Which Raja CD would you buy?

When I go to the music shop sometimes I find lot of CDs of movies whose name I have never heard. Only Raja's name as the music director makes me have a look at these CDs. Examples are the many CDs released by Oriental of films I have never heard of. Generally the CD credits don't mention the lyricist or the name of the director. All you get to know from the cover is the actor/actress and the singers / song titles. Assuming you don't want to pick up every Raja CD, what criteria would you use to do you selection? It will be nice to know what each of you thinks.

Here is my top three criteria:

1. Solo or duet featuring Jayachandran
2. Solo or duet featuring Jency or Uma Ramanan
3. Any duet featuring Raja himself as the singer

Let me give my reasons:

- I have rarely heard any song of Jayachandran with Raja which I have not liked. Be it his duets or solo. Thanks to friends I keep discovering new songs of Raja and anything which features Jayachandran has always risen to the top. Raja is able to exploit the voice of Jayachandran to the hilt. He is not taken in as a replacement for Jesudas. (For example, I always get a feeling that Brahmanandan was taken as a replacement for Jesudas in 'sanga kavigal paadidum' song.) Jayachandran, to his credit, does justice whenever Raja places his hopes on him. Everyone knows the many songs of this combination so I will not list them. So if Jayachandran appears in the credit list, I will most probably go for that CD.

2. Jency / Uma Ramanan Here again Raja seems to select them for just those songs which have an extra amount of sweetness in them. People may have reservation about their voices but they have delivered when called upon and are now indelible part of Raja oeuvre. I heard the director / actor Manobala say in one episode of SPB's singing competition that whichever song Raja gave for Uma Ramanan it was a hit and that when he made movies he used to request Raja to give atleast one song to Uma Ramanan.

3. Raja's solo songs may evoke mixed responses but I have always found his duets to be very sweet. Even whatever he sang last year has an additional tinge of sweetness in them. Just hear the songs of 2009, 'rangu rangu', 'ninnane noduvanu', ' chendulli chendulli', 'oli tharum sooriyanum', 'karugu mani'. Each one a gem. Think of all the duets he sang with Susheela, Janaki, Chitra, Jency etc and I can rest my case :)

OK, that is not strictly top three but still .... Let us know what you think are the combinations that worked for you and why? And if something doesn't work for you at all, what would that be?

My criteria:

1. First and foremost - Is the album sleeve notes written in English or Tamil? :-)
2. Solos or duets involving Uma Ramanan/Chitra/SPB/KJY
3. Who is the Director/actor? - I obviously cant skip a Balu Mahendra or actor Mohan etc.
4. Number of songs (yes,i usually like platters :-) )

Quote:

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Originally Posted by raagas

My criteria:

2. Solos or duets involving Uma Ramanan/Chitra/SPB/KJY

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Well.... that makes it around 50% of Raja doesn't it :) Anyway who can blame you. We want 100% of Raja, isn't it?

I used to look the following..

For New Album of IR.

1. all the songs of that albums are available?
2. album is not combined with other music dir's album.
3. when there is no option for the pt.2. is it good album

otherwise I will postponed the purchase till they released without combination or combination with good album.

some examples:
1. unnai saranadainthen (music by SPB)..it was available only with the combination of Anjaneya...I had missed that album and still searching of that album... :)
2. Oru Naal Oru Kanavu: this got released with few bonus songs from 5star audio...after 6 month I got it along with Daas by Yuvan.
3. Heyraam..First it got released along bonus 5 star songs..i got after 1 month along with IR hits.


For Old Albums:

No criteria :)

1. Should be an original CD.
2. Should have atleast 2 songs which I like but do not have in my collection.
3. Favourite songs which I have on tape but not on CD.
4. New releases and unreleased movie albums would automatically jump into my shopping bag.

I usually don't go for album names . Instead I would buy a CD containing songs of SPB or KJY or Janaki. Even if there are few non IR songs in these collection, the probability of even those being good is high