Music Obsessions – March 2022

Welcome to this month’s Music Obsessions! Its hard to imagine that we’re already in March! There’s not a whole lot of new music to share but I’m going to share some new finds from TV series and other stuff this past month.

Kung Fu Piano: Cello Ascends – The Piano Guys

Its been a while since I listened to The Piano Guys but when their music popped up during the Winter Olympics for the Chinese Figure Skating team for their free dance, I looked it up and voila! I think its a wonderful piece of music and lots of fun.

對立面 Opposite – 蔡依林 Jolin Tsai
(“The Wolf” Chinese Drama OST)

Its my second attempt to watch the Chinese drama The Wolf as I work through some of the series that I’ve either started or catch up with last year’s TV series that I missed but had wanted to watch. I have to say that the second watch is a little more successful but can’t say I’m enjoying it a lot more even though I’m further. However, there is no denying that the soundtrack is a great selling point for the series and one of the reasons that some of the moments do pull through. I will finish it gradually….in time.

满月之下 Under The Full Moon -曾咏欣 Nicola Tsang
(“Love Under The Full Moon” Chinese Drama OST)

The latest TV series that I started is Love Under The Full Moon. It also has a great soundtrack. Super hard to find the legit videos for it though. Still, I found one which was a bit of the promo trailer with one of the sounds. The show itself is pretty fun diving into time travel and playing with quantum science (which I know nothing about it so it easily sells for myself). With that said, the show is pretty fun and the soundtrack matches up to it.

Dear Leslie – Leo Ku 古巨基

My latest addition to my list on Spotify is this song from Leo Ku. I know I showcased a bunch of Leo Ku last month with his huge medley songs but I’ve been rather nostalgic with the whole the music thing and Leslie Cheung is a talent that took his life too early so when Leo Ku did this tribute a few years back, I didn’t know about it until recently and its rather good.

奇洛李維斯回信 A Letter From Keanu Reeves – 薛凱琪 Fiona Sit

Diving back to older music, this song keeps popping up on my shuffle playlist on Spotify. Its not quality music since I honestly feel like Fiona Sit’s quality music comes in the past few years but I thought the whole idea for the song was so cute since it goes into the whole fangirl culture and hoping that the celebrity you like would reply your letters and stuff and in this case, its Keanu Reeves.

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

Music Obsessions – December 2020

Its the last music obsessions of 2020! There’s a lot of songs to get through so I added a little bonus at the bottom just for fun. Its the last one of the year and I wanted to those out. Let’s get straight to business!

暗夜蔷薇 Dark Night Rose – Joseph Zeng
(“The Journey Across The Night” Theme Song)

The Journey Across The Night was a really good series this year. It took forever to be released and then it didn’t really get a lot of views but one that I really loved for its direction. There were some issues with it but I’ll talk about it in a TV binge hopefully soon (I’m working through backlog to prioritize what to write up first for TV binge posts). The theme song is sang by the lead actor Joseph Zeng who really has popped in a lot of places including Netflix Chinese series Take My Brother Away (which I have yet to watch) but he also plays in recently released Hong Kong series Line Breaker 3 (which I honestly need to catch up on the previous 2 season). Either way, this song is really great. I love the mysterious style.

Really Want to Love This World 好想愛這個世界啊 – 華晨宇 Chen Yu Hua

I’m pretty selective about Chen Yu Hua’s music. He has very unique music and this one shows off his very great skills as he does the music but its the lyrics that truly are great. Plus, the melody is a little abnormal so its a rather challenging song in general. The song essentially is one that he said in The Singer 2020 that the wrote during the lockdown in China and its about depression and the inner world of someone who has depression and the message that people should reach out of those they care about with this disorder. Its a really meaning song.

Who Am I 我是谁 – Jolin Tsai feat Jony J
(“The Wolf” Main Theme)

I’ve fallen rather behind with The Wolf since I can see the frustrations that it will get down the road. Call me a pessimist if you would like but my predictions of Chinese dramas are really on point and about 5% of the TV series released nowadays truly surprise me.Still, I will hold my thoughts until I finish the series (which will run into 2021 so still lots of time to see where this all goes). All that aside, The Wolf has a fantastic soundtrack. The main theme is by Jolin Tsai, a singer that I listened to a lot in my college days. Not to mention, she’s paired with Jony J, a rapper that I recently knew about through Youth With You 2 that is truly rather impressive.

亞亞亞 Ya Ya Ya – Joey Yung

Its been a while since I’ve listened to Joey Yung’s stuff. I used to be a huge fan in her early days as a singer until she just started singing similar songs but really technical that I stopped. Thanks to Chinese variety show Our Song (Season 2), her participation resulted in a really great rendition of this song. Its a really fun one. Upbeat and fun..plus, we had a good laugh over her dance in the song. You have watch it for that. Joey Yung does have a great voice though and I do need to get back to catching up on some of her music.

Write A Poem For You 為你寫詩 – 吳克羣 Kenji Wu

This isn’t exactly a new song and the oldest of this list but I used to love this song. Kenji Wu is a king at writing songs to confess love. This song is fantastic and I’ve been relistening to it and its still so great. The lyrics are super romantic as its about a guy learning piano and writing lyrics for a girl he likes. Its a little dreamy and such but still, its a sweet little song. Still as great as when I first heard it.

BONUS: Our Song Season 2 Fave Performances

Young and Dangerous franchise is probably one of the longest running film franchises in Hong Kong and for that, its been accompanying a lot of people with some iconic songs in its soundtrack through its many films. In the team battles, this crew with Jordan Chan (known most for his role in Young and Dangerous films) leads the other guys GAI, Roy Wang and Shilei Chang, calling themselves the Hotpot Heroes as he does this new cover of one of the songs called Super Star in Trouble Times.

Hotpot Heroes does the most recent performance which earns them the final win for their group and pushing two of them directly through to the finals. This one is a great one that does a medley going through popular songs from the different decades using the backdrop of a radio program and the emotions. Its a fun one. Probably means more to me since I liked almost all the songs that they chose and a lot of them were playing on repeat when they were released and songs that I go back to frequently starting from the first song Stupid Child by Andy Lau and ending perfectly for the quattro for Meteor Shower from the original Meteor Garden series by F4. Memories…nostalgia…I just can’t believe that I was supporting Jordan Chan when people argued over this singing and now look at him, still doing so well in the business. This medley is so awesome! I could put so many more of these performances since Our Song Season 2 had a Hong Kong singer in every group so it was quite the treat to see so many familiar songs pop up.

I kind of cheated this Music Obsessions but here it is!
What have you been listening to?