Pandu Arah

petikan dari The Star , 28 May 2006.

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IF M. NASIR’S latest solo effort Sang Pencinta took nearly five years to complete, it must said it has been worth the wait (or frustrating delays) and the blighted Mawi distractions. Loaded with 10 tracks, Sang Pencinta is Nasir’s first studio recording since the award-winning, world music flavoured Phoenix Bangkit (2001) and it sounds far removed from its illustrious predecessor. Either the man has abandoned his world music ambitions or his label stepped in with a more sensible option to get this 49-year-old music maverick back on the commercial block.

Well, it’s time to play up to his pop strengths instead of stretching himself. With Phoenix Bangkit, Nasir was the lightning rod for the integration of Malay music into the world music mainstream. As an album, it was an outstanding release, but sadly, it couldn’t cut across and didn’t explode abroad. The Malay music audience is hardly sophisticated enough and no major label is going to risk another world music type album even if it is M. Nasir swinging the baton.

So out go the Arabic percussion, Bollywood strings and Sundanese rhythms. If Qawwali music and the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan inspired Nasir in those seedling world music years, right now he sounds more like a younger version of himself infatuated by rock ’n’ roll.

More earthy and acoustic in sound, Sang Pencinta largely falls somewhere between the rockiness of his Kembara days and his earlier, more Malay folkloric solo masterpiece Canggung Mendonan. Massively hyped as Nasir’s return to his melodic roots; there is no denying this album is tilted towards reassuring rock and romantic wistfulness. The first single Juwita ... (Citra Terindah), a tender rush of pop melodrama, sees Nasir unashamedly turning warm and fuzzy as he revises and re-edits a swoony slice of those golden AM radio days that clearly informed his formative years in Singapore.

He may have retreated from making more challenging music, but at the core, Nasir’s voice remains dexterous and his arrangements top notch. Even by the mix-and-match standards on this record, Nasir is always an interesting Malay artiste, drawing on rock, folk and classic pop for inspiration, as well as the diverse philosophical and emotive lyrical experiences he has absorbed through the years.

If he were a lesser artiste, it would be most natural for Nasir to brazenly turn up the guitars. But fortunately the subtle and textural shades are preferred. Only the title track sounds like a stadium rock-out. Across the album, his delivery is seldom less than compelling and standout best on the more atmospheric arrangements of tunes like Bahtera Raudah and Setiap Dambaan (shades of Pink Floyd?).

Although the emphasis is overwhelmingly weighted towards rock, Nasir successfully appropriates unconventional styles. Frank Sinatra aspirations or not, the neo-cabaret of Tujuh Nafas Lagi displays a highly whimsical side to the singer-songwriter with allusions to Persian poet Firdausi, Arthurian sorcerer Morgan le Fay and what seemingly sounds like a drunken Chinese funeral band propping up this wayward track. On the epic closer Balada Seorang Teman, the twilight voices of the keyboard, smouldering guitars and Nasir’s forlorn lyrical conflicts provide ample evidence that in formidably gifted hands the Malay ballad can be emotionally sophisticated and achingly awesome.

A lot of extravagant praise and claims are made for Nasir – most of them valid. But above all, Sang Pencinta, taken solely as a modern Malay album, is a credit to man’s undoubted ability to roll out a lively record that preserves his music legacy.

The only weak point, considering Nasir’s art school background, is the album’s horrendous cover and cheesy clothes catalogue inlay that dampens an otherwise solid and often impressive album. Somebody find him the phone number for Ahli Fiqir’s artwork team, please. – By Daryl Goh