Abakada...Ina

• Artist: Various Artists
• Release Date: 2001
• Type: Collection (various artists)
• Genre: Easy Listening

Review

In 2001, Viva Records released, Abakada...Ina (trans: ABCD...Mother), the soundtrack to the film of the same name. The album contains twelve songs performed by 11 different artists. Abakada...Ina is dominated by passionate, easy-listening love songs, a style of music quite popular in the Philippines. However, there is also an interesting ethnic-styled song, "Nanay O Nanay" (trans: Mother Oh Mother), performed by veteran ethnic-influenced group Ang Grupong Pendong. In addition, "You" is an interesting piano-based, contemporary jazz outing. However, these are the album's last two songs, and should have been presented earlier. The quality of songwriting on some of the easy-listening love songs is higher than usual. Nonetheless, without any upbeat songs, the slow love songs tend to blur into one another. As a consequence, it can be easy to overlook the better easy-listening songs. One of the nicer ballads is, "Ina" (trans: Mother), which contains a strong chorus sung with passion by Lani Misalucha, who also performs the opening, "Kasal Sa Kaluluwa" (trans: Married to the Soul), another of the better easy-listening songs. Lani Misalucha is one of the best singers in the Philippines, and is masterful on both of her performances here. The same can't be said for Ashley Imler, who sounds weak and amateurish on "Mama." Overall, the album's tone is bland, and would benefit from more variation and more tracks such as the aforementioned, Nanay O Nanay, and its penetrating, almost haunting, ethnic-tinged ambience. ~ David Gonzales, Rovi

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