اڈیکاں

I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out if I hate this song or love it. I find it strange for many reasons:

• The beat is sort of disco, and the vocal is definitely sort of not. It makes no sense because the two seem inherently immiscible, yet I find myself desperately intrigued.

• The really shrill keyboard tone that you have heard in hotel lobbies. Why does it have to be so high?

• A moody bridge singing ‘I just don’t know’. Neither do I.

• Another keyboard riff that sounds like a classical guitar solo but seems to be played on a keyboard? Why?

• The repeating backing vocal refrain singing ‘I’m in love with you’. I guess I understand how it can be sincere but it’s also so silly. As a critic I am inclined to ignore the silly but as a person I enjoy silly. Moments like this we feel our person is multitudinal.

• The melody continues to build to a crescendo, but since the beat is always pumping the crescendo never arrives. Instead the verse just casually restarts. So my question is, did they not see it coming? Did they think of building to a crescendo and feel, you know what, this entire song is a crescendo. Strings’ Zinda was once described to me as a song that feels like it it’s going to pick up, but never does. This song is the exact opposite. It feels like it might pick up, but it already did.

• The little synth fillers between the verses are legitimately amazing.

I would appreciate your strong opinions on this song.
(p.s. Replies to these emails are sent privately to me.)

p.p.s. I mused a few days ago (in reference to Dr. aur Billa) that I’m not sure why men in Lahore are often nicknamed Billa. I have recently been told that men with light eyes are often given that name.