The ’90s are a gift that keep on giving. Ali Haider is back. And thankfully, this time without a remix of Purani Jeans (from his 1993 album, Sandesa). It cannot be milked further. In fact, that last remix of the song he came out with in 2006, when he was going through a phase in which he was experimenting with electronic music, should never have happened in the first place.

The singer, songwriter and occasional actor moved out of Pakistan a few years ago and is now settled in Houston, Texas where he works as a radio jockey at a desi station called Radio Dabang and hosts a popular show called — wait for it — Purani Jeans. Yep.

Between 2013, when he came out with his last album, Bachpan Ki Badami Yadein, and now he hasn’t released much music, except for a brief stint in Coke Studio in 2015. He collaborated with Sara Raza on a song called Jiya Karay which has racked up a respectable almost 2 million views on YouTube.

His latest offering, after a hiatus of almost seven years, is a soft mellow number called Abhi Abhi. I feel like I’ve been transported into the 1990s. Not in the nostalgia pop genre that’s all the rage right now, but literally into the 1990s. Listening to Abhi Abhi you feel like the music industry — songwriting, music, production etc — is frozen in time and hasn’t evolved at all.

Ali Haider’s Abhi Abhi is a song right out of the 1990s

On the plus side, it’s a well-recorded and produced track with the usual suspects — harmonium, rich-sounding rhythm guitar, a prominent bass line and basic percussions. Nothing more. Literally, the bare minimum needed to make a most fundamental Pakistani track.

The song-writing is simple and basic. It focuses on the realisation that you’ve fallen in love. Sweet. It’s soft, mellow and slow. The main chorus goes:

Abhi abhi mujhay younhi khayal aaya hai,
Meri zindagi mein gehra tumhara saya hai
[I just came to the realisation,
That you have a very strong presence in my life]

Abhi Abhi is an easy-to-listen to and follow song. Ali has a soft soothing quality in his vocals and a gentle tone that’s instantly recognisable.

It’s a good voice, but I feel he needs to work with more contemporary musicians and producers — such as Sherry Khattak, Zain Ahsan, Janoobi Khargosh, Talal Qureshi and/or Shamoon Ismail just to inject some much-needed new blood and fresh perspective into his work. In fact, that’s the one thing popular acts from the ’90s that are still active today desperately need. Because you can’t keep using the same formula for decades and expect it to work.

I don’t foresee Abhi Abhi striking a chord with millennials — this is the kind of song my dad would enjoy. If it ever comes out in cassette or CD form that is.

Published in Dawn, ICON, March 1st, 2020