REVIEWED: Take Off by Pesawat


After a wait of, what, three years? - Pesawat has finally released their long-awaited (we believe) debut album entitled Take Off. In between that time, Meet Uncle Hussain, a fellow brethren whose introduction to the mass listener came at just about the same year, has seen their main man packed up and formed a new band all the while (thankfully) maintaining their stylish music spirit sans the omnipresent Azlan, while Hujan, another 2008 mainstream breakthrough inductee, has gone on to release three albums. Though it is probably more of the case of Hujan's meteoric rise and hardworking ethos in the studio that has bore such results, it somehow goes on to show how much Pesawat have missed out on the happening. Not that it is entirely a bad thing, but the effect of it is there, and in minute details only.

Rewind back to 2008 and most people will be reminded of their first single "Mirage", and at the time, it was a breath of fresh air for radio stations that is starting to wear their listeners down with endless rotation of glossy pop materials from AF products and Indonesian whimsical pop ballads. It was, alongside Meet Uncle Hussain and Hujan, a big relief for many of us who were already scattered everywhere desperately searching for greener pastures, a time where Last FM was already considered out of fashion, and Soma FM's Indie Pop Rocks channel (yep, once a faithful listener to this internet-based radio station, now occasionally) was blindingly hip. Over-dramatized description there probably, but then it's not like I've been posting regularly here, so there you have it. But that was 2008 - three years in and it is normal that people will expect for something new, and fresh.

Though it is understandable that they included their 2008 radio single, and 2009's "Rasional Emosional" (my all-time personal favourite, yeay!) at tracks number nine and eleven respectively, and (probably) cleverly pushed it way back towards the end of the 12+1+1 track long player, that practice somehow has an effect on the listening experience - for us anyway. Not sounding as fresh as its' more recent siblings ("Hitam" and "Brand New Day" for example), as you progress towards the end, as the timer clocks down the number of minutes that has elapsed, it starts to feel a bit draggy while the CD shifts from the trip down the memory lane of 2008 to the suspiciously-sounding-very-much-like-Nidji "Rapuh", and back to 2009. It is the only Achilles heel of the album because for the first eight tracks, they were tight. It doesn't sound like it is meandering aimlessly about, going on something about making a mark and at the same time wanting to retain the old character that people have been used to with.

As far as how a debut album goes, Take Off is a very satisfying product that will delight you and have you sing-along to their catchy tunes - or at least clap along to it. I am probably nitpicking here but there is a tad too many hand-clapping in the songs; but hey, like how the old saying goes: "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands", this album actually makes me happy and manages to put a big smile on my face. Very rarely an album manages to achieve that - despite the recording/mastering quality leaves a bit, no, a lot wanting, another minor setback with this album; and a CD that refuses to be played on a four-years-old PC that is running on Windows XP, though Ubuntu did just fine. On the back packaging, just right beside the barcode, there printed the words Compact Disc +. Caveat emptor: you need to have Adobe Flash Player in order to be able to enjoy the + part of the CD, which is just an embedded video clip of the song "Excuse Me".

Get the album online here.