Music Obsessions – May 2023

Welcome to (a slightly delayed) Music Obsessions! We continue on with our focused look at Cantopop as this time we turn over to a female singer, Miriam Yeung that I actually watched her step into fame when she came in as first runner-up at the 1995 Hong Kong New Talent Singing Awards. While her career started out with its share of issues, over the many years, she has garnered a certain level of professional attached to her work both as a singer and as an actress. Of course, we’re looking at the singer elements as I dive into a few songs that I’m a big fan of mostly from the start of her career but also looking up some newer songs that have caught my eye.

抬起我的頭來 Lift Up My Head- 楊千嬅 Miriam Yeung

We’re going through Miriam Yeung’s discography in order of release this time to see the growth that she’s had as well as how I’ve been introduced to her music through certain songs. The first song that hit my radar was this one which was not part of her debut album but in the Summer Story album launched four years after the singing contest. You can hear the potential in her voice and the youthfulness but there still lacks a certain polish. This song is very optimistic and encouraging in its lyrics and its one of the reasons why I liked it a lot when it was first released.

姊妹 Sisters – 楊千嬅 Miriam Yeung

To me, my favorite album that solidified Miriam Yeung as a singer to keep an eye out for was her album Miriam in 2001 which I personally own and has a lot of good songs. While there’s no doubt that the hit of the album was Wild Child and I do love that song a lot, I’m a big fan of this song, Sisters. It seems to be mentioned much less but its such a great song both in the music elements but also the lyrics.

假如讓我說下去 If You Let Me Finish Talking- Miriam Yeung 楊千嬅

Much like this song which I translated roughly but this is by far my absolute favorite song of Miriam Yeung’s. I’m not quite sure why but it might have to do a lot with teenage angst back in the day. I do come back to this song every so often and still feel like its rather underrated and do believe that it still holds up with how good it is. Especially the build-up part for the final verse, it gets me every time.

勇Courage- Miriam Yeung 楊千嬅

Released in 2002 as the theme song of a action comedy that she was a female lead, marking something of a debut to her acting career in Love Undercover, Courage is probably one of Miriam Yeung’s most popular songs and rightfully so as it delivers a positive message about courage in life reflecting the film really well but also to young women at the time it was released. Its one of the songs that has stuck around with the general public, probably only two or three other songs really meet that same level of familiarity like Kisses Everywhere and Too Bad I’m Not An Aquarius.

滾 Get Out!- 梁漢文 Edmond Leung/ 楊千嬅 Miriam Yeung

A big fan of this song which I believe is part of Edmond Leung’s discography BUT this song really leaves a strong impression since its the rare song where the song itself is a conversation and argument between a couple of a husband suspecting his wife of cheating on him. The suspicions and the doubts in a relationship all gets put to the forefront in their argument throughout the song. It has such a nice pacing to the whole song. The play on words of the title of the song is always a little tricky since it can be interpreted as “Get Out!” or “F**k Off” but is also the word for Cheating in Cantonese. I’m not quite sure how long this focused discography of Music Obsessions will last but if it lasts for a while, we will definitely get to Edmond Leung eventually.

還有事情可慶祝 There Are Still Things Worth Celebrating- 楊千嬅 Miriam Yeung

Every time I choose these singers, I always choose the last song as their latest release or a newer song that I’ve discovered recently. Despite the many love ballads about heartbreak and such, Miriam Yeung’s discography has been relatively cute and positive. Its obvious this was released during the pandemic or as the tail end of it as an encouraging song that even in the hard times, there’s always something to celebrate. Its also a nice showcase of the start of her singing career to now, she’s really polished and refined her voice into such a powerful and soothing one.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions – April 2023

Welcome to April’s Music Obsessions! Keeping up with the theme this year, I’m going to highlight another Cantopop favorite of mine. Since he recently released a new single, I decided to dedicate this one to Jacky Cheung, one of the 90s Big Four/Four Heavenly Kings who dominated the music market back then and also accompanied a good part of my growing up (granted I did end up listening more to another one of the Big Four because my cousin loved him). Jacky Cheung has always been a little less public and its hard to see him out and about unless its a concert or some promo for his new music. He also has one of the most distinctive voices. Without further ado, let’s go!

