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: July 2021

Another month has passed by! Its time for the next Music Obsessions! A decent mix this time from Cantopop to collabs and c-pop. All of them pretty fun!

Raining – Lil Ghost

Lil Ghost is one of those new musical artists from idol shows that really have constantly surprised me. First with his rap and hip hop music when he first debut solo after Nine Percent and then when he joined the second season of Our Song where he paired up with Coco Lee and probably learned quite a bit. Which leads to his latest music which is a change in style focusing more on his singing vocal abilities than his rap. I think there’a still some room for improvement but overall, the style and vibe from the music is so uplifting that its so happy to listen to.

The Way You Make Me Feel – 莫文蔚 Karen Mok

Big fan of Karen Mok right here. She has such a unique voice and singing style. Plus, nowadays cantopop is slowly losing out on quality (in my opinion) so when singers from the 90s and 00s come out with new music, its so awesome. I really like the style of her latest music videos which are so happy and positive.

Happy For You – Lukas Graham (feat. 衛蘭 Janice Vidal)

I have been listening to Janice Vidal again who I think doesn’t put out enough music and is pretty underrated. Refer to last month’s music obsessions when I shared “It’s Okay To Be Sad”. Here she does a collab with Lukas Graham for his song Happy For You and adding in that cantopop lyrics and style which a lovely mesh.

Zoom – R1SE

I’m still going through a bit of a ending phase as R1SE disbanded this past month. While I think they had good potential and whatnot, the different members seem to be popping up here and there whether its TV series or variety shows, etc. In time we will see how the members will do. However, as their farewell album’s main theme, ZOOM is a pretty good song. Cool and fun and pretty much shows off how this boy group is really good. Honestly, I think that after Nine Percent, this group is pretty solid. If only this year’s Youth With You group had formed, it would maybe have been another potentially solid one. With that said, I’ve gone on a tangent…

时光少年 Back to Youth – 胡夏 Fox Hu
(Flourish In Time’s Main Theme)

Ending it on the main theme song for Flourish in Time which is playing on Tencent right now and one that I’ve grown to like a lot. I left it on the side a little so that I can binge the last few episodes and not have to wait it out for the ending episodes. Fox Hu is renowned for being a singer of theme songs (although he has proved that he is capable of much more) and this song is pretty good. I like both the lyrics and melody and lot. It fits this kind of schoolyard romance.

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

Music Obsessions – June 2021

The next Music Obsessions is here! The past month has been a little all over the place but there was some decent music overall. I’d say there’s a good mix of music this time around and a few are theme songs from recent movies and TV. Let’s go!

No Regrets 不遺憾 – 李榮浩 Ronghao Li

No Regrets is a theme song for a recently released film called My Love based on Korean film On Your Wedding Day. I’ve recently been listening to more of Ronghao Li as he has some really good music and writes pretty decent music and lyrics. This one is pretty nice in terms of lyrics and song.

It’s Love 是爱 – 何洛洛Luoluo He/張凌赫Linghe Zhang/顏安 An Yan/常斌Bin Chang
(Love Crossed – Ending Theme)

Okay…so I have to admit that I added this mostly because I’ve been absolutely in love with this series. It has a pretty unique premise and even for having some fairly new young cast, the acting is decent. It definitely feels like there’s some deliberate overacting for the “villain” character to create subtle comedy. I’ll talk about the series in a TV binge when its done. However, this song is the ending theme for Love Crossed. I have to also admit that I’ve been rooting for He Luoluo since his first appearance in Produce Camp 2019 and then in R1SE so its nice to see him expanding to TV and then using his singing and dancing abilities for this song. As a side note, I honestly feel like Youhug Media is trying to create the new “F4” using these guys called the Y4 in the series, especially with R1SE disbanding soon, it would make sense to get another boy group for He Luoluo. If you don’t know what F4 is, its a Meteor Garden reference.

這世界那麼多人 Empty World – Karen Mok 莫文蔚

Karen Mok is one of my absolute favorite singers. She has such a unique voice so I’m always excited when she releases a new song. This time its a song for a recently released Chinese film Love Will Tear Us Apart. I honestly think the movie sounds like pretty familiar Chinese romantic dramas and its with the guy in The Wandering Earth so maybe it’ll land on Netflix at some point. Its all speculation of course and if this becomes available online then I’ll check it out (which is hard since Chinese films are super hard to find and the minority filter through to international platforms. Either way, point is, this song has amazing lyrics that really hit me in the feels: “This world has so many people, so lucky that I have a us”.

