Sun, sweat, smiles! Gee, that last sentence sounds a bit like a bastardisation of the name of the latest atrocity of a Ch 8 drama (Beach.Ball.Babes).
Regardless! The songs I’ve been looping and will be looping when I spend a week in summery Japan!
1. aiko - ボーイフレンド
HOW CUTE IS THIS, PLEASE! This is also the only song I know of that references a Tetrapod.
2. Mr. Children - 未来
I listen to this song and I am reminded of the Pocari Sweat commercial that this was featured in.
3. M.I.A - Jimmy
I know this is kind of incongruous given the first 2 songs here, but you cannot not want to dance when you hear this.
4. 倉木麻衣 - Kiss
I am not a big fan of Mai K, but I don’t ever skip this song when it comes on shuffle. There is something just so infectiously earnest about this. The melody, words, the moderate cutesy-ness - it all works.
5. Broken Social Scene presents Kevin Drew - Backed Out On The…
This is a party song if I’ve ever heard one. Period.
I got to know of him thanks to CM. I was quite dismissive of him as another of the 3281093812321 singer-songwriter types out there right now, but 2 to 3 listens of the album later, and I am now hooked beyond recognition.
If I had to make a comparison, I’d say that he sounds abit like a Taiwanese version of Jason Mraz. Though, you’d never guess it, but, on closer listening, I realise that his music is grounded very firmly in the same roots that……..Shiina Ringo’s music is! A rather clever mix of pop and funk and folk and blues.
I like that he sounds 100% unpretentious and 200% earnest. People like Rachel and Faith would fall head over heels in love with him, I think. Tee hee.
It is only appropriate that I honour my favourite woman on this planet with a feature on this blog. I have nothing much to say about this except that: song = WIN and video = WIN FOR LIFE!
I think I like Fiona Sit/Khalil Fong’s [复刻回忆录] (Mandarin cover of Southern All Stars’ 「真夏の果実」) more than Bonnie Pink’s version with 斉藤和義, even if the arrangement is the bloody same. Speaking of which, I get really testy when the DJ on the (Mandarin) radio station introduces the song as a cover of a Jacky Cheung song - I mean, hello? Jacky’s song is a cover to begin with? Credit the original, plsthx.
On Fiona Sit - I’ve always dismissed her as a somewhat mediocre actress with an odd hamster-is face, but she has grown on me lately, and I’m half-inclined to get her Mandarin album. What really sealed it for me was watching her sing 陈淑桦’s [梦醒时分] on a clip from some movie on Youtube - pristine, effortless and earnest, sort of like the qualities that drew me to singers like Mavis Hee. Heck, maybe I’ll throw in the clip in question.
A year and a some later, I was inspired, of all things, by the 私房歌 column in i-Weekly to restart this music blog. I can’t profess to be a very good writer about music; I believe it takes a certain flair and artistry to be able to do it right without sounding like you’re reading off the ingredients on a can of soup. Nevertheless, I cannot stop talking about the music that I like. It is a vice that I have not been able to kick. So there.
<b>ADDENDUM</b>
Am fairly sheepish that youtube has taken down just about everything that has been posted thus far. Should you want to listen to any of the songs that have been covered thus far, do not hesitate to approach me.
She released an album in 2005 called Queen of Hip-pop, and I don’t think anybody can dispute that title. Funky Town is everything its title suggests - a fantastically funky song, with a great beat. There isn’t really anything majorly special about this, but the song is unbelievably catchy. I am really impressed with the way she keeps putting out these pop-perfect, toe-tap-inducing songs, and for a divorced mother, her dance moves are still as slick as ever. That, and she almost always looks gorgeous. Loves it.
This was probably my favourite single all year in 2006. Singer-songwriter Chara broke her hiatus with this gorgeous alt rock gem. Chara’s raspy, childlike voice might not be for everyone, but I personally think it adds a sort of charm to her music. I love this muted guitars at the beginning, the weird bleeps everywhere, and the way she simply bursts into the chorus with such magnificent whomph.
Video is gorgeous to boot. And Chara doesn’t doesn’t look like a crackpot for once. Highly recommended.
