Cassette

Cassettes cassettes cassettes!

Okay don't call me crazy but I just bought all these albums on cassettes! Hahaha. Well somehow somewhat, I actually came across an ad for the Enya album on cassette from Tokopedia (it was on Facebook) and I was like wow! Someone is actually selling cassettes still :O And the price is rather affordable (but not cheap). So I decided to get them just for keep-sake haha. Also it's cool to have these again! I actually owned them on cassettes back 16 years ago ish. Crazy eh.

"Pain The Sky With Stars" was actually the first Enya album that I ever bought for myself. I bought it back in 2003 from HMV. I can still remember haha. I brought it back home for my parents to listen and they love it! But because back then our car only has a cassette player, I went to look for the album on cassette. And I found it in Disctarra. I bought the cassette too for my parents.

I have listened to Enya albums for a long time. I remember listening to the CDs on my sister's discman haha. Back then my sister already bought an MP3 player. So she passed the discman to me. I've been listening CDs on discman till 2005. Until my sister bought an iPod and she passed her MP3 player to me :P So yeah this is why these albums hold a wonderful sentimental value to me.

Well I bought these cassettes mostly for the keep-sake purpose. Like I think it'll be really cool to still own a cassette of the album now. And imagine in the future! I might be one of the few last owners of the album on cassette mwahaha. I just love collecting physical formats of music.

And talking about music, I need to start finalising my great music of 2019 soon!

A Head Full of Dreams

 The wonderful albums I've been collecting for the past 10 years

So on Thursday, I received my copy of Coldplay's latest album A Head Full of Dreams! I know this sounds crazy buy I actually bought three copies of it HAHAHA. Okay here goes the story. I pre-ordered my album via their online store and it was delivered and stuff, but when I checked the status it reads "bad address, package sent back to centre" and then it reads again "package en route to delivery". 

I'm not sure what's that supposed to mean. But last week I found out that the guy whom I always buy my music from was selling the album. I couldn't wait to listen to the album so guess what. I bought it! As for the third copy, I bought another CD from the Coldplay fanbase here in Indonesia, which includes T-Shirt and some other goodies. So yep. I have 3 copies (2 coming soon) mwahaha. Don't worry I'm giving one for my cousin Febi, who's a Coldplay fans as well. The other copy... Maybe to someone.

I gave the album a proper listen on Thursday night and I really love the album. I've been watching videos where Chris was talking about the album. After giving it a proper listen, I think the album delivers what the band wants to album to deliver. About not giving up, about being happy (and thankful) of being alive. At the end of my first listen, I felt happy, blissful and energised. It's such a wonderful album!

Although well... I wouldn't say this is the best album from them. I still feel A Rush of Blood To The Head is their best album, followed by Mylo Xyloto. But from all of their albums, AHFOD gave me a feeling I never felt before from their previous albums. Well to me Coldplay songs gave me this indescribable feeling. Bliss is how I would describe it. Although the song is a sad song, or a happy song, Coldplay has the ability to give me a feeling of bliss in their songs. I don't know how to describe it.

I've known Coldplay for ten years now. I remember the first song that I listened to was "Clocks". It was after PSLE and I would go to my cousin's house to play my late aunt's keyboard. One day my sister cam and let me hear Clocks and asked if I can play it on the piano. Well after a few tries of playing by ears, I found the melodies and played them. Then I asked my sister what song is that, and who's the singer. That's how my Coldplay journey began. From then on, I've been following them!

Although by the time I discovered them, they have already released 3 albums. I bought them one by one across the years. And then they released Viva La Vida and I was so excited. I love that album a lot. I remember first listening to the song on 98.7 FM in Singapore and I was like "OMG it's Coldplay!!" and the next weekend, I bought their album haha. And Viva La Vida accompanied me throughout the end of my sec 3 life, and dragged across the middle of 2009 I think.

Coldplay has accompanied me throughout the past ten years of my life. And their songs have soundtracked some of my life's great moments. Just to name a few, Viva La Vida was my studying music in sec 3 and 4 haha. I listened to Paradise a lot when I was training for my Mt K trip, and also during the trip itself. And also Paradise has always been my running song. For a lot of my races in 2012. A Sky Full of Stars would remind me of my Iceland trip as it was playing everywhere back then.

I can see their latest album soundtracking awesome moments of my future life as well. This album gives me lots of hope! Well one of my life's to-do list is to catch them live. They're going for a tour next year and I am really hoping and praying that they will come to Indonesia. We have a lot of Coldplay fans here. I really hope that we'll be able to see them live here! If not at least come to Singapore.

Well here's a cheer to (in my opinion) the greatest band of our generation. Who accompanied me throughout the past ten years of my life, and soundtracked some of my life's great moments.

Thank you Coldplay.

Diamonds On The Water

 Dark Sky Island

Alright as promised, this is my review of Enya's latest album, Dark Sky Island! Okay this is not a review, just how I feel about the album. Let me begin by telling you about how I discovered Enya!

So as some of you might now, the first time I discovered Enya was through Pei Tong's Angklung and Kulintang ensemble. I remember the first song I know from her was "Only If" (It was the first song I played with the ensemble). I didn't know who Enya is, I never heard of the song before. So back then I can't even do an internet search heh. I asked my sister to search for Enya's music. I can still remember downloading it from Kazaa, which was the 90s music downloader heh.

