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 – February 2021

Welcome to this month’s Music Obsessions! The past month of crazy work phase was mostly music and TV that offered a lot of background company so suffice to say, there’s a lot that I want to share but then I’ve picked the highlights of my faves. Let’s check it out!

《无华》 No Extravagance- 张靓颖 Jane Zhang &摩登兄弟刘宇宁 Yuning Liu

While I haven’t gotten back to Legend of Fei (but will soon), this ending theme for the series is one of my absolutely favorites of this year so far. I love songs like this plus some of the lyrics and singing really is my cup of tea. Plus, I do like Yuning Liu quite a bit as a singer. Plus, the lyrics itself is fairly romantic and does match the series rather well.

哥本哈根的另一個我 My Doppelgänger in Copenhagen – Fiona Sit 薛凱琪

In recent years, Fiona Sit has definitely showed off the musical talent that she has. Its not saying that she didn’t have it before but when she first started, it was a very cute sweetheart sort of song singing about writing love letters to Keanu Reeves and all that cute stuff. The last few years, whether its the song she chooses to sing and the music videos that she puts together is much more mature (and it makes sense since she is older now) and it matches her so well.

Love Can Change Our Ways – Raffy

I don’t follow a lot of French-Canadian bands but I had caught Raffy at least a decade ago (if not more) and from then, I’ve been following them on and off. Recently, I’ve found them on Twitch live shows and its been a ton of fun which makes for some uplifting way to spend my Thursday and Saturday evenings. It also lead me to discover a song that had slipped through my radar called Love Can Change Our Ways which has such a positive vibe to it and its absolutely awesome.

玩家 Player -曹楊Young ft. 派偉俊 Patrick Brasca

Patrick Brasca seems to always be featured in someone else’s song. His own music is not too impressive in my opinion however, he does pair up with good singers and in some great songs like when he started off in Jay Chou’s Love Confession or in the Kung Fu Panda 3 song and now, his most recent is with Young Cao, a singer that I actually don’t listen to a lot of but he does have a decent voice. This song is pretty cool overall. I like the rhythm of the whole thing.

Blue – Justin 黄明昊

My latest fave is Justin Huang’s Blue. Its really odd because when Justin was in Idol Producer, I didn’t really think that he deserved as much popularity as he got. I think he ended the show ranked in 2nd but after that, he really shines through the variety shows he picks (and he is in a lot of them) and then still has time to make music and even in another variety show shared how he was accomplishing his dream of creating his own clothing brand. For someone that’s only 20 (or 21, I can’t remember), that’s pretty impressive. With that said, his songs are really hit and miss at times. The last few definitely more hits though. This one is super chill in rhythm, almost like in a relaxing lounge and then the lyrics are really good (and some of it fairly young love sort of cute).

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