PHILIPPINES–After what, for music fans, seemed like ages, acclaimed rock icon Rico Blanco returns with a rousing new anthem to help us deal with life in the new normal. Today, the musician marks many firsts with the release of This Too Shall Pass–being his first solo song produced in four years, and the first under Sony Music Philippines.
For the awarded singer-songwriter, the song was written from a place of discomfort and fear, witnessing how the much louder tremor of pandemic anxiety instantly changed lives on a global scale and left us with little time to mourn and move forward.
With this social context, with frontliners risking their lives with little to no protection, people going hungry, and the social order crumbling to pieces, Blanco is one with the people in feeling such powerlessness brought by this situation. But, just like everyone else, he had to forego his own difficulties of living alone and even coping with his own emotional troubles, as work to be done.
He shares, “My efforts are little in light of a pandemic like this. As big as my imagination is for this song, I also feel that it’s not enough. But it’s what I can do and contribute as a musician.”
This Too Shall Pass triumphs, in repurposing music’s mission–more than just an entertainment fodder and an escape agent, music carries and mirrors the resilience of the human spirit.
His most personal composition to date, Blanco admits struggling to finish the song–and, in the course of two weeks, almost failed to do so. The musician noted, “Some songs are anchored on truth, but they are wrapped and adorned in a lot of romanticized thoughts.” He added, “This song is real, inwards and also outwards; it’s something that I really want to tell every single person. I wasn’t able to give a message to the frontliners, and I feel very guilty about this. I needed to finish this, and I want them to hear this. I know each one of us is going through something. I wrote this song as my way to reach out.”
With production of the song that he supervised himself, Blanco’s latest single defies convention with a more global sound that incorporates musical dispatches and even personal anecdotes. From samples of his nieces laughing culled from a family chat group to his attempt to blur the cultural lines by incorporating European techno, hip-hop beats, Asian riffs, Afro chanting, and Filipino fiesta in a seamless, genre-bending extravaganza, This Too Shall Pass is ambitious in scope and sound design, but is full of heart.
Sony Music’s GM Philippines and VP for Business Development Asia, Roslyn Pineda says, “Music is important – we all know this. But never more so than when we are faced with uncertainty, because it is then that the power of music becomes unquantifiable, almost limitless. Music can make you feel you’re not alone. Music can save you from despair. And so it is with a song like This Too Shall Pass. It is so relevant to the times that it becomes a declaration, a prayer, a mantra.”
This Too Shall Pass is now released across digital platforms under Sony Music Philippines. Listen to the song on Spotify here:
Banner Image: Sony Music Philippines