Mehdi Maloof’s songwriting can be surreal genius.

I first saw Mehdi on a Gulberg rooftop, performing پیلی میری بطخ (my duck is yellow) on a ukelele. In the song, Mehdi talks to his rubber duck while in the bath.

In short, these songs are strange arpeggios underpinning very weird lyrics. Instantly these lyrics make you smile because of their ridiculousness. “کہیں میں کھڑکی تو نہیں؟” (maybe I’m a window?) he asks in this recording. In most Mehdi songs the main allusion in the lyrics is resolved with broad musings on life. I tend to enjoy them.