if it wasn't for you. . .

Oh man, this fan-made MV is FANTASTIC. Done for Hannibal using the song Glitter & Gold.

 Today's Album-A-Day pre-chosen music artists now includes Olivia, which I know I just posted about her inspi'Reira album last week but when the album came up on my shuffle, I completely forgot because I was too excited about listening to that album. So here, have another. Olivia Lufkin, aka OLIVIA, released Synchronicity in 2000. It's definitely a different flavor from her inspi'Reira sound, but it's still good to listen to. She is more experimental in some of the music she writes, as will be featured in some of her minialbums that we'll be listening to later on, but overall I enjoy her music and can say she is a favorite music artist of mine. Some of my favorites off this album are definitely the more mainstream songs, like Dekinai, Color of Your Spoon, Escape the Flames and the first press bonus track, Mint.

For Music Shuffle Nostalgia, I ended up pulling this gem of an album. It's a remix, I'm not sure if it's official or not, but it's organized by Yigytugd and called BoA Best of Angel, released 2009. It's a remix/mashup album of BoA's English release and various other songs. Like the first track is Did Ya Buddha's Delight, which mashes the song Buddha's Delight from the movie Music & Lyrics with Did Ya and it's probably my favorite alongside of the remix of Hypnotic Dancefloor (DJ Amaya vs. Groovebot's Club Remix). I definitely enjoyed listening to this album.

That's it for Thursday. Another shameless request for recommendations to journal communities who "talk" about general Jpop/rock, Cpop(rock?), and Kpop/rock. I think you can send a direct message to my inbox if commenting makes you uncomfortable.

Thank you for reading!

 Today's Album-A-Day brought around another Supercar album, B, from 1997. It was enjoyable, definitely easy to listen to but nothing really stuck out. It was enjoyable.

The Music Shuffle Nostalgia that came up was a Japanese artist who goes by Lia, with the Collection Album, Spectrum Rays. Her music can be called electronic, dance, trance, pop and I don't even remember how I came across her music. Anyhow, definitely at the edge of my dance/electronica enjoyment and while I liked a couple of songs it wasn't highly memorable.

Anyways, there are probably some people who love these albums and I'm glad for them, but today, they didn't strike well for me. Glad I listened to them though.

Friday was not a good day and I almost wasn't sure I was going to finish the album but I did. However the second part of my post will lack an album as I didn't listen to one.

For Album-A-Day Friday, I listened to the Goo Goo Doll's self-titled debut from 1987. It's a solid release and while I vastly prefer their later releases, Dizzie Up the Girl and after, this wasn't a bad album, just not to my current tastes. 

And no Music Shuffle Nostalgia this day. It was filled with trying to distract myself after 3.5 hours of sleep lol. Dang SIMS4. But also dang mood drops.

See you next week!

Wednesday brought about Enigma, a group I just recently added to my list but one I have listened to before. The album this day was The Cross of Changes from 1994. I remember hearing "Return to Innocence" and immediately being enthralled. This was about the time I tried to get in to more supernatural type thinking (like reading about fairies and the occult) but kind of left that behind but Enigma remained. This album was the first I ever listened to and I loved it a lot, not just the music but also the message.

Wednesday I was not feeling the album that came up in my shuffle (The Red Violin OST for those curious) so I let the shuffle play a bit until alan came up, so I listened to their EP, Hitotsu (2008). She has such a unique voice and so I spent a little time that afternoon looking up her career after this point. I have a few other albums saved of hers, so I'll add them to the listen list.








See you next post!

 Sorry for the influx of posts today but I wasn't feeling motivated to make these posts the day they occurred so here we are with a rush before the end of the week. Which, I warn you now, could be a trend moving forward. For all I know, this is going into the void and no one cares and that's okay too. But just to warn you now lol.

Monday, April 26th, had Boyz II Men as the Album-A-Day. This album came out while I was in middle school and at that period of time I listened to the radio a lot (KUBE 93 FM lol - I still remember how they said this) and my copy of this was a cassette tape. Yes, I know I'm an older netizen. No, I don't care. Anyhow, this is Boyz II Men - II, from 1994. Listening to it was very much a trip back in time and I remembered a lot of the songs. I think I became interested in other groups or singers after this because I never owned another album by this group but they are on my pre-designated listen to list to explore the rest of their albums. Same thing with many of the forthcoming Album-A-Day posts. Usually I add them if I feel enough impetus to after having them come up during the nostalgia shuffle.

