A few days back third video of LAAL was finally on-air. The track was titled ‘Umeed-e-Sehar’ and is the title song of the album as well. Here is the video:

LAAL : Umeed-e-Sehar

LAAL has put to music the revolutionary poems of Jalib and Faiz. ‘Main ne Us se ye Kaha’ and ‘Kal,Aaj aur Kal’ have already mesmerized the music lovers in the country and I am pretty sure everyone will love the complete album which is out now.

The album was launched a couple of days back when the country was going through historic times, when people were making their own destiny, when they were making themselves heard. In such times of celebration of their success, the album was warmly welcomed – I had to visit three shops to grab a CD Also, Taimur Rehman, band member, tells that the album is selling quite good. This is a very good sign, not just for the reason that Pakistani music industry, despite producing popular music in all genres for years has very seldom produced this kind of serious music which I will call Art for a cause ! The second reason I call it encouraging is because of the fact that this will definitely help the left in Pakistan to take their cause further. Courtesy the love for TV, people have been taken away from books. They attempt to seek all good and bad from multimedia. Refer to YouTube and you will notice hundreds of thousands of hits for all kind of videos – political, social, historic, documentaries,stupid bollywood hits and even star-plus soaps. Ironical that people have started quoting Youtube and WikiPedia in arguments and debates  In such times, it becomes inevitable to present your ideology to the people in the way they want it to. One can’t force them to read books or get back to discourse all of a sudden. This addition to the local music industry, which has a fan following in millions not just in Pakistan but abroad as well will definitely be healthy for the cause of people.

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LAAL Band Members [From http://aag.tv/laal

I can recall a few good tracks from Junoon like ‘Ehtasaab’ and ‘Dharti Kay Khuda’ but none else in the local music industry has produced such serious music for a cause. The focus has been on producing chauvinistic national songs which will only serve the purpose of ISI – more love for the khakis Oh, and Shahzad Roy’s recent album has a couple of good tracks but still they were on the fun side, not serious enough.

Getting back to the album, my personal favorites are ‘Umeed-e-Sehar’ and ‘Sadaa’ – “a defiant poem by Habib Jalib. It expresses the inexorability of victory over the forces of oppression.”

Download Album

Dastoor

Jaag Mere Punjab

Jaago

Kal, Aaj Aur Kal

Maine Us Se Ye kaha

Mat Samjho

Na Judaa

Sadaa

Umeed-e-Sehar

Zulmat ko Zia

Read Further : Laal take off on an ideological musical odyssey and Islamabad Metro Blog

For information of the readers, LAAL is performing live at Jang Building, Davis Road, Lahore on Friday, March 20th, 2009 at 9 PM.  In Karachi they are performing on II Chundrigarh road in front of GEO building on the 23rd of this month. The concerts are open for all – free entry !

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