好想好想你 Missing You – G.E.M.鄧紫棋

G.E.M. has been making frequent appearances on my music obsessions now. She’s been making some good music that I’ve really enjoyed plus the music videos has such decent production value as well. This one is a pretty simple song. No fancy techniques or whatnot but its such a comfortable song to listen to that I can’t but to play it repeat.

It’s OK To Be Sad – Janice Vidal 衛蘭

The latest song that’s been playing on repeat for myself that really hit me quite hard is this amazing and meaningful song. I think the title says it all and actually reminds me a lot of how I’m feeling sometimes. It doesn’t have translation for the song but I think if you watch through the music video itself, you will get a good idea of what its about and then by the time you get to the English lyrics at the end, then that’s pretty much where it hits the hardest. You can see below:

It’s okay to be sad
It’s okay to lose your mind
Life is not a childhood fantasy
Sometimes it appears to have no mercy
You may wanna pretend
But the way you laugh
Is a tragedy
It’s okay to be sad
It’s okay to lose your mind
When life brings the darkest misery
Let it be your strongest energy

彼方世界 -R1SE
(Dance Practice Version)

As R1SE is disbanding in a month or so, it seems fitting to share some of their music from the farewell album. For myself, its one of the groups that I watched this group debut from start to end from the Produce Camp 2019 so to me, this group has been quite a standout group whether its the music that they put out to even how the individuals has also spread out to participate in other things (music, variety shows, TV series, etc). They’ve had their own hardships especially with the pandemic cutting in between their limited time group, still, there is no doubt that this group is pretty good in terms of their dancing abilities and music production skills. They are fairly well-rounded. Its a pity that they have to end and I almost thought that they would get an extension but then they’ve also had a fair bit of bad publicity for some of the members from what I’ve skimmed here and there, but then that seems like the general trend nowadays for any idols that debut or want to debut. As for this song, I think its pretty good plus the dance is very well done and actually the dance transitions spell out each of the members first letter of their name which is pretty creative. Consider this a little bit of an extra!

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

Music Obsessions – May 2021

Welcome to the next Music Obsessions! May is already here! I honestly can’t believe me. This first 4 months of the year went by so fast mostly because I was so busy and just working a whole lot. Either way, music has been a lot in my life especially since I’m watching survival idol competitions and stuff so it gave me a chance to look up the original songs and there’s been some good ones. I’d say there’s some decent variety this time so hope you find something that you like as well!

Let’s go!

Stop Sugar – Gen Neo

I’m not sure if finding Gen Neo was more worth mentioning than finding Stop Sugar in general. I still think its a great song but Gen Neo has a fantastic voice and I had never even heard of him before watching Youth With You 3. His style and his voice is absolutely fitting to the music genre that he chooses to do. He has some other experimental ones of covers and collabs that are also pretty good especially worth mentioning is the one for Leehom Wang’s You’re Not There, a song that I love a lot and his version is different but really good and catchy as well.

A Kind World – 2Night夜里

I’m not sure how I ended up finding this song but 2Night was on the Chinese Rap Competition show last year and I really liked his rap style even though he didn’t make it very far. Finding this is pretty cool since its a rather fun song. I haven’t been able to find the lyrics since some of the faster rap bits are a little hard to catch but overall, I do like the writing and the rhythm of the whole thing. Its feels so lighthearted and feel good to listen to.

超能力 Superpower – G.E.M.鄧紫棋

A lot of people who listen to Chinese pop music knows G.E.M. at this point. She’s known to have a powerful voice and so young with so much success. I have to say that the last few years has really made me see a lot more of her music as her success allowed her to expand into other music genres and make more unique and/or meaningful music. Superpower definitely is unique especially when you look at the dance. Its super catchy overall and its been revolving in my head non-stop.

