The Closer I Get To You by Franco Reyes

 

For the month of love, I'm enjoying listening to Franco Reyes' version of The Closer I Get to You that was originally sung by Roberta Flack (I recommend her song and version of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.) I love his intro about being in the friendzone...because that was harsh, and his sly remark with his grin is annoyingly attractive. Anyway, the one thing I've come to realize last year, with uptrend of the term "5 Love Languages", that my love language is Acts of Service. I wasn't aware of this whole love language until a friend asked me to take the quiz. It's funny how as I was taking the quiz that I was laughing at myself for realizing that maybe I need an assistant more than the lover. I love people doing stuff for me, more than receiving gifts, hearing praises, getting physical touches...but quality time did come in at a close second love language...because there's nothing more comforting than just by feeling my love's presence right next to me. I've been listening to Franco's version of the song since early last year because his voice and the way he was singing it was really hot, but when I started listening to the lyrics the more I was able to connect with the song. Yeah...I get captured when you give me all you've got. XD

The closer I get to you

The more you make me see

By giving me all you got

Your love has captured me

Over and over again

I tried to tell myself that we

Could never be more than friends

And all the while inside I knew it was real

The way you make me feel

The YouTube video is owned by Roxanne Nebres, and I'm sharing the original link of the video itself.

As for the 5 Love Language quiz, you can click the link here: Love Language Quiz

The Mission (Main Theme) by Ennio Morricone

I can't remember the last time I listened to an orchestra that played a piece that moved my soul. I was on a roll, binge-watching a couple of videos for Nella Fantasia...of which my favorite rendition is Chloe Agnew's because her voice easily hit the notes that gives me goosebumps all the time. As I was clicking away in search of other versions of the song I luckily stumbled across this one. It was weird because the thumbnail was from the movie The Mission that showed tribesmen, and the views was roughly 46k when I clicked on it. The video started with a scene from the movie, and as I forwarded it on it's 3-minute mark I heard the oboe started playing and saw that the video actually has 27+ million views. It did start with a piece of Nella Fantasia, but as the orchestra slowly moved into a different tempo I found myself drawn in. I felt a stirring in my soul as I watched the orchestra play. It was flawless, and it set quite a mood that calmed me, at the same time lifted by spirit. 

To be honest, I wasn't aware of Ennio Morricone until I found this video. It's unfortunate that he recently passed, but by how I started searching for his name and how his compositions had influenced the landscape of music, he'll be living on for quite a long long time.

We Are by HAEVN

This came in as one of YouTube's recommended video just a few days ago, right before my bedtime. I clicked on the video, the orchestra started playing, I closed my eyes and waited for his voice, and by the second line I was enamored. I fell asleep that night to this melancholic music. The next day I searched for HAEVN's playlist, and I ended up listing to the whole album without skipping a single track. Seldom does it happen that I enjoy an entire album from the first song down to the last, and this was one of those moments that I could just listen to it on repeat. I'm glad I found this refreshing yet tasteful and timeless music. 

Tila by Clara Benin

I just wanna share my love for Clara Benin's voice and music style. Right now this is what's been running on repeat in my head since they played the song last Saturday at the BGC Art Mart. It has a beautifully calming quality and has that nostalgic tune to it. She's also, as many may know, is the daughter of Joey Benin, the bassist of one of my favorite childhood bands, Side A. Tila is from her album, Riverchild. The lyrics tells of how she has this wishful thinking that you listen closely to the wind and might just hear in your heart the secrets she has told to the wind. Or something like that.

Tila humihinto ang aking panahon

Walang naririnig kundi huni ng ibon

Umaawit

Dinadala ng ihip ng hangin

Tila gumaganda ng lalo mga rosas

Sabay, sabay silang sumasayaw sa hampas ng hangin

Dumadampi at bumubulong sayo

Naririnig mo ba ang bulong ng puso ko

Binubulong ng hangin

Tila ngumingiti ang araw sa umaga

Mga paru-paro'y naglalaro

Sa hampas ng hangin

Dumadampi at bumubulong sa'yo

Naririnig mo ba ang bulong ng puso ko?

Binubulong ng hangin

Sana nga ito ay marinig

Binubulong ng hangin ang dama nitong dibdib

Naririnig mo bang tunog ng puso ko?

