Plaka Notes #4: Lola Amour by Lola Amour
The soul-pop band's first full-length record—released seven years after their first splash—somewhat captures what makes the band an exciting part of Filipino alternative today.
I think I have become incredibly forgetful in the past few years. Either that, or I have written so many things I understandably won’t remember everything.
I was thinking about how I would introduce this month’s Plaka Note, on the debut full-length from Lola Amour. I was going to talk about how I first came across them when they won the first ever Wanderbattle—a local band competition organized by the folks behind the long-running indie-adjacent Wanderland music festival. I somehow decided I’d talk about how, while I remembered the name ever since, I hadn’t really gotten around to listening to any of their stuff.
Wrong. I actually reviewed their first ever EP, Don’t Look Back, for the old music blog.
“It’s nice that we have kids who aren’t going for your typical indie-pop sound; that alone is inspiring,” I wrote almost seven years ago. “The songs are tight and there are some good little surprises sprinkled throughout. And I am a sucker for horns; you all know that.”
Two years later I would close that blog and would unplug from local music altogether. Not that I disliked it. Far from it. It was just becoming a chore to follow it, almost all of it. That’s not an indictment on what local musicians were putting out as it is an indictment of my energy, and my enthusiasm, and my tendency to think of that old music blog as a journalistic exercise. I can’t do everything. So imagine my surprise when, fast forward five years or so, they scored a huge hit with “Raining in Manila”.
“I didn’t realize they’ve gone viral!” I told a friend.
“This song gets played in malls!” they answered.
I felt slightly embarrassed, because this was around the time Fifty Fifty’s “Cupid” was becoming popular, and I made a slightly big deal out of hearing that song play in the mall. Obviously I was so out of the loop. Why did I return to do the Once Monthly again? Ah, right, a distraction.
It made sense, though. “Raining in Manila” is a good song. Like what I wrote in that first album review from way back, it’s got those little surprises sprinkled throughout. That captured the sound of a band that’s more confident, that does not have the urge to deploy all its tricks in one go. It clocks at under five minutes: in this era of TikTok and our supposedly shorter attention spans forcing pop songs into a neat two-minute-fifty package, this shouldn’t work. But it does. It builds momentum steadily and rouses you eventually, never mind that the lyrics do bring you in circles somewhat. And sometimes that’s enough to make you feel good.
When I finally listened to their debut self-titled album, though, I felt a little wary. Are they going to rely on that rousing property throughout the record? It’s not a bad way to start—”Umiinit”, unintentionally the soundtrack to this heat wave Southeast Asia is going through, kicks the doors down. And as I mentioned, I have a thing for horns, and really good jazzy arrangements, and if you’re a newcomer to the band, they make a good first impression in the first half of the record. (“Namimiss Ko Na”, the new single, is a particular crowd-pleaser.) But then, after all that, I felt exhausted, and I wanted some texture. I wanted some shade with the light.
“This Ain’t Love” then came on to remind me that Lola Amour is also good with the quiet stuff. I remember their collaboration with Clara Benin, “Closer Than Before”, which starts tenderly and before taking on a more celebratory tone—as you’d expect from a song about a relationship that was begging to take the next step. Anyway, I digress. I surprisingly found myself enjoying the album’s second half more. I’m particularly keen on “Lost For Words”, which starts with a mournful trumpet reminiscent of 60s country pop (or in my case, Camera Obscura’s riff on it, “Tears for Affairs”). Maybe it’s my state of mind when I was listening to the album: I was on a ship that was approaching Puerto Princesa, doing something for the day job, and I was feeling particularly tired, and I unknowingly preferred something that jived with where I was at.
But then, Lola Amour’s magic isn’t best expressed in recorded form. I enjoyed the album, but I couldn’t help but think back to when I watched them live a couple of months ago, when they supported Clara at one stop of her tour for her Befriending My Tears record. (I was going to include “Fallen” on Playlist #15, but I knew this record was coming.) It was in a small venue, so perhaps the effects were amplified, but it was in a live setting where you really understand Lola Amour: their boisterous behavior, their infectious energy, not of the stereotypical sex-and-drugs-and-rock-and-roll but of something more akin to friends drinking together on a Friday night. Here, the sentiment of their songs gain more weight, the storytelling grows more potent—and the tighter musicality of the group accentuates it further.
“The sweaty, rowdy boys of Gen-Z sophistipop,” I wrote on my phone in the middle of the gig, fearing I’d forget it. I mean, I am getting forgetful, after all.
It’s easy to forget that Lola Amour has been around for longer than we give them credit for: a lot of things happened before “Raining in Manila”, after all. While it’s not perfect, Lola Amour the album is an apt culmination in what must have been a pretty rapturous past few years for the group and their fans. I certainly didn’t expect them to become flag-wavers for this resurgence of Filipino alternative that we’re seeing in recent years—but then it’s probably me thinking soul-jazz arrangements of the Daptones kind isn’t something kids these days would latch on to. Goes to show a lot more goes into it.
The album also marks a moment of transition for the band. It was bittersweet to hear that bassist Raymond King was leaving Lola Amour, talking about how the group started out as a hobby and they always had other long-term plans that doesn’t necessarily involve the band. With him exiting during the album launch a few weeks back—and the Cebu leg for this Saturday featuring Manu Dumayas as the band’s new bassist—it goes to show that there’s a lot more stories to tell for this group. I wonder where they’re heading next? I’d love to see it.