屈到病 Hold It In Until Get Sick – Jacky Cheung 張學友

Excuse my very stupid translation of the song name but Cantonese has a lot of rather “slang” sort of sayings that are very complicated to do an exact translation but the gist is there. Regardless, this song is a fun one to start off the Jacky Cheung selections. I’m picking some more popular picks but since I love so many of his songs, its very hard for me to pinpoint but I wanted to start on a fun and energetic note. Jacky Cheung isn’t particularly known for his energetic songs but more his ballads but he does have a few that really stand out.

我等到花兒也謝了 Wait Until Flowers Wither– Jacky Cheung 張學友

Wait Until Flowers Wither is one of the classics for Jacky Cheung. It was a really popular song in the 90s and still is one that is both appreciated for his Cantonese and Mandarin versions. Its representative of the love ballad style popular with Jacky Cheung. A lot of them are very romantic whether its just waiting for someone for a long time or loving them forever, etc. It helps that the songs themselves are representative of a time in Cantopop when the lyrics told a story with beautiful similes and metaphors.

頭髮亂了 Messy Hair – Jacky Cheung 張學友

Another energetic pick for Jacky Cheung that I actually didn’t used to listen to a lot but recently, I had seen a modernized rendition and went back to listen to it again and have gotten a great appreciation for it. Messy Hair is a song about seeing a girlfriend come home after suspecting her of cheating with her messy hair. Despite the lyrics itself and the whole story of the song, it has a really fun rhythm.

我真的受傷了 I Am Really Hurt – 張學友

I Am Really Hurt is a love ballad that really dials down on a simplistic rhythm itself and focuses a lot on the emotions. Its a slow song about heartbreak. This song caught my attention the first time I ever heard it and since then, I believe the version that he sings in concert with the then newly promising songwriter Ivana Wong who wrote this song is also a popular choice as he really supported her work a lot.

又十年 Another 10 Years – Jacky Cheung 張學友

The newest single to drop for Jacky Cheung and the reason why I chose him as this month’s focus, other than the fact that I think he truly deserves so much praise and is a singer that I truly praise a lot. His songs are still great to this very day whether it was released in the mid80s or nowadays. With this latest song, its about aging and coming to terms with health and friends, etc. Its a heartfelt song. While I’m not his age, the song has beautiful touching lyrics. Plus, Jacky Cheung feels like he is not in the public so much that its nice to hear him singing again.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to lately?

Music Obsessions – February 2023

Welcome to this month’s Music Obsessions! I’m starting to have a pretty fun idea to dive in discovery posts of a specific artist every month. But then, I’m a little hesitant on doing it all the time since I always find new songs every month from multiple artists. However, this month, I spent a lot of deep diving into the discography of Pakho Chau, a Hong Kong actor and musician that has popped onto my radar in recent months.

On that note, its also giving me a little idea of how to restructure the Sunday Lists that I was doing a few years back which I’ve been wanting to get back to doing since its a fun time.

Either way, let’s give this a go. Not sure it will be like this every month yet but I’m going to have fun with this one since Pakho Chau is really a great singer.

The songs are in no particular order but rather just five songs from his pretty extensive discography that I really like.

天網 Skynet (Line Walker: The Prelude Theme Song) – 周柏豪 Pakho

TVB series theme songs are renowned for being some of the best in the industry and has a reputation of being the goal for many to be the singers. While this music video has nothing to do with Line Walker: The Prelude, the TV series was the sequel of Line Walker and while not quite as good as its first one, it still really had traction by the end. It was full of great characters and in this case, how I saw Pakho Chau acting as well in a pretty great role. I just wished they find a way to bring him back into the series if they do get the 4th one off the ground.

磨牙 Molar – 周柏豪 Pakho Chau

In many ways, this song by Pakho Chau is pretty basic. The lyrics and the rhythm is pretty familiar and rather simple as a song and it reminds me of another song that I can’t quite remember the name right now but it has this has the kind of piano chords transition that I like plus the lyrics are actually quite good. Basic but a personal preference in style.

天下大亂之密室謀殺事件 Chaotic Chamber – 周柏豪 Pakho Chau x JUDE

Chaotic Chamber is such a cool name especially the really long Chinese song title. Not to mention that this song is very different to what Pakho Chau has done before and has this pop rock vibe to it. I don’t really have a whole lot to say but this song has a nice duet for the both since their voices match well together.

