It's been a couple of weeks since the release of "Soul Adventurer", and it still hasn't loosened its grip on a lot of people's ears (I know mine are still hooked). Yes, it's that awesome of an album it deserves another post in this blog. There are certainly a lot of areas the review failed to cover, something that has become apparent after numerous "tweaks" since it was published. This post aims to address all the pent-up compulsions once and for all.
As already stated, it's been several weeks, and any person who has consistently listened to the same album over and over will surely notice the bells and whistles, quirks, and the occasional dud. Speaking of duds, I have the same opinion of Razor since day one, that is - it's quite underwhelming considering it's surrounded by tracks that are above-average at the very least. This one is just plain average, reminiscent of the craft work of one Dave Grohl and company in the Foo Fighters' "One By One" album where most songs seem bored with themselves. It's a one off.
Then there's the overuse of "jah" in lieu of the more conventional "the" in the chorus of Uprising. One or two strategically placed jahs would have sufficed, any more seems like taking the rasta vibe a bit too seriously. Well, the song actually goes all-out rasta by the end so I guess all the left-handed passing of the doobie (or dutchie, or kouchie) was warranted.
Also, what's up with A Prayer? Was the line "then it just hit me" a conscious stylistic decision or a gaping deficiency in subject-verb agreement?
Nitpicking aside, yes, this is still quite the amazing album. Songs like Renewal have slowly risen from the rubble to become one of the top tracks, at first disguising itself as a mellow track with the signature reggae up-stroke over a rare Franco falsetto (a first), but halfway through, listeners are shown subtle signs of riffage that eventually explode into one of the heaviest, swirling riffs this album has to offer - all over the squeals of the lead guitar on wah. This particular section of the album is just pure zoned-out unadulterated rock paradise - something I always knew someone like Reyes is capable of with eyes closed. It's pretty hard to put on paper, but you can definitely feel it while listening to the song (go do it now if you haven't).
Blame is practically the musical representation of red wine, vastly improved after more than ten years since it first debuted as a "Frank!" song. Since its inception, the verses have been reprogrammed to sound starker than the original, giving off a sense of urgency over the original's slightly whiny grunge melancholy. Despite the changes, the chorus is fine untouched. It's as effective and catchy as it was, and could go down as one of the best choruses in the album, if not in Reyes' entire catalog. Hefty claims, yes. And it certainly gives Across The Milky Way a run for its money.
It's astonishing that no other Filipino rock musician could step up to the musical plate the way Reyes does, and it's been a long wait before he showed up. Sure, there are the greats and some others who have the potential, but they are nowhere near the same level of polish and sophistication as Reyes musically. He may not be a chart-topper like the Eraserheads once were, but he has already achieved what most musicians, including the Eraserheads, could only dream of.
Do you know of any Filipino musicians that could give Franco a run for his money? Post them in the comments.
Soul Adventurer is Franco Reyes' second major label release, unfortunately without most of the original Franco line-up that made the eponymous album in 2010 (I honestly don't care really). When the isolated corners of the internet were abuzz that production for Soul Adventurer was underway, I would hear Reyes played all the instruments in the record himself, with the exception of drums - which was done by Janjan Mendoza (ex-Franco / Urbandub drummer).
As production continued, he eventually recruited his long-time bandmate from Cebu, Paul Cañada (The Frank), to fill in the vacant ranks and to play guitar on some tracks. What tracks, I've no clue. This video suggests Cañada's guitar is present in "Renewal", but we won't know for sure until we see the liner notes of the album (still to be released on February 25, 2013 at the time of this writing).
This album contains 12 tracks - well, there are exactly 17 tracks, but 5 of which are outros and little snippets. Right off the bat, the first track "To Survive" has "Janjan Mendoza" written all over it. If any of you have heard any recent Urbandub album, you'll learn Mendoza is quite the drum&bass connoisseur. Unfortunately, while he's one of the better hard-hitting Pinoy rock drummers today, his love for drum&bass is mostly at the expense of his strengths. Which leads us to the lowest point of this song (and this album, in fact) - the first stanza. Subpar, almost sloppy, drum&bass drumming strewn across 16 bars is a shame. Luckily this will be the first and last time anyone's going to hear this kind of drumming in this album. It almost ruined an otherwise really good album opener, to be honest, but the rest of the track more than makes up for it. Overall, the song is straightforward "Franco Rock", as most of you have come to know, with a crunchy and blazing middle eight. Reyes laments in the chorus, "We'll pick up all the pieces to survive; We'll learn from our mistakes to make it magical", as if to acknowledge the falling out of the original Franco line-up.
