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 Obsessions – December 2018

A bit of a change this December. While I usually have this month’s Music Obsessions completely dedicated to holiday music but I decided to do a separate post for it closer to Christmas since I have some other stuff I’ve been listening to. So here we are!

Like a Boss – KURA

We’re back to some more hardcore music than the last two months. KURA’s latest track is absolutely catchy and I’m loving it so much.

謝霆鋒 Nicholas Tse – 青空 Clear Sky

I’ve been a fan of Nicholas Tse’s since a long time. While he hasn’t been doing much in the past few years, its nice to see that the past year or so, he has been getting back to his roots and making some really meaningful stuff. This song gives tribute to Hong Kong. Its absolutely fantastic.

Pin Zhou 周品 – Angels & Demons 天使與惡魔

All Out of Love has ended as this post goes up. A little near the end was when we started looking back at another plot line and that is when this song showed up. I honestly think its a great song on how its performed and the lyrics and just everything about it.

一笑傾城 – Love O2O Main Theme

Netflix just picked up Love O2O, which is a 2016 Chinese TV series which I binged in the most epic way. Its fun and awesome and sweet and just all the best adjectives I have of it. With that said, the soundtrack is also fantastic. This one is awesome and is sung by a few of the supporting actors and its so fun and matches the TV series tone so much.

Tangled Love – Theway Zhang [An Oriental Odyssey Opening Theme]

Hands down my obsession for the second half of November in terms of TV series. I usually avoid TV series set in ancient China unless it has some historical drama value because those ones done by China is really good and mostly accurate, except for a few dramatization. However, this one is based on a fantasy novel. As you all know by now, my TV series are chosen based on some kind of link of the previous TV series that I watched so I started to watch this because its main lead (who I never thought was the main lead since his parts are fairly sparse) Yecheng Zheng that I liked in Love O2O as a supporting role is here. Its pretty lighthearted and quirky for the most part.

This wraps up this month’s Music Obsessions!
Before we hit 2019, look out for the music obsessions special for Christmas Music soon-ish!

Music Obsessions – May 2018

I can’t believe that the weekend is about to end. And then it hit me that I actually never posted up this post…well..actually it was never finished. So, that’s a problem..haha! Either way, here we go! Better late than never, right? I have been still going through somewhat of a nostalgic phase but I have also found some cool new music particularly from TV show soundtrack and movie. I’ll talk more about it in the descriptions below the songs.

Hope you enjoy!

Duelling Pianos: Why I’m Talking to You/Till You’re Gone – Jon McLaughlin feat Gabe Dixon

I love Jon McLaughlin ever since I heard ‘So Close’ from Enchanted and he’s always been on my radar. This popped up on my feed the other day from his Duelling Pianos series and I love this mash-up so much with Gabe Dixon as they sing each other’s song, ‘Till You’re Gone’ and ‘Why I’m Talking To You’. Its a ton of fun. Plus, I do play the piano and since I played mostly classical stuff, I’m less fluent in these groovy bluesy style of free-style piano. Habits are quite hard to break but these songs always give me something to motivate me to spend more time trying to get to a place where I’m comfortable with playing songs like this.

Killing Strangers – Marilyn Manson feat Tyler Bates (John Wick Soundtrack)

My husband was making lots of comments about how many times I played this song after I saw John Wick. Either way, its a fantastic song. It has a ton of mood and matches the movie so well. The song is great but its also nice to remind me of how great John Wick is.

Sweetest Life – KWAYE

So..if you didn’t know, I binge-watched the Netflix Original series On My Block about 3 times and one of the opening of the episodes was with this song by KWAYE called Sweetest Life. There is so much I love about that series and I’m so happy that they got green-lit for a second season. Can’t wait! In the mean time, I’ll probably binge-watch it again sometime in the next few months and listen to this really fun song. Actually, the soundtrack for the entire season is great so check it out if you have time!

You Are The Reason – Calum Scott

A very slow song compared to the other choices but I love the lyrics of it and Calum Scott has a beautiful voice. I actually hadn’t listened to the radio for months and then turned it on right when they switched to this song. Its quite full of emotion, which is a good thing.

