Album Review: The Hunger Games OST

The movie was so-so, but the The Hunger Games OST: Songs from District 12 and Beyond definitely fares better and comes produced with way more sophistication. Never have I heard so many songs in one sitting from an LP album, with all that acoustic strings. Songs like these used to only be associated with EPs and not 'matured enough' for mass consumption. But, the masses have hope yet, this genre is called BLUEGRASS- a modern twist on American native music and a slight dash of Country music. And which officially has become my favourite new music genre.

If anything, I was introduced to The Civil Wars, whatta awesome duo.

Yes, I'm CRA-ZY about the mostly indie artistes' tracks and their faithful combined take on both Bluegrass and The Hunger Games story. Previous OST albums which came worthily close to exciting me like this were few and far between- 1) Once 2) Twilight 3) The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1. No surprise this OST album has far exceeded sales records, being the only other album to debut at number 1 on the Billboard chart, the first being Michael Jackson's This Is It.

So, do excuse me if I use the word 'awesome' (in every sense of the word) one too many times in my track-by-track review:

1) Abraham's Daughter by Arcade Fire (3.5/5) = This Celtic-like, tribal choral World Music tune is dramatic, and a going-to-epic-battle-kinda song. Perfect in capturing the essence of The Hunger Games story, of a too young female heroine.

2) Tomorrow Will be Kinder by The Secret Sisters (4/5) = Let the bluegrass begin! :D

TIMELESS lullaby, along the line of Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Lush, clear vocals win me over anytime. The amalgamation of all the different types of strings (mandolin? harp? bass? ukulele?) are divine. This is what Lana Del Ray should be singing, instead of the pretentious, abstract songs she spews on radio. Check out the cover I did on my Youtube channel, or at the end of this post below!)

3) Nothing To Remember by Neko Case (3/5) = Folksy tune, nice interlude in the album.

4) Safe & Sound by Taylor Swift feat. The Civil Wars (4.5/5) = Mad love for the duetting instrumental guitar strings by the folks of The Civil Wars.

It really is one of the best, & memorable tracks on the album. And that's not 'cause I'm Team Taylor. Speaking of which, T-Swift doesn't sound at all like herself. Instead of a jilted princess, she sounds like a friendly forest dweller, comforting our heroine.

5) The Ruler And The Killer by Kid Cudi (3.5/5) = This semi-metal tune with the ominous semi-reggae voice warning over and over, "You don't talk, you don't say nothing ok?" just ups the cool factor.

6) Dark Days by Punch Brothers (5/5) = Omg, sucha dreamy voice + acoustic strings= dream combo to my ears.

Music production is stellar, with the mandolin, ukulele plucking, violin solo, and bagpipes even? Awesome, awesome lyrics.

7) One Engine by The Decemberists (3.5/5) = Adult contemporary tune, again, another pleasant interlude to the album. I'd expected more from The Decemberists, really. Dunno what's with the complete turn in sound.

8) Daughter's Lament by Carolina Chocolate Drops (4/5) = Brilliant, acapella ditty, with relevant lyrics weaving the other-era story.

9) Kingdom Come by The Civil Wars (5/5) = The Civil Wars again (!):

This time, with even more intricate guitar work & epic vocals singoff from themselves pleading "don't you fret my dear, it will all be over soon. I'll be waiting here for you." I'm guessing this was highly a new song made just for this OST?

10) Take The Heartland by Glen Hansard (3/5) = This indie screamo band?(not! It's actually a solo artist!) jamming with such passion just gotta be loved, especially with those fiddle sounds thrown in, lol. Not what I'd expect from Glen, honestly (for quite some time, I'd thought he was the guy behind the song number 6 above, Dark Days).

