♪ 2023.11

Dec 6, 2023

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Most of my playback record selections are new YouTube recommendations in November 2023.

◇YT playlist

Songs are sorted from lowest to highest number of views.

◆ Zuo Xiaozu Curse - 2020 A singing veteran feat. Diplodocus
◆Graham Lake-Elisabeth
◆ She Her Her Hers - Ignorant
◆ Annika Wells - Suck!t
◆ Elephant Gymnastics - Night Ocean Scenery (Orchestra ver.) feat.Hong Shenhao, Kaohsiung City Wind Band
◆ rosemances - We'll Meet Again
◆ Tom Rosenthal - All a Bit Too Loud
◆Heartworms-May I Comply
◆ Li Shiyi - Fake Syndrome
◆ Roumi-Xingzai sets off
◆Cody Fry-Fine
◆ Warhaus - Popcorn feat. Sylvie Kreusch
◆ Constant's changing ball - the river flowing out of the seaport
◆ muque - 456
◆ AJR - Maybe Man

◇ Spotify

At the end of November, Spotify compiled annual music listening statistics and preferences for each user. As someone who hardly ever listens to music on Spotify, I was filled with questions when looking at the somewhat unfamiliar statistics...

I love The Raveonettes, yes, but have I listened to them so much?
BCNR occupies two of the most listened songs, but why is your favorite artist not on the list?
The listening minutes of 566 are actually intended to match the industry, right? Or are the 56 souls in the blood immortal?
Why do music playback statistics only extend to November? Isn’t it cool to just listen to a song every December?

(Take this opportunity to promote old articles)
💿 Late-night low-level playlist | [December is here] - Why don’t you ask about the magical conch?
[Music 365] December(121/365)

In fact, I have never been used to streaming music platforms. Most of the time, I prefer to listen to each song carefully in a quiet environment, instead of just needing music as a background to fill those fragmented times that are often not suitable for listening to songs. (Maybe I think this is basic respect for every music creator). Moreover, the algorithm will always make what you can listen to more and more limited, so you will consciously look for different sounds to interfere with the algorithm.

This monthly recommendation series usually selects works uploaded to Youtube that month, which means that the songs themselves may not be newly released this month, but the newly released images that match the music. Finally, many of the recommended songs in the playlist were selected because their MVs are interesting.

◆ Zuo Xiaozu Curse

About ten years ago, I wanted to help this Chinese artist/dissident/singer/wonder... write an introductory article, but the more relevant articles and reports I read, the less confident I was that I could write it well, so I just gave it up. Here is a brief excerpt.

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"Noise is hard to do well."

What he said at the end of the interview made me think for a long time. On the one hand, it is necessary to maintain fine craftsmanship in making music, and on the other hand, it is necessary to make the music not as pleasant as noise, or even intolerable. People must look directly at (listen to) these bugs stuck in the ears, and then understand Creating the meaning behind the song and conveying what he really wanted to say through the work may be far more difficult than making a beautiful song. The song mentioned in the interview was composed by Zuo Xiao based on the interview with Qian Shunnan, the father of the deceased , in Ai Weiwei's documentary " Peaceful Yueqing" in response to the "Qian Yunhui Incident" :

◇ My son’s name is Qian Yunhui

Wandering on the edge of censorship taboos, criticizing current affairs, and sometimes or not satirizing the Chinese Communist Party government have always been the main themes of his creations. If you carefully study the lyrics, you can often make some new discoveries. Many people know Zuo Xiaozusu because of his collaboration with Chen Sheng ( The Gun of Love ) and being invited to Taiwan for several years in a row. They are deeply impressed by his artistic singing voice. As long as you mute the part he sings in your mind, his songs will usually sound much better. But if you don’t want to continue living in lies and want to face the ugly dark side of this society, please accept his out-of-tune, wrong-time, and out-of-tune songs. It's not enough to sound like death.

Back to this song, this is a song included in Zuo Xiao’s new album "I Love Nanjing" in August this year (2023). In fact, when Zuo Xiao was singing duets with other singers, his original ability to completely go out of tune would be accidentally pulled back. The lead singer of Second Hand Rose, Liang Long, collaborated, and the performer Mureale played the Sherter (one of the modified three-stringed instruments of the traditional Kazakh instrument "Dombra") to outline the charming outline of the song, paired with the intriguing animated MV, all of which made people laugh. The reason why I chose this song.