As a side note, her performance on Youth With You 3 for the Collab Stage was pretty fun as well. You can look it up if you want or ask me to share the link in the comments if you want to check it out

念想 Better Us – Jackson Yee易烊千玺 (‘Better Days’ OST)

I haven’t been watching a ton of movies this past month but I think the most memorable has to be Better Days, a movie that I had bought before it was nominated as Best International Feature at the Oscar’s but it did encourage me to watch it sooner. You can find my review HERE. The soundtrack is pretty good. I was deciding whether to share the main theme of the movie by JJ Lin or this one for this post. This one won out mostly because I think this song’s lyrics is pretty well-written and fits the movie so well. At the same time, I think Jackson Yee doing such a good acting job in this movie and then performing this type of song was a bit surprising. To be honest though, I only know Jackson Yee from 3 places before this: his early boy group TF Boys, a few episode of Season 2 of Street Dance of China and the variety show Welcome Back to Sound which kind of all shows his diversity. Either way, this is very quiet but I think its pretty good.

閉嘴跳舞 Shut Up and Dance – Chris Lee 李宇春

I don’t usually share performances from Youth With You 3 BUT this one is unique because its a fresh new music video for a new song from Chris Lee which had its first reveal or public performance or something on the show. Its also a very catchy song and the whole performance and dancing. They wanted to make it with an brainwashing effect for its dance routine. I think its pretty fun overall plus these are all top trainees in the show so the quality is definitely there. Plus, Chris Lee did put together a well done music video with a lot of style not to mention, I love this type of funky music style.

That’s it for this music obsessions!
Hope you enjoyed it!

Music Obsessions – November 2020

A little bit late for this music obsessions this month and debated putting it out on the weekend but some fun batch of music for today feels like a good time.

帶走你的垃圾 Take Your Trash With You – 衛蘭 Janice Vidal

The first song is a random stumble of music that was recommended to me on Youtube. I haven’t heard Janice in a while. I used to listen to her when she first started off in Hong Kong with her sister Jill. She does have quite a good voice and this song reminds me a little of another song but only in lyrics and not how its performed.

一生何求 Life Expectation – 李健 Li Jian & 谭咏麟 Alan Tam

The season 2 of Our Song is amazing. I’m totally hooked on it. They have a lot of Hong Kong singers and some big names like Alan Tam and Coco Lee. The first performance is my favorite with a cover from Alan Tam and Li Jian for Life Expectation, one of my mom’s favorite songs. Its a really great song with fantastic lyrics. Its the days to remember when lyrics actually had meaning. I don’t know Li Jian a lot but he has a great voice so paired up with Alan Tam, its a great performance.

像暗殺似的繞到背後擁抱你 Hug You From Behind Like An Assassin – 太一 Tai Yi

A song that I discovered because of Our Song: Season 2 from Tai Yi, a singer-songwriter who is most known for shutting himself one year (or something) and ended up writing a lot of songs (can’t remember the exact amount). He’s a little odd and very introvert so not quite the usual star appeal but I saw him in The Singer in the last season and he is incredibly talented. This one is very cool mostly because the song title is so whacky and playful.

Flying On Paper – Yuning Liu 刘宇宁 & CORSAK

Corsak’s really been on fire with his latest music. I’ve been liking every single one. This one pairs up with one of the rising singers in China called Yuning Liu that I’ve shared a few songs in these music obsessions. He has a very unique voice. This one is a lot of fun.

孤獨 Loneliness – G.E.M.鄧紫棋

G.E.M. is a great singer. There is no doubt about it. I’m a little lukewarm about her song style since it changes a lot. While this genre of music for her usually isn’t her forte in my opinion, Loneliness is her latest release and its one heck of a song. The lyrics are good and the pairing with Moonlight Sonata is really good. One of my favorite songs right now and one that I’m trying to learn and sing.

That’s it for this music obsessions!
What have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions- July 2020

Welcome to the next Music Obsessions! We’re in a new month and as things seem to be heading in a better direction, music that I’ve has been fairly fun and matching the season to build up some nice energy!

Timelapse – Corsak

I can’t remember if I used Corsak’s song last month but this one was changed up to a band format in Chinese variety show Me To Us and it was so good that I had to hunt down the original. Its a very motivating song with a rather good message about growing up and dreams and such. Its been quite impressive to catch up with his music and definitely feel like he has some great potential to get bigger as he is a well-rounded musician. I’m definitely looking forward to see more of his music..actually…you’ll be seeing another selection of his later this post 😉

Ice Cream – ZTao

I’ve definitely shared Z.Tao’s music before but I’m also a little on and off with his songs. This one is a change in a style (from the music I’ve heard of his) and goes in a happy, summer and cute sort of song. I mean, its called Ice Cream so its a very sweet song and you don’t really need to know the lyrics and can hear it in the melody.

