Under this pressure, under this weight/We are diamonds/Now I feel my heart beating.” – ‘Adventure of a Lifetime’ by Coldplay

Singer, songwriter Hasan Raheem entered the music industry during a transitional period. Content was (and still is) targeting consumers at a frightening pace. It is akin to going through a system overload where processing power isn’t enough. The consumption process also changed in a myriad of ways.

Instead of stealing music through torrents, downloading music through legal manner or investing in a CD, all you really needed now was an internet connection on any device including your phone.

Popular streaming sites became a space where all genres of music and artists started becoming available.

Streaming sites offer a volley of music front and center designed by algorithms where a handful of music you might have played - in the past – defined your musical future. Artists with similarity would emerge. Like a musical Prometheus, it also meant that any number of brilliant artists would get lost in this format.

If any artist, in this scenario, is able to breakthrough, first and foremost as an independent artist, there must be some merit to their music.

“Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.” – Oscar Wilde

Wearing a pink hoodie, and performing the electronic ‘Aisay Kaisay’ in a music video shot somewhere in Karachi’s Defence sector, Hasan Raheem broke through to the other side. But it wasn’t just the music video. The real power behind that video was the song in its entirety that made (pretty much) anyone who follows Pakistan’s music, intrigued, enchanted and a fan-in-waiting.

Fast forward to 2023, Hasan Raheem has gone beyond borders. As an artist who featured on the revamped version of Coke Studio just last year, it quadrupled Hasan Raheem’s level of success.

In the aftermath of Coke Studio 14, it will come as a surprise if anyone who follows Pakistani music keenly doesn’t know his name.

Coke Studio’s ‘Peechay Hutt’ featuring Hasan Raheem with Justin Bibis and Talal Qureshi became one of the bigger Coke Studio 14 smash hits. And that’s an accomplishment when you realize that the season also had hits like ‘Pasoori’. From Quick Style-choreographed dance video to the response the song received when it first arrived, ‘Peechay Hutt’ took Hasan Raheem to a different stratosphere. But the song is not the only reason why Raheem is so popular.

In the years since ‘Aisay Kaisay’ to post-Coke Studio, Hasan Raheem diligently released his signature brand of music, choosing to work with one producer more than others – Abdullah Kasumbi. That level of comfort and understanding allowed Hasan to convey exactly what he wanted to address through his songs. A bit cheesy but it worked for him. The flair for collaboration with artists as distinctive as Natasha Noorani, Karakoram and Maanu (some of the other names who have broken through to the other side), allowed him to built enough songs to call them an album, LP.

“If I’m forgotten, you’ll remember me for the day.” – ‘Pyro’ by Kings of Leon

Why do all these things even matter when listening to Nautanki? Primarily because of the aforementioned. If you follow his album, for example, like an interactive Netflix series that can be viewed in a non-chronological order and non-linear fashion aka, by not paying too much attention to his past releases, it will be a completely different experience and a good one, backed by somewhat dreamy soundscape that channel Hasan’s inner emotions of love and loss, hope and despair, drama and simplicity. It is good music and exactly like what you’d expect from Hasan Raheem.

But and this is a big one, if you’re exposed to all of Hasan Raheem’s earlier music, Nautanki will feel neither like a complete letdown but nor will it feel like a moment in music that stops you in the tracks. It will not make you wonder after each song about what is coming next.

Because his music prior to the album includes singles like ‘Aisay Kaisa’, ‘Arzu’ ‘Faltu Pyar’, ‘Joona’, ‘Peechay Hutt’, ‘Kyun’, chances are that many songs in Nautanki will feel like a song you’ve heard from Hasan before.

Can you find more elements within the larger electronic realm? Yes, and this is where the production of the album is worth applauding.

But in the context of what has been released, Nautanki is enjoyable up to a point.

It doesn’t feel like Hasan has dug deeper than ever before to present a musical experience that can withstand the test of time and stand shoulder to shoulder with his earlier releases - if not surpassing them altogether.

‘Kaleji’ provides a much-needed opposite sonic environment and a lovelorn Hasan Raheem playing with words. On ‘Dil Farab’, the sound begins almost in lullabyesque fashion and grows to a crescendo but lyrically it falls short.

You listen to 5 songs on the album but it will be difficult to differentiate one from the other. Lyrically, it doesn’t showcase maturity. Hasan Raheem is the kind of artist you can listen to with ease but if you dig deeper, the ideas – sonically and lyrically – sound almost the same. He sounds vulnerable on nearly every song. There is no out-of-the-blue, what is this kind of track?

Songs like ‘Nautanki’, ‘Dibs’, ‘Fursat’, are good fun but nothing too memorable because we’ve heard Hasan sing about the same and dare I say cheesy ideas in a similar sonic mix in the past. What’s the song that makes you sit up? Err, none.

For fans of Hasan Raheem, this is an album to listen to over and over again like a rote-learning project but if you’re looking for an alteration or an evolutionary sound and poetry, this isn’t that album. We might need to wait a while before Hasan gets there.