Yeng Constantino's Metamorphosis Bloggers' Conference

Yeng Constantino

When Yeng Constantino announced that her new album under Star Records would be titled Metamorphosis, my thoughts automatically went to the bright red hair that she started sporting recently. I also wondered if this change would also mean that she would ditch her pop/rock roots and go outrageous with her music, wardrobe and lifestyle like the other female vocalists with colored hair namely Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj

Fortunately, the music featured in Metamorphosis, her fifth release from Star Records, wasn’t really that much of a drastic departure that could alienate her long time listeners. Yeng’s music did branch out to areas she has not dabbled with before like the electronic music heard in some of the tracks. Yeng also showed more artistry and maturity as her music is tighter and her lyrics more poetic.

Yeng openly admitted that she suffered from writer’s block for a while before she came out with her album Lapit back in 2009. And she needed the guidance of Sandwich frontman Raimund Marasigan to get her out of that rut. Teaming up again with Raimund for Metamorphosis, Yeng now seemed very inspired, proudly saying that she had a more hands on approach with the album starting from the title, song selection and down to the album packaging as well. It felt that her red hair is telling that she is indeed on fire.

During a bloggers’ conference in support of Metamorphosis, Yeng looked radiant and bursted with enthusiasm whenever she talked about the album. When she was asked if she has plans to record more English songs in order to make it easier to break into the international market, she said that while she remains open to recording more English tracks, she still prefers to sing and write songs in Filipino. She reasoned out that not only is she more comfortable with the native language; she also thinks that Filipino is such a cool language. She jokingly said that if Filipinos learned to like Korean songs despite knowing the Korean language, then it’s time for Koreans to like Filipino songs even if they don’t understand a thing.

Yeng's inspiring message that she wrote in my notebook

Now, let me write about what I think about the album that has 10 original tracks written by Yeng herself except for one. The lead single B.A.B.A.Y. is a song that makes light of the sudden disappearance of someone special in her life. The tone of the song, as well as its colorful music video, exudes cuteness and cheer that would definitely appeal to Yeng’s younger listeners. For me, the shining moments in the album is when Yeng gets introspective and shows vulnerability like in the songs Messiah, Josephine, Pasensya Na, and Sandata. Other standout tracks in the album are Teleserye and Chinito (written by Jed Dumawal) seamlessly combining old school rhythms with the electric orchestration. But the studio version of Pag-Ibig, included in the album that features a full arrangement, made me miss the more stripped down, acoustic version that came out last year. Thankfully, this earlier version is found at the bonus DVD included in the package.

The DVD includes six music videos with four of the videos coming from the tracks taken from the Lapit album. The music videos is where one can truly see the changes that Yeng has gone through not just with her looks but also with her sound as well. But like what she said during the conference, despite these changes one could still hear Yeng and her stamp in the songs.

Before this bloggers' conference, I last saw Yeng during Radio Republic's opening week a year ago. She rocked the studio when she and her band performed during the station's Live at 2299 program that had Raimund Marasigan who just dropped by doing an impromptu jam session with her. And right after the show, she continued to electrify the crowd outside as she went on to perform at the outdoor stage. Here are a few photos from that time that I was able to dig out from my files.

Yeng Constantino before the red hair

Yeng with her band

Raimund Marasigan and Yeng Constantino

Metamorphosis, released by Star Records is already available in record stores nationwide. B.A.B.A.Y. and the rest of the tracks are available in digital format over at MyMusicStore Philippines and at iTunes.

Metamorphosis

CD Tracks:

1. B.A.B.A.Y.

2. Hahanapin Ka

3. Messiah

4. Chinito

5. Josephine

6. Teleserye

7. Pasensya Na

8. Pag-Ibig

9. Sandata

10. Di Pa Huli

DVD Videos:

1. B.A.B.A.Y.

2. Wag Na

3. Jeepney Love Story

4. Pag-Ibig

5. Wag Kang Magtanong

6. Lapit