i've attended countless gigs pero hanggang ngayon hindi ko pa rin napapanood ng live ang sugarfree. still itching for that first and i hope it would be something extra special like rockestra.

hindi ko trip yung kantang "hari ng sablay". siguro dahil na rin lang sa pag overplay nito sa mga istasyon ng radyo na hindi mga kagaya ko ang tina-target na audience.

kung pa-cool ako gaya ng iba siguro inayawan ko na ang sugarfree dahil dun. pero hindi ako ganun ka babaw. i wouldn't let just one song ruin my view on a band that has been consecutively releasing tons of good products.

well nung una, para sa kin, yang sugarfree ay isa lang sa mga average bands na naiwan after nung eheads break up. nagustuhan ko yung "burnout" at "mariposa" which both came from "sa wakas" but i never took the time to look deeper into the band and its other songs.

a few years later lumabas yung "dramachine". that was the same period when i realized that this band was way, way beyond being an average combo. eventually i became a heavy listener. nakakamangha ang pagka-genius ni ebe sa pagsusulat, gusto ko na maging katulad niya. i never thought that simple and honest words could pierce me THAT way. sabi nga nila simplicity kills. gustong gusto ko yung mga kanta, it felt like they were songs engineered and custom made for me. i mean, almost all of them songs parang mga experiences ko sa buhay. kahit nga yung kinaaayawan kong "hari ng sablay" akong ako.

2 years ago lumabas yung "tala-arawan", yan yung latest... and their greatest, well at least for me. it was even made simplier than the previous release. walang gadget-gadget na ginamit sa gitara gaya ng "dramachine". kung ano ang tunog na lalabas sa amp nila yun na. good thing about this album is walang decline pagdating sa song quality hence it was even intensified a couple of notches up. ebe was consistent in writing superb honest songs. and again they were like songs about me, or songs about "us" true blue average pinoys. plain simple magic, yung thoughts na mahirap i-explain naipaliwanag niya ng husto using the simpliest words and friendliest melodies. the whole album itself is a recollection of thoughts making it very intimate for the listeners. parang diary na nakakarelate kang basahin. saktong sakto pa nga yung title, "tala-arawan".

of all their albums "tala-arawan" is my favorite. i have my own copy for more than a year already and up until now i can still put it in the player and set it on infinite repeat.

sugarfree has this effective formula, all they do is they keep their songs simple and clean so everyone can feel what they're trying to say. they didn't even bother writing it in english. parang weird pa nga pag naririnig ko yung iilang mga kanta nilang ingles.

i think that's it for this entry.