11) Come Away by Maroon 5 feat. Rozzi Crane (4.5/5) = Maroon 5 GETS music. 'Nuff said:

People wrote them off as another formulaic pop band with 'the uck singer with that girly voice', but I personally loved their craftsmanship & strongly rooted for them from the start. Can I sing this semi-duet song with them at F1? :D

12) Run Daddy Run by Miranda Lambert feat. Pistol Annies (4/5) = Girlish but don't-mess-with-us country-styled vocals "Daddy can you heaaar the devil drawing near..." Percussions, with the double mandolin accompainment are awesome. Awesome collaboration.

13) Rules by Jayme Dee (3.5/5) = Singer-songwriters are so fitting to write such awesome lyrics. At first, I was meh about this singer's sleepy Meiko voice, but her diction was clear throughout, a quality which I always respect from my favourite singers out there. :)

14) Eyes Open by Taylor Swift (3/5) = Ms T-Swift's experimental vocals makes an apperance again. However, 'tis a standard pop tune. Swift tries to sound different from her usual self but comes off sounding like she's ripping Avril Lavigne's material. Not a bad effort though (Tay can never really do wrong with any of her songs, #realtalk). And hey, who doesn't love an 'encouragement/advice-y' kind of song? XD NB: I still don't get why her song Long Live isn't featured on any OST.

15) Lover Is Childlike by The Low Anthem (3.5/5) = Ambient-soundtrack-y music, and kudos to the thoughtfully crafted musical arrangement, as are all the other songs on this album awesomely are, actually.

16) Just A Game by Birdy (4.5/5) = Emo voice in the line of Sarah McLachlan, with great piano accompainment:

Beautifully awesome mood ballad, to send us off away from this precious album.

Album Rating: 4/5


Here's a cover I did for track number 2, Tomorrow Will Be Kinder (dunno why my eyes look so small, bleh), enjoy:

James Morrison's sch-weet maiden gig in Singapore on Easter Sunday (three cheers for this lad!)

Somehow, last Thursday, (and only three days before the actual gig date), I found out I had scored for myself not one, not two, but four frickin' tickets for UK singer-songwriter James Morrison's MTV gig on the Sunday of that week! And no, I'm not kidding. One of the contests that I'd won, was by Resorts World Sentosa, the host venue, whereby I had sent in to them the photo you see in my previous blog entry below. :D Two tickets were couriered to me on the day I was notified, they were these really snazzy-looking cards:

Two of the four tickets, had meet and greet passes thrown in.

Of course, it took a moment for me to come to grips with the fact that: I was for reals going to see James Morrison, FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME, HERE IN SINGAPORE. Or in Southeast Asia for that matter. And, it was also going to be my first gig of the year.

Normally by this time of the year, I'd have caught like, an average of three gigs? I was catching at least one music gig a month last year (check out the bulk of the gigs I attended in 2011 and which I recorded on film as much as I could for the lasting memories, on my Youtube channel).

But, this year I decided to be more diverse in my 'shows budget' (which includes theatre shows) and hence, picky. Therefore, duh, my priority, time and attention have been allocated to music which I like the most, and that which generally falls under the 'singer-songwriter' category, best if the set's stripped down and/or acoustic (I flew out for the first time last year to catch Acoustic Jason Mraz in Bali dammit!).

I'd mulled with the idea of actually flying out to the Dubai Jazz Fest in early Feb this year too, to catch both Mraz, and Morrison, but, the timing wasn't right as I was just starting on my new job. You should now have an idea of how stoked I was to watch James live, of all people.

But wait, I knew for a fact that, there was one other person who was twice more stoked than me to see James. Let's call her Justine. She's this chick who is THE Jason Mraz concert buddy of mine, we go back a long way. She's from the Philippines. And yes, she flew down to Singapore (when I innocently joked to her if she wanted to come see James as I  kinda knew she was into his music) just for James' Mtv gig, and flew back all within a 12-hour timeframe! Crazy much? 'Passionate' as James sees it (more on that later below :)).

