For a band whose story has already stretched across several musical lifetimes, IV of Spades’ “Isang Pag-ibig” arrives with an unusual kind of weight of nostalgia. 

Back in 2015, the band uploaded a rough demo of “Isang Pag-ibig” to SoundCloud. It was a far cry from the polished records that would eventually make IV of Spades one of OPM’s most recognizable names, but even in its unfinished form, the song had a distinct emotional pull. 

https://open.spotify.com/track/27gE4JhDCQyih8EYlz8v3m?si=AO1jiUtcSFKc1qhXN83TDQ

Its lyrics lingered in the uncertainty of a relationship that feels intimate without ever becoming something definite: “Ngunit ’di mo ’to matatawag na isang pag-ibig.”

For years, that demo existed almost like a musical artifact from another version of IV of Spades, a glimpse into the band before “Mundo,” before international stages, before each member developed a life and sound beyond the group. Now, “Isang Pag-ibig” has been given a proper studio life.

Most striking is the return of Unique Salonga and Zild Benitez on vocals, bringing together two voices that have not shared a newly released IV of Spades track in this way for years. 

The band’s trajectory changed dramatically after Unique’s departure in 2018, followed by IV of Spades’ indefinite hiatus in 2020. In the years that followed, all four members continued developing their own identities as artists. 

After years of separate musical paths, there is something inherently affecting about watching the original lineup perform a song that has existed in fragments for so long. The visual does not need to manufacture the history as it already exists alongside the fans’ hope for the track to come home.

The song belongs to their past, but its release is firmly part of their present reunion era, following Andalucia and the band’s return to making music together. Its existence also complicates the idea that a reunion has to live entirely on memories of what once was.

Eleven years after its first appearance, “Isang Pag-ibig” finally gets to exist in full and in doing so, gives IV of Spades another way to connect where they began with where they are now.