Music Obsessions – June 2022

Welcome to the next Music Obsessions!

Much like last month, I can’t say that my music exploration has expanded much further than the performances from Chinese music variety show Infinity and Beyond and TV series OST. What can I say? I just have so much backlog that I’m trying to keep things a little bit more at the minimum and work on what needs to be done. With that said, there are some nice Cantopop songs chosen for the show to make into their own rendition and its been quite awesome overall to rediscover these songs.

Breath of Wind 风息 by Yanbin Hu 胡彦斌 & Xuanqing Ye 叶炫清

Who Rules The World really was quite the Chinese TV drama and such a great pick by Netflix to add to their library. I can see how it had such ratings in the recent releases from Chinese dramas and the talk that it had. I’ll be addressing all that in the upcoming TV binge (sooner than later hopefully). The soundtrack also did it lots of wonder and perhaps the one that grew on me a lot was this duet which truly did come at some great moments.

1984 – 周笔畅 Bibi Zhou

1984 was originally sang by Swing, a band duo who has now moved on to behind the scenes writing and producing music for other artists. One of them being Eric Kwok who has written some great contributions to Cantopop. I’m always pretty happy when anyone talks about Swing because they are such an underrated band that didn’t quite get the attention they deserved (probably because they weren’t active for that long). 1984 is one of their biggest hits and even then, they duo themselves according from the interview during Infinity and Beyond actually thought that the song was really difficult for them. In that sense, Bibi Zhou does do great with it in her own arrangement.

一生所爱 Love in a Life Time – 卢冠廷 Lowell Lo

Some of the best moments of the show is how they are able to truly bring forth fantastic music producers, lyricist and composers to highlight their work for Cantopop. Most people don’t know Lowell Lo as he only did some small supporting/cameo roles in popular Hong Kong films however, he is a fantastic composer much like his wife who pairs up with him as lyricist. Plus, he has some fantastic music back in the days. While he has mostly retired from the scene, there’s something so nostalgic about his own interpretation for this song which was a key song in A Chinese Odyssey. The scenes if I’m not mistaken are from Part 2 Cinderella (but I haven’t seen those movies in a long time so I could be wrong).

最佳损友 The Best Damn Friend – 李克勤 Hacken Lee & 毛不易 Buyi Mao

Originally a song of Eason Chan’s, this new rendition of The Best Damn Friend does capture another type of relationship as per the theme of the week and this time for them looking at friendships, some that might not have lasted despite how great it was before. A bit of a bittersweet sort of song. In the hands of two great singers like Hacken Lee and Buyi Ma in this new arrangement, its revives the song again.

我钟意 I Prefer- 炎明熹 Gigi Yim＆魔动闪霸 SmellyD & Azi

The latest offering that I love was from last week’s episode as they dived into another theme challenge. This time, they arrange and add a fun rap twist because of the rap duo here to give it such a happy vibe. Seeing as Gigi Leung is one of my favorite singers of all time, and I used to listen to this song a bunch, this new rendition still managed to give me the same happy vibes and was probably one of the standout performances solely on the youthfulness of the whole performance, even the added part which manages to give the song a naivety. Hong Kong’s The Academy winner Gigi Yim is really starting to impress me though. I’m starting to see her talent more and more as the show goes on.

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

Music Obsessions – August 2020

Its August already and we’re at the monthly dose of Music Obsessions with my finds. Its been a really good month although a lot of my finds in reality was related to Mango TV’s reality competition show called Rap Star so I had to pick my faves and then fill it with some other random finds. Let’s check it out!

天上的星星不说话 The Stars in the Skies Don’t Speak- 俞天时Kozay/Rarpid望江晴
(Rap Star Hit Song performance)

Round 2 of Rap Star was called Hit Song where teams of 2 had to create their own hit song. Kozay and Rarpid , two different generations of rappers got together to create a song that had a precious message of thanks to their moms and the misunderstanding of parents to their career choice. Its one of the best performances in this round in my opinion and they wrote some really good lyrics. Its hard to translate it all but its definitely one that took the writing with your heart path unlike some other groups, plus showed off their own talent.

Anti-Climax – StoneOcean

StoneOcean makes music that I go back to every once in a while that really works for me. Its been a while since the last one but their EDM song this time called Anti-Climax works in the rhythm and beats. The whole vibe is appealing.

用盡我的一切奔向你 Running after you with all I have – 周筆暢 Bibi Zhou

I think I heard this song from a TV series or maybe variety show at one point this month but I can’t remember from what anymore and then searched it up. This is an older song from a few years ago probably . However, I do think its a motivating song especially in its lyrics about chasing dreams or such.

討喜 – G.G 張思源

G.G.  has been eliminated from Rap Star at this point of the conversation but for myself, he’s a lost talent. In the whole competitions, its one that has a lot of space for growth and has a good personality that does stand out and its why I went to look for his other songs which is where I landed on this one. Out of the few that I have been listening on repeat, this one is definitely my fave. Good beat, has a decent attitude and just a lot of fun.

Hold my hands – 法老 & MC光光组队 Pharaoh & MC Koko Team
(Rap Star Mentor performance)

I already said that Rap Star was a big musical focus this month so the last one from Rap Star is my fave performance from the mentors. MC Koko and Pharaoh got the lowest amount of votes but in my opinion, they had the best song which reached out in a meaningful way in their lyrics about environment and preserving endangered species. Its a powerful performance that starts off quiet and builds to be stronger and stronger. Really talented pairing.

密室大逃脱2 Great Escape S2 Main Theme – Yang Mi, Allen Deng, Justin, Wowkie Zhang, Qilin Guo

Great Escape is another TV variety show which is a real life big scale escape room with celebrities trying to break out of the scenarios packed with NPCs and such. The upgrade in Season 2 definitely adds quite a bit to the show. Of course, this isn’t a review of the show since its still going on but the music video for the theme song shows a lot of the scene and its a song that I’ve been listening to on repeat.

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