Now, let's come to the part when the gig went down! Here's my account:


-  Once inside the venue, we had to queue again to wait for the MTV people to sit us. My position, was like, 2nd row from the back, and dead center, by chance (and, I might add, it turned out to be the best effin' position, in my honest opinion, more on the reasons why, below). I was supposed to be at the first row with my other two friends but because Justine took ages to have her smokes, I let my two friends take my queue spot (which I had staked a good 3 hours before showtime) and go in first while Justine and I were the last few to get into the venue.

[Setlist (by song order):]

In My Dreams

This Boy

I Won’t Let You Go

You Give Me Something

Up

Person I Should Have Been

Slave To The Music

Nothing Ever Hurt Like You

Broken Strings

Wonderful World

-  James started with In My Dreams which is, I cheese you not, a real dream to hear 'live'. On his record, I thought the song sounds dreamy in an understated/lullaby kinda way. When he plays it 'live', it's just...dreamily heavenly, like a welcoming band you'd probably meet in heaven, what with how the live music was arranged, and support of his full backing band (a guy on keyboard, another on electric guitar, one on drums & percussions and two ladies on backup vocals). Honestly, his late dad (song is dedicated to him) must be so proud watching from up there, everytime James performs it.

Morrison sounded SO seasoned in his performance (which surprised me loads, as singer-songwriters are not usually that robustly put together in a full band setting), I couldn't believe from the first song in that I paid nothing for this gig. And that he sounds like what, three times better live.

-  What's more enjoyable at a James Morrison gig than hearing him belt out those blue collar, SNAG ballads? This Boy (whom James said he wrote for his mum but also mentioned she wasn't too impressed and doesn't think much of it, lol!), first single from his latest The Awakening album I Won't Let You Go (in this song, I was like, hit by another round of the 'heavenly aura' and was just letting his music and voice wash over me silly. Funniest thing was, I truly didn't think much of it on the album) and You Give Me Something (a song which you hear on the radio for far too long and it becomes cheesy pop fun to hear live) followed.

-  Up was sang as a duet with one of his leggy glam vocalists, called Sarah or Sashayne or something. I only saw how short her mini-dress was when she came out from her position at the side, to the front (from my position, I couldn't really see any of the musicians except for James, lol). She started off sounding shaky but looked like she was enjoying herself near the end as she hit like, a Mariah-Carey like decibel. James looked like a midget next to her, lol. But they both sounded lovely together. Oh, and James noticeably went a couple of keys down for this song. (I kinda get why he did that, it reminds of the Youtube video I watched before of the first time he sang that song 'live' with Jessie J at one of her concerts in the UK, let's just say it was a hot mess.)

-  The other duet on his records, Broken Strings, this time was only sung by the man himself. And what's funny but commendable is that yes, he DID went an octave higher for Nelly Furtado's parts. It probably would have  sounded more natural if say, he let his other vocalist sing with him?

This song was mostly acoustic, and relied heaving on his acoustic guitar, the keyboards and of course, his consciously emotive voice. It was one of the unexpected, epic moments of that night.

-  Slave To The Music (it's this song I believe, where he got the audience to sing back weird noises to him for quite some time) and Nothing Ever Hurt Like You had a nice blues and rock feel going with them. The electric guitarist had much leeway for freestyling (which I couldn't see much as my view was blocked :(, I always like to look carefully at how musicians do their thing onstage, as I have guitar background)  and Morrison did some cool palm slappings and fingertricks on his acoustic.


Other general comments on the show:

-  In between songs, Morrison was relaxed, and in a very friendly, animated mood. It really was a James Morrison Show, and where every line that came out of his mouth got us laughing away. And it didn't seem like the jokes he was cracking every second was forced or pretentious, like some artistes tend to be when they're with such an audience or on TV. He poked fun at himself (about the failed mullet hairstyle that he's currently 'rocking'), at the audience (can't remember most of what he chatted with us but it felt like we were his mates watching catching up with him at a cosy pub or something), at his musician friends in LA (he imitated a Californian slang and sang a line or two in that slang too, which was too hilarious, omg), and, at Michael Jackson. Boy, his MJ moment was a riot.

