JULIE Anne San Jose
Julie Anne San Jose may have just turned 22 on May 17, but her arduous, 10-year climb to pop stardom has been as carefully calibrated as it’s been hard-fought.
In her latest album, “Chasing the Light,” Julie Anne’s sleek and refined sound is a reflection of all the hard work she put in to earn her stripes—and disprove her detractors wrong.
For years now, she has been consistently churning out hits (like the quadruple platinum-selling single, “I’ll Be There”). In her latest disc, she evinces growth as she takes risks in the unexplored musical directions she says she needs to continually evolve, “innovate” and grow as an artist.
But the songstress doesn’t rely on other people to make her sound good.
Yes, radio-friendly tracks like “Never Alone,” “Don’t Make Me Wait” (with rap vocals by Carlo Ferrer Santos) and other pop charmers from Edmund Macam Perlas and his songwriting colleagues bring out Julie Anne’s dazzlingly sassy singing and sumptuous servings of melisma, but the album’s best track is the self-penned “Naririnig Mo Ba?,” whose catchy melody is made more scintillating by Gino Cruz’s toe-tapping orchestration.
The collection’s energy-fueled cuts capture Julie Anne’s performing vim, perky musicality and youthful brio, but the singer is best served by R&B-garnished numbers that allow her to show off her time-honed pipes.
It also helps that the pretty comer has become more judicious as a performer. The vocal bends and curls of yore are still there, but the curlicues no longer call too much attention to themselves.
Just as vocally and melodically alluring as “Naririnig Mo Ba?” are the “True Colors”—channeling “Just Stay” and Agatha Obar-Morallos’ hit-bound title track—about two people whose paths cross and heal each other’s broken heart.