music monday: highlights
Today’s Music Monday is focusing on some random highlights from the past weekish. There’s been quite a bit happening for some of my favorites, so I thought I would talk a little bit about those.
-King Gnu came out with their new album, Ceremony. I’ve been listening to it since it was released, and as expected it’s really good. While the album has some of the previously already released singles that I already really like, the new songs are good. I really like the song ‘Doron’.
Here’s the MV for ‘Teenager Forever’, which they released right before the album dropped.
There probably was little room for me to not like this album, as I’ve liked everything they’ve put out so far, but I really think you should check it out if you haven’t listened to them yet. I think the album is structured well, and I do think that listening to it in order for at least the first listen is important. I also really liked the musical interludes and breaks added.
-In other “Japanese Artists I Really Like'“ news, Superfly came out with their album, “0”. I haven’t gotten to listen to it as much as I would have liked, but the first listens I’ve had with it are good. Superfly is not in the same genre as King Gnu, their music is a little bit more folky so it lends itself to being nice for the background. The album coming out is a big deal, however. Superfly hasn’t released an album in five years so it’s really nice to have some new music from them.
-I know I haven’t really been with DAY6 for that long as a super fan, but I really feel that this year is just going to be their year. I had talked recently in a Friday Update about Jae’s Instagram live where he talks about some of the journey he is taking to find himself and deal with some of the struggles he’s been having mentally. It’s all really admirable, and I think that him being so open about it is such a good thing to see.
Part of the journey is that he is working on some random projects that are just him exploring new musical routes. As someone who is into more than just one music genre, and love to see how people express themselves through music, I'm more than excited to see what he has to bring to project. I also just really enjoy people doing what they want, and being creative, you know? He’s since put out his first clip, ‘LA Trains’.
I do love the rawness that these clips are going to be. They are produced, but very limited and really speak to the nature of the project being random.
He also just announced that he would be joinging Dive Studios on a new podcast.
This was honestly not a surprise, as both Eric Nam and Jimin Park are both there (along with Tablo), and in the past months there has been more talk from Jae and Tablo. The hints were there. Either way, I’m in. Add it to my Spotify podcast playlist!
-Young K also announced a solo project that he will be working on himself. While not like Jae’s with it being original content, he’ll be doing more covers. The first one was just released the other day, a cover of Ruel’s ‘Face to Face’.
I feel that this project perfectly fits him, as he spends so much of his time as their main lyricist, working on covers takes that out of the equation and helps him focus more on the other aspects of the song, especially since he said in his live that he really wanted to focus more on his singing.
I’m just really happy seeing people find fulfillment in their craft, and exploring more to further their experience and their want to be better. Now we just have to wait if the other three are going to join in on doing solo projects.
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