Episode 705: Musics

Quite unintelligent spiel about the music I listen to coming up. You have been warned. First up, I'm pleased to learn that Gareth Emery is finally releasing his first studio album, Northern Lights. Would order a signed copy, but MOE hasn't credited my annual allowance yet, so I don't have any pounds in my account. The money for my attachment has finally come through though, so I'll be picking up some books over the next couple of weeks. I'm listening to a preview of the album now on his website, and I'm liking what I hear. There's a level of complexity in Emery's sound that I've found appealing ever since I heard 'Exposure' and 'Metropolis' in 2009. On the other hand, there really isn't anything terribly complex about my latest favourite song. It's the title track off BoA's sixth Korean album, Hurricane Venus, so yeah, except for the couple of English words she sprinkles throughout the song, I have absolutely no idea what she's singing about. It's insanely catchy though. (Much more so than anything on her Japanese release, Identity, that's for sure.) The problem I have with J-pop and K-pop is that I can't stand the ballads. If a song doesn't have a thumping beat, the vocals start to grate on my nerves. Yet when it comes to English songs, I can completely appreciate more laid-back stuff. For example, I came across a Joshua Radin song on Shu En's LJ today, and I love his stuff. (Incidentally, is there a TV show that has not featured one of his songs? It's ridiculous how they've popped up everywhere.) Is it because I can understand the lyrics, and so that allows me to connect with their emotional content in a way that I can't with Japanese and Korean lyrics (even after having looked up the mangled English translations)? Perhaps. Anyway, have yet to finish today's chapter from that Shakespeare book, so I'm signing off now to go and get some reading done.