Pavithra Krishnaswamy and Goutham Kumar form the acoustic pop duo The Coconut Milk Project. They haven’t released much music so far, but their new single ‘Panic In Life’s Waiting Room’ shows some potential. The idea of a lyrical bent that comes up in contrast with the overall mood of the instrumentation that backs in is by no means a novel songwriting idea, but it’s still effective. That’s especially when it’s done tastefully, and the duo make sure of that. Sad-happy songs are a bit odd to hear in this horrible time for us all, but this single provides a thoughtful few minutes.

Besides this little quirk, there’s nothing particularly offbeat about the elements used here. Both Pavithra and Goutham sing the whole thing together, and this is a really cool vocal texture. Having this consistent layered harmony gives everything more depth; Goutham relatively thin vocal quality works really well above Pavithra’s more strident tone. Of course, there are moments where one might not even notice that there are two separate voices, so that accuracy is also something to be commended. Acoustic guitars make up the rest of the mix here with some light orchestration to back it up, but as discussed before, the fact that they sing rather wistfully about living with adversity and how the past is more distant than ever is the most compelling thing The Coconut Milk Project puts forward. ‘Panic In Life’s Waiting Room’ isn’t #deep or anything, but it is contemplative while being rather sunny. That’s a mark of good music.