The early part of "Moonset" has a very strong Queens of the Stone Age vibe to it, but eventually settles into familiar Franco territory. The most notable part being when Reyes sings "I'll be fine... alone(?)" over an almost dream-like rhythm section. It drives me nuts when he sings the last word of that line down to F#3 but never goes further down to F3 - which is probably how most singers would bookend that section of the song. Reyes is different. He just lets F#3 ring out and I was half expecting him to go down to F3 the entire time. The first time I heard it, I was floored and thought it was genius.
"Better Days" is one of the first tracks I've heard from the album (thanks to some Youtube videos). It makes no reservations and jumps into a reggae beat right after a hard intro, proclaiming "Come hear jah sound; Spreading good vibrations all over this town". Positivity abound. It's Herbal Midikishan - as Reyes would put it. He is no stranger to reggae and his love for the genre oozes in this song. The transitions between the reggae beat to hard rock is slightly off-putting at first, but I got used to it. This song also has one of the coolest outros you'll ever hear.
One of the stand-out tracks for me is "Across The Milky Way", a slow-paced hard rock number reminscent of 90's grunge. It's a bit faster than Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun", but it delivers more or less the same punch. It's gritty, introspective, and quite high as a kite. I would not be surprised if this track became an anthem for future drinking (and other similar) sessions. There's nothing like being in the mountains with friends, beer in hand, with this track blaring on the stereo. Ahhh..... For all you corporate zombies out there, this track is a good reminder to take a break every now and then.
This guy.
Rock aside, Reyes dabbles with electronica in "Lover's Fire", a delectable amalgamation of soul and trip-hop music layered with hushed vocals. I welcomed the departure from rock with open arms. This guy. What can't he do? Unfortunately, this track highlights the production woes of this album, particularly how muffled and poor-sounding the drums are in the other tracks - particularly the snare drum. It's such a shame the digitally programmed drum track in this song sounds more organic than the actual drums used by Mendoza on this album.
"Blame" is apparently one of Reyes' older songs with his then-band The Frank in their Drink, Drama, Dream LP. Likewise, "Muse" is a re-hash of an old song by a now-defunct Cebuano band called Capsule. I'm not really sure how Reyes fits into the picture - maybe he helped write this song, or maybe he loved this song so much he had to cover it. Which brings me to a realization - some tracks on this album were probably written way before production began. And it's probably not just those two. Who knows? I'm not complaining by the way. If I had a huge back catalog before I hit it big, I'd slowly release it one song after another. That will keep the record label busy and leave me free to write new songs without ever being pressured by deadlines. That's the way to go.
Anyway, getting into the technical side of things for a bit, what this album clearly does better than the debut is the guitar
sound. The latter had one of the most constipated-sounding, beefy, stacked-pork-chops-meaty guitar
mixes I've heard from any band in recent memory, and thankfully it's
gone in Soul Adventurer, replaced by a much leaner and cleaner sound.
With the kind of material Reyes is writing, I've always thought three
guitarists was redundant, and pretty much overkill, in my opinion. So I'm really glad it's back down to two.
Verdict
Overall a bit more down-tempo and cleaner than the debut album, and apart from the somewhat muffled sound of the snare drum and that little DnB annoyance in "To Survive", this album is quite easily another solid outing by Franco Reyes. If any of you people are looking to hear some solid rock tunes, and I mean rock songs that actually rock, then it's impossible to go wrong with this guy. Go grab this album. Now.
9 out of 10
It's hard to believe Franco Reyes' existence in Cebu's music scene goes a long way back, but I was never really that fond of his early releases with his then-band Frank!. I do remember first seeing them performing covers- that day me and my brother decided to see a random concert, and with luck, caught one headlined by Frank. They performed a complete set, what songs- I'm not sure, but if my memory serves me right, I think they played STP's Piece of Pie and a solo acoustic version of Plush. I remember turning to my brother and saying, "this guy's got a really good voice". Frankbecame permanently etched on my 'good band' radar after that gig, and they were just that- nothing to get excited over, really.
