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Album Review: 'Lima' by Mocca
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‘Lima’ by Mocca (Mocca/File)
Indie-pop band Mocca presents its fifth, and first Indonesian-language, album.
The result is an album that pretty much confirms how breezy and mainstream-ready the band’s music has always been, just without the semi-barricade of the (very simple) English lyricism of its predecessors.
The band did contribute some songs in Indonesian for the 2005 movie Untuk Rena (For Rena).
Produced by fellow musician Mondo Gascoro, Lima (Five) conjures up that dependable Mocca magic; soft-rock brass sections blanketing around the music’s mid-tempo cheeriness.
The carnival/backyard party prettiness that remains the band’s chosen nuance is consistent throughout, with vocalist-flutist Arina Ephipania’s words about true friendship and weekend leisure wrapping everything to a saccharine perfection. Fans will love it.
Though the band has said that the record’s production felt as exciting as the making of their 2002 debut, the record too often remains stubbornly shiny, too tightly wound to let any of that excitement be audible.
Too little here feels unexpected, so much so that even the big change in language does not feel like that much of a change.
Lima would have benefitted greatly from letting some looser moments be a part of it, whether it’s some dissonance, a weightier lyrical topic, or imperfect harmonies and instruments being played.
The songs here tick off every point you’d expect a Mocca album to have, from the sensitive ballad to the pseudo-big band pop the band excels at.
Not that it matters much. The band’s music is such an established brand that it would perhaps be understandably foolish to risk it with less conservative moments.
Mocca does Mocca well, and this album shows how instinctually familiar Arina, guitarist Riko Prayitno, bass player Achmad Pratama and drummers Indra Massad are with their music/ brand.
The arrangements are tight and economical, with every element of the song coming in and pulling out at each moment you’d expect them to.
Witness opener “Seharusnya” (roughly “Ought to Be”), a stuttering, jumpy dose of brass-laden indie pop that is all kind of soft-jazz and winking romanticism combined in a flowery package, delivering relationship boosters that translate as “We ought to be walking together/ We ought to use our logic […] Let’s sit together and talk/ every obstacle has its solution”. This is the kind of no-bull sentiment that speaks directly to the kids.
Then there’s the weekend-is-relaxing-but-it’s-almost-over contemplation of “Di Penghujung Akhir Minggu” (By the End of the Weekend), a whistle-driven folk ballad that is literally about feeling bothered that the weekend is almost done — the kind of quirky theme the band is not unfamiliar with.
Not dissimilar is “Aku dan Kamu” (Me and You), which is a finger-snapping mid-tempo track with hovering horns that is about needing each other. “Dan Akhirnya” (And in the End) is also in the same vein, with rollicking percussion and lightly overdriven guitars to set it somewhat apart.
The album’s softest moments come in the form of “Ketika Semua Telah Berakhir” (When Everything Has Ended), featuring musician Gardika Gigih, a piano-ballad that is built for radio play, and “Perahu Kertas” (Paper Boat), an acoustic guitar ditty that is as catchy as it is unidentifiable.
Gascaro’s production and arrangement add some punch to the occasion, with some fluid brass lines here and there and a crisp clarity in the overall sound. But it’s hard to truly feel the overall effect, as the record seems overall assured of pretty much sounding like what came before it, with the arrangements settling into overt familiarity throughout.
All in all, Lima is a record that will work wonders, as always, with the Mocca fanbase. It could have been one, two, or eight years — it really doesn’t matter, the distance between the albums seemingly results in the original band instinct prevailing no matter what. Risk isn’t something required, nor is anything remotely out of the norm. That has worked for years, so why change now? I suppose.
