faves: Ayos Lang, Friendship Over, SITWASYONSHIP, HAYUP KA, What if I miss you for the rest of my life?
this blog post was originally supposed to be a small section in music musings 2 but i got too into writing it, so here it is now.
i'm filipino, if you didn't know. you should also get a bit more filipino from time to time, even if you're not, i highly recommend it.
my friend recommended i listen to janine berdin's LAB SONGS NG MGA TANGA (2025) (love songs for idiots) and its deluxe edition with more songs, MORE LAB SONGS NG MGA TANGA (2026) (more love songs for idiots). glancing at it, i was immediately captured by the album cover.
the vibes are 2010's, your older sister's cool aesthetic emo posts on facebook. it's coming across to me as the feeling of being a little kid and watching all the cool millennial teenagers' art and creativity shining, and wanting to emulate that to be like the Cool Kids.
that aside, the music is of course... love songs, duh. it talks of romance, friendships, toxic relationships, situationships and the like. it actually covers quite a wide range of scenarios, almost a different one each song. i've been shot through the heart by enough love songs to last me a lifetime from high school through college; and now as i've grown older and have more stable relationships in my life, love songs aren't the biggest pull for me anymore. it's kind of like this meme, but instead everything terrible happened and it horseshoe'd all the way around the opposite direction.
unfortunately, being normal now has its downsides, but i can appreciate love when i see it!
a lot of janine berdin's writing excels in making you feel how tired she is in her yearning, sometimes with a fun sarcastic twist. each song is jam packed with personality; even if she sings about the same situation, she does it differently enough or even in a different perspective that keeps it fun and fresh. her voice is so gorgeous the way it gets a little gravelly or squeaky sometimes. she isn't afraid to not sound perfectly clean in her vocals and it comes across as really powerful and unique. i'm a fan!
the music itself is that pop rock sound that isn't too out of the ordinary, but i like the way the songs are produced. the sound is lovely and full of little details that your ears just glaze over if you're not listening for it, but add to the flavor of the entirety of the song.
apparently, her current style and music is a lot different from where she originally started. i've never heard her music until recently, but i think so long as it's authentically hers and not made to appease the whims of big corpo and mainstream media, it's all good to me.
the music
Friendship Over
i first watched the official music video for this one instead of what i was originally looking for, the lyric visualizer. the music video features janine berdin in 'the office' style scenarios where she's the kooky coworker always bothering this incredibly unamused man. after receiving no reciprocation, janine berdin stops bothering him and eventually he goes looking for her, implying that he missed her craziness. it's cute, if not really silly!
the song itself talks about the aftermath of wanting to stay friends as exes. janine berdin asks why her ex seems to be giving her the cold shoulder, coming up with numerous theories that her ex never seems to confront or answer for her. it's a fun song that has a really catchy tune. i particularly love how the main guitar melody reminds me of some late 2010's 1opm songs.
the lyric video was the one i initially associated with this song when i first saw it in passing. it's janine berdin dancing around a green screen while some fun editing happens. i love her outfit here, and the visuals are so fun. it's your typical internet 00's-10's nostalgia type of aesthetic with a mix of both windows and macOS, which if you couldn't tell i quite enjoy. it's also the general aesthetic for this album, so i don't mind it potentially being "overused."
What if I miss you for the rest of my life?
2did you know that this song was inspired by a situationship that janine berdin had? and that she wrote it while shitting on the toilet? i only say that because with the way she sang it you'd think someone DIED. i just thought that was funny.
my favorite lines have to be the bridge,
I have built a house where I wait for your return
I only want you to be mine and not a lesson learned
And I will wait, and wait, and wait until this city burns
I will wait, and wait, and wait, and live on what we were
i love the mental image that this conjures, holding onto something or someone that's faded away from everything around you except from your own memories.
the song itself is a nice listen, and it's her most popular one, but there are other songs on this album i personally like more.
SITWASYONSHIP
this song is soooo fun to sing along to, janine berdin's slow and sultry singing with a lovesick tone of voice makes this a standout song in the album for me. the song talks of the vague lines of a situationship, the what are we's between two people who value and enjoy each other's intimacy, but haven't put a label to what they are or their exclusivity. the singer is hesitant on making the first move of making their relationship official, but is incredibly down bad for their situationship, which i think is a common theme in some of this album's songs.
Ayos Lang
a big favorite of mine. the title roughly translates to "it's all good/okay/alright," but the lyrics try to put on a condescending/sarcastic tone to it as if saying "see, ain't it easy just to stop giving me hope? we won't have any problems if you could just make up your mind!"
Kung hindi mapasa'kin (If I can't have you)
Eh 'di 'wag ka nang lumapit (Then don't get close)
Oh, 'di ba, ayos lang? (See, we're all good?)
it's a little hard to get the translation across but i hope it tracks!
janine berdin sings about having a will-they-won't-they with this man whom she's urging to confess to her already to the point that it tires her out. vague posting on instagram notes and manifesting through prayer are her main efforts in trying to get him to take the hint, anything but telling him directly. lol, lmao. it's so teen girl, i can't explain it. i love it.
the song is well mixed and i love the gentle and barely-audible choir singing during the PARARARARA part of the after chorus. just a delightful song. it's a fun and catchy tune that i've listened to so much that i would just love if someone made a kasane teto cover of it š
(stay tuned for that...)
the lyric video is delightfully whimsical, with her usual early internet nostalgia aesthetic. it tries to emulate the windows movie maker's simple and low fidelity visuals but also in its own style. low effort in a school project kind of way where you can still see the heart they put into editing it. very silly with a bunch of memes and funny animal gifs and drawings of janine berdin's anime girl persona, it's such a delight.
i personally hate seeing those AI dancing cat gifs but i'll let this one slide, berdin.
HAYUP KA
the title translates to "you're an animal" but the feeling really doesn't come across, it's like saying "fuck you!" but towards your character. i love this one because it's one of those songs you can just scream your lungs out to. i felt this way about avril lavigne songs back in the 00's, which is mainly what this song reminded me of. just telling that jackass to fuck off because you're just so mad!!! i really enjoy when songs make you feel things, and this song makes me feel like i have a boyfriend that pissed me off so bad, i'm just telling him to pack his bags and LEAVE!!! RAAAAHHH!!!!
Miskom
all i wanted to say about this is that this song sounds like and is structured like an anime opening song, which is not an insult. i think it's fun to imagine music videos in your head, and songs like these are important to maintain that for human minds. the violin especially hits that vibe home and i think that's fun! it's also funny to say that when the official visualizer/lyric video for this song is actually set up like an anime scene on loop, i did not know that beforehand lol.
LAB SONGS, to me, feels like the kind of album a teenage girl would base her whole personality off of, and i mean that positively. i did this in my time with avril lavigne, paramore, panic!, and a lot more. i feel like this is exactly the kind of music that would have made me wanna curl up in my bed with my ipod shuffle and just ask myself why life had to be this way TT_TT <///3 while drawing some really sad looking emos. i love how expressive it is and how unabashedly herself janine berdin feels in both the music and the videos.
people will be incredibly nostalgic for this album 5-10 years down the line, and i'm excited to hear the new musicians that are going to be inspired by this today.