Donyaye In Roozaye Man

Album Review

Dariush recorded Donyaye in Roozaye Man in 2010, in collaboration with Alireza Afkar and Roozbeh Bemani (composer and the lyricist, respectively) after a couple of previous collaborations in 2007-2009. The album opens with "Be Nam e Man," a love song which reveals the main theme of the whole album. The opening is rather shocking since fans were expecting a more political album for the first Dariush album after the 2009-2010 post-election unrest in Iran. Previously, Dariush had recorded a couple of singles, in collaboration with the same composer, strictly related to the upheavals in Iran before Donyaye in Roozaye Man, during the demonstrations. As such, fans were considering the upcoming album to be politically motivated, as well, and the name of the album, "These Days World of Mine," and song titles like "Cell without Borders" or "The Torturer" suggested just that. There are a couple of songs here, though, which have rather different themes than love: "Cell Without Borders" is, in fact, a mournful song for all the Iranians living outside of Iran, away from their homeland. The Middle Eastern pop shifts to acoustic flamenco for "Man Az To," and toward the end of the album, "Gheysar" starts with the well-known melody of "Gonjeshkak e Ashi Mashi" by Ardalan Sarafraz, which was initially performed by Farhad for the soundtrack to Gavaznha ("The Stags") in the '70s, which calls to mind the new age movies of the mid- and late '70s like Daash Akol, Towghi, and Gheysar.

In all, however, Donyaye in Roozaye Man is basically an album consisting of eight love songs, mainly comprising Middle Eastern pop forms. However, considering the release date (during the post-election unrest), and the album and some song titles, the album could be viewed as a conceptual one, comprised of sequences sung by a prisoner in his/her cell. In the case of the latter assumption, the producers were definitely unsuccessful in clarifying the picture, and in the former case, excluding the touching "The Torturer," the album can just be considered mediocre in Dariush's discography. ~ P. Partovi, Rovi