IV Of Spades - CLAPCLAPCLAP! (2019)

Having experienced enormous success after the release of just a handful of songs, pop rock band IV of Spades faces the unique challenge of risking a sophomore slump with their debut album.

The trio (composed of vocalist and bassist Zild Benitez, guitarist Blaster Silonga, and drummer Badjao de Castro) has already gone through more drama than any music group probably needs this early into their career.

Fan expectations are understandably high, given the strength of the band’s earlier releases and of former IV of Spades frontman Unique Salonga’s own full-length album, which was released in August 2018. Thankfully, the remaining members have stayed relatively quiet and hard at work.

The result of that work is CLAPCLAPCLAP!, a full, 15-track record that doesn’t include IV of Spades’ first few hits (“Mundo,” “Ilaw sa Daan,” “Hey Barbara”) and instead commits to the new direction that the band is taking.

This is not to say that they’ve forgotten their origins; several songs on the album (the singles “In My Prison,” "Bata, Dahan-Dahan!” and “Take That Man”) still give credit to Unique. But IV of Spades is clearly done with attempting to stick so close to their musical influences from the 1970s.

For better or worse, CLAPCLAPCLAP! sounds very much like a record from a band in flux. On one hand, these three young men remain just as versatile and talented as they’ve proven themselves to be, playing with little elements of funk and disco while staying accessible to a wide audience. On the other, the album does exhibit a bit of an identity crisis, with some clumsy lyrics and a general lack of overall structure keeping it from becoming truly memorable. It doesn’t necessarily announce a robust new identity for IV of Spades — working better as an enjoyable sample of what sounds the band has been toying around with in the studio.