This pop-rock institution has survived lineup changes, outlived trends, and outshined younger acts on the strength of memorable hits and innovative ways to release music.
It’s a travesty to talk about the alternative rock boom of the ‘90s and early 2000s in canonical length without mentioning Moonstar88, one of the pack’s underrated figures; and undoubtedly, a band that deserves to be celebrated in the same sentence as their more commercially successful, male-fronted peers. Their work has become synonymous with proto-hugot realness: bright and shiny on the surface, but emotionally defenseless in its messaging. Songs like “Torete” (“Head Over Heels”), “Sa Langit” (“In Heaven”), and “Sulat” (“Letter”) set the standard for the introspective pop-rock template that the likes of Yeng Constantino and her contemporaries have been mining successfully throughout their respective careers. What works so well for the band, though, which is somehow amiss in the other acts that followed suit, is their insistence on capturing the sheer messiness of the lyrics with powerful, larger-than-life chords — never backing down in a heartbeat and letting it..
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