LIM. Sings beyond his range.
Xian Lim is leaving no stone unturned to take advantage of the good impression he made as Kim Chiu’s consort in “My Binondo Girl.” However, the dashing newcomer just might be spreading himself too thin by taking on projects with degrees of difficulty that require greater skill and experience.
Take “So It’s You,” the heartthrob’s five-track hit debut album. He acquits himself well in his self-penned love songs, “Puso Kong Hibang” and the short but sweet “Ako’y Sa ‘Yo Lamang” (from “My Binondo Girl”), because their vocal requirements are right up his alley.
Unfortunately, Lim is tasked to sing beyond his range in Cecile Azarcon’s “So It’s You” and “Reaching Out,” well-loved OPM ballads that were originally interpreted in the ’80s by Raymond Lauchengco and Gary Valenciano, whose belting skills are as impressive as their beautiful voices.
In the former, Xian’s limited range does him in before he finishes the third line of the first stanza—which is hard to ignore, because the song remains popular, due to Christian Bautista’s recent version. And, in his revival of Renato Santos’ “Oh Babe,” more care should have been taken with his singing than in “fixing” the OPM classic’s phrasing.
‘Myrus’
If there’s a local recording artist who doesn’t require a lot of fixing and technical “tweaking,” it’s Myrus who wrote all the cuts in his latest album, “Wanted,” his follow-up to 2008’s “Love Cycle.”
The five-song repertoire helps neutralize the predominance of remakes and foreign titles in the market, though the lineup’s sugar-coated melodies tend to sound the same. Top tracks include the YouTube sensation, “Pusong Lito,” the hit-bound “Sige Na Nga,” and the radio-friendly “Sana’y Malaman Mo,” which is notable for its jukebox style and sensibility.
“Wanted” isn’t entirely revival-free, however. A bonus track features the R&B singer sharing Noel Cabangon’s “Kanlungan” with Princess Velasco. It’s also one of the 10 songs featured in the exceptional OPM-compilation album, “Tunog Natin: Songs From Home.”