曜 – R1SE

After Nine Percent disbanded, the next boy group that I’ve been most interested in their progress is R1SE. Its a bit sad that these groups coming out of these competition shows are limited contracts since this group definitely jives well together and has some unique views on how they do their shows and you can see when they have a lot more control in the variety show We Are Blazing just like when they were in Produce Camp 2019. This song is for their one year group anniversary and it really does show their capability in both their vocals and dance performance plus I like the beat a lot.

Chasing – Corsak

I told you that there was another Corsak song! This is a very different song but its an uplifting song that has really grown on me over repeat listens.

元气畅想 – EzGoin乐队
(Me to Us Finale – Special Performance)

Big fan of Me to Us! This band-focused competition show was a ton of fun to watch. Although, this group ended up losing before the big finale, they obviously had enough popularity to get them back for the sponsor song that they wrote which is also very fun and positive. Its all about the happy and no pressure mood and they really do deliver especially bringing in elements of sound effects for the zero calorie carbonated water brand. Very clever and definitely a nice one. Sure, I could go with the final performance or the collab performance with Nicholas Tse of the winning band (which I had originally wanted) but this song goes a little better with the theme of this month’s music obsessions.

As an extra:

Of course, I won’t give up a chance to share anything with Nicholas Tse so here is a snippet of the performance (since I’m pretty sure the full performance has some kind of copyright claim that they can’t release on Youtube). Sad because the whole performance would have the really great part where he shows off his electric guitar skills. I would say that this song definitely defined Nicholas Tse in his early days in the music business but also gave him the bad boy Canto-rock music edge that not a lot of people were doing so this was a highlight point (when is it not when it comes to Nicholas Tse for me…) when he chose this one as a collab song with Tarzan band. The lyrics are fast so I can understand why the lead singer of Tarzan had issues with learning Cantonese lyrics. Still a great performance. Man, Nicholas Tse is awesome! Its been 20 years and he is still fantastic.

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

Music Obsessions – May 2020

Welcome to the May Music Obsessions! April was a month of intense need for music and because of staying home for everything, music was a constant. There was a lot of new discoveries whether it was via TV or variety shows. Let’s check it out!

彩色的黑 Colorful Black-吉克雋逸 Jike Junyi

The Singer 2020 introduced one of the challengers Jike Junyi also called Summer. She is rather unique in the music scene in China. Her voice is pretty nice and she has this really big strong female lead in her music that mostly isn’t about love songs (at least the ones I’ve heard so far) but more about strength and chasing dreams and you know, positive things. This song is by far one of my favorites of hers that she also did perform on The Singer 2020. I usually listen to her The Singer 2020 version more but this is the actual music video so I figured it was better to use it here. You can find her The Singer 2020 version HERE.

我想 I Want- 余佳運 Jia Yun Yu

Another song that was performed on The Singer 2020 in a mash-up by Tia Ray who does a great version of it and honestly is one that I listen to more. The original  here by Jia Yun Yu is also really good. The lyrics itself and the rhythm has this really sweet and carefree love story enveloped in it. Sweet love songs are such a rarity that sometimes its really nice to have these upbeat songs.

Running Wild (feat. PollyAnna) – Yves V & Futuristic Polar Bears

One of my college friends was running live Instagram DJ session in March to April during this quarantine period and he played this song. I’ve never heard this one before but its really fun. We all need a little Electronic music every once in a while. At least I do.

致我们甜甜的小美满 The Love Equations – 刘人语 Renyu Liu
(“The Love Equations” Promotional  Theme)

If you’ve been following What’s Up, the last few weeks have been all about The Love Equations which is a really fun and cute series. The promotional theme song is sang by the female lead of the series, Renyu Liu who (I believe) got her fame from the Produce 101 series on Tencent. The song reflects the series and the tone of the series pretty much. I’m a big fan of these short 24 episodes series in the whole sister collection with A Love So Beautiful and Put Your Head On My Shoulder (both on Netflix and Youtube). They are just showers of joy and happiness and sweet romance with a little bit of bitter here and there. The song just makes me smile and probably why I like listening to it so much.

