30 Days definitely disappointed yours truly. In fact, I would still defend the claim I made that said All Fired Up is better than 30 Days. Despite those “oh-hoah-oh” hooks providing some charm, 30 Days simply did not work at all. That should have been the end of story until the B-Side appeared – sparkling and simply wanting itself to be heard.

Fortunately, this B-Side has the goods. Turn Myself In would let the listener remember those birthdays – especially that moment when you acquired happiness once you opened those gifts – for the listener realizes that The Saturdays finally recorded a great track after a long time of (unofficial) mediocrity. Turn Myself In basically halted the girl group’s slump. It feels as if greatness from The Saturdays will only come in spurts – no consistency whatsoever – but that remains to be seen. In other words, Turn Myself In, one could say, is actually better than 30 Days.

Admittedly, Turn Myself In could be labelled as one of the best tracks in the girls’s discography. The fascinating piano intro can successfully captivate the listener. One delightful surprise would be that lots of conviction (though standing by the bar on a table could raise some questions, girls) coming from the girls could be found in the track. Aside from this conviction, there is also some emotion flowing in this track. One could remember the early days of The Saturdays – I am talking about those days involving listening to tracks from the self-titled debut album here - once they heard this B-Side. The chorus (Turn myself in tonight / This is me coming clean with with my hands up) is insanely awesome. Those “hoo-ooh-ooh” parts after the chorus could be considered as those ‘cherries that go on top of your sundae’ – still essential both in aesthetics and overall experience because of the way they function.

So what does Turn Myself In tell us? The Saturdays, fortunately, can still do it. What is sad though would be that Turn Myself In is just a B-Side to an otherwise very mediocre A-Side. Turn Myself In should be an official single. Start making better decisions, The Saturdays. The listening public is begging. Thank you in advance.

On a personal note, what made this track ultra special would be Nicola Roberts (yes THE Nicola Roberts who has given us Beat of My Drum and Lucky Day) kicking off the track vocally. Her vocals being the first that the listener would hear ended up being a moment. Nicola was the perfect choice and thankfully, that choice was executed. This is just one reason why a track has been one of my favorite Girls Aloud tracks.

What only bugs me would be the ‘video edit’ of the track. The girls using some vocoder technology turned me off quite a bit. However, the ‘album version’ of Untouchable remains splendid. This track proves why pop music can be such a joy to the ears. It uplifts you. It gets you moving. What more can you ask for? I have to say mission accomplished for the girls.

As Eurovision comes closer in making its presence felt anew this month, I would try my best to feature some of the prominent entries that will be competing in this year’s incarnation. Eurovision, at least in my eyes, has done a remarkable job in showcasing the vast cultural flavors coming from the European region. One track that has caught my attention, aside from Euphoria that is, would be Greece’s entry for this year. It is entitled Aphrodisiac and is sung by Eleftheria Eleftheriou (that was a tough one to type to be quite honest).

Aphrodisiac is an uptempo offering that is quite different from its predecessor Watch My Dance that ended up placing 7th. Noticeable in the track would be the presence of those organic or rather earthy sounds that reflects well of Greece’s heritage. Despite these traditional sounds, which I must say is also a reflection of job well done instrumentation-wise, the track ends up sounding simple though this is not a bad thing. Not at all. Sometimes, one does not have to do much in order to achieve greatness musically and this is one clear example of such occurring. As they say, simplicity is beauty. Simplicity, as a result, is actually Aphrodisiac‘s calling card. The music is simply magical and there is nothing more you could ask.

Kylie Minogue pumps up the celebration proceedings of K25 with another release of a greatest hits compilation. The compilation boasts of having 21 tracks with 18 of these tracks possessing a downright nasty record of being in the Top 5 of the UK Charts. No new songs will be included in this compilation though. The tracks will all be found in one CD while a DVD containing the music videos of the tracks is also in the works.

For the fan who only heard Kylie belt it out in her Aphrodite era, this new compilation will be a great place to widen that Kylie knowledge. These 21 tracks are essential if one really wants to know more on how Kylie became the pop icon that she is today. This compilation will be released on June 4 in the UK. As for US-based fans, they can get their hands on this compilation by June 19.