Don't get him wrong, he said he has looked up to MJ since he was ten, saying it was the only artiste he knew at that age and how MJ gave him the inspiration for Slave To The Music. He then went on to tell us how MJ actually 'talked' to him in his head, and imitated MJ's voice like nobody's business, saying how MJ told him to 'write songs for children James, or the earth, or something like that' and then started doing the Michael voice (those high-pitched random yowlings & beatboxings) and James then went on to dance like Michael, but totally failed at it, lol. I guess James' more a singer than dancer eh.

-  (I love it that) James totally checks out his audience while he's perfoming. He can look you in the face/eye, and several times at that, and just belt his songs and do his thing onstage without missing a beat. He looks out for the fans (a small group of them fangirls was at first row), and people like us of course. One such instance for myself was, at the end of his set, I swear he held my gaze for several seconds when he was giving his closing remarks to us. Me wonders if the cameras caught any of those surreal moments with his fans.

-  The moving animations and colours on the screens behind the stage seemed to be very distracting, and redundant for such a small stage (I know MTV probably had something to do with those animations, as they did on World Stage in Malaysia last year). The stage is the size of say, a band studio rehearsal stage. But then again, Morrison himself is one very distracting performer, so even if I wanted to, I barely paid any attention to the annoying animations.

Lemme just say, I CAN'T WAIT (!!) TO SEE HOW THE SHOW'S PRESENTED WHEN IT'S AIRED, MUCH LATER THIS MONTH, AND RELIVE MY AMAZING MTV RECORDING SESSION EXPERIENCE.  :D

ALSO, ANYONE KNOWS WHAT EXACTLY ARE THE SYMBOLS ON HIS GUITAR FRETBOARD? Below pic's an example I pulled up on the web:

During the show, I spotted like, a cross and a music note, and the rest aren't that immediately recognisable. Yeah, really curious...you can see a close-up in this video of him singing at another private meet and greet with fans in Singapore!

Brief thoughts on Meet & Greet after the show:

-  He is, ladies, as chatty and relatable in person as on stage. And, the nicest white celebrity I've met so far. Which was awesome. He listened on amusedly as Justine told him how she was a longtime fan of his and flew in just to catch him, and he thanked her and seemed appreciative of such dedication. When I said to him, 'she's crazy, this girl!', he immediately said 'nah, it's not crazy, it's passion'. Funny guy!

-  He told me he digged my glasses (of all things right?), asked if they were real, and told me how he wears them too in the past. And he drew glasses on my album when signing on it. LOL.

When he was signing the picture of my contest entry which I had brought just for that, he said he's not doing something good, as he was signing across my 'chest', and apologised. Cheeky guy.

-  And I had passed to James myself, a hard copy of that contest photo, as a fan gift. I got a kiss on the cheek from him for that. No kidding.

MTV Sessions: James Morrison will premiere on MTV Asia on 28 Apr at 6pm (SG/HK/PH), 7pm (MAL).


James Morrison: The Awakening, CD and digital album are out now.


Much thanks to: 
Zesta who gave a free abundance of their chilled and delicious sporty-like drinks the whole night (and to the lady rep, didn't get your name, you rock! Thanks for helping out my friends and I), Resorts World Sentosa it wouldn't have been possible without you, MTV Asia much thanks for the meet and greets, and Universal Music Singapore for being accommodating to the fans.

All gig photos credit: MTV Asia/Aloysius Lim

Plastic Framin Lovin'

About a month ago, I purchased a new pair of glasses for myself for 2012 and who-knows-how-long beyond. With a new career, comes fresh money. With fresh moolah, comes funky fresh purchasing power to spend on...plastic frames.

