THE PAST several months we’ve been listening to nothing but CDs by Filipina singers. Their common ground is they all have fine voices. Let’s see what’s exceptional, impressive (or disappointing) about their respective albums.
There are two newbies: Lara Cuevas has been singing in clubs in China and was given the break to record her debut album, “This Moment” by Viva Records. An international team handled production, including the musicians. The album was recorded in Los Angeles, California.
Right from the first song, the title track (written by Pamela Philips-Oland), it’s apparent that Cuevas deserves the break. Her voice is reminiscent of a young Kuh Ledesma, and has a soulful edge that allows her to infuse her own style into most of the cover versions.
Cuevas sounds as good as the original singers in “Unbreak My Heart,” “You Make Me Feel Brand New” and “The Trouble With Hello Is Goodbye” —and that’s because she doesn’t mimic them. But she doesn’t go overboard in adding her own touch, either.
The Tagalog stuff (by Jimmy Borja, Trina Belamide, Alex Catedrilla), although old material, seem new—again because Cuevas succeeds in “owning” the songs.
Cuevas could be the next big discovery. The country’s top songwriters should give her their best new songs.
The next Imelda Papin?
LORA Love
Lora Love is another OFW singer, having spent a number of years gigging in Australia prior to recording her self-titled debut CD (released by D’Concorde).
She sounds like a foreign artist on her remake of the first track, “I Wish I Wasn’t,” a song about falling for the wrong guy. Noticeable is her vocal technique, which hews close to black singers doing R&B.
Nothing wrong with that, in fact she does it with flair. But Love’s producer, Larry Hermoso, attempts to mold her into a singer of heartbreak songs that are burdened with cliches. For instance, “Mahal na Mahal Kita” and “Naiiyak Muli Ako” portray carbon-copy scenarios: a woman who can’t let go of the man who keeps cheating on her. It does still happen in real life.
The truth is, Hermoso wrote those songs but we don’t know if Love is happy to be typecast as the next Imelda Papin or Eva Eugenio.
For her succeeding album, Love deserves radically new compositions.
Elegant touch
FAITH Cuneta
Faith Cuneta’s latest record, “A Twist of Faith” (PolyEast), is a 12-track, all-cover collection whose greatest appeal is her voice. It may not possess the distinctive character of her cousin Sharon’s, but it does have a youthful quality.
This CD is for those who never tire of listening to cover versions of “Kung Maibabalik Ko Lang,” “Bakit Labis Kitang Mahal,” “Gulong ng Palad,” among other sing-along staples.
But if there’s one song that saves the album from being just another product for the karaoke crowd, it’s got to be Cuneta’s rendition of Ogie Alcasid’s “Dito Sa Puso Ko.” The slowed-down, acoustic arrangement by Gino Cruz lends it an elegant touch.
The first time we heard it one sleepy night in a cab, the song nudged us like a naughty lover.
New blood
Kyla, meanwhile, has released “Private Affair” (PolyEast), which continues her odyssey as a Pinay R&B singer. The nice thing about it? New songs.
The inclusion of young musicians, such as Karel and Yosha Honasan, to produce and arrange a few tracks is praiseworthy, a reflection of record bosses’ openness to let new blood show what they can do. As for “Camouflage” (written by the husband-and-wife team), it may take some time before the mainstream audience appreciates the “new soul” music that’s being played, for instance, by the Honasans’ own band, Yosha.
It doesn’t mean that the whole album is hard to listen to. But it would be ideal to have some wine and good company to go with its sophisticated urban sound. It would be a hit at a party or a chill-out club.
Surprise
Frencheska Farr’s debut CD, “Inside My Heart” (GMA Records), showcases the promising vocal skills that made her co-champion in the talent contest “Are You the Next Big Star?” The merits of her winning are demonstrated by the mix of subtlety and power in her pipes.
But the album suffers from the lackadaisical quality of a few songs, like those churned out by mainstream pop composers.
Yet Farr pulls off a wonderful surprise by covering U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” no mean feat since it’s rare for a woman to dare sing that one.
Maybe her handlers should find more rock tunes for her.
Spiritual album
JAMIE Rivera
Jamie Rivera’s “Inspirations” (Star Records) is a spiritual album that could convince young music lovers that not all religious songs are boring.
The fact that she’s a beautiful pop singer with a voice that has impressed the world via “Miss Saigon” is enticing enough. There are 18 tracks on this CD, though not all of them could be considered excellent—mainly due to the typical manner (programmed synthesizers) of their recording.
But listening to “Tanging Yaman” or even the Church hymns “Salve Regina” and “Pananagutan” on a depressing day could make one believe that life is still beautiful.
Classics in 5 languages
Finally, there’s Mishka Adams to remind us that the local artist is truly world class. This daughter of sculptor Agnes Arellano has recorded her own songs in previous albums, but in “Stranger on the Shore” (Candid Records) she interprets various classics—in five languages.
An all-Filipino band composed of pianist Ria Villena-Osorio and Joey Quirino, guitarist Edgar Avenir, saxophonists Michael Guevarra and Tots Tolentino, bassist Simon Tan, drummer Mar Dizon and flugelhorn player Richie Gonzaga help Adams complete the achievement.
The material is composed of American jazz standards as well as music from French and Hungarian film soundtracks, not to mention a Brazilian tune.
It would be wrong to say that this type of music is elitist, because it stole our heart the moment we played it. One doesn’t even have to know French or Portuguese to get the drift—good old-fashioned romance, when rendered in a jazz mood, could lick hypertension.
But Adams doesn’t turn her back on her Filipino roots. Her take on “Dahil Sa ’Yo” is lovely.