Music Obsessions – August 2021

It’s August and time for the next music obsessions! Plus, its a little break from all the film reviews lately as we jump into some of the music that I’ve discovered in the past month! Let’s go!

DNA – Panthepack

Jackson Wang’s Team Wang is definitely growing as it starts bringing in other artists and such starting with his promotion of Panthepack and their new song DNA for the past while. Of course, I’ve only heard it recently because of the new Tencent hiphop competition show Girls Like Us where he performs this song.

泊 Anchor – Corsak

Corsak has definitely been finding his groove lately. His last few songs have been very fun. Anchor is really relaxing to listen to and his vocals are pretty on point. There’s something really soothing about the whole song here from its lyrics to the tune itself that has a nice balance. Its a pretty meaningful song overall.

WULEI – Yanqi Zhang

Honestly, I don’t have a lot to say about this one. I’m a big fan of the latest competition show Girls Like Us because it gives a highlight on the female hiphop artists in China especially as they are rather talented and gives them a voice. However, I’m also really happy that they got Yanqi Zhang, who is a former R1SE member and the trainee from Produce Camp 2019 that I liked right from his first preliminary stage as he is a fantastic hip hop artist with both his producing skills to his rapping skills, to host the public performances for the show. I think this performance really shows his abilities and I just really like it a ton.

Woman – Yico Zeng 曾轶可

I told you before that I’m a big fan of the show so other than Jackson Wang, I think the biggest discovery for myself is a Chinese female singer Yico Zeng who has a fantastic sort of style. I like this type of unique creative which takes a very different approach and her new song performed on the first episode as her entrance is called Woman which matches the show so much. The lyrics and the whole tune and rhythm is so different from the other mentors that are part of this show. Next mission is to start going through her discography. I’ll report back in the future with more of her songs, I’m almost positive.

對峙 Confrontation – Nicholas Tse
(‘Raging Fire’ Main Theme)

Raging Fire is hitting theatres at the end of August and its a movie that I’m absolutely looking forward to see since its Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse. Anyone frequent here may know that I’m a mega fan of Nicholas Tse almost since his debut. He’s just gone through so much and worked so hard to create change and his latest songs have been all so meaningful. Either way, there’s not much to say about this one but it doubles as a trailer of the upcoming film.

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

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?