And then I went to HMV with my sister and we bought her album. The first album I bought was "Paint The Sky With Stars", which I'm thankful of buying first because it introduced me to a lot of her great music. There was Orinoco Flow, Caribbean Blue, Only If, Watermark and so on. That album really made me fall in love with her music. And across the years, I saved some money to buy her discography. Which I sadly lost in the middle of 2003 - 2005 either back at home or in Singapore.

From then on, Enya has become one of my favourite singers and artists. And my favourite new age artist ever. I followed her discography since then. From Amarantine in 2005, then And Winter Came in 2008. And then... She went for a hiatus with no news of any new album. Until in October when I saw her changed her Facebook's cover photo and I was just so happy! Pre-ordered the album, and waited for an extra 2 weeks after its release to receive it here and give a full listen. It's an amazing album.

Across seven years, I am glad that I'm still "listening to Enya" in this album. Dark Sky Island still has a lot of Enya's characters and trademarks. Although yes, this is her first album that she released in the age of social media. Where people can criticise her freely and happily through Facebook, YouTube and so on. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I love Dark Sky Island! Every track from it.

I think Enya mentioned somewhere that the album has the feeling of returning home after a long time, or something like that. And yes I definitely feel this! I am glad that the album is released in November because I feel it's such a special and wonderful album to listen to in the year end. Just like her song from her last album, Last Time By Moonlight. I've been listening to her songs from this album ever since it arrived. There really is a special feeling listening to them. At this time of the year.

My favourite tracks from the album are Diamonds On The Water, The Humming, Echoes In Rain, The Loxian Gate and Pale Grass Blue. The album itself is a beautiful album. The instrumentation, the layering of voices and the lyrics really blend in very well. And I feel that Enya music are timeless. Like you can listen to her songs 50 years later and still sound amazing. Because she has been pretty consistent with her music all these years. Not something many people do nowadays.

I mean a bit of experimentation is never wrong. But neither is being consistent eh.

Alright I guess that's all from me now. I recommend you getting a copy of Dark Sky Island. It's a wonderful album to listen to at the year end! See you soon, with Adele's review next :D

Great Music of November

It's the time of the month again! Didn't really discover lots of music in this month, but there are some music which I really enjoy listening to, or have been waiting for a long time to be released hah.

Alright here goes!

Great music of November:

- Get Away by Chvrches

- Dead Air by Chvrches

- Where You Go I Will Follow by The British Expeditionary Force

- For by Nils Frahm

- No Good In Goodbye by The Script

Get Away is a song by Chvrches which is part of BBC Radio One project called "Radio 1 Rescores: Drive". It premiered on end of October I think, but the song was released in November. The first time I heard the song, I fell in love with it right away! I just love everything about the song; the melody, the beat and the lyrics. I think it suits the movie too. Dead Air is a song from the Mockingjay Soundtrack. I was so happy when they played it in Singapore during their concert!

Where You Go I Will Follow by The British Expeditionary Force and "For" by Nils Frahm are from a free online compilation album from Erased Tapes Record called "Erased Tapes Collection IV". I was listening to Olafur Arnalds' album again when I discovered that slip of paper which comes with a code for the download so yeah, silly me for not realising it comes with the code! Anyway I love the first song for its catchy beat. Somehow the song reminds me a bit like Sin Fang heh. As for the second song, it's a pretty cool song and it somehow reminds me of my days in Iceland. I don't know why.

I just got the time to properly listen to the new Script Album.Well I mean I gave it a listen in the car when I got it but not a proper one hah. Anyway I really love the whole album, especially the song "No Good In Goodbye". I used to think that "Superheroes" is the best song of the album but after discovering No Good in Goodbye... I think this is the best song of the album. The Script is just so great with their lyrics and the lyric of the song just touched my heart in many different ways.

Alright these are the great songs I discovered in this month. Can't believe I've been doing this for this like almost 11 times (since I started this new "habit" in March heh). Well so far 2014 have been a great year of discovering music. And I'm pretty sure 2015 will be a great one too! It's always fun and a great pleasure to discover new music. Some music from my favourite artists and others, from new artists I discovered. Music is something I can't live without, so yep, this journey of discovery will never end for me. Till the day I die hopefully! Life's goal: to have a library of music CDs when I'm old :P

Which brings me to my next point...

I went to HMV when I was in Singapore to look for some new albums, and some old ones. And guess what, they don't have it! When I asked the store assistant he just told me "Oh we don't stock (insert artist name here) here". Okay I know sometimes I listen to bands that are kinda unknown but the bands I was asking for are not really unknown (e.g: First Aid Kit). I think my biggest fear is coming true: that they will no longer stock CD albums in the future. Well okay maybe not in Europe/America/Australia. But HMV is like the only (kinda) complete place where I can find albums. Don't tell me I'll have to travel to Australia to find CDs heh. Or maybe I was just unlucky that they're out of stock.

One of my wishes is to actually open up a music store in my hometown. I want to revive the CD era where people buy CDs of their favourite musicians. I think I'm the only person in my family who still collects CDs. Oh well, I will still collect CDs no matter what. Until one day (which I hope will never arrive) when all musicians decided to turn all of their works to be available only digitally. But I think that will happen in a very very very long time later.

Or I hope it will never happen, ever.