Review: Paramita - PARAMITA

GENRE: Alternative rock
RATING: 5.9

The very idea of Paramita’s eponymous sophomore album is to create a follow up that’s slightly different from the first one. Their debut Tala nurtured a dreamy, folk-alt rock with bittersweet melodies served as the main course - earning vehement comparisons to Imago’s Probably not but most definitely (only that it feels like PNBMD’s less talented and much ignored sister). Three years later, Paramita released their sophomore make-or-break record under Terno Recordings - home to the likes of Up Dharma Down, Radioactive Sago Project and Drip. And what a makeover it has become: an aggressive, more technically-driven Tala.

Despite fetching into prog tendencies and a heavier sound, Paramita still fashions its trademark of love and heartbreak epics into accessible pop-rock anthems like a storyteller who knew better than anyone else. The lyrics feels like introspective accounts of someone who has been romantically wounded several times, and oddly it appears like the extension that was on its debut record Tala - the hurting chronicles in “Hiling,” “Panaginip lang” and “Tala” reciprocating on tracks like “Lisan,” “Sa Piling Niya” and “Goodbye Goodnight.” Not bad, given that it’s what we fell for Paramita in the first place: their extremely emotional side, the ability to make us sob. And Ria’s a wordsmith when it comes to such challenge.

There are also times that the cuts on sophomore album resemble some of the songs on its debut. “Lisan,” unarguably one of the best tracks on the follow up catalogue, has the emotional hooks of “Hiling” embedded all over. “As She Sleeps” is as dreamy and slowburn as its cousin, “A Dreamer’s Lullaby.” Again, it doesn’t suffer any kind of drawback, that way. In fact, it has its own merits that set it apart from the vulnerable comparisons. “Lisan” for one, turns out to be more of a technical vanity than “Hiling,” yet both exude the same kind of poignancy.

Well, everything in this record has upped its ante for technique: time signature shifts and prog guitars here and there, more dynamic guitar-bass solos, basslines edging into funky showbandiness, feedback galore and the over-all mixing – prim and proper, not loud and too compressed. Even Ria’s drumming is also as tight as ever, making a roomful of improvement for the pop-rock threesome, technical-wise.However, what the sophomore album lacks is the predecessor album’s gain. Tala is an exercise on subtlety and affecting interpretation. Sure it has simpler arrangements and more stripped to basics kind of approach, but it has created some of the best single-worthy OPM songs to date – something that is deficient in Paramita’s sophomore album.

Although there are few gems like “Lisan,” “Sa Piling Nya” “Goodbye Goodnight” and “Tadhana” – still, it doesn’t hit the mark set by its debut. More often, the so-called ‘technical vanities’ in the record end up as too indulgent and worst, forgettable. The Sampaguita cover “Panganib” feels like a steal of a DRT interpretation (the band recently did a cover of Sampaguita’s Tao), having the same hard-rock ferocity and Led Zeppelin-isms. Paramita’s ska-punk attempt is a bit fun and refreshing, but it’s totally out of place from the serious themes encapsulating the record.

Even the bonus tracks don’t serve the purpose of exciting its listeners; its audibly thin, live-feel version of tracks like “Lisan” “Reccurence” “Of Lakes and Sirens” and “A little last time” are just bunch of excesses. And with the inclusion of a one minute, prog-instrumental “Roboto,” one suffers the unexpected clutter-like track arrangement of the album. Frankly speaking, it could’ve been better if they stick it out with ten tracks and none of the grim bonuses.

To quote the minimalists, sometimes less is more.