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| Photo courtesy of Sony Music Philippines |
The plain cover sleeves on Cesar "Buboy" Montano's latest album, his first for Sony Music, is either a boon or a bane depending on your personal take on A-list actors releasing their own music.
There's just a colorful photo of the man on the cover, beaming sideways as if merrily distracted by a happy scene to his left. At the back cover, it's the usual list of nine tracks that make up the second release of his recording career. He delivered his debut via Star Records some years back.
The simplicity of packaging of his self-titled new album speaks volumes about Montano who has more impressive credits to his name than the average movie star. He has earned acclaim as a director, producer and painter, aside from being a multi-faceted actor who can turn offbeat roles into award-winning performances.
At the album launch in his own restaurant, Belissimo, Montano arrived at the appointed hour in grey t-shirt and blue jeans. He quickly moved to the second floor of the rather cramped place, strapped on an acoustic guitar and stepped up to the mike. He briefly acknowledged the presence of the press, and jokingly introduced his first song to be a tribute to his wife, Sunshine Cruz.
Entitled "Pangako," it instantly elicited loaded howls from the movie press. Before he tied the knot with onscreen siren Sunshine, Cesar, then a much sought-after bachelor, was romantically linked with some of the prettiest faces in filmdom and had acquired the reputation of an inveterate lothario.
Those were decade-old rumors though and apparently unaffected, Buboy just smiled at the audience and proceeded to strum the long winding chords to his opening number. "Pangako" turned out to be an acoustic tune with nary an embellishment, except for occasional counterpoints from a second acoustic guitarist and the steady pulse from a session bassist. The bare instrumentation had the effect of pushing upfront the poignant plea from an erring lover for reconsideration and reconciliation.
His next offering, "Pagdating ng Araw," the first track off the new album, had a country feel in which the weep of a violin would not be out of place to punctuate its gently swaying delivery. The song could acquire a second life as a street corner serenade sung acappela by the barkada. Its seemingly innocent lyrics however hide veiled intimations of silent revenge in time over spurned love.
By those two songs along, Buboy took the crowd back to the final quarter of the '70s when Ritchie D'Horsey was a star performer at pub houses along Timog Ave., Freddie Aguilar was a rising phenomenon shuttling between the main stages of Malate and Olongapo, and Asin had just released one of the most politically aware albums of the martial law years.
The producers behind the album had other plans too. They give acoustic Buboy the chance to play footsy with alternative and pop. On record, a remake of the otherwise annoying "Oh Babe" luxuriates in skankin' rhythm, "Andres de Saya" regales in reggae tomfoolery while the samba-tinged "Para Sa 'Yo Lang" is one breezy love croon for the summer. A little dub or electronica would have given some new shakin' rush to his straightforward reading of John Lennon's "Love."
At 32 minutes, 48 seconds, the album clocks short by most standards. Still, it boasts of two other tracks crafted from a more progressive mindset. "Melvin" is a sideways tribute in memory of one of the pupils who died from unintentional cyanide poisoning in Bohol.
Before he played the first few verses of the song at the album launch, Buboy said, "I composed the lyrics remembering, in a way, the events of the morning before he died. I guess, I wanted to express how simple, very young lives can end in pointless tragedy."
Where the other songs sound fussy over details including the rhymes, Buboy approaches this last song on his new album as if stumbling or shambling in verbalizing grief over the accidental loss of a boy. One lament goes that if Melvin had taken his breakfast before coming to school, he wouldn't have met his untimely demise.
The other song, "Bago Maging Bato," sees him treading on political grounds. The second verse goes: "Gusto ng lahat ay pagbabago/Alisin muna ang mga istorbo/Mga pasaway, ganid at bolero/." He cries out for help to make sense of it all before he turns into one more indifferent fence-sitter.
There's no doubt that the album will sell well based on the star power of the performer, the continuing interest in him by fans and press alike, and the timing of release of an acoustic album at this point in time.
Cesar Montano should be applauded for making the effort to unleash acoustic music that's a cut above the usual fare. Artists of lesser stature remain stuck to their original mojo and it's heartening to hear that an artist of Buboy's status would rather try to unstuck the acoustic from its age-old mold.
Never mind the pretenders, here's Cesar Montano baring his creative core.
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