曲尽陈情 Song Ends With Chen Qing -肖战 Sean Xiao
(Wei WuXian Character Theme Song for “The Untamed”)

I finally got around to binging The Untamed. Call it a fight for Sean Xiao who got a lot of unjustified garbage since March until recently. I wanted to see what the big fuss was also and well, I totally get it because I love Sean Xiao even more. An all around great actor and singer. He gives off huge “boy next door” vibes. Other than fangirling over him, the point is that The Untamed has an amazing soundtrack and I decided to choose his Untamed character theme for Wei WuXian sang by himself. The Untamed is some uncharted territory executed really well and a lot has to do with his character. I love ancient times series for the soundtrack a ton as it uses some Chinese instruments.

想見你想見你想見你 Miss You 3000 – 八三夭 831

Surprisingly, I didn’t find this song because of TV series. I actually found it because it was chosen as one of the songs for Youth With You 2 and one of my favorite performances. I actually listen to the Youth With You version more than this one. You can find that below:

The song is pretty nice in both versions but one of my favorite trainees from Youth With You that I think has to end up being in the final 9 girl group for Youth With You is Xin Liu. She is unique and so well-rounded in both dancing, singing and rap. This group of a few girls that I think have some great potential to be in the final ending. I’m just hoping that it happens as I hope.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions! A lot of new finds!
I’m trying to listen to more female singers again and get back to practicing singing.
You can see why partially in my last Adventures post HERE.

What have you been listening to?

Music Obsession: November 2019

 

Its hard to imagine that I survived the crazy that was October and in a blur, we have arrived in November. Surprisingly, I find some really fun music to get through all of the crazy which is great because music is what keeps me alive in my downtime. I’m just going to jump right in. Some of this was found through some of the little events I went to during the past month, others are just randomly in Youtube when I had time to peruse my subscribed channels.

Let’s check it out!

Flip – Theo 朱正廷

Its no surprise that out of the nine members of Nine Percent, well, the ex-Nine Percent now, my favorite member ever since the Idol Producer show is Theo. He is a fantastic dancer and even when I watched him in the different variety and reality shows, he just has a great personality, so I’m happy to see him finally coming out with his own EP.

Senkyaku Banrai 千客万来 – Daoko & Miyavi (‘Diner’ Main Theme)

I watched Diner during Festival du Nouveau Cinema. You can find the review HERE. Its one of my top 5 films of the festival which pretty much tops the movies and a part of its style has to go to its great soundtrack. While I couldn’t find a ton of the music, I did find its main theme and its very awesome music video. The video is full of energy and a fantastic bridge part that just elevates the entire song even more. Its great!

Bomba – UNINE

As Nine Percent disbands to their separate path, 2019’s group to come out is UNINE from Season 2 of Idol Producer. While I didn’t finish the show and now its locked for iQiyi subscribers only (which I’ll get back to eventually), UNINE is a group that I’m seeing their members show up in different reality and variety shows lately so I looked a little more into their music. I can’t say that I think the members are as talented as Nine Percent but UNINE does have a nice balance of talent and Bomba is a pretty fun song while I was looking up their songs. Plus, they are just a few months old as a group so they still have time to put out more stuff.

Call of Heroes 危城 – Shin 信

We are going back a few years now to 2017 as I rediscover this song which I’ve never actually added onto my Favorite playlist on Youtube. Shin is a really great singer and as I watch him and his daughter in the Chinese variety show When I Grow Up currently, its actually made me want to revisit his music as he is incredibly talented. One of my favorite songs from him, other than the song that put him on the map, is this one.  A lot of high energy music this time but I’ve always been a fan of songs with the traditional Chinese music sort of flair mixed into it.

帥到分手 –周湯豪 Nick Chou

So..I fell out of the Taiwanese music scene for a while and as I start diving back in to catch up TV series and movies and such, I’m also obviously getting back to music and the most random find which just appeared on my Youtube suggestions was this song. Don’t know this singer, never heard of this song but it looked fun so I checked it out and its been just playing on repeat. I do have to say that some angles of him looks like Jackson Wang and his style reminds a lot of Alan Kuo. Apparently, I’ve missed some good stuff. I’m not sure if its the lyrics or the tune or the energy but its really good and once I catch up with some other stuff, I’ll be going back to hunt down more of Nick Chou’s songs.

