Devotional Songs

This album reminds me of the time my Serbian friend Milos drove me to a Death Grips concert in San Francisco.

We pile into his old, brown Mercedes-Benz with a orange leather interior. The ignition sputters on and the car grumbles to life, opening the vents and blasting hot air into the car (Milos always kept the car a hellish temperature, for whatever reason). As I settle in to the soft leather seat, I hear chanting mixed in with the hum of the engine and fsssh of the forced air. It's an album of Hare Krishna chants. He raises the volume with a twist of a cracked knob and we roll into the darkening streets of Palo Alto. We drive in moderate silence for about an hour, only occasionally reflecting on the work day before, a movie we were interested in seeing (he made me watch "A Serbian Film" at one point, would not recommend), but were mostly silent under the mantra: "Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare" endlessly looping.

I remember being taken aback initially. Milos was most certainly not any form of Buddhist, and at the time I felt that the music was mellowing out the vibes I wanted to feel before the DG show. But in the end we were both transfixed. We park downtown and attend the concert which was fast-paced, phenomenal and LOUD.

I left the show mostly unscathed (just a fall or two in the mosh). Milos developed a diagnosis of tinnitus, expected to be lifelong.

We drove home in a dark silence. In the subsequent weeks we saw each other less and less, then inevitably both moved away and never spoke again.

This album elicited those memories in a palpable way. While the context, culture and music is different than the Hare Krishna album above, the goal is to be enveloped by the music to be taken to a place of thought and reflection. Nusrat Fateg Ali Khan certainly did that. And while it's not a perfect album, his voice is beautiful and impactful and I believe he achieved his purpose. 4/5

Ha, I just said I wouldn't hold my breath for other non-English stuff, and here comes this. Another confusing album, since 'Devotional Songs' was a real release, but this is a reissue(?) called 'Love & Devotion' with probably(?) the same content? Hmph. At least it's something different. I never listened to qawwali before, and let's be real, I probably won't in the future. It's too opaque for me -- I don't know any Urdu, if I've even correctly ID'd the language here*, and the sound is pleasant, but I end up mentally relegating it to the background just because I don't know what the lyrics mean, and they seem like the main draw for this genre! I think I liked what I'm assuming is the Love half (first 6) more than the Devotion half (second 6).

*OK, it's both Urdu & Punjabi (and a tiny bit of Persian), and also: Jeff Buckley was a big Nusrat fan and even covered 'Yeh Jo Halka Saroor Hae'! That's more fun than 500 Hallelujah covers.

Highlight: 'Un Ke Dar Pen Pohchne to Payen' (seemed more energetic than the rest), 'Allah Hoo Allah Hoo' (mainly because of the transparent vibe)

Has a good beat, you can dance to it.

I listened to one song and skimmed a few others. I feel like I get it.

A song was missing on Spotify. Don't think I needed to listen, I got the vibe. Vocal is impressive. Spotify link leads to a double-release Love Songs and Devotional Songs. I realised half way through the last song on the former. 3/5.

Devotional Songs by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan took me far outside my musical comfort zone. I found it challenging to locate the album, and even more difficult to engage with the music itself. While I recognize that the purpose of this challenge is to broaden horizons through exposure to different languages, cultures, and musical styles, this particular genre didn’t resonate with me. That said, I appreciate the opportunity to explore something so deeply rooted in tradition and spirituality, even if it wasn’t to my taste.

Although I don't technically understand what Khan is singing, I sense through his incredible vocal performances that his passion and *ahem* devotion are strong and sincere. From a melodic standpoint, I found this album to be a lot "hookier" (it feels strange applying that word to this style of music) than some of the other non-Western albums I've received for this project, and despite some of the song lengths, not nearly as repetitious. Overall, I quite enjoyed this, and think it could grow on me if I took the time to familiarize myself more with qawwali.

3.5/5

It was surprisingly nice.

Better than Coldplay

Interesting listen, but not really my style. It is nice to hear something from outside the US and UK.

Shout out to the guy whose review pointed out the Spotify link takes you to a double album. The only way I could find the actual Devotional Songs album was by googling "Devotional Songs Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Spotify". Saves you 45 minutes. I enjoyed just a single song from this slog of an album. It was "Yaad-E-Nabi Guishan Mehka" and I think it's because it didn't sound exactly the same as the other songs which could honestly be a single song for all I know. However, that one song can't make up for how bored I was listening to the rest of it. Maybe if I understood Urdu/Punjabi, I could appreciate it more at least just for the lyrics but that's not something I'm prepared to do at the moment.

The Good: It’s all about devotion…
The Bad: In a language I don’t understand…
The Ugly: a double album…

There really isn’t too much one needs to say about this album, except that the rhythm and cadence can bring you into a lull and make time fly.

As it is impossible to know what Nusrat is trying to tell us, I will go by him, most likely, wanting there to be world peace!

Maybe, at some point, I will listen to this album again, for now, straight down the middle 3*

Like a lot of folks here, I first heard of this artist through Jeff Buckley's Live at Sin-é album. Unfortunately, I never investigated further, but I remember thinking if Jeff liked this artist, he must be something special. I was right to think that. This album is certainly in my top 5 of the albums on this list I had never heard before.

Normally, I'm not much of a fan of "world music," but I am very much enjoying listening to this. Cool depth, texture, instrumentation, vocals, and just the vibe in general. Super glad I listened to this

LONG...I suppose it is ok. Nothing I would ever choose to listen to however. 1.5/5

Muzikaal is dit oosterse album vrij toegankelijk. Het draait meer om de zang. Voor mijn ongetrainde westerse gehoor is het weer die bekende trillende oosterse zangvorm. Maar dit is blijkbaar een heel specifieke vorm: Qawwali. Ik kan dat onderscheid helemaal niet maken en een tekst of oordeel over dit album van mij is dus waardeloos. Maar we willen wel de 1001 doorwerken, dus we luisteren en we schrijven gewoon.

Dat eerste nummer duurt wel heel lang zeg. Acht minuten! Eens kijken. O, wacht de rest duurt ook zo lang. En twee cd's vol. Pfff.... Wiki vertelt mij dat de meerwaarde van de zanger vooral zit in zijn vermogen om urenlang zo intensief te zingen. Laten we vaststellen dat die schrijver een andere maatstaf heeft dan ik heb voor het uitdrukken van muzikaal genot.

Als de nummers iets korter waren en het beperkt was tot één schijf, dan had ik het juist meer gewaardeerd. Dan had ik waarschijnlijk voor de toegankelijkheid drie sterren gegeven. Nu heb ik het luisteren in drie blokken geknipt en zag ik behoorlijk op tegen het derde blok. Te lange albums krijgen standaard een sterretje minder. Dit album verdient dezelfde behandeling.

Really liked this one, I was on a real boring streak lately with these albums where I only got trashy metal and emo rock so this was a nice change of pace! Oriental music isn't praised enough in the mainstream scene so this was a nice surprise!

After a while a bit too much.

1.66

Can see Niles and Frasier getting tickets for the Seattle leg of any early-90s tour.

Not familiar enough with this style of music to judge whether I'm into specific albums or not, especially after just one day. Nice to have it on in the background while working. And good to see something like this is on the list. Can't say I'm tempted to explore the genre further, however.

I enjoy the vibes. It has quite a lot of variety even with me being very unfamiliar with the style.