Lance Raymundo releases first album

This is a difficult period for new male singers. Come to think of it, even the older, better established ones are not having a great time too, except perhaps for Martin Nievera who has retained his hold to the top largely thanks to his able mining of old love songs. All the others seem to be lost inside the diva fever. Doesn't this tell you what the females are capable of if they band together? And the only chance there is of getting some recognition is to be part of a group.

Given this, we now know that Lance Raymundo is making a very big gamble launching his singing career at a time like this. But it cannot be denied that with more than 200 songs already filling up his baul and youth's go-go energy fuelling his every move, there also seems to be no reason for him to delay making the plunge. And so he did and the result is the self-titled Lance Raymundo album for Viva Records.

Lance is the younger brother of former singing star Rannie Raymundo. They, in turn, are the two sons of former starlet Nina Zaldua and businessman Nilo Raymundo. Lance is almost ten years younger than Rannie and he considers him his "brother-idol-teacher." Since he looks up to big brother, I hope Lance has also learned from Rannie's mistakes. Whatever these were, these sure did an excellent hatchet job in turning Rannie from the most promising newcomer in the music business a few years ago to just another one-hit-wonder.

Lance showcases ten new songs in his debut album and save for a few collaborations, he is the composer behind all of them. These are Panaginip, Di Mo Ba Alam, with the bouncy music co-written with brother Rannie, You are the One, Doin It Right, You'll Never Know, Kung Wala Na with lyrics by Judith Ramos, Pangarap with lyrics by Eric Arboleda and the music again a joint effort with Rannie, Sana with lyrics by Arboleda and Christine Ang, She's So Good and Hope for the Lonely Nights.

Lance's kind of music is light pop stuff boy bands would certainly want to get their hands on but sorry for the moment, he is doing everything solo. Later perhaps, he might be cajoled into providing other performers with his compositions. Females would also be glad to know Lance has the right sort of looks for this singing-idol type of tunes. What they hear is also what they'll see. He started out in the business as a model and is best known for his Levis ads.

It is also interesting to note that a line-up of big name musicians, who do not ordinarily work together, gladly contributed their talents to make this first album a truly memorable event. Just take a look at the list and you too will agree how lucky Lance is:

Playing the drums in You'll Never Know is Ernie Severino of Side A, while Rommel de la Cruz of Barbie's Cradle strums the bass guitar. Rommel also appears with the fretless electric bass in the lovely ballad You are the One, which is Lance's first single release. She's So Good has two from Rizal Underground. Angelo Villegas as arranger and bassist and his brother Mike on electric guitar while Rannie did the drums.

There is also Ding Faustino of Fastbreak playing the keyboards and programming Pangarap, Sana and Doin' It Right. Labuyo's Koko Marbella joined in the back up vocals in Sana, Panaginip and Pangarap. This is aside from playing the guitar in Doin' It Right. And there is of course Mon Espia, also of the band Labuyo, who produced the whole package and also arranged, played guitars and sang back-up in some of the cuts.

Here's news for all of you who will be watching the East Meets Westlife Asian Tour, Manila 2000 concert starring the Irish group Westlife of Seasons in the Sun, fame at the Folk Arts theater on May 9. Mero, the duo, originally scheduled to perform with Westlife in the show, has been replaced by trademark, a boy band from Germany. I have listened to these guys' first album, also titled Trademark and they are OK. Truth to tell, it looks like the audience on Tuesday will be getting a bonus instead of a replacement.