Fans are now considerably hyped for the release of Nadine Lustre’s album Wildest Dreams – her first under label Careless, and arguably one that will lay the groundwork for who she is as a recording artist.

The album was prefaced by its title track, “Wildest Dreams,” which came out on October 16. It’s a slow, ethereal R&B track that’s heavy on the imagery, written by Nadine herself, with the help of fellow Careless artists Haissam and KINGWaW (aka Bret Jackson) who co-wrote it with her, James Reid and Isagani Palabyab, who produced it, and Marcus Davis who did the mastering.

Their team locked in together over the quarantine for some two weeks to work on the upcoming album and two of them – James and Haissam, will be performing on two tracks on the album too.

“James is going to be in the album as well. He’s going to be in one track, and Haissam too,” Nadine said at the Wildest Dreams press launch on Saturday, October 24.

Nadine said that working with them helped her deal with creative blocks especially as a budding songwriter.

“It’s something new for me, like I haven’t really done anything like this before…so there would be days that I would be so stressed out and doubting myself, that’s why I had the guys to help me out,” she said in a separate interview with Rappler on October 23.

Play Video

Getting personal

Nadine shared that the tracks on the album come from a deeply personal place – from her happiest memories, to her most painful experiences.

“Wildest Dreams” in particular was inspired by a hike to a mountain in Sagada, and the view of the sun setting from the peak.

Other songs talk about the importance of self-love.

In “Gray Skies,” Nadine wants to get the message across that while challenges are inevitable, “you just gotta learn how to dance with it.”

“Natural” is another self-love anthem, described by Nadine as a “very intimate” song about growth.

“I do know that a lot of people, we’re all going through that route right now, and it’s just something that’s very inspirational and I know a lot of people will be able to relate to it,” she said.

The album gets really personal with “Save a place,” which Nadine said was the most difficult one to work on because it was written as a message for her late brother Isaiah, who passed away in 2017.

The song itself was written by Marcus Davis, based on input from Nadine.

“I was giving him ideas – I was telling him everything I saw in my head when I say my brother’s name or when I think about my brother, all the things that I wanted to tell him, all the things that I wanted to say that I never got to tell him, all the things now that he’s not with us anymore,” she said in the Rappler interview.

She later shared at the press conference that even while recording, she would end up crying every time she started to sing it.

“It was very emotional, and I feel like the beautiful thing about it is that Marcus took the words right out of my mouth, and even until now every time I listen to it, I really cry, especially if I’m alone, because it’s so on point,” she said.

Wildest Dreams will be out on October 31, coincidentally, Nadine’s birthday. True to form, it will be released with a visual album made up of 6 music videos, meant to be viewed as a short film that takes viewers on Nadine’s journey.

Shot over the course of a month in a studio and on location at Manila Hotel and Caylabne, the visual album can be viewed on the YouTube channels of Careless and ABS-CBN.

In the meantime, “Wildest Dreams” is out now on all digital platforms. – Rappler.com