Music Obsessions: July 2021

Another month has passed by! Its time for the next Music Obsessions! A decent mix this time from Cantopop to collabs and c-pop. All of them pretty fun!

Raining – Lil Ghost

Lil Ghost is one of those new musical artists from idol shows that really have constantly surprised me. First with his rap and hip hop music when he first debut solo after Nine Percent and then when he joined the second season of Our Song where he paired up with Coco Lee and probably learned quite a bit. Which leads to his latest music which is a change in style focusing more on his singing vocal abilities than his rap. I think there’a still some room for improvement but overall, the style and vibe from the music is so uplifting that its so happy to listen to.

The Way You Make Me Feel – 莫文蔚 Karen Mok

Big fan of Karen Mok right here. She has such a unique voice and singing style. Plus, nowadays cantopop is slowly losing out on quality (in my opinion) so when singers from the 90s and 00s come out with new music, its so awesome. I really like the style of her latest music videos which are so happy and positive.

Happy For You – Lukas Graham (feat. 衛蘭 Janice Vidal)

I have been listening to Janice Vidal again who I think doesn’t put out enough music and is pretty underrated. Refer to last month’s music obsessions when I shared “It’s Okay To Be Sad”. Here she does a collab with Lukas Graham for his song Happy For You and adding in that cantopop lyrics and style which a lovely mesh.

Zoom – R1SE

I’m still going through a bit of a ending phase as R1SE disbanded this past month. While I think they had good potential and whatnot, the different members seem to be popping up here and there whether its TV series or variety shows, etc. In time we will see how the members will do. However, as their farewell album’s main theme, ZOOM is a pretty good song. Cool and fun and pretty much shows off how this boy group is really good. Honestly, I think that after Nine Percent, this group is pretty solid. If only this year’s Youth With You group had formed, it would maybe have been another potentially solid one. With that said, I’ve gone on a tangent…

时光少年 Back to Youth – 胡夏 Fox Hu
(Flourish In Time’s Main Theme)

Ending it on the main theme song for Flourish in Time which is playing on Tencent right now and one that I’ve grown to like a lot. I left it on the side a little so that I can binge the last few episodes and not have to wait it out for the ending episodes. Fox Hu is renowned for being a singer of theme songs (although he has proved that he is capable of much more) and this song is pretty good. I like both the lyrics and melody and lot. It fits this kind of schoolyard romance.

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

Music Obsessions – April 2020

April is upon us! 2020 is going by crazy fast and spring is already here! The world’s a bit crazy right now but its why music is so important! At least for myself, I have coincidentally been watching a lot of music-related variety shows, making this Music Obsessions a little more padded than normal. I just can’t choose and really want to share it all! Its different music genres and a little slow and a little fast as well to give it a little balance. Hopefully you will like it!

GOOD NIGHT – Lil Ghost 小鬼

We start off with something fun and light. Lil Ghost (Linkai Wang) previously a member of Nine Percent, released this song back in 2018 however, I only caught this because of variety show Our Song. Lil Ghost is one of the most talented young rappers in the Chinese music landscape that really has a lot of potential and while I might not have seen it so much in Idol Producer, the many variety shows that he’s been in really shows off his personality as well as his talent. At least on-screen, he brings a lot of positive vibes and that’s really great.

Half Moon Serenade 月半小夜曲 – Hacken Lee 李克勤 & Charlie Zhou 周深 (“Our Song” performance)

Hacken Lee and Charlie Zhou’s every single performance in Our Song was all my favorite so it all comes down to which song I love personally a lot and my favorite song of Hacken Lee (definitely in top 5 singles) goes to Half Moon Serenade and they do a fantastic job here. Its how their voices play off each other really well and also how they manage to pair together so well.

Remaining Years 餘年 – Sean Xiao 肖戰

Sean Xiao has been through a rather ridiculous situation in my opinion early in March, right when I started checking out his stuff, peaked by interest after Who’s The Murderer and then his stellar performances in Our Song and my interest in checking out The Untamed eventually (but haven’t yet). I ended up finding this song that I’ve put on repeat a whole lot. He is a very talented singer who started out in a boy group XNINE but ended up pursuing an acting career nowadays but he still has really good voice. Remaining Years is a song in last year’s series Joy of Life (that I also didn’t see but my mom is currently watching) and its really the song and how it sounds that I find has a hard element to learn how to sing.

The Younger Me 少年 – Wakin Chau 周華健

Wakin Chau is more like my parents music but I grew up as a little girl listening to him and knowing a lot of his song in the 80s and 90s. So many memory songs and he has a unique voice that you can just recognize right away. His latest album took him years to put together and the lyrics here (while not written by him) is incredibly meaningful and kind of grabs me everytime. I’ll translate the Chorus and ending verse:

Some people we don’t see again, Some dreams have been forgotten
I sing every song to keep the happiness
Some roads are hard to walk, Some pains take a lifetime to heal
I can still smile and live

Sometimes its too late to settle, The years have passed before your soul
Fortunately there is a little faith, Accompanying us to go through everyday
Don’t forget your heart’s younger self, The wild and brave younger self at the start

100 Ways – Jackson Wang

Adding an English song to the mix! Jackson Wang makes some pretty fantastic music videos. While I can’t say that I love a lot of his music, mostly because I’m pretty picky with his style of music. However, 100 Ways is definitely my fave so far and the one that I’ve replayed the most. Its upbeat and fun. The lyrics is a tad repetitive but the whole song’s rhythm and beat just works so catchy!

我说了算(I Have the Final Say) – Nicholas Tse, Jam Hsiao & Karry Wang
(Me to Us performance)

Me to Us is a great variety show that has really only started. Putting together Nicholas Tse, Jam Hsiao and Karry Wang, the former two who I know more than the latter. Nicholas Tse wrote this song for the first performance of Me To Us as they all sing it together. Its just all kinds of awesome. I can’t fangirl over the fact that I just thought back that its been 20 years that I’ve been a fan of Nicholas Tse and his performance is every bit as fantastic now than when I first heard his songs in 2000 (maybe even 1999). Not to mention, this song is so fun and powerfully rock!

When I Met You當遇見你  – Yuning Liu 劉宇寧
(Ending Theme “Skate Into Love”)

I kind of debated whether to put this here since I might end up using this video as a part of the TV binge when I finish Skate Into Love but you know what, I truly have been lately the most obsessed with this one. I have shared a few of Yuning Liu’s songs before and this one is also really cute and romantic and fits this series a lot. There’s some great singing going on here from Yuning Liu as well.

That’s it for this (longer than usual) Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to on repeat?