There was a time in the recent past when slow selling recordings in the stores were taken off the shelves after a month or two to make room for more saleable releases. Those singles and albums next land on bargain bins. Still no sale? They are then returned to warehouses where they languish for years until they are sent out to recycling or simply thrown out as thrash. Thankfully though, that does not happen anymore.
The digital age has changed the way music companies do business. Limitless space in whatever cloud or ether world exists in the web gives all recordings the chance to be available for music lovers anywhere and at any time. With a simple click on a device, you can now watch a video or listen to any song you want. Because of this, a song or an album from the past still has the chance to be heard, to sell and become a hit.
This is what happened to Letters Never Sent by Arthur Nery. The album was released in October, 2019. Nery, a singer and songwriter from Cagayan de Oro, had started to develop a following. These fans began to stream and watch videos from Letters Never Sent. They liked what they heard and streamed and watched more and more and more. With the succeeding months, they turned cuts like Higa, Life Puzzle and Binhi into huge hits.
As a result, Nery had become the breakthrough star of 2021 and the streaming platform Spotify has named Letters Never Sent the Top Local Album of the Year. And these happened two years after the album was uploaded. It took Nery quite sometime to make it big but he sure made up for lost time. In fact, 2021 will always be remembered for the discovery of the sound of Arthur Nery, now known as the heartthrob from CDO country.
Made up of originals, Letters Never Sent also includes Parts One and Two of the spoken title track; Hung Up; Got Me Tangled; I’d Still Kiss You; Favorite Vice featuring Meeks; and Cotton Candy. Co-produced by Nery with Angelo Cabrera and Axel Fernandez and with songs arranged by Nery himself, the album presented him as an appealing mix of hip-hop like Drake, sweet soul like Bruno Mars and alt rock like Ed Sheeran. The result is a heady sexy brew that fans fell in love with.
Then thankfully, Nery signed up with Kean Cipriano’s OC Records, one of the labels under the Viva Music Group. Thankfully, too, Nery lived up to the promise he evinced two years ago as a singer and songwriter. He has developed his own style and the songs have become sweeter, sexier and so appealing. So with the Viva machinery behind him, every song that Nery came out with became a big hit. Take All the Love, Happy with You, Pelikula, a collab with Janine Teñoso, his biggest so far, Pagsamo, and his latest, Isa Lang.
Here now is the honor roll. The other artists and recordings named in the Spotify 2021 Wrapped Philippine Top Lists tally are the following:
The Top Artists: BTS; Taylor Swift; Justin Bieber; Ben&Ben; and Ariana Grande.
Top Local Artists: Ben&Ben; Moira dela Torre; Skusta Clee; Zack Tabudlo; and Arthur Nery.
Top Albums: Sour by Olivia Rodrigo; Justice by Justin Bieber; Fearless (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift; BE by BTS; and Equals = by Ed Sheeran.
Top Local Albums: Letters Never Sent by Arthur Nery; Anthology by the Eraserheads; Patawad by Moira dela Torre; LIMASAWA STREET by Ben&Ben; and Malaya, also by Moira dela Torre.
Top Songs: Binibini by Zach Tabudlo; Nangangamba, also by Tabudlo; Paraluman by Adie; Dance with You by Skusta Clee and Yuri Dope; and Ikaw Lang by Nobita.
Take note that sharing the space as the second Top Local Album is Anthology by The Eraserheads, a legacy compilation from decades ago. The digital age has made the old and the new, all things equal.