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 – March 2023

Welcome to this month’s Music Obsessions!

I’ve basically decided to spend this year highlighting musicians much like last month’s focus on Pakho Chau, this month I’m going into classics and diving into the early and popular songs of Alan Tam or normally known as Principal Tam in Hong Kong because of his contribution to Hong Kong’s music industry for decades. Even now in his seventies, he still is a big influence for many singers.

愛的根源 Root of Love – 譚詠麟 Alan Tam

Root of Love is the title song of a 1984 album that began the start of successive albums to be launched. Rightfully so as Root of Love shows off the love ballads which Alan Tam was initially known for. Its a great song with great lyrics written in the early career of lyricist and comedy actor Andrew Lam, who also pens a few of Alan Tam’s renowned songs as well.

愛情陷阱 Love’s Trap – 譚詠麟 Alan Tam

Honestly, I never knew that this song was as big a hit than being a part of the phase of well-received albums launching in 1985. My memory of this is purely nostalgia as I grew up with this song playing on a cassette that my dad would always put on in the care when we went for drives. Love’s Trap isn’t a love ballad and is a much faster speed. The lyrics of all of Alan Tam’s songs are well thought out and the rhythm is awesome. I still have so much fun listening to it which is one this list mostly because when I sing this to my 8 month old and add in some little movements, he is thoroughly entertained.

一生中最愛 Love of a Lifetime – 譚詠麟 Alan Tam

Love of a Lifetime is the theme song of 1991 film Alan & Eric: Between Hello and Goodbye (which I have never seen but actually would like to see it). Its also one of the most known songs of his. There’s something so touching about how this song all comes together from how he sings it and the beautifully romantic lyrics that makes this song so heartfelt.

卡拉永遠OK Karaoke Forever – 譚詠麟 Alan Tam

I might talking about a ton of hits but I’m also here to have some fun and a few months ago, I shared the rendition of this one (I think) and thats actually how I heard this song and sought out the original version. Both are really good and that’s why its on here. Its just a fun song. Sometimes, its just purely about feeling good.

夏日寒風 Summer Breeze – 譚詠麟 Alan Tam

There’s not a lot to say about this. Summer Breeze is one of those catchy Alan Tam songs that I like a lot. I don’t always know the name of all his songs but the moment the chorus pops up, it all comes back.

BONUS: L.O.V.E – Wynners

Let’s dial things way back into 1970s before I was alive (not that I was even born for the majority of the songs that I showed here). Wynners is a 1970s band in Hong Kong. One of my favorite songs of theirs is this one and soon realized that Alan Tam and Kenny Bee both great singers are from this band before going on their solo careers.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
Its a bit old and nostalgic but Alan Tam’s voice is super unique and its why I wanted to share it!
What have you been listening to?

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 – 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?

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 – May 2022

Welcome to this month’s Music Obsessions! I think the big takeaway from April is that I survived yet another year of it! This year was especially challenging. Luckily, there was two newly added TV show on Netflix for a fun Chinese Drama with a decent soundtrack and a martial arts world newly released Tencent one and a new singing variety show that launched very recently which provided me lots of music to share plus bringing back a lot of nostalgia for Cantopop classics.

Facade 被人 – Joker Xue 薛之谦

For a modern series based on the esports world, Falling Into Your Smile isn’t exactly the best of its recent batch using this setting but the soundtrack for this one still is pretty fun. Of course, I’ve shared a bunch of Joker Xue songs in these Music Obsessions. Its rare to see him doing songs for a TV series OST but this song really blends well with the series. I love his voice and the song itself is pretty good.

Soulmate 第一默契 – Xu Kai 许凯 & Cheng Xiao 程潇
(“Falling Into Your Smile” Ending Theme)

Continuing on with the soundtrack for Falling Into Your Smile, it seems suitable to add in at least one of the theme songs especially since it includes a duet from the two main leads which had pretty good chemistry. It brings me back to when I was talking about Cheng Xiao earlier this year when I shared the duet for The World of Fantasy. This music video also captures the TV series pretty well especially the romantic chemistry element. This time, Xu Kai is a much more seasoned actor so probably in terms of singing its not quite as good but it still captures the vibe of the show.

无双 Wu Shuang – Liu Yuning

The latest Chinese series to land on Netflix is Who Rules The World which actually is getting some pretty impressive ratings as its airing in China right now. It probably has to do with the main leads Yang Yang and Lusi Zhao who are in a lot of TV series which has pretty high profile. However, its nice to see them in this sort of martial arts/fantasy world where they do fit so very well together. The script itself is done really well and the chemistry behind them including the world building is so far is good. Plus, the main theme here is by one of my fave up and coming singers, Yuning Liu. I mean, I share a ton of his music here already.

Infinity and Beyond 声生不息 – Performance Favorites

One of my favorite music variety shows to land this while is Infinity and Beyond. In commemoration of the 25 years of Hong Kong Handover, the show invites both Mainland China and Hong Kong singers to group together in men and women team in a competition format ranging from new to veteran singers to battle against each other. Every competition evening includes 2 top choices along with the winning team and audience performance which will eventually be compiled to a soundtrack for the show at the end. Its a pretty neat idea especially since it takes a lot of the Hong Kong classics and gives it a new life for the newer generation. Plus, most of the show doesn’t feel like a competition and just a bunch of good and great singers gathered together to share some good performances. It was pretty hard to narrow down what I liked since there’s quite a few but I didn’t want to overload everyone since a lot of this has to do with nostalgia.

