Negotiating Oxytocin

Negotiating Oxytocin, the debut English-language album of 16-year-old singer-songwriter Upamanyu Mukherjee, is much more than teen angst, and packs a whole lot more substance than what one would expect from a debut work. Placed in the emerging Alternative Pop Rock and Experimental Pop genres, the album comprises seven tracks that offer listeners a range of subject matter from poignant love to alienation to intense passion.

Built around Upamanyu’s innovative songwriting and new-age approach to composition and production, the songs are further embellished by his deep baritone vocals and, staccato delivery. The album benefits immensely with the experience of musician, sound engineer and producer, Onkar Tarkase, resulting in a collaboration that maintains the raw edginess of Upamanyu’s original compositions and production yet shaping it into an international quality musical offering.

The disarming honesty of the lyrics are well complemented by the earnest and non-conventional vocal delivery, resulting in songs that are likely to strike a chord with listeners searching for alternative perspectives on negotiating matters of the heart.

The album opens with a heart-break ballad, delves into self-reflection after a relationship, rises to the euphoria of a new love, makes one smile and ache with a tender ode to a special one, dives into the turmoil of a toxic-yet-compulsive relationship, takes one to the edge of alienation and depression in digital age reality, before pulling the listener back to the reassuring familiarity of experience and frolic.