Finished all five volumes of this. Where do I start?
Absolutely breathtaking. Every last minute. She has a knack for creating gorgeous melodies amongst equally gorgeous instrumentation. Her vocals are the literal definition of angelic. Most of the songs here connote wonderful images in my mind of the wonderfully romantic scenery of China and the appropriate lovey-dovey touchy-feely adoration of another person to go along with it. I will definitely 100% be revisiting some of this, if not all of the volumes again in the near future. I am in love.
Following the collection of Legendary Chinese Hits according to this list until I'm all shidaiqu'd out. So now I'm onto the first volume of:
Instantly pleasant. Doesn't strike as much poignancy as pathos as the Zhou Xuan from the first half but the final volume of that compy turned out to be my favourite of the five, so I definitely have the capacity to be surprised. Looking forward to the next three volumes of this one, anyhow. _________________
stuck on the remaining three volumes of this tonight. as was the case with the first volume, not as poignant as I'd hoped but heck it's good enough as it is and there's no denying there is a ton of poignancy anyway. the third volume really struck a chord but the other three not so much, but still consistently enjoyable stuff and I'm really looking forward to delving deeper into this collection. think i'll listen to the three Grace Chang volumes tomorrow night.
as for non-music shit i finished watching Sailor Moon R yesterday and now i'm onto Puella Magi Madoka Magica which, 4 episodes in, is already getting really thrilling. love love love. i've also just been playing postal 2 to wind down a little - it's mindless fun i guess at its core, though it's nothing that really engages me. essentially one of those gta type freeroams that you just play to muck around on and don't really get any substance out of. you can piss on people and make them puke, set them alight and then piss them out and leave them crawling around basically chargrilled, attach cats to the end of your guns to suppress them, use other people's dogs to maul enemies, it's a stupid game but it's good for what it is. _________________
v tired so only surface-level thoughts. lacks the pure charm of the previous two releases but actually makes up for itself in tighter songwriting. i dunno i suck at writing cohesive thoughts. i really liked this one but for different reasons than the last two.
new #1. it's basically soundtracking every moment in my life i need a pick-me-up and really soothes me in a weird way. maybe my taste sucks or maybe i'm an anime magical girl incarnated as a humanoid made to spread my bad meme garbage throughout this forums infecting you all with the trashy tacky plastic synths and pitched-up vocals (it's basically a nightcore album, pffffft). or maybe i just really love this album for what it is. i don't know. _________________
ok well obviously i love this. everything i want in pop music. pretty huge moment for the future of the bubblegum bass movement with the ribbon-cutting of her new label, Vroom Vroom Recordings. let's have 100 more Vroom Vroom releases ๐
if i knew cheesy prog/power metal could get this good i would have never mocked it. that piano solo is to die for and it truly is what people hyperbolise the word "epic" to truly be. if Stairway to Heaven was as awe-inspiring and massive in sound as people claimed this would still top that.
preferred the former by a tad, but both were really interestingly textured albums, with the latter slanting towards art pop roots than the former which is almost completely avant-prog. i forgot what to say about these but they're really, really great albums i'll be returning to
I'll just talk about these together since they're awfully similar. The former, I think, really does the same job but lops it a bit too short - yes, there was a ton of poignancy and moving moments but it felt like it was over far too soon (clocking in around 30 minutes). The latter, however, well I prefer for a number of reasons. First of all, it feels like a full experience and, unlike the former, I was left content at the end and not just wishing for more. I know it seems like a bit of a dumb criticism, but ultimately the duration of the latter album really sets it apart.
Not just that, though. The former manages to capture some of the beauty of Hato and Waretini's works, but I feel like the latter once again exceeds in this. The compilation is split into two halves: The Parlophone Recordings, much more refined songs with Hato's voice accompanied, mostly, by piano. Some of these tracks appear on the former album. However, the album turns it up a notch from track 19 onwards - the second half, The Last Recordings. Halfway into track 19 I blubbered, a rare occasion for me on first listens, but it was far too much (a live recording of a song on the first half but her vocal delivery just packs in so much sheer emotion it brought me to tears). The rest of this part is really just a lot more pleasant for me, which is saying a lot since the first half is far far far from unpleasant, quite the opposite. Mostly recordings accompanied by guitars and a much more stripped down sound, I feel like the vocals and accompanying guitars really get straight to my heart in ways the piano tracks do not.
But either way, be it the former album or the latter or the Parlophone or Last Recordings, the most notable part of Hato's music is her vocal delivery. A really earth-shattering falsetto with a lot of vibrato, it's almost like you can hear her sobbing into the microphone. It's not at all a unique style of singing, but I feel her execution of this vocal style is basically as good as it gets. Pierced my heart. I'll 100% be returning to her music. Love love love love.
wasn't too impressed by the first disc but the second disc is where the key lies. lots of really great droney psychy jams (Y) overall it wasn't anything too great but the second disc was really good
wew my favourite residents which is saying a lot (though i've only heard not available and meet the residents other than this one, but love both). along with your average "oh so zany" residents stuff there's a ton of synthy poppy goodness here, it works so well _________________
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SuedeSwede
