Strike whilst the iron is hot, as they say, and Regine Velasquez is doing precisely that while 2025 is still basking in the new year glow. Just weeks after releasing an album of reimagined covers, here she is again with a new original in “Jigsaw Puzzle.” This epic-sounding ballad sees Regine Velasquez in emo-mode singing about piecing herself together again. The track sees Velasquez singing an Adam Hurstfield-produced track. Hurstfield is a producer-arranger and label head of XOXO Entertainment who has worked with artists from North America in Canada, New York, and Los Angeles to Asia in Japan, China, and the Philippines, among others. In Manila, Hurstfield’s most notable work so far is with Sarah Geronimo on the latter’s “Perfectly Imperfect” album. Hurstfield, who co-wrote the lyrics (with Don Wolf, Gino Paciocco, and Nicolina Bozzo) and produced and arranged the track, naturally picks a rising, emotional track about sanity, life, and holding it all together to test Asia’s songbird’s mettle. We can just imagine Ate Reg saying, ‘Bring it on!’

Backtracking a bit to Ate Reg’s most recent covers album, “Reginified,” has a lot of high points worth mentioning. Among those are 80’s classics “It Must Have Been Love” (originally by Roxette), “I’ll Be Over You” (Toto), “Crazy For You” (Madonna), and the Joni Mitchell gem “Both Sides Now.” Those and a cover of Paramore’s “The Only Exception” and a delightfully unrecognizable “Baby One More Time” (Britney Spears) make this album a worthy add-on to Regine Velasquez’s tasteful catalog of song covers.

With the success of BINI and SB19 last year, expect 2025 to bring in more P-pop groups. One of them is the newly christened 5-member boy group called GAT. Short for “Gawang Atin ‘to,” GAT includes Ethan, Michael, Derick, Hans, and Charles. We know that two GAT members, Ethan David and Michael Keith, are already accomplished singers in their own right. Their pre-debut release track covers a James Reid-sung number titled “Huwag Ka Nang Humirit.” The track was a successful vehicle for Reid in his pop and movie heartthrob days and is an R&B-inflected pop song written by Thyro Alfaro and Yumi Lacsamana that GAT manages to make enjoyable, not to mention poppin'!  

No Lore is no more. Or at least the alt-pop sibling duo of multi-media artists Jerald Angelo and Tita Halaman will be put aside, and in its place comes No Lore—the all-girl, electronic pop trio that retains Tita Halaman on vocals and guitars, with bassist Kim Escalona and drummer Carole Lantican. The trio’s initial salvo is a remake of the song “Magbalik,” initially recorded by Callalily. With original Callalily’s Lem Beluaro adding assistance on the production side, No Lore’s take is a swirling, percolating, electro-pop reimagining of this mid-aughts gem. No Lore lead vocalist Tita Halaman (Joisha Juatco) inserts some spoken words near the end and turns this originally brooding song of heartbreak into a song of uplift and continuity. And while we will miss the original duo of No Lore, who brought us lilting, ear-candy alt-pop songs such as “Paumanhin” and “A Leo” (to name just two), the all-new and refurbished No Lore seems teeming with all kinds of possibilities.