Barbie Almalbis confronts deep pain in new song 'Desperate Hours'

Barbie Almalbis gears up for a new era in music with the release of her new song “Desperate Hours,” the first single off her upcoming fifth album that will be released at the end of the year.

“Desperate Hours” is the OPM rock icon’s most experimental work to date.

Produced by the renowned Nick Lazaro, the song sounds like pop music in the strictest sense of the word, but not the type that is bound by rules and limitations.

Barbie said that she had “dreamt of doing something like this for years but didn’t have the knowledge and courage, so meeting Nick has been a godsend, because producing this way is something that seems to come so easily for him.”

“It’s also a lot of work. He made me sing hard, do crow sounds, explosions, portamentos, and ‘witchy’ voices, and though it felt a little weird at times, I think it actually sounds good in context,” she said in a statement.

Apart from the unexpected sound, Barbie’s signature poetic songwriting shines even more on “Desperate Hours,” as she wrote the song during a time of deep pain and longing.

According to the “Just a Smile” hitmaker, the song was written during a very challenging point in her life, when she was going through anxiety and emotional struggles, while having a hard time figuring out where it was coming from.

Following this confusion, Barbie said she needed to lean on God as well as to seek the help of friends.

“One day, things were beginning to get better, and I had a bit of clarity. I woke up early and wrote the pre-chorus: I can feel the rescuer…finally the war is over. It was actually more a song of faith, and soon enough, this struggle will indeed be over,” she said.

Barbie added that when she was reading later that morning, she came across Psalm 18.

“I was surprised to find that it was about the same topic and even used similar metaphors. It really made me feel like I was on the right track, and so the psalm became a guide to finishing the rest of the song.”

“Desperate Hours” has its quirks, similar to the work of Kate Bush and Bjork, but there is more than meets the eye.

“I’m almost always not trying to achieve anything,” Barbie said. “I’m not a planner. I really just try to follow my curiosity as an artist and express how I feel at the moment.”

She added, “I think Bjork and Kate Bush are very emotional writers, and I surely have listened to them a bunch over the years, so their musical ideas are definitely floating around in my brain. To be doing music that’s kind of similar to them makes me feel like I’m going in the right direction as an artist.”

Barbie recently joined Kitchie Nadal’s 20th anniversary concert in June. She is set to perform at Munimuni’s Alegorya concert on July 20. The artist collaborated with the band on “Tupa.”

In 2022, Barbie and her fellow women rockstars teamed up with for the sold-out TANAW concert at the Solaire Theater.

Barbie’s most recent album “Scenes from Inside” was released in 2021. She celebrated her 25th year in music in 2023.

“Desperate Hours” is out now on all digital music platforms worldwide. —Nika Roque/JCB, GMA Integrated News