Binubulong ng hangin

Burnout by Dancel-Danao-Dumas

I've always had a love-hate relationship with OPM's; it's either I hate it or I love it. This, I absolutely love. The collaboration of the three beautifully-voiced-artists is something that makes me excited about the local music scene. Johnoy Danao is someone I admired since I first heard his voice on a commercial. His songs has this quality that hits home, you know, the one that makes you say it's Filipino music. His melodies and voice makes you want to chill on a hammock made of rattan, and sway yourself under a mango tree. Ebe Dancel is also another singer who I most especially liked during his first Sugarfree album way back in high school, and is actually the brother of one of my former bosses...I just didn't get to connect the dots as to why they sort-of look alike and have the same family name until I left the company. One day I saw an FB post of the two together, and that's when it hit me. Shunga! As for Bullet Dumas, it's the first time I heard him sing in this video...and I have to admit I hated his voice at first because it's so different from the two that I sort of didn't get it. That was until I peeked into his solo performances that I got into learning to really like his voice. His style is unique, and quite frankly hard to blend with other singers, but when he sings solo, it sort of has this ethnic-shaky-vibe to it that resembles with old folk singers. Something to appreciate, the uniqueness of his tone.

As for the song Burnout, it simply talks about love that's falling apart because of a relationship burnout. And of course, there's always one who will hurt more than the other.

Youth by Daughter

I came across this song about three years ago as a recommended video after going through the soundtrack of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty...either that, or it was a song under Spotify's Discover after listening to some Kodaline tracks. It took some repeats before I realized how heavy this song is. I initially thought the song is about us, the youth, millennials who pretty much got sick of life because one of the most prominent lines I could hear is: "And if you're still bleeding you're the lucky ones; cause most of our feelings, they are dead and they are gone." You know, when some of us have reached that feeling of emptiness due a quarter-life-crisis...a distraught existence, a hallowed out sense of self; it can really make you bleed out...yet your spirit feels numb at the inflicted wound because of you've been cut down countless of times. It can destroy so much life and emotions, regardless being wild and reckless because we are out chasing visions of our futures. We set fire on our insides for fun...only to blame ourselves in the end. Such is the roller coaster ride of it all.

But then I read the lyrics and suddenly it just turned out to be this really bad breakup with some guy, and it shows how terrible it was with the song's turnout. The irony of the sort-of upbeat drumming is in how the dark the lyrics is. The rawness of her pain is quite there. Down to the very end, there is no redemption in this song, just a lot of angst. Yet I don't know why I like it so much.

Here's the full song I got from azlyrics:

YOUTH

Shadows settle on the place, that you left.
Our minds are troubled by the emptiness.
Destroy the middle, it's a waste of time.
From the perfect start to the finish line.

And if you're still breathing, you're the lucky ones.
'Cause most of us are heaving through corrupted lungs.
Setting fire to our insides for fun
Collecting names of the lovers that went wrong
The lovers that went wrong.

We are the reckless,
We are the wild youth
Chasing visions of our futures
One day we'll reveal the truth
That one will die before he gets there.

And if you're still bleeding, you're the lucky ones.
'Cause most of our feelings, they are dead and they are gone.
We're setting fire to our insides for fun.
Collecting pictures from a flood that wrecked our home,
It was a flood that wrecked this home.

And you caused it,
And you caused it,
And you caused it

Well I've lost it all, I'm just a silhouette,
A lifeless face that you'll soon forget,
My eyes are damp from the words you left,
Ringing in my head, when you broke my chest.
Ringing in my head, when you broke my chest.

And if you're in love, then you are the lucky one,
'Cause most of us are bitter over someone.
Setting fire to our insides for fun,
To distract our hearts from ever missing them.
But I'm forever missing him.

And you caused it,
And you caused it,
And you caused it

Nervous by Gavin James

It's torture to have a Last Song Syndrome when you don't know the artist and the only lyrics that keep running in your head is something you can't Google nor ask your friends. In my case it's the "Ohhhhh-uhhhhh-whooooo-ohhhhh-whoooooo-ohhhhhh" part !!!! A very useless clue in the world of lyric-hunting. @#$%^&!!! I practically gave up, until, by some strike of luck I saw Gavin James being featured on MTV a week after my LSS. I don't normally watch MTV, but I was drawn to the channel earlier today, the BAM. Goosebumps. I felt my world stop for three minutes as his yodel sent chills down my spine and up my hair strands. Listening to this song is an experience. And finally knowing the title of the song and the artist is a relief. Now I don't have to make stuff up in my head to make some sort of assumption as to what he's singing other the ohhhhhhh.

It's only now when I'm reading the lyrics that the melancholy in the melody makes sense.

So I won't say I love you

It's too late

ILYSB by LANY

There is something very sensual about this song, and it helps that it's sung by a sexy voice. I've had this on repeat since last week because of the casualness of it all: beat, lyrics, and the works. 

