Music Review | Geeky Sweetie

What Am I Listening To This Week 8/3/2020 – GeekySweetie Recommended Top 20 Music Videos.

August 5, 2020 GeekySweetie

Hey it’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these posts. Who’s ready for some more music videos? 🙂

Here’s GeekySweetie’s recommended videos for you this week. Check em out. Have a song you’ve been listening to this week? Drop it in my comments section so I can check it out too! 🙂

Hello My Loneliness By Delaney Jane and Call Me Karizma – These are 2 really great indie underground artists who definitely deserve more love! I just discovered them today under youtube recommended videos which inspired me to create this post. The girl only has 15,000 subscribers and the guy has under 200,000. Let’s show them some more love!

2. Strumbella’s Salvation – I heard this in Sheetz ( a gas station), but only for a moment, and what struck me was the lyrics. I spent almost an hour googling the lyrics before I found the song – and this one came up and the begining didn’t sound like what I heard so I skipped over it at first, but after finally circling back to it, and listening to the whole thing, I’m like OMG that’s it. The beginning is different than the ending verse, even the melody changes. But the message is so powerful and so touching. My favorite lyrics, and the ones I heard in Sheetz say: read more

Music Review Music Videos Review

What Am I Listening To This Week? Still Not Tired Of Love Songs Or Kpop English Covers

June 8, 2019 GeekySweetie

It’s that time again. Time to share with you what I’ve been listening to this week. The first song on the list actually isn’t a KPop song. Are you shocked? lol. But I did discover it when I saw a cover of it by an Asian youtuber. So there is that.

Here’s the original non Kpop version

Lauv and Troye Sivan – I’m So Tired of Long Songs

Here’s the cover I found. Not as good as the original, but still pretty decent.

2. BTS – Fake Love

This is one of my favorite BTS songs and there are a lot of great English Covers Out there. But first, here’s the original by our boys BTS

My favorite cover is this one by Emma Heesters

I also really like Elise Silv3rT3ar’s version. Her lyrics are different. I think maybe all the songs on the BTS albulm revolve around the story of Smeraldo? Because in Elise’s version she says “I grew a flower that could never bloom in a dream that could never come true” and in the song I shared last week, The truth untold it’s about the legend of the Smeraldo flower. And both songs are about hiding your true feelings.

Last week I shared a few other covers by Ysabelle; here’s her English cover of BTS Fake Love.

Impaofsweden also has a Fake Love cover here:

Shayne Orock has a ton of anime and Kdrama covers and he is just a young kid. He’s probably like Justin Bieber’s Age when Bieber was discovered by Usher on Youtube. And he sounds better than Bieber did at that age I think. I know he’s done some concerts in some Asian speaking countries – I’m not sure if he’s Korean? He looks different, bone structure wise than most Koreans, but maybe that’s because he hasn’t had much plastic surgery that’s so popular over there? His covers are great, Fake Love is one of his best covers in my opinion.

Awhile back a contestant on the X-Factor UK also did an English Cover of Fake Love at Simon’s house.

And later she went on to perform the song also at the live shows.

Honestly, I don’t really like her voice that much, but she is only 16, and to perform that song on TV at such a young age, she is pretty incredible.

There’s even a heavy metal version… wtf? really? lol… really. Even weirder it’s in Korean still and performed by a bunch of young white kids… This is just too weird lol.

Even weirder… there’s a cover by an Asian guy in English, done in an R&B style – I actually, love this one. It’s so good. His lyrics are completely different. I like his voice.

Back to some normal sounding covers, here’s a cover by shimmeringrain

Here’s another version by Sybass – he needs to work a bit more on emoting more, having more emotion behind the words he sings, but otherwise, it’s really good. He just sounds a bit like he’s reading lines, instead of feeling the emotion behind the song.

Astra King is a bit too auto-tuned for my tastes, but not bad either.

And the men love auto tune too. It’s a bit much, but sorta interesting lol – Is his name Teflon Sega? Why not, I guess right? I mean bands often put together random words for their names right? lol.

This one by Amy B is good because it uses real instruments which gives it a neat feel. Her English pronunciation isn’t very good though.

This one just posted about 12 hours ago as of June 6th when I’m working on this blog post. It only has 3 views right now. She’s pretty good, better than just “3 views good” lol.

There are hundreds of other covers of this song on youtube, maybe the most covered song ever.

3. NCT Dream X HRVY – Don’t Need Your Love

This is a brand new video, just uploaded 15 hours ago as of my writing this on June 6th. It’s mostly in English and the boys are cute and their dancing is great. It’s the 45th most trending video on Youtube and has almost 2 million views, probably much more than that by time you read this post.

