review: hadiah dari hati siti nurhaliza




Finally after waited for so long, I’ve got the new album three days after it was released. Yeah, I even went to three different malls on those three different days to get the album.

Anyway. Let me feed you with the “bad” first and then the “good” of it.

What you shouldn’t expect from this album:

This album won’t offer you strong power ballads that would give you chills.
I was initially disappointed because I felt as if the artist is playing safe, restricting her capability to give that strong vocal force to the listener.

This album generally won’t provide you rich orchestral arrangements with huge dynamic range.

This album had radically deviated from my expectations and demands.

What you can expect from this album:

This album offers you something genuinely new and fresh from the singer Siti Nurhaliza.

This album gives a listening to a clean, clear and soothing yet colorful and lyrical vocal of the singer.

This album has tracks that is cleverly sung and arranged to picture the expression of what’s inside a human’s heart- hence the name Hadiah Dari Hati.

This album initially gives the impression of the Chinese and Japanese pop genre.

This album won’t give you the effect of turning off the CD player after the tiring exposure of strong and powerfully arranged songs. Instead, you can listen to it over and over again.

This album emphasizes on very clean vocal recording and simple yet effective arrangement.

This album is a proof of continuous effort of producing a high quality music album- that should be in your collection.


The songs:

Ku Mahu- It would have been nicer if they take away the synthetic trumpet sound and replace it with real brass section- that would give the effect of the latin version of No Mes Ames by J Lo. After giving up being annoyed with the synthesizer, I started to enjoy the song.

Melawan Kesepian- Again the singer effectively puts emotions in this song, like she did in Biarlah Rahsia. However, I’d prefer this arrangement more. It has drifted off the common way of arrangement in the local industry.

Mulanya Cinta- This track was sung in the musical P Ramlee at Istana Budaya recently. I was at first disappointed because this song has a space which has not been used by vocalist to show off her strength that would give it more life. However, this new approach gives a cleaner effect of the song. Some may say that she wouldn’t sound overpowering this way.

Tanpa Kalian- Something very new! This catchy arrangement emphasizes a lot on the acoustic guitars. Nice song to listen to when you’re traveling and on the go.

Biarkan- The introduction was really not to my interest. However, it gets much much better when it goes to the chorus. Very light rock genre.

Kerana Dirimu- The singer plays with her voice with a lot of ornaments in this otherwise common Indonesian pop genre song. (Indonesian songs are nice by default anyway)

Hati- An attempt of symphonic arrangement, but it goes back to the normal local arrangement style.

Wanita- Light arrangement and singing that speaks up to its lyrics.

Cintamu- Impressive introduction with a set of strings, and this song reminds me of how Siti Nurhaliza gives life in her concert performances singing Aku Cinta Padamu in a different jazzy way. Very good chorus!

Sutramaya- Clever introduction with the singer starting the song and enjoined by the guitars. Strong chorus with nice guitar arrangement, goes to a strong forte and a sudden silence, continued with the short appearance of the tabla, and ends with an abrupt silence. Cleaner and fresh version of Seindah Biasa.

Sekian Lama- A very nice piece that you can listen to while looking at the stars. It has a Disney theme mood in it. Another straight expression from the heart.

Conclusion: I LIKE THIS ALBUM.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

uiks.........cepatnya!!!!!!!!

::airswift:: said...

yeah, the album was fast.
it was a nice surprise for her fans.

diXon said...

Nice review. But I have some disagreement in your review though. But you can read my review in my blog : http://avenue299.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/

::airswift:: said...

i like your review too mr dixon =)