The simpleness and the heartfelt chorus is what gets me. It describes perfectly the title of the song: I Love You So Bad

Oh my heart hurts so good

I love you babe, so bad, so bad

Oh yeah, oh my heart hurts so good

I love you babe, so bad, so bad

Knots by Charlie Lim

Charlie Lim was first introduced to me by Spotify though their Ultimate SEA Indie playlist. It's basically a playlist of South East Asian artists with an indie vibe to their music. I cannot even begin to explain how grateful I am of Spotify for exposing me to so many great international bands that I could never have realized on my own. 

I have been repeatedly hearing that Charlie Lim is the John Mayer of Singapore as his love songs are meant for the brokenhearted─kinda like breakup songs...which leaves the whole love part out in the end. Anyway, I've played his song on repeat since last year, and I still love it until now. It's about not giving second chances. It's about shoving at his face that he's not getting another chance at you. Here are a few lines of his lyrics that just make you want to feel the burn. 

Wish you'd wrote it all on water

Watch it all go to waste

So help me understand why

Why you wanna go back

Still running to your past life

When there's nothing left

And sort of ends on this note...

Don't you think it's for the best

That we don't always get what we want

Oh how easy we forget

When we could've had it all

Lesson learned...don't screw up the first time by taking it for granted.

Up&Up by Coldplay

It's mid-July and I have yet to write a post...so instead I'll just share this awesome music video of one of my favoritestestest band Coldplay because I've been looping this on Youtube for a while now. 

This is a good source of inspiration, visually and audioually. It says a lot about our generation of go-getters who are lost in our struggle to get through a messed up life. You know, the quarter-life-crisis thing. We want so much in life that we end up frustrated, but Chris couldn't be more right with these lyrics:

We're gonna get it, get it together right now

Gonna get it, get it togther somehow

Gonna get it, get it together and flower

We're gonna get it, get it together, I know

Gonna get it, get it together and flow

Gonna get it, get it together and go

Up and up and up

Ohhhh~~~oohooh Oh!

All of the Stars by Jackie Evancho

I just gotta share this before I get to bed. I must have looped this song over ten times now because it's that good. I mean, Ed Sheeran is something, but this once little soprano girl is now a young lady and her voice is better than ever.

I'm not sure if I heard her sing on TV before, but I'm pretty sure I've seen her performance being shared online years ago and it's one of those amazing things you see but forgot along the years. It was right around New Year when my niece who also sings, Jeryn, reintroduced me to her between our music session. She was sharing her covers on Soundcloud, and I was suggesting some indie artists that I personally like as means to broaden her scope on music since she's only sixteen. It wasn't until tonight when I saw a link on YouTube recommending Jackie Evancho's Safe & Sound cover, but I somehow managed to stumble All of the Stars and it raised the hairs on my arms again. So yeah, listen away. 

As for my niece, I'll plug her Soundcloud cover of Love Yourself right here: 

Love Yourself Cover - Jeryn Castillo

Snippets: Armi Millare

Taken April 26, 2014 in BGC for the first Satchmi Vinyl Day...it was one of the most awesome night of free music under the stars. The event composed of eleven bands which started from 4pm down to midnight. It was indeed a good night of great music. 

I went with a couple of friends who willingly came when I showed them the lineup of bands that would be playing in the event. It came as a shock when Up Dharma Down came up on stage as the front act–no one saw it coming, especially my friends who decided to arrive late that day. Bwahaha! Some arrived only to hear the last two songs, while there were those who completely missed it. Good for them! It was also a pleasant surprise to hear the band play an entire set and not just two or three songs. That moment was surreal, especially when I was standing so close to the stage that the rest of the world felt like a blur; just the music and Armi as she sang through the lines of their songs felt present that day. Yep, Tadhana is one of my favorite local songs EVERRRRRRRrrrr!! And of course, I consider UDD as one of the coolest bands around, up to par with other bands I like internationally.

Lately...like the past several days, I've also been amused by their feature song on Oreo's Sing With Me together with Zee Avi of Malaysia and GAC of Indonesia. I have been intently looping the video several times now because it's just not long enough to satisfy my ears. I love Oreo's new advertising campaign by the way.

I Was Made For Loving You by Madilyn Bailey

It was around last week when I noticed a new-yet-familiar-sounding song being dubsmashed in Kalyeserye...I never got to catch the lyrics during the episodes, yet the melody and the voice of the singer got me curious. After some time spent aimlessly browsing on Twitter yesterday I saw what I was hoping for, the title. It's "I Was Made For Loving You" by Tori Kelly feat. Ed Sheeran...and a whole night of looping the song started from there. 