日落日出 AM/PM- 周柏豪 Pakho Chau & 連詩雅 Shiga Lin

Probably one of my favorite songs of this discovery as its not only a nice winter song with its music video and lyrics but also really cute and romantic. I like the video and the sweet romantic vibe that the song gives off. Not to mention I honestly think that I’ve heard Shiga Lin’s songs before but I can’t remember from where. I guess that’s where I will be heading in the next discovery.

傳聞 Rumors – 周柏豪 Pakho Chau

When I initially did the search for Pakho Chau, this song listed first under his name so I’m guessing its the more popular one and I can’t say that I disagree as I also like this one a lot. It reminds me a lot of the song from Wilfred Lau called Rumored Boyfriend for some reason. The lyrics aren’t about the same thing but still it seems like the type of song that could be a sequel to that one.

There’s still a lot of really good songs from Pakho Chau that I haven’t listed here.
Hong Kong music has been pretty sad whenever I hear new singers except for the very rare few like Gigi Yim.
As I slowly catch up with the Hong Kong music from the past decade or so, we will see what else I discover.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions – January 2023

Welcome to the first Music Obsessions of this year. First of all, a little wrap-up of 2022 as look at the Spotify Wrapped.

流沙 Everything’s Gone – 陶喆 David Tao

Man, this song brings me back. David Tao is probably Top 5 favorite music artists in my book. Everything’s Gone is a song that is probably my absolute as it was my go-to song at karaoke every single time. I sang it so much that I actually had the courage to perform it on a little event one time. I have no idea when I added to it my Spotify list but so suitable that its my most played song in 2022 as I was puffing up my list this year and getting really nostalgic in the process. David Tao is such a fantastic R&B artist and probably will take a Music Obsessions post to share a bunch of my faves of his. Hmm…thinking about that, maybe it might be a fun segment to add to the blog.

緋聞男友 Rumored Boyfriend- 劉浩龍Wilfred Lau

I actually own the album for this artist which is the few songs that were really popular that I remember of (maybe there’s more that I don’t know about). There’s actually another song back then from Wilfred Lau that I listened to a lot more but somehow after I added this song to my list, its one that has been popping up a lot and has really won me over in the past year. I don’t think its anything really special but somehow the lyrics are pretty catchy. On that note, its odd but one of this past month’s discovery is also with him.

I’ve shared the other songs from the Top 5 of Spotify Wrapped in one way or another before, I believe so I’m going to move onto regular programming.

行者Walker – 劉浩龍Wilfred Lau & 側田Justin Lo
(“Line Walker” TV series Main Theme)

I’m super late to the Line Walker party since they aired Season 3 in 2020 and I only caught up the first season in December. Its a really great series though. Its been a while since I’ve watched TVB series which used to be my main thing growing up and some of the best memories when I was younger. Coming back to it in probably a decade, it had to be a series that was worth it and not something that I would just sit down and feel like it was all done before and Line Walker definitely did that. Theme songs for TVB series used to mean the big times for Hong Kong artists because they were usually big hits and while I’m not sure how it is in the current decade, this song has Justin Lo and Wilfred Lau and is pretty great. I chose the opening theme sequence for this video over some of the other lyric videos but I think its worth it to showcase the series a little, in case you can find one with English subtitles.

2nd Favourite 第二最愛 – 古巨基 Tyson Yoshi

Honestly one of my favorite song in the recent weeks and I haven’t really found a lot of new music lately. This song has such a great vibe and the collaboration is pretty good as well. Some of the lyrics is a bit hilarious much like parts of the video with Leo Ku hanging out under the bed which is fairly silly but the song has a nice rhythm and fun.

Why Why Why – 王嘉尔Jackson Wang

Jackson Wang is probably one of the most diverse music producers in the current landscape. I’ve shared a ton of his music on Music Obsessions already and every single one has a different vibe from pop song 100 Ways to Electronic Dance song Pretty Please to Alternative/Indie song Blow and Cruel. Why Why Why is considered a pop song but this one differs from 100 Ways mostly in its more comedic take. Jackson Wang in a tree suit is just awesome. There are no words to explain how silly the video is but he also rarely sings in Mandarin and the lyrics are actually pretty good paraphrasing basically that there’s no reason why you love someone but for who they are.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions – December 2022

A little late for this month’s Music Obsessions! Hard to imagine we are at the last one of this year. While I already got my Spotify Wrapped, I decided to do that with my final year round-up at the end of this month and do a little runthrough for January. Either way, there are still some good music that I’ve discovered or re-discovered.

