Sunil Thakkar - Shades Of You

Hear The Track Here

Where people like me scour the east for sounds, ideas and rhythms, it's nice to see that fertilisation come back to the west in the form of eastern musicians scouring the west for inspiration and sounds. Sunil Thakkar is from Mumbai in India and along with his city neighbour Prash conveys a western rock sensibility that is spot on in every way. Not really copying, more like transcending the genre and making it their own. So, the burning question of the moment is what do they put in the water in Mumbai to produce such detailed, accomplished musicians? OK, Sunil is a great example of this. He says he was inspired by people such as John Lennon, Nick Drake, Neil Young and even the most casual listen will show you just how close he comes to that impossibly high standard.

Sunil apparently got the idea for the song (yep, vocals) while wandering about the streets of Amsterdam which - having seen it myself - has a splendid autumn (fall to the 'mericans) display that is eye candy personified. The soft, acoustic setting Shades Of You comes wrapped in certainly conveys the atmosphere as does the very 1960's production and arrangement giving the song a fresh, bubbly feel that I found charming and - if you like the whole pop rock thing - I think you would too. I mentioned Sunil's musical references purposely because Shades Of You could well have been sung by Nick Drake but in this case features guest artist Nimit Vaishnav on vocals and - it says here - keyboards.

I wonder if the piano tinkles are also courtesy of Mr Vaishnav? If so I must say that not only do you have an exceptional rock voice and style of delivery but you play a mean keyboard too. Those piano tinkles make this winsome, light tune. At almost five minutes, this is a long song to take in but it won't feel like 5 minutes while listening and therein lies another accomplishment, the ability to connect the listener to the content long enough to remember the experience. It was only after listening to this n dozen times that I found my own particular musical reference and it surprised the bejeebus out of me. There's a section in the track where it echoes Peter Sarsted's classic 1960's hit Where Do You Go To My Lovely in a delightfully teasing way that I guess only an old fart like me would pick up on. What you should pick on is a classic pop experience told with a more than convincing reverence of the style.

A great tune, say no more. Highly Recommended.