Tonight's my second night of LSS...and it's wrrraagggghhh! when you listen to the same song a dozen times over but cannot stop that need to repeat it one more time. I was actually on the MRT when the urge to listen to the song came to me that I hurried back home because I don't have it on my cellphone. I know, it's just a temporary addiction. At one point I started to search for covers of the song, and there were some good ones–but this–THIS–gave me goosebumps, like real GOOSEBUMPS that I have to twitch my neck when she reaches certain parts and notes, especially right at the end when she unhumanly belches out the lines, "But I was made for loving you." Urghhh! I feel like the hairs on my arms have been raising and falling in chaotic symphony for the last several minutes now. 

I am forever grateful to YouTube that artists (amazingly non-linear ones) are now being discovered without being screened with repetitious formulas by capitalists industries. The music scene is now immensely diversified as compared to pre-YouTube times. And I am just happy I get to drown myself in their music (original and covers alike) as much as I want to.

Here's the chorus of the song that I love so much by the way:

I was made for loving you

Even though we may be hopeless hearts just passing through

Every bone screaming I don't know what we should do

All I know is, darling, I was made for loving you

Too much feels. So serendipity-driven.

Lily and Madeleine "Paradise"

Run away with me tonight

Let the moon bathe us in its light

Come on I’ll take you to paradise, to paradise

The blending of their voices is spot on and the melody makes me want to close my eyes smile as I slowly sway my head back and forth. It's a feel-good music and it does makes you want to bathe in the moonlight.

I've always loved indie music, especially when it's sang by serenading voices like these. This is the kind of music that most labels would probably take caution in producing because the market is limited to a niche, but thanks to the internet music like these could now be listened to without having to support big record label companies. Yeah...I have issues with the corporate world.

Libera Concert 2013

Growing up to the music of Josh Groban, Charlotte Church (before she became a pop-rock mom), Enya, Sarah Brightman, Andrea Brocelli, Gregorian, Celtic Women…you get the picture…it’s only proper that I get excited about this concert as Libera is the closest I can have to experiencing the voices of the Vienna Boys Choir. I mean, it’s basically the same concept of young boys being recruited to sing before their voices get to their awkward phase and they start talking in baritone voices. Libera may have been formed not too long ago as compared to the Vienna Boys Choir, but at least their group reaches our shores for concerts.  

Last October 29, I was mortified when my brother forgot to insert the SD card in his cam…but thank God for internal memory I managed to take a few photos. It took a while before I figured out how to transfer those photos to my laptop...thus the late post. You see I’ve been pretty excited about going to the Libera concert for the longest time, so long in fact that I’ve forgotten about the concert until a week before the date. It could've been chaos had no one reminded me. The first Libera concert I went to was last 2011, and this year I saw the kids grow a little older and they even have new recruits. Let me tell you, this is the only concert I’ve been to that gave me goose bumps in almost all of their songs.

They’ve been coming to do concerts for the past six years I think…and this is mostly because of the Philippine-British friendship month. I tell you, if you have not heard angels sing, then this is your best bet to hearing them. Their music plays mostly to the soul, uplifting your spirits as they raise their voices higher and higher. It’s like listening to a violin sing, swaying from one string to another, making sounds of elation. At times they would sing in unison, reaching for the top notes, but then out on the corner a single boy does his solo and you’re blown away at the height of his echoes. Some songs such as Voca Me and Sanctus leaves you with a haunting feel, like walking on an old misty pavement with the ghost of a little boy following you with his voice that seem to bellow from beyond our world. It makes you wonder where they get the power to reach these notes because taking it from their stomachs seems insufficient from what I was hearing. To say it simply, the music they produce with their voices is without doubt ethereal.

It saddens me that of the two concerts I’ve been to, it wasn’t a full house…I suppose that’s because this kind of music is followed by a small niche, but that doesn’t stop them from coming back; a fact that I am genuinely glad about. The next time they do a concert, do yourself a favour and experience this kind of concert at least once in your life because this is something I plan on doing on a yearly basis…that is, if they do the concert here again. For a Php520 ticket, it’s like you give your soul a two-hour journey into the heavens to hear a choir of angels serenade you with songs of soul-stirring jubilation. Also, I love the play of instruments in their In Dulci Jubilo piece--kudos to they guy who played the flute!

