A Better Man: A joy to hear, easy to listen to

I always hesitate to pick up an album of local ballads. I feel shortchanged by most albums I buy. Only the released singles turn out well, and the remainder of the album’s filled with trash: theatrics aimed at exposing the balladeer’s vocal ability and orchestrations that emphasize emotionally irrational lyrics. Local "artists" seem to forget that the business of making music is not just about wanting to sing this song or about performing. Music is about making songs. Performances, no matter how great, work with the moment. They are replaceable. Most "artists" end up focusing on their performance. They out-diva and out-croon each other and give themselves stupid self-indulgent titles. Songs, on the other hand, work on the memory. Take away the performer, and what is left is a catchy tune that ordinary non-divas among us can sing or hum. We sing in the shower, and we can’t do anything but hum a tune in those nerve-wracking five minutes before something important like a job interview or a presentation. Good songs make us remember them because they evoke feelings that comfort us as we deal with everyday routine.

Imagine my surprise after listening to Ogie Alcasid’s album A Better Man. The album is such a joy to hear, since Ogie knows what a song is all about, and it shows. The whole album creates a tapestry of emotions that look into unrequited forms of love. By using the conventions of the pop ballad well, A Better Man is able to create hymns that echo the anguish of a broken heart waiting for the other to acknowledge and reciprocate what he has so unselfishly given.

Of course, it reeks of melodrama, but these are ballads and that is a requirement. Those of us who hate ballads, however, will be surprised to find out that the album is easy to listen to because the dramatic flare that accompany songs of this lot have been toned down. The album is soft throughout and ears that have developed an aversion toward the ballad will find this compilation tolerable. A Better Man shows that one need not create too much embellishment to make songs work. Having a greater number of well-tailored tracks, it proves the opposite true. Those annoying instrumentations that announce the entry of refrains and quotable quotes in a song have been kept to a minimum, making it a bit more sophisticated than the tacky songs of late. It also helps that Ogie knows his limitations as a singer and doesn’t try hard to scream the high notes the way most balladeers do these days. The emotions, though exhausting at times, come across as earnest and sincere because restraint is practised.

Despite its very clean tracks, A Better Man can still be improved a great deal in terms of lyrical composition and quality. Much of the lyrics mimic the general descriptions we have heard before in other songs. The well-constructed tunes are dampened by words that don’t reveal much. Worse, some lyrics cause confusion. One can argue that the accuracy of rendering lyrics is a necessary sacrifice to maintain the clean and well-crafted melodies of the songs. In Ikaw Lamang, ay appears twice in one simple sentence: Sana ay malamang ikaw ay mahal ko. The insertion of the word malamang is also unnecessary. A closer inspection of the album’s lyric sheet reveals very basic grammatical mistakes. Sa Puso Ko and Hanggang Ngayon display the apparent confusion between ng and nang. Wala ng iba is written instead of the correct wala nang iba. Of course, when spoken or sung it doesn’t make much of a difference. However, this careless attention to langauge will take its toll on the crucial points of other songs. In Sana, the verb patungo is used awkwardly as a noun: Nakatungtong sa bus patungo ay di alam. Instead of finding yourself carried away by the song, you could find yourself pausing to wrestle with what really is a simple idea.

Though some lapses exist, the biggest problem in A Better Man is the song One, the last song that features Ogie singing with Jaya, Lani Misalucha and Regine Velasquez. The song is good and is even made better by the harmonious collaboration, but it is out of place. Moralists will like this song since the message about making the world a better place is good and sincere, but it sticks out. The rest of A Better Man, as the title suggests, explores issues about love, faith and intimacy between couples and couples-to-be. The encore ruins what could have been a thematically tight and focused album. Perhaps the song would work if the other songs explored themes that are more varied. Eleven of the 12 songs talk of love. Instead of leaving me inspired about love, the 12 songs leave me perplexed.

Overall, the album works. The songs found here are accessible and memorable. It is such a shame for someone to create wonderful tunes and show a lot of skill in creating clean and simple music only to be stained by problems with language and song selection. Ironically, Ogie’s songwriting has been cited by the Komisyon ng Wikang Pilipino. But cleaning out the minute details in lyrics is not only Ogie’s problem, it seems institutionalized in the music industry. Ogie’s musical compositions prove that he knows what he’s doing and that he’s bent on making songs well. Hopefully, by engaging in the minute details that most musicians take for granted, he will effect change not only in his career but, more importantly, in the music business which he dominates.