Eńau ft. Ari Lesmana – Sesi Potret

Big in Indonesia…

[Video]
[5.00]Tim de Reuse: The vocalist has a delicate, wavering tone and the instrumental is unflinchingly direct; good for virality, bad for being all that interesting to listen to. But there are bits that hit — whatever line is translated in the YouTube captions as “When it comes to sincerity, I’m still an amateur” communicates a kind of awkward shame that punches through the language barrier.
[6]

Nortey Dowuona: While looking up info on this sweet melodramatic gem filled with supple, warm crooning from both Eńau and Ari Lesmana, I found producer Kevin Pangetsu playing his guitar. It’s pretty commonplace fingerstyle guitar, but there is a smooth, tender edge to his playing, one that lends itself well to big sappy cheese as well as to lush textured tracks. Here it is a simple, light riff that ambkles across your ears. As for his early production work, you can tell he’s primarily a guitarist. His synth textures are vaporous and limp, but the spinning guitar riffs and licks he plays are all excellent, even looping constantly, while his drum programming is dull and substandard. Both were released six years ago, so I turned back to this gem. The sweep and grandeur of the string arrangements, the big, lumbering drums, the spritely, princely piano, the heavy drums added by Syade and the chunky, bulbous bass added by Ryan Wijaya Putra, it’s a massive improvement. And all from fingerstyle videos in a pandemic. Maybe there is hope for us yet.
[8]

Katherine St. Asaph: Points for the chordal jolt in the final few sections. I’m scrounging, guys. Scrounging!
[2]

Ian Mathers: Plenty of very real and relatable human emotion that has clearly resonated with a ton of people, in a musical setting that isn’t particularly distinguished. Does that mean that I wasn’t moved by a certain point in the song/video? Of course not, I’m not a monster.
[6]

Iain Mew: There are some nice and pretty moments in this, mostly the ones where they leave gaps in the arrangement and bits of the song jut out in nice ways. Over its length, though, the universal gloopy ballad increasingly asserts itself.
[4]

Will Adams: Sometimes I think about my disappointment upon realizing the bottled maple syrup I loved to pour over my Eggo’s as a child was nothing more than high fructose corn syrup with artificial flavorings, a sad imitation of real maple flavor. I almost felt guilty for preferring the ersatz stuff to the pure, amber syrup my mother eventually started buying. I prefer a savory breakfast nowadays, so I can’t even recall what that cloying, sticky substance even tastes like anymore. “Sesi Potret” says: pass the Eggo’s!
[4]