恐懼蠶食心靈 Fear Eats The Soul – 鄭欣宜 Joyce Cheng

Joyce Cheng has really improved in her singing. While I’m not exactly a fan of all her music, I’ve been following her music more and more. Not only are her music videos done really well but the music itself from her voice and the emotions are all there. It really helps carry the song. This song and the way she sings it is quite a good match. Its nice to see that she’s able to embrace a lot of different music styles since I’ve shared probably three of her songs in Music Obsessions and each one has been different from the other.

比莉卡厲害 Billie is Incredible – Billie

A rough idea of what the song probably would be in English. I’m not quite sure the exact translation. This song is the main theme from Netflix Taiwanese series Mom Don’t Do That that aired a few months ago. The series itself is fantastic and I will be talking more about in an upcoming project that I will launch at the beginning of 2023. I’m in preparation mode as of the beginning of November and working hard to get things ready for January launch. Either way, this song is simply a lot of fun. The series is a ton of fun as well. Its happy and upbeat and that’s why its here.

烏梅子醬 The Dark Plum Sauce – 李榮浩 Ronghao Li

I honestly don’t listen to enough of Ronghao Li’s music. He writes some pretty great songs and none of that I’ve ever discovered have been bad. Its all pretty great ballads. This one actually feels a little bit of early Jay Chou from the music video to the rhythm itself. Its something that I’m rather nostalgic about since that was part of my teen years when music was the main emotional support. This song’s lyrics are also super sweet much like its title.

好想約你 – Gigi 炎明熹

This year’s new addition to my list of new artists that I think are pretty good is Gigi who was Hong Kong TVB’s Star Academy Season 1 winner. Its pretty nice to see there’s still some talent since most of the time when I listen to any new artists from Hong Kong shows, its all very disappointing. This song is pretty fun and cute and matches her age. Her voice reminds me really good female singers in the 90s which seems like its lost nowadays. Either way, the youthfulness of the song makes it so feel good.

藍奕邦 Pong Nan – Happy Prince 快樂王子

I wish that there was a better video for this song but I don’t talk about Pong Nan enough since from the beginning when he was making music, I loved a lot of his work. Most of his song’s lyrics are meaningful and thoughtful. It has this nice touch of intricacy that I’m a big fan of since it feels like its a rarity. As I was researching for this post, I learned that this song was actually the main theme song for a play.

Bonus: 我比从前更寂寞 I’m Lonelier Than Before – 陈慧娴 Priscilla Chan & 杨坤 Yang Kun
(Singing With Legends S4 Performance)

I’ve shared this song in a previous Music Obsessions (probably a few years ago) which is a pretty popular song of Yang Kun’s which he wrote during his depression and talks about the feeling of depression. Its a song that paired up with his distinctive voice is amazing. Truly heartfelt and deep. This time for the Singing With Legends show, he pairs up with Priscilla Chan to sing it together and it speaks volumes in a different way. Thinking about it, it sure is time to do a post for Priscilla Chan’s music (if I remember to do it next year).

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions – November 2022

Welcome this month’s music obsessions! I can’t believe that we only have one more music obsessions next month and then we’re moving onto a new year! Where did this year go? I actually know the answer to that…a lot of sleepless nights, first with the tail end of the pregnancy then its all about the newborn life. Either way, we’re not in the adventures post. The staying at home more has given me the opportunity to dig through some music.

诀爱 Love – Faye 詹雯婷

I know that I already shared Love Between Fairy and Devil OST song in a previous Music Obsessions but I came upon this song during a singing variety show and realized that the singer is actually the vocalist in FIR. I did fall out of the Taiwanese artist scene for a few years. I had thought the singer’s voice for this voice sounded familiar but just couldn’t pinpoint who. Let’s just say, FIR was a really great trio and while they were most famous for their songs that were featured in the TV series The Outsiders (which unfortunately recently got taken off Netflix), she had an amazing voice. I’m actually starting to dig through her solo music so probably will be sharing some of that in the coming months.

