Episode Review: Atif Aslam’s Vocals With Mediocre Music

All eyes were on Coke Studio Season 12 because they brought Rohail Hayat back to produce the season.

Rohail Hayat was associated with his unique style of mixing contemporary with regional classical and folk music.

And that is precisely what the audience was expecting this time as well, along with the introduction of new faces into the music industry. The line up this time is also pretty much the same which gave us a hint that Rohail Hayat wants to play it safe. This was further confirmed with the launch of the season’s first episode – Atif Aslam’s take on one of the most revered hamds of the country; wohi toh hai jo nizaam e hasti chala raha hai.

This was an unimpressive combo, to say the least.

While the introduction to the episode shows a very spiritual side of the country’s heartthrob, Atif Aslam and how he dedicates the hamd to his five years old son and wishes he finds his way to God – that narrative does not translate into a soul moving melody.

The music along with Atif’s vocals are quite unimpressive.

There is barely any experimentation with the music and Atif needs to really work on those lower notes that he touches at the beginning of the hamd.

This entire episode seems like an attempt to cash in on the sentimental value of the hamd with minimum possible effort with a mix of Atif Aslam’s vocals. Coke Studio needs to revive its name by bringing that originality in the mix and stop selling badly produced sensational music in the name of the revival of the Pakistani music scene.

Twitter certainly agrees with us. Here, have a look!

Am I the only person in the country completely unmoved by #AtifAslam’s newest #CokeStudio rendition? Stale and unimaginative. How long will Coke Studio keep feeding us songs we already love, with barely an ounce of added creativity.
— Amal Khan (@amalkhan) October 12, 2019

Coke Studio has become Cover Studio. Hardly any new, original content. Just rehashing of old songs. Makes you wonder if originality and creativity is dead in the current lot of singers.
— Salman Masood (@salmanmasood) October 13, 2019

Just like every year
coke studio ruined another master piece#cokestudio12 pic.twitter.com/yfmYYI2c4e
— M i R ز A ( SHUMMI’s ? | WASIF’s ? ) (@mirzadista) October 11, 2019