TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
AlbumREVIEWS: 'Explore!' by Isyana Sarasvati
Mainstream pop music can sometimes be steeped in an in-group mentality
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Mainstream pop music can sometimes be steeped in an in-group mentality. If you're not a fan of it, a new Britney Spears record is as worthless as a new Katy Perry record. Like most things reduced to a stereotype, it narrows your options.
Isyana Sarasvati's rise to stardom in 2015 reminds one a lot of that trend. Somehow, without even bothering to listen to a single note of her music, you can probably surmise she's probably one of them: a celebrity with an all-access pass to garish fame. Of course, that's not fair because Isyana is an insanely talented musician.
I have to confess I did not keep my hopes up approaching this record, but by the end of it I was proven wrong. Explore!, her debut record, is not the shameless garden variety of saccharine pop music that flirts and then goes to bed with the radio. It's a good record, one that I'll see myself playing over and over without feeling like I did the unthinkable.
Explore! builds on pop and RnB soundscapes that employ an orchestra, piano and Isyana's great vocals. Trained as she was as a songwriter and an accomplished piano player, her record sounds tightly composed and well-produced.
Songs like 'Mimpi' (Dream) or 'Tetap Dalam Jiwa' (Stay in the Soul) boast some gorgeous orchestral arrangements on top of Isyana's soul-shattering vocals, while the record's bookends 'All or Nothing' and 'Pesta' (Party) are beat-driven anthems that will make you think the only place that is fun in the world is the studio where Isyana recorded the album.
Recorded partly in Sweden, Explore! is a highly mature record. None of the songs appeal directly to the mainstream; for every piano-led ballad, there's a sample of a handclap that opens a song. But the most powerful instrument on the record is Isyana's voice. Explore! is not a mere hint of someone's talent, it's a showcase. Just listen to a song about her love interest's death, 'Di Batas Waktu' (In the Edge of Time), with a beautiful string arrangement, piano and Isyana's emotive vocals.
Speaking of emotion, one thing that really floors me is Isyana's commitment to it. When her vocals leap one to two octaves on 'All Over Me', it won't strike as showing off. She's got the pipes, but she also has the emotional sincerity to sell them.
Explore! is a record that's unburdened by clichés, although a few songs really do come close to being one. 'Keep Being You', the piano-driven inspirational anthem is the closest the record has to a shuddering sentimentality, and 'Kau Adalah' (You Are), a duet with rapper Rayi Putra, also feels contrived, especially coming after the beautiful 'All Over Me'.
Isyana has a long career ahead of her. It's not a career defined by media appearances, breakups and celebrity plasticity. It's a career grounded, defined and hopefully prolonged by one thing and one thing only: massive talent. Explore! may not be a perfect record, but it sure is a hell of a start.
