While acknowledging the effort that goes into creating and making music in Coke Studio, it was a little disappointing to see the first episode of its fifth edition.

It’s been five years and if this is what they call progression then its better not to expect much from the next few episodes. Some argue that the best is yet to come and the programme’s producers deliberately released the weakest installment first. Let’s hope that’s the case, because what you heard and saw by virtue of music from Symt, Hadiqa Kiani (her song should have been sung by someone like Sanam Marvi), Hamayoon Khan (perhaps the most listenable of the lot), Atif Aslam and Qayaas was nothing worth remembering. In fact, the shout-out match that went on between Qayaas’ lead vocalist and Atif Aslam saw this reviewer lowering the volume.

Technically speaking, the dark lighting gives the set of the show a gothic feel but the pond (of sorts) on whose four sides musicians play the songs comes across as a hip version of a Mughal garden. The sound recording this time round is indescribable. The instruments drown out the vocalists’ voices which makes their effort all the more difficult to appreciate.