The tracklisting for The Best of Kylie Minogue is listed below:

Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
Spinning Around
I Should Be So Lucky
Love At First Sight
In Your Eyes
Kids (with Robbie Williams)
Better The Devil You Know
All The Lovers
Give Me Just A Little More Time
Celebration
Slow
Red Blooded Woman
I Believe In You
On A Night Like This
Confide In Me
Get Outta My Way
The Loco-Motion
Tears On My Pillow
Wow
In My Arms
Never Too Late

Way before Kylie Minogue became the Aphrodite, she was once known as the purveyor of that catchy na na na thanks to her Can’t Get You Out Of My Head single. Can’t Get You Out of My Head was actually included in Kylie’s Fever and this flashback gives more focus on another song included in that Fever record. The song is Love at First Sight which was the third released single coming from the album.

Love at First Sight, admittedly, was not the first Kylie track that I have ever heard (for the record, that honor goes to I Should Be So Lucky) but something in it has convinced me enough to keep on playing it even today. It has been almost a decade since this single was released yet its charm seems to have never faded. Perhaps it really is true that age does not matter when it comes to good music. If it is good, why stop listening to it? The listener should take the opportunity of caressing the magic of the track. Love at First Sight, arguably, enables the listener to hear one of dance pop’s finer moments. Everything in the track goes in the right direction. The beat definitely will make you, dear listener, dance. It is a dance enticer that cleanly does the job.

Most people, especially those coming from the 90s, may know Kylie because of Can’t Get You Out of My Head but they must not forget that Kylie also had other amazing singles. There is nothing wrong in associating Kylie to that catchy na na na hook but if one only knows one Kylie track, then something is wrong. Love at First Sight could be the perfect solution in solving this problem. It is that delicious.

Euphoria is undoubtedly the best song of the pack that I have heard so far. It has Swedish elements sprinkled all over it. It is delicately done. The synths offer that aesthetic gloss that only makes the track go higher in terms of approval ratings. Upbeat would be a good way of describing Euphoria. Just like its predecessor (Popular), it can evoke feelings of great positivity onto its listener. Loreen shows tremendous composure in delivering those high notes. Hearing Loreen start slowly in terms of building that excitement in terms of her soon-to-be-sang high notes really got me pumped up.

As for the way Loreen performed it live in her TV appearance (video is embedded below), I have to say I am digging the choreography which boasts of dance moves that have kung-fu influence. If you have seen Loreen perform the track on Finland’s version of The Voice (performance on Finland’s The Voice), you will hear her change some aspects of her performances with the appearance of a string-infused intro and outro being the most noticeable among these aspects. Another change would be that Loreen really belted those notes out and removed the inspired-by-kung-fu choreography.

Euphoria is one heckuva of a track. It simply is.

Last night, the 20th, my aunt came home from San Francisco all the way here.  All of the adults were still busy with their work and no one was left to drive Auntie to the salon. So I took my two siblings with me, grabbed the keys, and went to Uncle Nold’s house to fetch Aunt Jane.

On the stereo, the soundtrack of the historic reunion concert of the Eraserheads was playing. Aunt Jane suddenly said “Let me guess, the Eraserheads eh? This is during our time Nils! Don’t tell me until this time it’s still kicking?” I didn’t give her an answer. I just showed her a wide grin. Funny for it was the band’s With a Smile (just one of the band’s iconic singles) playing that time.

Honestly speaking, I didn’t expect my aunt would be surprised with what was I listening and playing at our car’s stereo. The words that my aunt said again were ringing inside my head.

Let me guess, the Eraserheads eh? This is during our time Nils! Don’t tell me until this time it’s still kicking!

The balikbayan (balikbayan could be loosely translated to someone who went to foreign soil and came back to native land) couldn’t believe that one of the singles of the band that broke up 10 years ago could still have an impact up to this time. Approximately, these songs came into public 18 to 20 years ago. Twenty years ago. Ah, the good old days.

Class Nostalgia 101 is definitely in session.

Ely Buendia is the vocalist of the Eraserheads

I would be injecting some political history first before continuing this piece. Nine years after being subjected under the Martial Law (which was imposed by the late President Ferdinand Marcos), the EDSA Revolution followed (this occurred in the year1986) and after taking some ideas from what some of us know, that time was filled with festivities, lots of them.

This was a period in time when the creative minds from different walks of life across the country finally rose – giving us a culture that could be celebrated shamelessly. No doubt, musical improvement occurred thanks to these creative minds.

A quick question for you, dear reader: Who would’ve thought, that a bunch of teenagers who love to drink, smoke, stay out all night would end up being the stewards of the country’s music back then?

Who would’ve thought that despite wearing rip-off jeans, plain long tees which was an image that was a far cry from the typical band, they would be able to sell tons of records?

Who would have thought that these same people would also end up winning lots of awards in various award shows – ending up representing the country in the process?

They did not wear any make-up whatsoever. They did not need to have signature branded clothes or their dress tailored by the country’s famous tailors.

