This 28-year-old jazz-pop artist has delivered one of the best Indonesian albums of 2025 as she arranges life’s complicatedness into an enchanting body of work.
Many times, whenever I listen to a new song, a question would pop into my head: “Does the artist *really* understand what they are singing about?” A song could check all the boxes to ‘qualify’ as the next big hit, but if I am not convinced by the artist’s earnestness, I would veto the song immediately from my radar and move on. To my surprise, I am not alone with this pet peeve. There are many music audiences out there who secretly accuse certain artists of ‘selling tears’ or ‘taste pandering’ simply because they don’t believe in the artist’s earnestness.
This dilemma has been as old as time. All artists are encouraged to be ‘honest’ in their work, but many times, these artists (especially the younger ones) have yet to understand what being ‘honest’ actually means. Being ‘honest’ can also be a dangerous, slippery slope — nothing could devastate fans more than discovering that their favourite artists are not as sharp, perceptive, and/or down-to-earth as they might hope. Like it or not, if you want to sing about life and relationships, you need to understand about life and relationships. Simple math, but very difficult to crack.
However, if we’re lucky, we might come across a young talent who managed to crack that simple math and deliver a musical body of work that makes us better understand the world we live in. Fortunately, Ify Alyssa is one of those talents. It took a while for her to release a solo album — her previous one, Pelita Lara, was released back in the year 2020 — but, as proven by the quality of Menata, it was worth the wait.
I couldn’t help but wonder whether Ify Alyssa is, secretly, a fervent believer in the so-called “Five-Second Rule”. But if that is the case, that would explain why the album Menata has managed to deliver such a strong and well-rounded tracklist. It was a brilliant move made by Ify Alyssa to put “Semesta Menari“, “Roda-Roda“, and “Bersemi” as the first three songs of the album — because each of these songs possesses a remarkably memorable intro, so much so that the first five seconds of these songs alone should be powerful enough to entice the listeners to listen to the whole songs (and, consequently, the whole album). Time and time again, I would always say that an artist’s talent is nothing if not complemented by intelligence. Lucky for us, Ify Alyssa must be one of the most clever and sharp-minded talents in the Indonesian music industry right now.
On its surface, “Semesta Menari” might come across as another wholesome love song. That being said, once this mid-tempo number progresses, “Semesta Menari” reveals itself as a gentle demonstration of Ify Alyssa’s artistic intellect. Almost literally, every word and vowel in the lyrics of “Semesta Menari” is sung with such a dynamic, yet surgical precision. And, once its addictive chorus kicks in, Ify Alyssa’s effortless vocal magically papers over the fact that this supposedly ‘wholesome love song’ is actually a difficult-as-heck cantabile passage.
“Roda-Roda“, serving as Ify Alyssa’s ode to the simpler things in life, feels like a silky elixir to the ears. And then, once she kicks things up a notch with “Bersemi“, I was even surprised to discover that I have already reached the mid-section of the album. To be able to come up with a tracklist that is as smooth as a yacht ride is, indeed, a whip-smart achievement.
But here’s the thing that makes Menata stand taller than most studio albums and EPs that have been released (so far) in 2025 — we finally have an artist who understands exactly what she is singing about. In this modern era, in which many artists seem to compete with each other and find out which one can make their listeners cry the most, Ify Alyssa knew better than to resort to that superficial tactic. Through the course of this album, she sings about what life — or at least, what life has been for her — with neither eye-rolling melodrama nor taste-pandering agenda. And the result is pure gold.
The wistful ballad “Tak Istimewa“, in many ways, can be seen as a near-perfect illustration of who Ify Alyssa is — as both an artist and a human documentarian. Her (once again) dynamic-yet-surgical vocal delivery breathes both understandable awkwardness and earnest sincerity in every word in “Tak Istimewa“, as she persuades her former lover that, like it or not, this might not be the last time they ever cross paths. The younger and less down-to-earth artists out there might think this kind of narrative is silly or worse, pitiful. However, it takes an artist as wise and masterful as Ify Alyssa to teach us that life can be awkward like that. But with the right melody, the right choice of words, and the right musical production, life’s awkwardness can be something worth celebrating.
The title track, “Menata“, is more direct in addressing a certain breakup. In this piano-driven number, Ify Alyssa (surprisingly) injects good cheer and sunny optimism into a symphony that, in the hands of other artists, would have been subjected to tearjerker strings and a feel-bad music video. Ify Alyssa’s agency is loud and clear in “Menata“, as the song cleverly suggests that breakups can also be seen as an empowering decision. Even though I have no idea what Ify Alyssa has gone through in her personal life, the way she sings the line “Semoga yang terbaik untuk kita” feels honest as well as well-earned.
Ify Alyssa’s closing number, “Terima Kasih“, is best described as Ify Alyssa in the form of a song: a sweet creation that cleverly underlies rich and bottomless depth. “Terima Kasih“, in terms of melodic structure and hook-ness, is probably Ify Alyssa’s simplest and most vivid song yet. Nevertheless, there is a melancholic nuance within her expression of thankfulness that would demand multiple repeats in the ears of the listeners. As Ify Alyssa and her beautifully composed “Terima Kasih” grace our consciousness, the more we might discover that the sweet words of “thank you” can sometimes be understood as “goodbye”.
Looking from a wider perspective, Ify Alyssa should give herself a round of applause simply for the fact that Menata is an awe-inspiring improvement from her previous record. Her 2020 solo album, Pelita Lara, was pleasant but inconsistent. Jump to five years later, and I can finally see what Ify Alyssa is truly made of as an artist. Here, she is confident and knows exactly what she wants to say (and sing).
The album Menata, ultimately, is a clever and earnest examination of life with all its simplicity as well as complexity. It is a truthful body of work, but unfortunately, life is rarely kind to those who wish to tell the truth. Personally speaking, I find it heartbreaking that someone of Ify Alyssa’s talent and intelligence has yet to be highly regarded in the same vein as her peers — be it either in the jazz scene or in the pop scene. In a world where algorithm-friendly, get-streaming-numbers-quickly products seem to be more celebrated than a sage exploration of what it means to be human, someone like Ify Alyssa might have to continue dealing with being the so-called ‘underdog’ in the music industry.
But, at the end of the day, who cares? An algorithm might be able to create a star, but an algorithm could never create an artist. Today, perhaps no one pays enough attention to thank Ify Alyssa for making an album as enchanting as Menata. But hey — I have listened to the whole thing. And for that, I would like to earnestly say: Thank you, Ify Alyssa, for making this album.
All images are courtesy of Ify Alyssa.