Ruby - Meshit Wara Ehsasy

I will never ever deny, and will always admit that I was massively impressed by the debut album of Ruby. Though the fact she came into the business with a tongue-in-cheek approach but to me she proved that she's a well artist and was able to pull off a good job with Mohammad Rahim's tunes. Now, almost 2 years later, she comes back with her sophomore Meshit Wara Ehsasy.

Regardless to the album cover photograph that might not be the most satisfying, still it's an irrelevant subject (but to us designers, its totally relevant!), but hey at least she's not hootchying it up. The album has 8 original new songs, same case with her debut album and as I previously complained about this drawback, the rest are 2 remixes, an oriental version and an instrumental music of some of the 8 tracks. Now for individual review to the tracks within:

1. Ah Min Amaylo:
   I got this strong vibe that they were trying to create some sort of a throwback to the older style of the popular Egyptian music. And I have to say, you can't help but get these nostalgic Amr Diab early days career memories. The song's music is amazingly done, the use of tablah and strings was beautifully coordinated to produce this faithful to vintage track. Half star goes to the bit off guitar! But i guess it adds to the vintage feel.
   
   
2. Bashtaa' La'Eneik:
   Absolutely nothing special, just one of these old all-mushy mushy songs. It sounds like a test song
   
   
3. El Mane' Kheir:
   This is song is absolutely cool, heavy base along with electric guitar, nai and tablah can't go wrong. What's more interesting about this song, how much fun it is to listen to. The subtle "Oul Oul Oul" as well as the harmonic "Tara-ba-ra-ta-ra-ta-ra" and the muffled uttered 'rants' of her can't make you not like the song. Still, A star is lost for the excessive repetition of the lyrics, a bit of variation never hurts. A certain musical solo reminded me SO much of Tariq Al Nasser's theme song for Yawmeyaat Mudeer Aam (A General Manager's Diary)
   
   
4. Mosh Hate'dar:
   Probably most of you saw the short version of this song as the music video of this album. The music is nothing but EXCELLENT, so reminiscent of Asalah's early music. The variation of the music, along with the pure oriental style is a huge success, yet Ruby's voice was a bit of a downer, though the fact that she'd be considered a mezzo-soprano in western voice classification but that didn't justify the fact that the music overshadowed her voice in some parts of the song.
   
   
5. Mali:
   This song definitely requires to be listened to more than one time. Your first impression will be that it's boring and dull, and probably because you feel she's trying to hard in her voice than being rather relaxed. Still though, after an additional listen or two you'll find what a masterpiece this is. The music would probably be the closest to her previous works from Eb'a Abelni album. The song's arrangement somehow generally reminds us of a much-talked-about-video-and-not-song, El Gharam.
   
   
6. Ya Imma Ana:
   Nothing but disappointing, the electro intro gets you excited to suddenly bash you with a badly done mini-mix of Ruby's vocals along with nothing but awkward beats. The song had potential, but it's arrangement was dreadful and was all over the place.
   
   
7. Es'alni Hate'raf:
   Fun little song, yet something really bland and repetitive about it which made it lose those two stars. The vocal arrangement was quite impressive, especially the harmonies and certain replies from the background vocals. Yet still, the song seemed unnecessary to be picked and put on this album.
   
   
8. Meshit Wara Ehsasy:
   And by that rating, I mean the Oriental version not the original. I wish the oriental was labelled as the original one and the house one as the extra version. This song is seriously one of the best sentimental songs I've heard in ages in the music industry. The Nai, the violins, the riq and all the instruments included along with her voice were nothing but impressive and touching. Surprisingly, her voice dominates the song and leads you through this masterpiece. Though missing a couple of essential instruments to be a full Takht, but this one definitely qualifies as one.
   
   I would also rate the house/dance version of the song with 5 stars, we've witnessed so many desperate tryouts by Arabic artists to achieve the right club-floor-filler sound but many failed, not this one. The coordination of the original violin sounds along with the hard hitting beat is something of worthy, and Ruby's voice was laid out perfectly on the song.
   

So the overall rating for this album would be 4/5

After using a cheating approximation from a total of 3.68 but seriously the album deserves huge respect - especially for the fact that Ruby and whoever is behind her (Sherif Sabri, that is) represented her in a much much less provocative image and slapped every single critic in the face who accused her of using her image just like everybody else to garner success. Not saying that she didn't, but she was fair and square and whoever listened to her debut album carefully realises the amount of effort Mohammad Rahim, Khalid Ezz, Hadi Sharara and others has put into it.

Bottom line, the album's excellent and to me I was nothing but impressed by how mature and professional (not always) it sounded. Putting the quirky playful tunes behind from her previous musical experience, this definitely ranks a good position in the Arabic music scene.

Here's her "shocking" new video of Mush Hate'dar (video version of the song is much shorter):