But instead, these same people, yes them, would end up making the Filipino people say, “Oy, ayos yan ah! Sino kumanta niyan? Kakaiba! May mabibili nabang cassette tape nila?” (That is cool! Who sang that? It is unique! Is there an available cassette tape of that band in record shops?)

When all is said and done, some people could see them in stereotypical fashion. With the way they look, one could assume they were drug users. Some could even think of them as kids who did not want to finish their studies – kids who stopped schooling and had their lives ruined. Or perhaps, one could even think of them as those who do not know what they want for themselves.

However, these kids only cared about what they see in the society. They express what they learn not only from the four corners of the classroom but from what they learn from life through their experiences. I do not like it that most people misunderstood them. Only a few felt what these guys experienced and what they meant.

Perhaps the band was thinking the following:

• Does it mean that if we drink, we smoke, and we try some of this and that, we don’t care?
• Does it quickly mean if we’re like this, we’re a disgrace? Helpless even?
• Does it mean if I didn’t follow what my parents wanted and instead pursued something I wanted, I can’t be successful in life?

Raimund Marasigan, now the vocalist of Sandwich, actually was the drummer of Eraserheads.

They dressed with rip-off jeans, sneakers with laces untied, loose plain tees and messy hair. Some of them even geared up with vests, jackets, black tees, belts, and boots while others would prefer to have their hair in dreadlocks or long and messy. One would even see that some have body art such as tattoos and piercings around their bodies. The band dressed like that. Perhaps while reading on how they dress, you were thinking that these guys are freaks.

Were things have been like this all the time? Was it always about the look?

They’re not what you think. They may look ‘strange,’ but they got talent. Some of them weren’t gifted with a good voice. Their songs though told a different story. These songs had the ability to let people say “Angas ah!” (That is cool!) For that, they should be treated well and be given respect.

What about their music, you might ask? Does it have quality? Some have the talent in singing, but can’t produce original songs. What they bring to the table at times are revivals or covers. It is not bad to pay tribute though, but when will you start your own pal?

Ain’t got the guts to write their own material eh? While these things are happening, there are also others who just sing those typical break-up songs with some sprinkles of bitterness thrown in for good measure.

It’s not bad to express about your experiences regarding love but not too much. There are others that count.

Do you know what counts?

It is about the dedication, the passion, and the love. For every stanza, song, EP, album they did, they did it with love. It was the only thing they had. They did not want to be rich and get famous. All they wanted was to have an avenue of expression, create music and sing it all out. In there own way, they helped the Philippines a lot.

Yes, they’re not the Valedictorian or the Magna and Summa Cum Laude awardees of their batches, but hey, they are simply the stewards of the country’s music. They’re simply the one who told and showed the world, “Hey, Filipinos can sing too! We can create our own music too!”

These bunch of teenagers have helped in shaping the Philippines through their music. Don’t you dare count these kids out. Don’t you dare say they’re worthless people who did not do anything significant.

For without them, you wouldn’t know OPM after all.

Class Nostalgia 101 dismissed.

“Go out and form a band!”

-Raimund Marasigan

Aiden Grimshaw tries to set his mark on the music scene with his debut single Is This Love. For avid observers of the industry, they may know Aiden as part of the 7th season of the X-Factor UK which manufactured the likes of Cher Lloyd and yes, the cause of raging teenage hormones One Direction (I kid, I kid). These same avid observers would also remember that Aiden was actually mentored by the one and only Dannii Minogue. It is a good thing that he finally has a chance to show off what he can do sonically before Wagner does (again, I kid).

By the way, Is This Love is the debut single off Aiden’s debut album Misty Eye. The album will be released on August 13 while the single will be released on June 3. The album is the result of a collaborative effort with Jarrad Rogers whose credentials include working with Lana Del Rey (yes, the one who sang Video Games) and Tinchy Stryder.

Is This Love makes its presence felt with a smooth piano sound that suddenly shifts into a cheerful vibe provided by those always-ready synthesizer beats. Actually, pulsating drums do add some flair in Aiden’s debut single. Vocally, Aiden sounds impressive (although I think I did hear some traces of the dreaded Auto-Tune but I do not mind those that much) and this adds some edge to what can be considered as a delicious debut offering. Aiden’s debut offering basically offers something new into the market. It is going to be nice for listeners to be able to take a break from hearing tracks that have been utilizing Ibiza beats too much.

There are lots of things to be loved in Aiden Grimshaw’s debut offering. Is This Love is an edgy pop offering that makes Aiden a relevant artist. Enough said.