Cinta Kinta

Hooray! Sheila Majid's got a new album out. It's a bit pricey, though - RM40.90 - but since it's been... like five years since Ku Mohon came out and in between all we had to live on was reissued scraps and the odd live performance.

Anyway, what's the new album like? Pretty good - but safe. Mostly recorded in Indonesia, including songwriters, producers and sessionists - namely, Andi Rianto and someone calleh Tohpati [hey, I'm ignorant], but there's also two songs by M. Nasir. Technically it sounds fantastic, but song selection is pretty much what you expect. I suppose it caters for that forty-something crowd who are happy with 'nice' and don't really want much more.

Probably the most 'controversial' (if you can call it that) is a remake of M. Nasir's Bukalah Hatimu - Mereka bawa perang di kaca TV / Secara 'live' melalui satalit / Yang untung broker teknologi / Yang kita hanya dapat kemeja-T. Honestly? M. Nasir did it much better, with more of an edge and anger.

There is nothing on the album to match the intensity and honesty of Ku Mohon. Maybe we should just accept that strife can produce great music but a happy home life results in - well, nice music. I am not wishing anything but the best for Sheila, but maybe next time she should look for angry songwriters and producers to channel.