Be My Warrior – Zheyuan Chen 陈哲远 & Shen Yue 沈月

I was destined to love the TV series Mr. Bad since I really love the vibe of the two main leads not to mention the whole pulling a character out of a story into real life sounds so fun as a fish out of water story. That is besides the point since the song is a duet between the two leads Shen Yue and Chen Zheyuan which is a lot of fun. They don’t have perfect singing voices but its such a happy and lively song that its so catchy and sends so many positive vibes.

紅顏如霜 Cold Hearted – 周杰倫 JAY CHOU ft. JABBAWOCKEEZ

While I am starting to feeling like Jay Chou has hits every once in a while, there are a lot of songs that feel similar to other songs. This one does have that vibe of a song that he did maybe a decade or 15 years ago or something. I can’t remember when it was exactly but Jay Chou is Jay Chou and the music video is really cool and the song, despite feeling similar in style to another one of his songs, still has a nice rhythm to it.

妄想 Delusion- VRF

I don’t know what I was looking up but somehow I landed on realizing that singer and actress Miriam Yeung’s husband originally debuted in VRF which is this boy band that didn’t really make much of themselves except for this song, which I remember discovering and thought at the time that it was pretty good. I mean, I’m not a fan of Boy’z, a much more famous boy duo at the time which was constantly paired with Twins but I can’t help loving that this one has one of them, Kenny ugly crying in the music video. Its more nostalgia that this song is here.

我難過 I’m Sad – 5566

Talking about nostalgia, I was watching Call Me By Fire and at one point someone mentioned the success of 5566 and I was a tad surprised because 5566 was famous for a little bit of time in my memory and then didn’t really make it that far. They did star in a few dramas but in my memory, they got really famous because of My MVP Valentine, which this song is part of the OST and the series is actually on Netflix (at least it is in Canada) and I remember it being really a big deal at one point. I do plan on revisiting it. Seeing as Netflix is picking up a bunch of these older Taiwanese series, maybe I will do some type of segment with it. Who knows. Either way, 5566 was pretty cool and fun fact, I actually own one of their albums.

浮夸 Exaggerated – 陈小春 Jordan Chan & 张智霖Chilam Cheung
Call Me By Fire S2 Performance

With all the singing variety shows I have been watching, I had to share as usual as an extra. In the last battle for the team, Jordan Chan and Chilam Cheung joined forces in this rendition of Eason Chan’s Exaggerated. Its one of the most engaging performances of this season. To be honest, there were some really awesome performances in general this season because of the talent they found to join.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions – October 2022

Another month has gone by and we’re in October. With the Halloween Marathon kicked off this week and feeling like things are relatively on track, its time to take a little moment and share some of the music I’ve been listening to in the past month as well as a few songs that’s been gradually added to the baby lullaby repertoire because my baby apparently listened to Chinese pop music in my belly and now thoroughly enjoys being put to sleep to that.

143 – Nana Ouyang 歐陽娜娜

As I’ve been watching a variety show with Nana Ouyang, I’ve been deep diving into her music lately. Its been a while since The Best Of You was released that I liked and shared previously, her latest release is one that I’ve really enjoyed. While its nothing too spectacular in terms of lyrics, I think what works really well as I listened to a lot of her music that her voice is very soothing and relaxing to listen to. I have a few other of her songs in rotation but this one does stand out to me.

舊日回憶的山丘 – 容祖兒 Joey Yung

Nothing like a jump back into time as I’ve recently been thinking about this song. Not quite sure why but its one of the earlier Joey Yung songs that I’ve always loved a lot both for its lyrics and its rhythm. Its also one of the songs that I’ve loved singing the most.

分手快樂(獨唱版) Break Up Happily – 梁靜茹 Fish Leong

The newest addition to this month’s lullaby session for our newborn has been this one. Fish Leong is one of my favorite singers ever so its not a surprise that a lot of her songs have entered into this month as I’ve been just following the songs I like to sing to my little one.

勇氣 Courage – 梁靜茹 Fish Leong

Can you see the theme that my brain thinks in terms of artist so of course, this month also had another Fish Leong song in the line-up! A little fun fact that I actually performed this one on stage for Chinese School performance back in mid-2000s (can’t remember the exact year anymore).

