Some Music News

I’m a snob when it comes to music. I grew up listening to American Top 40, so I wasn’t really into pinoy pop music. What little I know was due to the prevalence of Metropop tunes. When the Eraserheads entered the scene, I bought my first local CD.

Recently I heard a song which I never thought I’d like—it was a ballad, and it was sung by a local artist. But then I found out that it was composed by Diane Warren, the one-woman equivalent of a musical smart-bomb: you’ll surely get a hit with her songs. The singer is Nina, and the song is I Don’t Want To Be Your Friend.

“You take it casually, and that’s what’s killing me....
I’ll get by just fine,
So if you’re goin’ then darlin’ goodbye, goodbye.

Don’t call me in the middle of the night no more,
Don’t expect me to be there.
Don’t think that it will be the way it was before—
and I don’t think I care.
I’m not over you yet;
And I don’t want to be your friend.”

Apparently Cyndi Lauper recorded this song way before but never released it as a single. Although the song is very blatant and straight-forward, the truth behind the words ring oh so true and cannot be ignored. So what if there’s no subtlety? That song brings back memories of my unrequited love days. Or weeks. No, months. (And for one particular guy, years. Sigh.)

The music video is god-awful; Nina looks like a Pinay chimay version of Mariah Carey at her most maid-like incarnation. But the song is now lodged in my brain.

But that’s not the only song I’m tripping on these days. There’s Kylie Minogue’s I Believe In You, Snoop Dogg (featuring Pharrell Williams) with Drop It Like It’s Hot (the clik-cloking of the tongue is the song’s great hook), and Ciara (featuring Missy Elliot) with One, Two Step (“This beat is—automatic, supersonic, hypotic, funky fresh….” Indeed! This beat is technotronic.)

Oh, and U2’s latest album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is a solid, listenable rock album that belies the ages of these geezers. I especially like the ballad Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own, a throwback to the old U2 “slow build-up” songs of their War and The Joshua Tree days. These guys can still rock.