FORGET and forgive the numerous rough edges. Just savour this Himesh Reshammiya creation for freshness of approach. If nothing else, it boasts of lyrics which, as they say, are different.

Tere sang, ek simple si coffee bhi kick deti hai `85 (Hema Sardesai and KK) should have been the most appealing but for the fact that its tune is too similar to Tere bin `85 from Humraaz. To get rid of that jarring note, one has to go to another equally unusual Shweta Shetty-KK duet, in which love is compared with Dilli ki sardi. Sameer is really on a roll. What is more, the cassette also has a remix version of the same song.

Patriotic songs are no longer very common in films. But since the storyline of this one is based on patriotism, it has the title song Sarzameen se `85 in the voice of KK and Shaan and also in an instrumental version.

As a singer, Altaf Raja had a sameness about all his songs. That malady does not really leave him, now that he has turned a composer. That is not to criticise his compositions, because there is a section which loves him for his style. But for all others, this uniformity can be a bit of a put-off.

Worse, he has bodily lifted the catchwords of a Punjabi number, O jogiya khallibali `85 by Bhupi Chawla, for his song, Khalliwali ... sung in one version by Hema Sardesai, Sunidhi Chauhan and chorus and in another by Altaf himself.

Another noticeable feature of this album is that three of the songs have two versions. We just talked about Khalliwalli... Kumar Sanu sings Hum pyaar jo tera payenge `85 solo and then in company with Alka Yagnik. Meri gali mein tera aana `85 is rendered first by Altaf Raja and chorus and then by Sunidhi Chauhan and chorus.

One slightly better number is Aaj to madhur milan hoga `85 (Alka Yagnik and chorus).

Lyrics are by Arun Bhairav.

The four-girl pop group Viva — comprising Anushka, Pratichee, Mahua and Neha — had made quite a splash with its first album Viva last year. The girls could sing a bit, but more than that, they were quite vivacious and could shake their legs, and that is what sells these days.

Now they are out with this new album which has some original tracks and some remixes.

The title track, Yeh pyar nahin to kya hai ... has been written and composed by the four girls. Other composers on the album are Jayanta Pathak, Jaidev Kumar, DJ Vivek, DJ Amit, DJ Suketu, Clinton Cerejo and Bhavdeep Jaipurwale.

The music arrangement is by Hyacinth D’Souza.