Smart – Tension

Its been kind of weird because I’ve been seeing ‘NSync pop up on Ellen lately after a few weeks of listening to a few of their music and then some Backstreet Boys medley and other 90s music stuff. It kind of lead me to thinking about some Taiwanese boy bands and then landed on Tension, which was like the 2000s version of Backstreet Boys/’NSync. The similarities of their music videos at least in the vibe of it all kind of gave them an edge. Plus Taiwan went through a phase of having these kinds of boy bands with Energy, 5566, F4 and eventually, Fahrenheit (which are ones I liked). Unfortunately, Tension disbanded when their contract ended due to not agreeing to what they were outlined for the future of their group and limited them creatively (according to some research). Actually, the fun fact here is that the group member, Jimmy Hung is actually one of the sons of Sammo Hung.

Coffee Please – Jay Hardway

What kind of music obsessions would it be without some electronic music, right? Jay Hardway honestly has never disappointed me with any of this music.  I discovered him through Electric Elephants which I think is still my favorite of his but this one is pretty good as well. Great beats in general and gets me into a great mood and energy!

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

Music Obsessions [October 2017]

Welcome to October’s Music Obsessions!

The first week of October is pretty much ending. I probably should have been last Sunday’s segment but as you can see, things have been running way ahead of me so its nice to get that extra moment to put this together. Its always a fun time since I’m getting a slight writer’s block. Regardless, I know the horror content has been a little thin the last few days but if everything goes well, there will be a review going up later today as well for a movie that I love so very much even if its made me creeped out also a lot.

We’re here for some music so here’s a few songs I’ve been listening to a ton!

One Day Live Your Life – Thomas Vent

I’ve been playing this game called Beat Fever and its where I found this song. Its super cool although can get a little repetitive at times. However, I do love these glitch funk type of music. Its just so happy whenever it plays. If you didn’t read my review of Beat Fever over at That Moment In, you can check it out HERE.

Wonder Woman – Miriam Yeung

For the HK pop selection, lets go with the recent release of this Miriam Yeung song called Wonder Woman. Its got some fun lyrics and the video is pretty cool. Plus, the song overall is very energetic. Its a great one. A surprising thing I’ve realized is that I can’t get into any newer artists in Hong Kong but these ones that I grew up with are still around and make great music that I can appreciate. 🙂

The Fever – Bassjackers vs Breathe Carolina & Apek

Awesome beat and a fun comic strip style story-based video! The Fever is really great. Plus, I love Bassjackers and Breathe Carolina a ton. They’ve always made awesome electronic music. I’ve been rather particular and this one is just so fantastic.

You’re Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile – Annie (1982) Soundtrack

I reviewed a double feature of Annie of 1982 and 2014 version a week or so ago probably.  You can read it HERE. A lot of stuff here is very much delayed posting. Its what I’ve learned keeps the content going and makes sure that I’ve had time to think things through a little before reviewing. So a few Annie songs from 1982 has been playing on repeat and this one definitely is one that gets played the most. Its just so fun and the segment is adorable. The little girl is so awesome.

Power – Hardwell & KSHMR

Its quite an awesome last few weeks when I not only got new music from Bassjackers and Breathe Carolina and now there’s even Hardwell and KSHMR teaming up to do this new song called Power. They all make such energetic and B-A dance music.

Way Down We Go – Kaleo

So…apparently late to this Kaleo music thing but hey, I found it. Noah Mac sang it at the Blinds for this season of The Voice. He does a great job and it made me want to find the original and this one is my absolute favorite in the last few days! The band and the voice is so unique. They have a few other songs that I’ve liked a lot like No Good and I Can’t Go On Without You. I’ll probably showcase them in later Music Obsessions.

Finally…since I’ve been watching Season 13 of The Voice, and I’ve been liking a ton of the singers. Its an impressive roll right now with Anthony Alexander and Noah Mac really having unique voices however Dave Crosby came to audition and he’s on Adam team. If you don’t remember, Dave Crosby is the one who did the Disney songs with his daughter. He’s really awesome. It would be nice to see a subtly beautiful voice win The Voice. Maybe there has been since I’ve only started watching since last season. So lets end with that since he gets his daughter to perform You’ve Got A Friend in Me upon the judges request and he sings I Will Follow You in the Dark which happens to be one of my favorite songs.

That’s it for this month’s Music Obsessions!
Nothing really horror and scary and that’s why I’m getting a second post up in the afternoon!

What have you been listening to?