Within a span of several years, theyhad apparently released an album with little fanfare from me--- well, my feelings were the same for most (if not all) local musicians. I never really 'drooled' over local music so to speak, not believing local acts would ever create any 'noteworthy' original tunes. My expectations were low, and always only limited to good cover songs of the music that I do love, if I'm lucky. Nothing more nothing less
Frank with Janjan Mendoza drumming for Czar Delos Santos.
(L-R): Ritze Arriba, Janjan Mendoza, Paul Cañada, Franco Reyes
That mindset would change after the release of Urbandub's Influence (also reviewed by this site). By that time, Frankhave since disbanded, only reuniting every once in awhile if Mr. Franco was in the country and available. I would later hear that he moved to St. Petersburg (USA) around the mid 00's, continuing to write music and forming a new band in InYo- with Mike Sylvia (drums), Tommy Jamin (bass),and Anton Cortes (guitars). In 2007 or 2008, I would hear these new songs, which Franco called 'demos', on his Myspace and Imeem page. With the help of some nifty audio-ripping software, I was able to further drool over the tracks without having to be in front of a computer.
InYo (L-R): Anton Cortes, Franco Reyes, Tommy Jamin, Mike Sylvia
I believe it was in 2009 that Franco came home and startedjamming with Gabby and Janjan of Urbandub, Buwi of Parokya ni Edgar,and 8 of Queso- and so started Franco. They would ultimately re-record most of the'Inyo tracks' with 3 new additions:
Seasons, arguably one of the faster tracks on the record with obvious influences from 311 during the breaks, is a great opener. It's convenient to consider it a love song- especially when taken out of context, but given its position in the album, it's an obvious invitation to the listener (...I'll wait for you to be a part of me and I of you...), and together "forever spin in love".
Last Waltz seems to suggest the momentary longing of good memories that lasted, a lost love perhaps, in a stupor (...will you hear my ailing words, will you be my everything?...) and the subsequent battle of the mind to quash the daydreams (...it's clear as sober- to me you're just a fairytale...), only to long for it again (...count to three, you're stuck with me forever...). The irony (and brilliance) of this song is that the 'waltz' never 'lasts'.
For My Dearly Departed is a solo acoustic track played over the sound of the gentle surf, left as they were from the last chants of "We Are" in This Gathering, closing the album with a hush, and singing the listener to sleep.
The album cover.
Despite the quality of the songs, there are a few things that need to be addressed. The biggest problem in particular is the songs themselves which are basically just carbon copies of their original InYo versions (with the exception of the 3 songs mentioned above). With the prior knowledge of InYo, it's almost impossible not to pit both releases against each other. Both concerned parties may be in agreement with the recording of this album- but credit has to be given, and through the eyes of the listeners- through my eyes, it should be given to Franco Reyes and the rest of the members of InYo, not the members of Franco. Seems they're conscious about their decisions seeing they named their band "Franco" in the first place.
But really, the whole picture takes on a new shape considering the 3 new songs. They're just so good that they are somehow enough to give this album its own identity, not just some downgraded version of the original.
I would also have to say that the production values that went into the recording of InYo (US production) and Franco (PHILS production) vary greatly. Though the tracks in the latter are more fleshed out and revitalized (since the band had ample time to further improve and tweak them), the audio quality still can't compare to the excellent production the InYo tracks got. Of course that would be the case. Recording studios in the Philippines have always had that major quality hiccup.
There's also the case of overdoing digital editing in some songs- most noticable in ones with quick "silent pauses" (Seasons- 1:04 to 1:16, A Mass...- 2:12 onwards). Why bands opt to digitally clip these "silent pauses" instead of just doing it live/manually? I don't know. It only gives an awkward synthetic feel to a song, and damn them if they think they're fooling anybody into thinking it was all done "live". Nevertheless, if they insisted on doing it, they should've made it so that it wasn't too obvious.
Lastly, one can also notice that the drumming is down a notch. Maybe it's directly related to the production woes or the fact that Janjan had to keep up with "already written" material, and it doesn't help he had to emulate someone who went to Berklee to learn his chops.
Despite these complaints, this album remains strong. At its core is great songwriting, and I'd go as far as recommending its quality from start to finish. It's about time the masses finally get a chance to hear one of the best Filipino rock singers to ever come out of the woodwork- who, by the way, not only sings with a convincing American tongue, but also sounds really good. It's safe to say Franco Reyes is definitely on a league of his own. You do not want to miss this album.
