If Aditya Kambhampati’s new single Lacuna Riff shares any similarity with his previous EP The Green Room Project, it’s the fact that both of these works make for extremely soothing listening sessions. The cause of this is not only Kambhampati’s unwavering, flawless vocals but also the equally serene production.

However, while The Green Room Project had songs that presented positive
emotions of love and hope, Lacuna Riff is more mellow in terms of its tone and lyrical content. The lyrics channel out the singer-songwriter storytelling abilities as he croons from the perspective of a man who recounts his whole life while breathing his last. Or as the singer says, his character is maybe experiencing ‘life before death’.

This makes for quite a surreal trip of a song that starts off with some simple guitar strumming and then proceeds to a smooth series of guitar licks eventually ending up toward an orchestral amalgamation in the end. Gentle slow-paced drum beats add to the ominous vibe of the song, indicating that
death is coming around slowly and gently.

The outro is the cherry on the top as we find the singer repeating a certain verse ending with the lines, ‘mujhe jaane de’ (‘let me go’). The outro feels like a final statement of acceptance as the song’s protagonist is ready to
accept the grim reaper’s arrival. Those final few seconds of Lacuna Riff feel
haunting, bittersweet, raw, and very real.

There’s a lot to interpret from Lacuna Riff as the song builds up. And these interpretations would differ from listener to listener. What’s certain is that
song has the ability to be played on repeat many times by listeners, offering
a new theme to interpret or a new line to ponder on with every subsequent
listening session.

The song clocks at over four and a half minutes but it does justice to its duration, never lacking or faltering anywhere. The song starts off slow, picks up pace, finally ending with a dramatic finale.

Considering its dark subject matter, the song still offers a sense of optimism. After all, as mentioned before, the singer’s persona for Lacuna Riff does accept death in the end, a phenomenon that all humankind bears a perpetual fear of. If anything, Aditya Kambhampati’s single offers motivation to its audience to live their life to the fullest so that a song like Lacuna Riff echoes in their ears too in their final moments!

Verdict: A bold and dramatic statement on ‘life before death’ with high-end
vocals and production.

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