Music Obsessions – January 2023

Welcome to the first Music Obsessions of this year. First of all, a little wrap-up of 2022 as look at the Spotify Wrapped.

流沙 Everything’s Gone – 陶喆 David Tao

Man, this song brings me back. David Tao is probably Top 5 favorite music artists in my book. Everything’s Gone is a song that is probably my absolute as it was my go-to song at karaoke every single time. I sang it so much that I actually had the courage to perform it on a little event one time. I have no idea when I added to it my Spotify list but so suitable that its my most played song in 2022 as I was puffing up my list this year and getting really nostalgic in the process. David Tao is such a fantastic R&B artist and probably will take a Music Obsessions post to share a bunch of my faves of his. Hmm…thinking about that, maybe it might be a fun segment to add to the blog.

緋聞男友 Rumored Boyfriend- 劉浩龍Wilfred Lau

I actually own the album for this artist which is the few songs that were really popular that I remember of (maybe there’s more that I don’t know about). There’s actually another song back then from Wilfred Lau that I listened to a lot more but somehow after I added this song to my list, its one that has been popping up a lot and has really won me over in the past year. I don’t think its anything really special but somehow the lyrics are pretty catchy. On that note, its odd but one of this past month’s discovery is also with him.

I’ve shared the other songs from the Top 5 of Spotify Wrapped in one way or another before, I believe so I’m going to move onto regular programming.

行者Walker – 劉浩龍Wilfred Lau & 側田Justin Lo
(“Line Walker” TV series Main Theme)

I’m super late to the Line Walker party since they aired Season 3 in 2020 and I only caught up the first season in December. Its a really great series though. Its been a while since I’ve watched TVB series which used to be my main thing growing up and some of the best memories when I was younger. Coming back to it in probably a decade, it had to be a series that was worth it and not something that I would just sit down and feel like it was all done before and Line Walker definitely did that. Theme songs for TVB series used to mean the big times for Hong Kong artists because they were usually big hits and while I’m not sure how it is in the current decade, this song has Justin Lo and Wilfred Lau and is pretty great. I chose the opening theme sequence for this video over some of the other lyric videos but I think its worth it to showcase the series a little, in case you can find one with English subtitles.

2nd Favourite 第二最愛 – 古巨基 Tyson Yoshi

Honestly one of my favorite song in the recent weeks and I haven’t really found a lot of new music lately. This song has such a great vibe and the collaboration is pretty good as well. Some of the lyrics is a bit hilarious much like parts of the video with Leo Ku hanging out under the bed which is fairly silly but the song has a nice rhythm and fun.

Why Why Why – 王嘉尔Jackson Wang

Jackson Wang is probably one of the most diverse music producers in the current landscape. I’ve shared a ton of his music on Music Obsessions already and every single one has a different vibe from pop song 100 Ways to Electronic Dance song Pretty Please to Alternative/Indie song Blow and Cruel. Why Why Why is considered a pop song but this one differs from 100 Ways mostly in its more comedic take. Jackson Wang in a tree suit is just awesome. There are no words to explain how silly the video is but he also rarely sings in Mandarin and the lyrics are actually pretty good paraphrasing basically that there’s no reason why you love someone but for who they are.

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

Music Obsessions – December 2022

A little late for this month’s Music Obsessions! Hard to imagine we are at the last one of this year. While I already got my Spotify Wrapped, I decided to do that with my final year round-up at the end of this month and do a little runthrough for January. Either way, there are still some good music that I’ve discovered or re-discovered.

恐懼蠶食心靈 Fear Eats The Soul – 鄭欣宜 Joyce Cheng

Joyce Cheng has really improved in her singing. While I’m not exactly a fan of all her music, I’ve been following her music more and more. Not only are her music videos done really well but the music itself from her voice and the emotions are all there. It really helps carry the song. This song and the way she sings it is quite a good match. Its nice to see that she’s able to embrace a lot of different music styles since I’ve shared probably three of her songs in Music Obsessions and each one has been different from the other.

比莉卡厲害 Billie is Incredible – Billie

A rough idea of what the song probably would be in English. I’m not quite sure the exact translation. This song is the main theme from Netflix Taiwanese series Mom Don’t Do That that aired a few months ago. The series itself is fantastic and I will be talking more about in an upcoming project that I will launch at the beginning of 2023. I’m in preparation mode as of the beginning of November and working hard to get things ready for January launch. Either way, this song is simply a lot of fun. The series is a ton of fun as well. Its happy and upbeat and that’s why its here.

烏梅子醬 The Dark Plum Sauce – 李榮浩 Ronghao Li

I honestly don’t listen to enough of Ronghao Li’s music. He writes some pretty great songs and none of that I’ve ever discovered have been bad. Its all pretty great ballads. This one actually feels a little bit of early Jay Chou from the music video to the rhythm itself. Its something that I’m rather nostalgic about since that was part of my teen years when music was the main emotional support. This song’s lyrics are also super sweet much like its title.

好想約你 – Gigi 炎明熹

This year’s new addition to my list of new artists that I think are pretty good is Gigi who was Hong Kong TVB’s Star Academy Season 1 winner. Its pretty nice to see there’s still some talent since most of the time when I listen to any new artists from Hong Kong shows, its all very disappointing. This song is pretty fun and cute and matches her age. Her voice reminds me really good female singers in the 90s which seems like its lost nowadays. Either way, the youthfulness of the song makes it so feel good.

藍奕邦 Pong Nan – Happy Prince 快樂王子

I wish that there was a better video for this song but I don’t talk about Pong Nan enough since from the beginning when he was making music, I loved a lot of his work. Most of his song’s lyrics are meaningful and thoughtful. It has this nice touch of intricacy that I’m a big fan of since it feels like its a rarity. As I was researching for this post, I learned that this song was actually the main theme song for a play.

Bonus: 我比从前更寂寞 I’m Lonelier Than Before – 陈慧娴 Priscilla Chan & 杨坤 Yang Kun
(Singing With Legends S4 Performance)

I’ve shared this song in a previous Music Obsessions (probably a few years ago) which is a pretty popular song of Yang Kun’s which he wrote during his depression and talks about the feeling of depression. Its a song that paired up with his distinctive voice is amazing. Truly heartfelt and deep. This time for the Singing With Legends show, he pairs up with Priscilla Chan to sing it together and it speaks volumes in a different way. Thinking about it, it sure is time to do a post for Priscilla Chan’s music (if I remember to do it next year).

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

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?