[Ingrid Michaelson, mad <3]

I had purchased my first plastic frames 2 years ago. However, either because they were too heavy for me, or too unwieldy, they just felt very uncomfortable for my face and eyes. Or it could just be the uncle running the neighbourhood spectacles store (and who made them), was not very good with his craft. 

After a few weeks (of going back to the store several times to make adjustments to the frames), I went up to him and said something along the lines of, "This ain't working for me." I really wanted to love those frames. I had chosen it in my favourite colour and all, and my dad somehow had found himself charmed (more like coerced) to cover the relatively high cost price of it, lol. But, those frames were causing havoc to my eye vision. So on that fateful semi-confrontational showdown day with my neighbourhood's shop uncle, he gamely changed my frames to an entirely new one, at no extra charge. He hand-picked a single colour and design, and once he finished fitting my lenses into those blood-red looking (the irony!) coloured frames, handed them over to me with a final & decided air. With such an abrupt introduction to this face accessory, I grew to make amends, and live peacefully? with it for the next 2 years, as captured in the blog banner pic above, and other pics below:

I grew to love and appreciate the look and solidity of lightweight plastic frames.

However, during the course of the two years, I felt that my vision was deteriorating. Again, I highly suspect the made-by-that-certain-neighbourhood-uncle factor. I was frequently getting mini migranes in more recent times and my eyes constantly looked tired. I knew it was time for a change. And that meant going on the hunt for the ownership of my second pair of plastic frames.

Fast forward to the month of March this year. I had sourced a couple of optical stores already, and really wanted to get an Anna Sui design from one of them. But alas, they could not guarantee that I would not face the same problems as my first short-lived plastic frame without the pre-installed nose rests for the blood-red one I walked into the stores with- only that the average plastic frames would likely be very annoying for a person with a kinda oily face and no significantly raised nose-bridge.

Then, thank the spectacle gods, I came across Spectacle Hut!!

Not only did they have tons, and I mean TONS of choices of eyewear design for plastic frames (check out their cool Dior zebra-inspired frames, from the latest collection), they had the ad-hoc service of installing nose rests on them! I was looking for leopard spotted eyewear design, but settled for a tortoise-shell one, as it came close to it, and  I digged the rectangular-cateye winged tip aesthetic at the front, and the floral motifs at the sides. I have mad love for nature motifs, especially floral ones you see.

And, the service of Spectacle Hut's staff was awesome. They really go out of their way to accommodate the customer's individual needs. Notwithstanding that I  managed to shave off a bit more of the price after the15-20% storewide sale discount that was ongoing during my time of purchase, the staff patiently explained to me the choices I had for the type of lenses (I went with ZEISS Clarity lens: 100% UV protection, and it's like, a brand used for satellites), the thickness of my lens and pricings (the thinner the lens, the lighter and more expensive. However, if it was too thin, it wouldn't really fit into my plastic frames properly) and coupled with  the degree of astigmatism to add to to the pricing. You see how customized a single person's lens and frames can be?? 

Of course, I had my eye degree checked again, it turns out my astigmatism went up by two steps :( and my overall degree lessened for one eye while slightly increased for the other.

[Me looking pensive, a contest submission for RWS' James Morrison contest :D]

It's been quite a journey in search of the perfect eyewear-making experience, and I think I just might have come full circle at Spectacle Hut. It was really important for me to get it done right for once, especially as my new career involves a lot of eye usage (editorial work) and, it might just be the last pair of glasses I own for the next few years before, I don't know, I go for a Lasik procedure or something. 

In the meantime, here's to good eye habits and diet (just recently bought eye nutrition supplements: CarotoMax by Shaklee). Am proud to become a tortise-shell spectacle wearer, as I can now add meself to this motley list of characters :

[the 'adorkable' Zooey Deschanel in New Girl TV series]

[Emma Stone in The Help movie]

.

.

.

Of course, not forgetting,

[the king of hipster cool, Mr Johnny Depp as himself. :DD]

.

.

.

[Meself as meself FTW. :DDD]