And of course, we have one more which is my absolute faves from Fish Leong below…

Fly Away – 梁靜茹Fish Leong

无与伦比的美丽 Incomparable Beautiful – Call Me By Fire S2 Performance

I usually don’t like sharing performance versions but Call Me By Fire S2 is back and I’m loving this year’s line-up even more than last year’s. I’ve never heard the original of this song before but this rendition is so touching mostly because its so romantic and the fact that I’ve been a big fan of the two people in this relationship since my youth days. It meant a lot to me even if it had nothing to do with me personally. Either way, the song title says it all and the performance was so beautiful.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions – September 2022

Welcome to this month’s Music Obsessions! I honestly can’t believe its already September and I’ve actually managed to keep up with this segment with actual content. Its a little wild overall. Either way, here we are so let’s go right into it!

Cruel – Jackson Wang

At this point, Jackson Wang really has proven that his variety in his music with his resources has truly grown quite a bit including the music video themselves are really creative. While I can’t say that I love all his music the same level, there’s a certain catchiness to them that jives well. Cruel is pretty good and the video is pretty impressive. I wonder whether Jackson Wang will one day jump into being a director at this point seeing as all his music videos now have a certain fantastical story background.

眼淚落下之前 Before Tears Fall Down – Silence Wang 汪蘇瀧

This summer’s youth romance film, since it seems like there’s always one highlight film of that regard in China is My Blue Summer. The source material for My Blue Summer has already been adapted into 2 separate Chinese TV series before called Unrequited Love both times with the only difference being its network and the cast. While I think that’s kind of pointless, they’ve gone and adapted it into a film as well. Which brings us to Silence Wang’s song which I really liked when he performed it in Wonderland Season 2, a Chinese lifestyle variety show so found the original MV.

寻一个你 Searching You- Yuning Liu刘宇宁
(“Love Between Fairy and Devil” Theme)

One of the hit Chinese fantasy dramas this summer has to be Love Between Fairy and Devil so of course, I’m also watching it right now. Not binging quite the way that I normally would but everything fits so well for me from the cast to the soundtrack. Its theme is by Yuning Liu which I have shared him music quite a bit over the time this segment has been around. Probably one of the newer singers that I like nowadays since the last time I followed someone so intently has be at least a decade ago. Regardless, I’m always happy to watch series and find his song part of the OST. Its a really nice one that matches this series pretty well.

臟藝術家 Dirty Artist – MC HotDog熱狗

Its crazy how time does fly by but MC HotDog was the original first generation Chinese rapper back in my teenage days and its great to see the status that he’s achieved as a hip hop artist. In the last few years popping on music related variety show, there’s a humble side of him that makes him so respectable. In the latest season of Rap of China: All Stars Season, not only did he take all the new generation rappers under his wing in his team, there’s no doubt that during the performances that all these years experience with his writing and the messages he wants in his songs now. There’s a versatility that can’t be duplicated. Either way, he tried to not outshine his other team members most of the time but this song he did himself is probably the best of the show.

粉色海洋 Pink Ocean – 周杰倫 Jay Chou

I’d like to say that Jay Chou’s latest album seems to be all songs paired up with Taiwanese lyricist Vincent Fang who found his popularity writing up the majority of the hit songs from Jay Chou’s beginning albums, so there’s a real taste of nostalgia as this album’s songs remind me a lot of the earlier albums of Jay Chou back in 2000. This music video also is one filmed with Jay Chou’s son so its pretty fun overall. While most of the songs in the recent music videos are pretty good, this one is so light-hearted and positive.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to lately?

Music Obsessions – August 2022

Welcome to this month’s Music Obsessions! The last month was pretty fun as a lot of new music videos landed and others popped up on my list from various shows and whatnot. All Chinese music from different spaces and styles but all very fun stuff! Let’s check it out!

最偉大的作品 Greatest Works of Art – 周杰倫 Jay Chou

Jay Chou is basically my youth seeing as he got famous in the prime of my post-secondary days around 2003 and he became the center of a lot of conversations and his songs became the focus of karaoke days back then as well making him an musician that I’ve been following for a long time (with some gaps in the middle) and I’ve shared quite a few songs of his. I should really considering doing a focus post on him when we get a slower month. This month, he dropped this one which the song itself is nice but the video is one that is even better, especially for those who watched his J-Style Trip on Netflix where you see some of his best friends pop up in this music video as well as he travels through time, performs a few magic tricks while recreating the art masterpieces.