What happens in China in 2020? Why did everyone spend the New Year in silence when it was supposed to be a lively time? What do the lyrics want to accuse you of? This is left to the guest to make his or her own thoughts.

Finally, I will add a song from one of my classic albums, from the 2011 "Temple Fair Journey II": Nail House

◆ She Her Her Hers

The Japanese group just released their new album "Diffusion of Responsibility" this month.

Reference article: Black Card Magazine・The ethereal sound of Japanese and Korean independent music: She Her Her Hers...a little-known fresh and dreamy playlist

I came to Taiwan to attend a music festival earlier this year, and I will be back on the Asia tour for my new album in January next year. If you like it, you can pre-order it on 1/12... which happens to be the day before the voting day.

Diffusion of responsibility is a proper term in social psychology. Wikipedia tells me that this is called "diffusion of responsibility", which means: "For a certain thing, if a single individual is required to complete the task alone, the sense of responsibility will be very high." Strong and respond positively. But if a group is required to complete tasks together, each individual in the group will have a weak sense of responsibility and will tend to shrink when faced with difficulties or responsibilities."

So don’t let the matter get out of hand. Please come out and vote after listening to the special session. That’s good.

◆ Annika Wells

Annika Wells's name may not be heard by many, but she has actually collaborated with many world-class musicians, such as Jonas Brothers, vocals on DJ ILLENIUM's hit single, duet with Twice, and even wrote songs To BTS. In the early days, he mainly composed and wrote songs. He may not have deliberately thought about developing in front of the screen, but this month he released his EP "Eat Dirt" (Eat Dirt!) which is very interesting. You can feel him from his spoken (vulgar) lyrics. The side of me who is true to myself (and is a middle-aged person), I sincerely recommend it.

◆ rosemances - We'll Meet Again

This Hong Kong duo, which only formed this year, sang a cover of Vera Lynn's song in 1943 and was selected as the ending theme of the movie "Under the Sun". Although the movie did not win the Golden Horse Award, more people should hear their voices. . The cover works are all very flavorful, and I haven’t created many of my own creations yet, so I look forward to future development.

◆ Tom Rosenthal - All a Bit Too Loud

Please take care of your ears!

Tom Rosenthal's new album this year is called "Zz-Sides" . It is a continuation of his 2018 album "Z-Sides". After listening to it, it will give you a feeling of calmness, warmth, and longing for Zzz.

◆Heartworms-May I Comply

Heartworm, a gothic post-punk band from London, led by lead singer Jojo Orme (whose real name is Jojo must not be a simple character...), plays the intro to the song until 78 seconds before starting to sing. Listen to the music here In the age of fast food, which values efficiency, courage is quite commendable! In fact, the single "Retributions Of An Awful Life" released at the beginning of this year is even more powerful. It took a full 100 seconds to set the atmosphere before the vocals started to appear.

A very distinctive female voice, recommended to everyone.

◆ Warhaus - Popcorn feat. Sylvie Kreusch

Warhaus is also a frequent visitor here... Please forgive me for posting the old article directly.

[Music 365] Warhaus (43/365)

Unknowingly, I jumped to the last song. As usual, if there is no special introduction in the playlist, it doesn’t mean that I don’t like it less. It’s just that I can’t think of anything to add at the moment, and I’m very lazy. Anyone can search on Google. Really It is more efficient to find information about musicians you are interested in and get to know them by yourself (if the information is available).

In fact, I still hope that once in a while, one or two people will leave a message to scold me after listening to it all, thinking that my taste in song selection is bad, the arrangement is messy, and the introduction is terrible and full of mistakes, etc., to heat up the atmosphere. (M attribute confirmation)

◆ AJR - Maybe Man

AJR is a trio of brothers from New York, Adam, Jack, and Ryan. The MV for this song is great. Although the song is more guava (a bit layered, just think of it as red heart guava) and the lyrics are also very interesting, the main reason why it was selected is because the MV is so beautiful.

◆ Hide?? Tracks??

In fact, it’s not a song at all, it’s just a mysterious channel I found recently,

English by Stéaviñ | EBS Tutorials

As the name suggests, this guy named Stéaviñ helps you pronounce and show you how to use these English words or random things (even emoticons) in example sentences. The latest upload is Sleep:

This actually has a coherent plot, you have to read the previous article to know what is going on. In short, his inexplicable rhythm, weird sense of humor, weak voice, and interaction with his friend Chuck are all very funny. I hope you all can find some fun in this channel.