初恋 First Love – Mike Tsang 曾比特

卡拉永远ok Forever Karaoke – 魔动闪霸

海阔天空 Boundless Oceans Vast Skies – Women Team With Audience

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

Music Obsessions – March 2022

Welcome to this month’s Music Obsessions! Its hard to imagine that we’re already in March! There’s not a whole lot of new music to share but I’m going to share some new finds from TV series and other stuff this past month.

Kung Fu Piano: Cello Ascends – The Piano Guys

Its been a while since I listened to The Piano Guys but when their music popped up during the Winter Olympics for the Chinese Figure Skating team for their free dance, I looked it up and voila! I think its a wonderful piece of music and lots of fun.

對立面 Opposite – 蔡依林 Jolin Tsai
(“The Wolf” Chinese Drama OST)

Its my second attempt to watch the Chinese drama The Wolf as I work through some of the series that I’ve either started or catch up with last year’s TV series that I missed but had wanted to watch. I have to say that the second watch is a little more successful but can’t say I’m enjoying it a lot more even though I’m further. However, there is no denying that the soundtrack is a great selling point for the series and one of the reasons that some of the moments do pull through. I will finish it gradually….in time.

满月之下 Under The Full Moon -曾咏欣 Nicola Tsang
(“Love Under The Full Moon” Chinese Drama OST)

The latest TV series that I started is Love Under The Full Moon. It also has a great soundtrack. Super hard to find the legit videos for it though. Still, I found one which was a bit of the promo trailer with one of the sounds. The show itself is pretty fun diving into time travel and playing with quantum science (which I know nothing about it so it easily sells for myself). With that said, the show is pretty fun and the soundtrack matches up to it.

Dear Leslie – Leo Ku 古巨基

My latest addition to my list on Spotify is this song from Leo Ku. I know I showcased a bunch of Leo Ku last month with his huge medley songs but I’ve been rather nostalgic with the whole the music thing and Leslie Cheung is a talent that took his life too early so when Leo Ku did this tribute a few years back, I didn’t know about it until recently and its rather good.

奇洛李維斯回信 A Letter From Keanu Reeves – 薛凱琪 Fiona Sit

Diving back to older music, this song keeps popping up on my shuffle playlist on Spotify. Its not quality music since I honestly feel like Fiona Sit’s quality music comes in the past few years but I thought the whole idea for the song was so cute since it goes into the whole fangirl culture and hoping that the celebrity you like would reply your letters and stuff and in this case, its Keanu Reeves.

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

Music Obsessions – January 2022

Welcome to the first Music Obsessions of this year. To be honest, I’ve been just listening to a lot of old stuff lately so not really a whole lot of new things to share especially since a lot of the new stuff is from Netflix movies and holiday films so it seems like its not exactly a great time to share it. However, I did get back to listening to some fun older music as I was updating music on Spotify so I’ll share a few of those here.

The Wrong Song – mxmtoon & Dylan Chenfeld

Mixtape is one of those movies that I find are somewhat of a hidden gem. It has content that I really like and also focuses on the mixtape era which teaches the newer generation of when there were people putting together mixtapes and the whole idea of it. Of course, that’s besides the point here because the final song that they find is the original which probably means more in the movie than listening to it alone but I do enjoy the lyrics and such.

龍捲風 Tornado – MAYDAY五月天 feat.周杰倫 Jay Chou

Tornado was originally released on Jay Chou’s album in 2000 and probably the song that truly put him on the map. Its pretty epic to see that 2 decades later after many hits, he decided to team up with Taiwanese band Mayday to release this version. Its also a great version to be honest since both of them are very talented.

The Big Hits 勁歌金曲 – 古巨基 Leo Ku

The epitome of Cantopop medley does have to go to Leo Ku when he created an actual song that lasted 12 minutes and included a bunch of Cantonese songs that were really popular. The first compilation actually snuck in some popular classic Mandarin songs as well which worked incredibly well. However, it was quite a breakthrough and accompanied myself through a lot of karaoke sessions as the starting song when I was younger as warm up when with friends.

The Big Hits 2: The King of Love 情歌王 – 古巨基 Leo Ku

Of course, Leo Ku’s first medley success leads him to The Big Hits 2 which is a compilation of Mandarin love songs which has a lot of pretty fantastic choices as well. Its not quite the novel idea this time around since the original The Big Hits song and didn’t accompany me as much but recently, I’ve been revisiting it and there are some really great hits included in this medley that is well worth a listen.

勁歌金曲3-Party King – 古巨基 Leo Ku

To wrap up today’s session, I figure I’d just finish up introducing these Leo Ku medleys since the final one is called Party King, one that I knew existed but listened to the least as I had pretty much taken a break on Hong Kong music for a little while. However, as I listened to this again, I realized there are some decent songs mixed up in here and some pretty nice hit songs in there. My only issue with the Party King mix is that it does use that one party song beat to string all the songs together and it loses some of the actual music but does manage to cleverly put each of the songs and lyrics together.

Not exactly the best Music Obsessions but I’ve been wanting to revisit some older songs lately.
Hope you enjoyed! What have you been listening to lately?