7th International Silent Film

I got to watch my first silent film last night thanks my friend Mar and Elma who were kind enough to give me the extra ticket. Going there, I had no idea what I was gonna see nor hear. I was expecting to sit in a dark room, watch a black and white film, and hear my blood sloshing at sheer silence of the experience. Seeing what I saw and hearing what I heard made me so wrong...my expectations were quite naive, but the festival made my week. It was that awesome!

Lana Del Rey's Album Recording Scene

It was a monumental achievement to have finished the whole album of Lana Del Rey without shuffling to an upbeat tune after every song or yawning between every stanza. The coffee I drank must have been so potent that I managed to remain alert after the whole album. 

The photo above is a perfect representation of what my friends assumed happened during the recording of her album.

"Lana please! Wag kang matulog! Isang song na lang!" the producer begs as he nudges Lana on the studio floor. "Please! Tapusin na natin yung album! Lana...LANAAAA!" (Lana please! Don't fall asleep! There's one song left!" the producer begs as he nudges Lana on the studio floor. "Please! Let's finish the album! Lana...LANAAAA!"

We were forming six-packs from laughing at how we imagined the scene in the recording studio as she sang Born to Die. We all agreed that she was lying on the floor of the studio as she was singing her songs, apparently fatigued and half-asleep from getting the album done in three days flat. She wasn't allowed to sleep until they recorded all the songs, thus her voice sounds so tired and on the brink of slumber in all her tracks. 

"Feet don't fail me now...zzzz...take me to the finish line...zzzzZZ" 

"Lana gumising ka, please!!!" ("Lana wake up, please!!!)

Mirrors by Justin Timberlake

Aren't you somethin' to admire, cause your shine is somethin' like a mirror

And I can't help but notice, you reflect in this heart of mine

If you ever feel alone and the glare makes me hard to find

Just know that I'm always parallel on the other side

Cause with your hand in my hand and a pocket full of soul

I can tell you there's no place we couldn't go

Just put your hand on the glass, I'll be tryin' to pull you through

You just gotta be strong

The first verse in most songs are almost always the most beautiful lines of the song. With the lyrics evening out into a repetitive streak come chorus, I've always noticed the first line as elegantly phrased to give out the general impression for the rest of the song. 

Mirrors is one of my favorite music videos because of the old couple featured. I loved how their wrinkly hand touched and how their stares were filled with so much love. I love those actors! 

But the defining lines to the song, like most songs, is contained within the hook:

Cause I don't wanna lose you now
I'm lookin' right at the other half of me
The vacancy that sat in my heart
Is a space that now you hold
Show me how to fight for now
And I'll tell you baby, it was easy
Comin' back into you once I figured it out
You were right here all along
It's like you're my mirror
My mirror staring back at me

The music video is like a mini-movie montage and the story is as beautiful and as emotional as its real life inspiration. Apparently the music video was dedicated to Justin Timberlake's grandparents who were married for 63 years until his grandfather's death last year.

It was said the his grandmother was moved to tears with the video...and it seems as though she wasn't the only one. :'( 

Reverie Sound Revue

from www.shrednews.com

"Your foot hits the pavement, you feel the city and propel into the flow. Negotiate the kaleidoscope of traffic. Sidewalk slipstream. The underground. Reality blurs and you are floating in space. Drifting, you hear the vibration of a future daydream. This is Reverie Sound Revue." 

-boompa.ca

Those were the lines that first ignited my interest to checking out the group. There is something about their music that draws me a picture of an artist's life in the middle of an urban landscape: Clad in a layer of bold printed fabrics, a girl walks in her chucks with one hand on her jean, and the other holding a sling bag in place. The afternoon sun hits her thick-framed sunglasses and she turns to gaze at a store window, a collection of vintage whatnot behind the glass. She smiles in admiration over the grunge-painted boxes and nostalgic sepia photos. She turns up the volume of her iPod and takes in the moment in awe. This is the music she listens to.

A combination of base strings, casual beats, and sleepish melodies sends in hypnotic waves that transcends their music into an imaginative auditory experience. This is the kind of music I would like to hear in themed cafes as I sip a cup of latte late into the afternoon, or the one playing in the background as I walk through an arcade of quirky artist-owned shops.

Cover for Reverie Sound Revue's self-titled album (2009)

A Canadian indie rock band that I had mistaken as a Britpop indie band, the music they do is not for everyone, but it is for artists who love coffee. There is a certain allure in the sound they produce and being a visual artist who appreciates the kind of underground music now classified as "indie", it makes sense that an artist loves something that was once unclassified due to its hippie nature. Led by the distinctive vocals of Lisa Lobsinger, her soft haunting voice floats just above the rhythms that I can only describe as vintage-pop-rock.