Music Obsessions – December 2021 (& Spotify Wrapped)

The last Music Obsessions of 2021 is here as we dive into December’s edition. Usually I put in some holiday stuff but this year, with my 2021 use of Spotify, I had something fun to share with their Spotify Wrapped for 2021. I’ll still had a few other music from the past month for fun but I will do a little recap of some music that was surprisingly playing a lot in my playlist.

Let’s go!

陪你去流浪 Accompany You To Wander – Joker Xue 薛之謙

What is there to say about this one? I actually think this song is just really good. Joker Xue is really talented and I’ve shared quite a few of his songs before. His voice is really soothing especially when he is singing these slow love ballads. Not to mention the whole music video is nicely done with the snowscape and all.

Do You Know Me – 24 Herbs 廿四味

My friend is streaming Sleeping Dogs right now on Twitch and it made me realize that 24Herbs did songs for the soundtrack. Its how I landed on this song. I used to listen to a bit of their songs before which was mostly duets with Sammi Cheng but this one is pretty good and actually got to dive a little into the hip hop group themselves which actually has two members from LMF, a Hong Kong Cantonese hip hop group which basically was the first (or one of the first) to do something where rap was their main genre focus.

兩個你Double You – G.E.M.鄧紫棋

This song is a theme song for a Hong Kong TV series that I haven’t seen but I’m sure its just airing recently or airing soon but G.E.M. is a singer that has been on my radar this past year or two. She has a really powerful voice and this song sounds pretty good as well.

Spotify Wrapped Overview

Below is the Spotify Wrapped for this year. I never knew this stuff was done, especially since its just the beginning of December so feels a little early. I didn’t dive into all the top songs or stuff but just focused on the two mentioned here, the most played song and the most played song from my top artist. The other stuff, you can enjoy and have fun. I use Spotify mostly for Chinese music and I have multiple playlists which I only focus mostly on one which is why its very unified to one thing. Its made me think about merging some of the different music together on Spotify. I am new to it just this year so still figuring out what works best.

Top Song: 告白氣球 Love Confession – Jay Chou 周杰倫

Its not too odd to think this one is my top song considering its also a pretty top song on Youtube for Jay Chou and had quite some reach. Plus, it is a really good song. Its lighthearted and romantic and really has the Jay Chou style to it while still having an upbeat vibe to the whole thing.

到底要怎麼樣 – 小鬼王琳凯 Lil Ghost

I’m not going to lie that Lil Ghost being my top artist was a little odd. I do have a few songs from him and he did become quite a frequent artist that I would listen to because the past year or two has just been him being involved in a bunch of variety shows which highlighted a lot of his own music after Nine Percent disbanded making him probably one of the more music focused celebrity that came out of all the guys there since a lot either vanished or just shifted into the TV drama path. His songs are also really fun and upbeat, positively happy to listen to overall.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
Do you use Spotify? What did your Spotify Wrapped look like?

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?