inside. There is a sketched silhouette of a palace (Mahal) with a clock tower (showing 2 o’clock), over which hovers the beautiful and mysterious face of Madhubala. And the dark hues convey its night-time.

England's Newest Hit Makers The Rolling Stones

They were a bunch of scruffy young British lads doing covers of their R&B and Blues heroes at the local clubs. They were struggling to come up with originals and their hit singles were by others, one of them coming from a certain Lennon-McCartney.

Madhumati – Salil Chowdhury

Songs in Hindi films have a unique role. They have to carry the narrative when you are watching the movie and they also have to stand tall as an independent entity when you are listening to them from your music system.

Avalon – Roxy Music

John Lennon once said that Glam rock is just rock’n’roll with lipstick. In the case of this last album from the pioneers of Glam rock, the entire make-up is missing, let alone the lipstick. And the resulting music is lush, poetic and mellow compared to their earlier edgy and quirkily ostentatious work.