一格格 Frames – 衛蘭 Janice Vidal

There’s a chunk of Janice Vidal’s discography which is an empty space for me when I stopped listening to Cantopop for a while (or at least the new stuff over a decade as I lost a little faith in what was coming out) and now its a lot of catch-up. This popped up mostly because of the Chinese singing variety show and their really good rendition but the original very nice. The whole chill vibe really suits the song and is such a feel good song in general.

賽勒斯的愛 Cherlas – 張敬軒 Hins Cheung

Its been a long time since I have looked up Hins Cheung’s new music. Funny enough he is rather underrated since he went onto the music scene fairly quietly and had a few hits but no one really knows him that well (at least in my circle of friends). This one oddly popped up my recommended videos recently. Somehow I found it rather catchy. The story is well portrayed in the music video as well. The lyrics are decent as well.

隆里电丝 Lonely Dance – KEY.L刘聪/ICE杨长青/盛宇DamnShine/Ricky

My latest variety watch is the latest season of The Rap of China Season 4 or something. I’m not an avid watcher of this variety show but this season is a competition of the best of the best or something so some pretty cool competitors in competition show. While I don’t really share a ton of variety show stuff, this one did get released as a single by one of the performers here but I still prefer the performance version more, mostly because I really do like ICE as a rapper and the whole guitarist Ricky is a super nice addition. Its a fun funky rap song which is kind of how I like hip hop music or just the fact that rap itself can be incorporated into so many different styles of music. This is a great example of it.

最後一堂課 Graduation – Eric Chou 周興哲
(“Mom, Don’t Do That!” End Theme)

I’m not sure if people actually watch Taiwanese series, even if they are Netflix series but I’ve had my eyes on them for a while and slowly catching up with it. The recent release of Mom, Don’t Do That! Is where this song is from. I do like Eric Chou quite a bit as well and he is diving into acting as he takes a cameo role in the series. The song does match certain parts of the series pretty well.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!

Music Obsessions – July 2022

Welcome to this month’s Music Obsessions! Today is going to be quite a fun assortment of music from a bunch of different things: TV series, variety shows, Chinese, English, French, etc. Let’s check it out!

À Contresens – Raffy

I don’t listen to a lot of Quebec music but Raffy has been a staple in our home especially since they were a chance encounter probably a decade ago when I saw them perform at a bar in Old Montreal. They have gone a long way since then and have been a constant entertainment via Twitch during the pandemic. As they head back out to performing live, they released their latest single. Its very much in their fun vibe style which I love because their music always sends some positive vibes.

紅日 Red Sun – 聲生不息 “Infinity and Beyond” Singers with Audience

Red Sun is a super popular Cantopop classic by Hacken Lee. Luckily the Chinese variety show had invited Hacken Lee so it made it extra special when he and all the singers and audience joined together to do this song. Its a really fun song and rather challenging since its also fairly fast. This is a pretty good rendition and a good new take on it.

Portrait of You – James Lee
(“Love The Way You Are” Chinese Drama OST)

My latest series binge is Love The Way You Are on iQiYi streaming service. Is it anything super unique? Not really. So far, the first ten episodes have been fairly lighthearted but for once I actually they paced it a little quick that I’m not sure how its going to push another 20 episodes of the story forward. Either way, I’m not reviewing the show yet. Aside from my worrying, the soundtrack is pretty good. I really like this one which I later realized is by James Lee, who I wasn’t familiar with when he was popular in Korea before his unfortunate accident but he joined a Chinese variety show last year and I’m happy to see him making some music there.

現代戀愛安全手冊 Love 101 – 衛蘭 Janice Vidal

Janice Vidal’s latest single here! While I’m a pretty big fan of Janice Vidal’s recent music and even when she first started out in Hong Kong (but missing the whole middle chunk of maybe a decade or something), I only happen to find her music when it pops up in the recommended section on Youtube. I really should be making a better effort since her music is so good and has some meaningful lyrics whatever topic she talks about.

Teenage Dream – The Rescues

This last one is a discovery as part of the soundtrack on Season 3 of The Umbrella Academy. I’m a big fan of covers especially when they are done in a different vibe. I do like Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream however, this rendition actually adds a good change and feeling to the whole song. It definitely was a great find from watching TV series.

That’s it for this month’s Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?