Released in 2022, “Saalgirah” by B-Leaf was a massive release for him. Not only because it marked the release of his second body of work after his 2021 work “Songs I Want to Delete”, because this album was quite literally the saalgirah (anniversary) of tough times in his life. It was a group of songs that contained his pain, and stories of how he got through it.
The first song starts off with an acoustic guitar and a harmonica, setting up the mood of the album. It’s a mellow and laid back instrumental, which gives space for the vocals to take centre stage. B-leaf sings about a relationship he was in, how he spends his time reminiscing about the past with a bittersweet feeling in his heart. He sings about coming to terms with how it’s over, as the bass comes in. The chorus is beautifully written, with vocal and instrumental harmonies filling up the space as we hear the heart-wrenching words “Akele Hi, Marna Hai”. The falsetto vocals here really send the emotion home and make you feel the lyrics. Some subtle percussion comes in as Haanikaarak grabs the mic for his verse, carrying on themes from the first verse, filling up the instrumental with his rhymes. B-Leaf closes out the song with another short verse and chorus.
The next song, Chhe Taar (featuring DeepBlue Seas) is about the guitar. The minimalist percussion choices are a great choice for this one, setting the low-key and relaxed vibe of the song right off the bat. Chee Taar in Hindi translates to 6 strings. B-Leaf (along with Tanushree on backing vocals) sings about travelling musicians (banjaras or nomads), how they live their lives to the fullest, roaming around the land, carefree, celebrating their love for music. Niranjan and Darzi do justice to the title and the lyrics of the track as it features a solo from both of them. This track has it all, a clean electric guitar solo with some quick notes, which later morphs into a bluesy guitar tone with bends, hammer-ons, slides and the whole shebang. B-Leaf really pulls the flash out on this one.
We hear Suspendednotes and B-Leaf teaming up on “Le Chal Mujhe”, fans of the two will know that when you see both those names under a song, it’s gonna be an absolute banger. This time is no different, the house kicks pair beautifully with the guitar lines that follow the melody. The chorus features the chopped up vocals of B-Leaf, a crisp snare and a solo. The instruments fall out after this, going back to the verse pattern. The outro is my favourite part, with muffled drums and vocals, fading out slowly, almost like a classic hip-hop slowdown.
Ghotala is the song that stands out the most in this album stylistically. The vibe of the album is flipped on its head as we hear a sitar and a veena setting up the stage for this one, over which Tanushree performs here flawless and powerful Hindustani classical vocals. Soon, a tabla comes in accompanied by a very quick, plucky bass. This song sounds like something straight out of a Shankar Mahadevan album with the minimal, repeating verses and the aalaps. Just as Tanushree wraps up her second verse, a brilliant, haunting guitar solo comes in. The tabla is replaced with big, airy, thumping drums. The track closes out with triple harmonies on the guitars, all playing super quick lines.
The title track starts off with a fast, walk down acoustic guitar riff that is continued throughout the songs. After which the drums come in. A very unexpected but brilliant choice of using a jazz drum pattern here with continuous hits on the rides and cymbals, and rimshots. It is in this song that we learn what the album is about, “Saalgirah un lamho ki, Saalgirah Dukh Dardon ki”. The album is a commemoration, an anniversary of the ups and downs of his life. We then go into a bluesy electric guitar solo, with a lot of chromaticism and rapid playing. After a big chorus out, all the instruments drop out and we get to hear a spoken word outro by B-Leaf. He talks about how he’s not alone in this world who’s lost, and how what one needs is just the comfort of having someone tell them, “you’re not alone”.
J.H.S.H (Jo Hai So Hai) has a John Mayer piano ballad vibe, with the sound of waves and arpeggios which follow the melody, along with some beautiful blues notes sprinkled in there. The song is about acceptance, realising that there’s things in this world you can’t change. Tanushree adds her magic touch to this one with her exquisite backing vocals.The song closes out with a warm guitar solo.
The album has an instrumental outro titled “bhula bhatka”, which features a slow, strumming acoustic guitar over which B-Leaf solos. He plays only a few notes on this one, with long pauses, but still manages to say so much without saying a word.
This album went on to be the one the essentially got him discovered in the Indian indie scene, and rightly so. It features deep, introspective and personal lyrics, paired with a perfect choice of collaborators and instrumentals that will make you want to listen to each song again and again.
