Jackie Dosmanos

<figure class="op-social"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="287" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zke4mJDCnFk" width="510"></iframe></figure><div><strong>Reese Lansangan<br/>&quot;Arigato, Internet!&quot;</strong></div><div style="padding:3px 3px 2px 3px;margin:1px 10px 20px 0px;width:250px;float:left;background-color:#cccccc;border:solid 1px #ddd;line-height:13px"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2016/world/03/07/030716_reese.jpg" width="100%"/></div><p>Fresh-faced and with no personal baggage except being a 23-year old visual artist/graphic designer/fashion designer/musician/songwriter, Reese Lansangan was commissioned to do the theme song of Vic Sotto’s recent wedding.</p><p>It’s a compliment, to be sure, for a budding artist but the talented Ms. Reese is so much more than a &quot;wedding singer.&quot; Her debut album released last December 2015 is one of those records that says music in the right hands is a thing of endless possibilities.</p><p>Damn the feeling “there’s nothing new under the sun” then. Wielding an acoustic guitar, Reese does folk, pop and rock with a vitality that’s seldom heard this side of the indie divide.</p><p>Ms. Lansangan sets her lyrical sights on the value of long conversations, the importance of good grammar, a trip across the solar system and a survival primer for stalkers. Her music can be pegged as acoustic in tone but Reese and company has the creative knack of taking it anywhere they please.</p><p>Rap breaks the “We Will Rock You” ambience of “Grammar Nazi.” Girl group harmonies figure in “Bleed”, a song about the first day alone. “Creeper” moves to the slight swing of old-time jazz as “Code of Kin” stands firmly on Simon and Garfunkel’s folk-pop.</p><p>&quot;Arigato, Internet!&quot; is pretty and funny at the same time. It’s also an unabashed lesson in classic songwriting.</p><hr/><div> </div><div><strong>5 Seconds of Summer<br/>&quot;Sounds Good Feels Good&quot;</strong></div><div style="padding:3px 3px 2px 3px;margin:1px 10px 20px 0px;width:250px;float:left;background-color:#cccccc;border:solid 1px #ddd;line-height:13px"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2016/world/03/07/030716_summer.jpg" width="100%"/></div><p>It starts with guys bantering that bleeds to the pop-punk noise of “Money” and ends in the electronic pop of “Vapor.” In between, nary a dull minute transpires as the band behind “Perfect” trawls through some musically interesting pop moments.</p><p>5 Seconds of Summer retracts its punk edge in favor of a more pop predilection. It’s a risk that hangs on most of the tracks on &quot;Sounds Good Feels Good,&quot; the band’s latest release. But then again, it’s something that these pop-punkers are willing to take, given that every song on the album sports hooks that send chills at the back of the neck.</p><p>In “Hey Everybody,” they nick a stanza’s worth of notes from Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like A Wolf” to set up a chorus that One Direction fans would love. “Permanent Vacation” ticks a page off Bruno Mars’ eclectic imagination. “Airplanes” evokes the bold spirit of Big Country while “Castaway” could be “Perfect” five years hence.</p><p>&quot;Sounds Good Feels Good&quot; is satisfying new album for a band that’s staking it’s punk cred for a new lease of life in boy band heaven.</p><p>5 Seconds of Summer are likely to unveil their pop side when they go live at the Mall of Asia Arena on March 12.</p><hr/><div> </div><div><strong>Richard Marx<br/>&quot;Beautiful Goodbye&quot;</strong></div><div style="padding:3px 3px 2px 3px;margin:1px 10px 20px 0px;width:250px;float:left;background-color:#cccccc;border:solid 1px #ddd;line-height:13px"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2016/world/03/07/030716_marx.jpg" width="100%"/></div><p>The name Richard Marx will always be synonymous with his biggest hit, the classic soft-rocker “Right Here Waiting.” It’s the kind of tear-jerker that creates its own mood after the first few bars and sustains it to the end to the delight of wronged lovers everywhere.</p><p>Marx continues to record new songs and by the sound of his latest release, “Beautiful, Goodbye,” he’s not exactly sitting content living off past glories. He’s still in ballad mode and he chooses to accommodate some fresh sounds to his patented mellow persona.</p><p>Hints of reggae lift up the spirit of “Inside,” which concludes in a cascading orchestral sweep. “Forgot To Remember” opens in trip-hop frenzy before Richard steps up to rock the song and throw in patches of vocodered vocals. Wobbly synths and blurts give “Like The World Is Ending” a weird vibe after which a posse of three cool ballads concludes the album.</p><p>Marx isn’t tearing down walls with his attempts to give ballads a refreshing make-over in this day and age. At the very least, he’s merely repainting the interior decoration with style.</p><p>Richard Marx rummages through his sizable back catalog in a one-night show at the Kia Theatre at the Araneta Center on March 12.</p><hr/><div> </div><div><strong>Sia<br/>&quot;This Is Acting&quot;</strong></div><div style="padding:3px 3px 2px 3px;margin:1px 10px 20px 0px;width:250px;float:left;background-color:#cccccc;border:solid 1px #ddd;line-height:13px"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2016/world/03/07/030716_sia.jpg" width="100%"/></div><p>Aussie Sia Furler started her career writing songs that other artists took to the upper reaches of the pop charts. She eventually released her debut album, &quot;1000 Forms of Fear,&quot; that topped the hits parade.</p><p>Having found the confidence to stake out on her own, Sia releases a new batch of songs she penned for others, now rendered in her own quirky voice. The 12 tracks scale the heights of diva tendencies.</p><p>Opening song “Bird Set Free” operates in grand “Rolling in the Deep” mood. “Alive,&quot; which was co-written with Adele, is “I Will Survive” oscillating between the peaks and valleys of an emotional roller coaster. “Cheap Trills” reputedly rejected from Rihanna’s &quot;Anti&quot; recording session, and “Move Your Dance” apply a dance pop gloss to Sia’s alone-in-a-crowd mentality. In both tracks, the influence of Rihanna is all over Sia’s diction and intonation.</p><p>&quot;This Is Acting&quot; seldom builds to any momentum. File it along with the rest of your collection of modern easy listening pleasures.</p>

Fresh-faced musician Reese Lansangan was commissioned to do the theme song of Vic Sotto's recent wedding.

Music reviews: Reese Lansangan, Richard Marx, 5 Seconds of Summer

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Music reviews: Reese Lansangan, Richard Marx, 5 Seconds of Summer

Jackie Dosmanos

Published Mar 07, 2016 07:59 AM PHT

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album review

Reese Lansangan

Richard Marx

5 Seconds of Summer

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