Speaking of Music Shuffle Nostalgia, Yiruma came up for Monday. Yiruma is a Korean pianist who, from what I remember, was pretty popular back in the 2000s and 2010s. At least from what I gathered, since I was able to download most of his work from someone who had all of this albums and shared them online. A lot of my saved music is from this timeframe because I didn't have a lot of money to spend $30 to $40 for one CD from overseas. I have no shame about it. Today, as self-penance perhaps, I pay for both YTMusic and for Spotify/Hulu so I hope that makes up for it. Anyways, this is Yiruma's 4th album, Poemusic, from 2005, and it's a lovely listen. I was more invested when I first saved it but it is still a good instrumental album.

The trip back in time Monday was fun and I enjoyed both albums.

The artist to listen to today is Aaliyah, an artist that I remember the exact moment I learned she died. It made me really sad because she was sweet, she was lovely, and talented and I had such high hopes for her moving forward. It makes me wonder what she might have come up with as she got older and who she might have collaborated with.

The album I listened to today was her first full album released in 1994, Age Ain't Nothing But A Number, which is the only album available on streaming anywhere along with about 4 or 5 singles. I think it's a crime that this is the case and I am sure her family (mainly her uncle, who was her manager) has their reasons. However I am glad I bought the albums I did at the time so I have what was released before her passing.

 For Tuesday, the artist next on my list was BoA and her debut album, ID;Peace B from 2000. It seems so weird to me that this album is 20 years old. 21, actually. Being 41 and understanding how your parents felt whenever they make comments about how long ago things are but don't feel like they were that long ago is a new thing that I've really become aware of recently. 

Listening to BoA's first album and the quality of her voice and the songs on this album made me wonder how the reception was when it was released. I'm sure there were many then who recognized the absolute powerhouse she would become, especially in the Korean music industry. I know she spread out to the Japanese charts but when she attempted to break in to the USA scene, it wasn't as successful as I hoped. C'est la vie. Not all of my favorites are able to be like BTS. I am not a fan, but they are one group that seems to have exploded worldwide.

Anyhow, I liked this album and enjoyed listening to it.
Next up on Tuesday's Music Shuffle Nostalgia, was a group called The Pretty Reckless and their self-titled EP from 2010. I am not sure how this ended up in my hoarded music library but my suspicion is from a fanmix somewhere. I was actually pretty happy with listening to this as I don't remember if I ever did before. Their sound is definitely along the lines of Paramore and Halestorm and by that virtue, something I would enjoy listening to again.

 Good day to you, reader. Today's Album-A-Day was Janne da Arc's album, Gaia, released in 2002. 

The thing I appreciate about this whole project of mine is that it gives me a chance to experience full albums of artists that I may have not spent a lot of time on based on how I came to acquire said music. Whether by fanmix, or someone offering a sample of the album, some of these I have never heard all the way through or only listened to maybe once or twice. That being said, when I had first been introduced to Janne da Arc, a lot of the reasons why I listened to some of the songs I did by them was due to my friend @kikuko_kamimura being a fan. Mind you, this is all the way back in 2004/2005 so it's been quite a long time and the band has since officially disbanded after being on hiatus for 10 years while the members worked on solo projects. My point in bringing the previous comment up is that I wasn't that fond of their music at the time. I was more in to Evanescence, Linkin Park, or even Gackt and Ayumi Hamasaki but it was nice to have a similar interest as Kiku, especially since she was one of my small group of friends. Not saying I didn't like their music, but it's that I liked their music less.

Fast forward to now, 16 or 17 years after the fact, re-listening to these albums means I get to enjoy them as the person I am now, and by golly gosh, I did enjoy this album. So many good songs and ones I remember adding to my playlist of liked songs at the time. Essentially, this whole thing is definitely a good decision.


Next up today for Music Shuffle Nostalgia, is Kirsty Hawkshaw's album, Meta Message (2005). At first I didn't recognise the album or the songs, but as I looked at the song listing and saw the name "Delerium", it clicked that I had bought (or downloaded? I can't remember LOL) this album because of a previous album by a group of people called Delerium. I liked their ethereal style, similar to Enigma's style and wanted to check out Kirsty because of how lovely her singing was/is. This is a good album, with a mix of great songs, collabs, and what have you. Definitely my style. I recommend it if you want to check it out.