There are few artists in India’s music scene as unafraid to experiment as Armaan Malik. The ease with which the singer-songwriter, producer and actor switches between different styles and languages has enabled him, in the pop music world at least, to replicate the sort of success he has enjoyed as a playback sensation. This open-minded musical approach is evident throughout Malik’s Apple Music Home Session. He starts proceedings with a fresh take on one of his most danceable cuts—funky synth-pop single “Nakhrey Nakhrey”—which he says “will always be very special” because it was the first release from his label Always Music Global. This stripped-down version proves that you can keep things urgent even when you go acoustic, with Malik flaunting his falsetto on the playful pop ditty about the early stages of a courtship. If “Nakhrey Nakhrey” shows us the artist’s rarely revealed cheekier side, he manages to sound even more vulnerable on the unplugged rendition of his 2021 ballad “Barsaat” than he does on the original. The tune, about a relationship at a crossroads, traverses “emotions of pain, passion and heartbreak” and evokes a mood reminiscent of the melancholy that permeates monsoon season; “Barsaat” indeed means monsoon or a rainstorm in English. “I’ve personally never been a fan of the rains,” Malik tells Apple Music, “but there’s something about the aura of this song that brings me closer to feeling pleasant in the company of almost everyone’s favourite season.” For his Home Session cover, Malik remakes one of his favourite tracks, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift’s “The Joker And The Queen”. It might seem like a straightforward reworking on first impression but the artist adds a few classical vocal stylings to lend the song a uniquely Indian touch. “I’ve been a fan of Ed Sheeran for the longest time but I became an even bigger one after listening to this record,” Malik says. “The writing is impeccable and it hits me right in my feels every time I hear it. I remember crying at Ed’s concert in Copenhagen when he played this song live. I never cry. But I did. And it’s not even a sad song. It’s just too damn beautiful.”