都是你害的 All You Did – 畢書盡 Bii

In the whole Taiwanese drama catch-up phase and after a really fun conversation with my good friend visiting from out of town, I ended up FINALLY starting up Bromance which made me want to rediscover Bii who plays a supporting role in the drama. Bii actually is a pretty decent actor but he is a phenomenal singer. He writes his own songs and you can see the growth he has had from the first time that I listened to his music to now, which I have a pick of his for next month probably.

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

Music Obsessions – November 2018

Welcome to the next Music Obsessions!

This past month has been quite a new adventure as I strive to get out of a writing rut as well as get out of this black hole that Meteor Garden created in my life. The good news is that I’ve moved on to various Chinese series and the bad news is that they have somewhat invaded my life while everything else was going on. They all had their own desired effect from helping me let out my frustration because the show was so freaking frustrating to watch falling on the tropes that get me annoyed despite liking the characters. Or falling into the cute and sweet high school life series and so on.

123 I Love You

Nothing like a cute song to kick things off, right? 123 I Love You has some very adorable lyrics and the tune is really upbeat. Its kind of like the song to sing at some romantic event like a wedding or something. Very cute karaoke style as well. I heard it from a game show segment on Happy Camp and seeked it out.

It’s a Dream – Hu Yi Tian
(A Love So Beautiful – Ending Theme)

Right after Meteor Garden, I went to seek out another TV series and found that Shen Yue debuted in A Love So Beautiful which is a short little TV series which is really cute but has some incredibly touching moments. I’ll have a TV binge on that one soon since I’ve watched it like 2 more times afterwards. The opening theme is also really good but somehow I like the ending theme a little more The lyrics connect with me a little more.

Not a Damn Thing Changed – Lukas Graham

Lukas Graham’s music truly soars when he sings about something very personal to him/them since it is a band. This song actually was released about the time that I learned about my grandmother’s death (or a little before but I don’t remember exactly) and it touched me quite a bit. Its a powerful tune and lyrics.

Chasing the Light – Yoyo Sham

Suffice to say that A Love So Beautiful moved into watching the debut series for the guy in that one and it landed on Rush to the Dead Summer and while Hu Yi Tian isn’t the main guy and is a cameo/supporting character,  this one is also one that I liked a lot for various reasons and I’m currently rewatching. This song is a great one that I’m currently still very addicted to and actually trying to learn how to sing it correctly. Its been a while that I’ve had some more current music that makes me want to get it right. It is a pretty awesome feeling to get back in touch with my singing. Rush to the Dead Summer also has a great soundtrack but this one is the one that tugs my heartstrings the most.

A Person Like Me – Xuedong Chen
(cover on Transboundary Singer Season 3)

There is a whole connection going on here but the main star of Rush to the Dead Summer, Chen Xuedong is currently someone I’m the most interested in following his career so I went back to this summer’s Transboundary Singer Season 3 because I also heard him sing and loved it on Happy Camp and decided to follow that. His music choice and his voice is fantastic. One of my faves because of his range. This was the song he sang at Happy Camp but this is the Transboundary Singer performance. I love everything about this from his style change to the way he sings it.

Fairy Town Plus – An Gang

One of the performances of Chen Xuedong on Transboundary Singer was a cover of this song. Because I liked his rendition so much, I decided to seek out the original and this is a twist on an original called Fairy Town. This one takes on a different style but the lyrics here really are awesome. I’d translate it but its a 5 minute song so would take a long time and I’m a bit lazy. One of my favorite lyrics that kind of relate to how I feel sometimes about this whole blogging and podcast business is translated into this:

他們問我堅持了這麼久是為了什麼 ?
我說我沒有堅持因為喜歡所以快樂
很多人一輩子忙忙碌碌不會懂得：
有個被嘲笑的夢想萬一有天實現了呢？

They asked me why I persevered for so long,?
I said that I didn’t persevere but because I like it that’s why I’m happy,
A lot of people are busy all their lives  and don’t understand:
What if a laughable dream one day will come true?

Not a perfect translation but I hope you get what I mean. Anyways, there is a lot of cool stuff in here as it takes fairy tales and mixes in reality and dreams. Its pretty awesome. The original song is also really great and the lyrics are different and not in this rap style.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
Very Chinese music heavy but still, its the phase I’m in.
Hopefully you find something that you like. Some of these videos have English translations in their videos so that’s a plus. 

What have you been listening to lately?