Music to my ears...

“Once I was all so alone
Unsteady and cold
But your love rained down upon me
Washing away uncertainty
But now I am free.”

Mariah Carey’s ‘I Am Free’ from her Daydream album, before her ‘look-at-my-big-ya-yas’ days. I’ll confess I’m a Mariah fan, especially her earlier stuff. Her first album still remains my favourite. ‘Vision Of Love’ and ‘Someday’ showcased her eight-octave range really well and she wasn’t doing too much of that heavy breathing stuff. And she didn’t have lyrics like “Mariah…You’re on fai-ah (fire)”.

Right now I’m listening to her Daydream album in the office, 8:50 on a Wednesday morning. Still getting my engines running. I’m in a writing mood so I just might get some work done today, yay. Yesterday I hit a writing wall where it took me seven hours to write three paragraphs. I spent most of the time planning an imaginary holiday to Koh Samui. Now if only I had the money…


On another musical note, I’m into John Legend these days. He has a gospel/R&B sound so if you’re looking for something refreshing from the usual radio-friendly songs, tune in. I really like ‘Used to Love You’ and the video is pretty cool – a church, a gospel choir and Kanye West. It’s not something I usually listen to but I admit I’m hooked. And take a listen to ‘Ordinary People’ – the arrangement is simple but it’s the lyrics that got me. It’s nice to listen to songs that make you go hmm. More songs on my playlist these days:

Best of You – Foo Fighters
Don’t Lie – Black Eyed Peas
We Belong Together – Mariah Carey
You Oughta Know – Alanis (acoustic version)
Rest In Pieces – Saliva
Only Happy When It Rains – Garbage
Behind These Hazel Eyes – Kelly Clarkson
Close To You – The Carpenters (don’t ask. There’s something relaxing about an oldie)
Cool – Gwen Stefani
Cadillac Pimpin’ – Youngbloodz (compliments of my brother, Ted, who’s a big rap fan)

There you have it. Sometimes I whip out some really old stuff from the 80s. They’ve got better love songs to be honest. Also, you’d be surprised at how good some movie soundtracks are. I like the sappy ones, heh. I recommend the following:

1.One Fine Day (Natalie Merchant’s version of ‘One Fine Day’ is noteworthy)
2.My Best Friend’s Wedding (great mix, including Amanda Marshall and Tony Bennett)
3.French Kiss (great way to learn some French songs, heh. I like the French version of ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me’)
4.You’ve Got Mail
5.The Wedding Singer (Eighties. Need I say more? And Adam Sandler’s original ‘I Wanna Grow Old With You’ *sigh*)

Last night
Last night I went for happy hours after work. It was a good session with my workmates. Unwinding after a long day, bitching about work and drowning our misery in beer. We were joined by two other friends –a photographer and tour guide (friends of the industry we call them)- and more beer started pouring in. And then Viv and Toi joined us and soon we were one big happy drinking family. We had dinner after drinks and by nine pm it was time to get home. Last night was good. Last night I was happy again. Need to do more of that.