Shesh Belaye by Somlata, Rupankar Bagchi, Anupam Roy

Shesh Belaye is the kind of song that earns its place in a playlist and then refuses to leave. The arrangement here is the work of Anupam Roy, and it shows genuine craft in how it builds and releases.

The voice of Somlata, Rupankar Bagchi, Anupam Roy carries Shesh Belaye effortlessly, which is the highest compliment a song can give its singer. Rituparna Sengupta, Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Swatilekha Sengupta, Anindya Chattopadhyay, Aparajita Adhya, Monami Ghosh, Indrani Dutta, Sohini Sengupta, Sohag Sen are at the heart of Shesh Belaye, and Shesh Belaye captures their dynamic at its most compelling.

2015 was a strong year for Bengali music, and Shesh Belaye was among the reasons why. Listeners have described the experience of Shesh Belaye differently — romantic, melancholic, uplifting — which suggests the song is large enough to hold many truths.

Running to 3:27, the song is exactly as long as it needs to be, which is the hardest length for a songwriter to find. Shesh Belaye endures because it was built on feeling rather than formula — and that is the one thing streaming numbers cannot manufacture.