4. Beautiful – Cover by Daryl Ong and Dea

Last week, I shared the “other Beautiful” cover by Daryl (the one from Goblin). I’d never heard of him before. But after exploring his youtube channel for a bit, I discovered he’s really talented and apparently was made internet famous by season 2 of the Voice (Philippines version)

This week I’m still listening to his cover of Beautiful from Goblin, and stumbled upon his cover of Beautiful (originally by camilla caballo).

Check it out here:

5. Dancing On My Own – Cover by Daryl Ong

I love the original song by Callum Scott, so it’s no surprise I also love Daryl Ong’s cover.

6. Monsta X Shoot Out

Well, first I found this lyric version here, which is in English… and I think it’s Monsta X singing; we know they are fluent in English because of their first English song “Play It Cool” which I shared last week. But I can’t find like any official videos for this version, so maybe it is just a cover? It’s good though. This song in general is a bit “hard” for my tastes, I prefer more “pop” sounding music instead of rock, but I really like Monsta X. (even though I’ve only been a fan for like 2 weeks now lol)

Here’s the video in English.

And here’s their official music video, which is mostly in Korean:

7.) Ed Sheeran and BTS Collabs – Happier and Make It Right

So apparently there’s been 2 collabs between Ed Sheeran and BTS. The first is from last year, called Happier, I think BTS is singing backup on some choruses, and of course they’re featured in the official music video.

and more recently there’s a mostly Korean song called Make It Right – which was I guess written by Ed Sheeran? Not sure if Ed actually sings at all in this one. Maybe he’s playing his guitar

And there’s an english cover already here by Jeffrey Chang:

And another English cover by Huwe here:

8. Blackpink – Ddu Du Ddu Du

This song has over 800 MILLION views on youtube… and it’s easy to see why. These girls are so fierce.

And like any popular Kpop song, there’s dozens of English covers on youtube too.

Here’s 2 of the most popular girls doing English Kpop covers, Ysabelle and Emma Heesters

Emma’s voice is perfect for this song I think. And Ysabelle can rap really well with her deep voice. This is my favorite English cover of Ddu Du Ddu Du. They have over 2 million views. You go girls :).

I can’t figure out this next video… uploaded by a user named rotschaa… The comments on this video seem to indicate that it is actually Lisa and Jennie singing – and therefore not a cover? Most of the people don’t like the lyrics. Someone pointed out that the lyrics are actually about rapping and making money, because all of the things are actually old-school rapper’s names. Ice-T, Hi-C, and OG, and “More Juice than Hi-C” means BlackPink makes more money. – The person who uploaded this video said the lyrics are “Bitch, I’m a star, but not Patrick” (spongebob reference), but someone said the actual lyric is “Bitch, I’m a star but not perfect” which would make more sense and be less funny lol.

Anyways, if that really is Blackpink rapping, and not just a cover, I would really like to see them release a 100% English version, because this is my favorite Blackpink song, and the girls have excellent English pronunciation. Aside from the Patrick/Perfect line lol.

Shimmeringrain has a cover here, and her lyrics are pretty close to the original song too.

Joytastic Sarah has a cover too. I feel like this song isn’t quite right for her, because I really enjoy a lot of her other covers, but this one is just lacking something in my opinion. Still better than anything I could do though lol so who am I to judge right?

A new (to me at least) girl covering Kpop songs, Charlotte Hannah, tries her hand at a Blackpink cover here.

She’s using Joytastic’s lyrics from above. And this song suits her a bit more than it did for Sarah in my opinion. You have to be a badass chick to get the same attitude of the original Korean version.

And here’s a cover by Bricie

And there’s even men that are doing covers of Ddu-Du-Ddu-Du

Ah apparently the “English Rap Version” from way up above, is from the Japanese version, and is by the original Blackpink.

Here’s another English cover by Emily Dimes

Zhazah Chan’s cover is pretty good – her lyrics are different – I like when people write their own lyrics. She only has 700 views. Check it out below.

Alright, this is actually pretty amazing LOL. Someone just lowered the pitch of the original vocals… and now it sounds like a boy band, maybe similar to BTS….

Here’s another English cover, her pronunciation is a little hard to understand in some parts.

9. Flogging Molly – Devil’s Dance Floor

Just so you know, I don’t listen to “only” Kpop. I listen to literally everything. No lie. I’ve seen Flogging Molly 3 times live. The first time, my best friend had won 2 free tickets, and originally was going to take her then, at the time, boyfriend, but they broke up before the concert, so she let me go with her instead. I’d never heard of Flogging Molly before then – this was back late 90s/early 2k. I had never really been to a Punk Rock concert… and we had general admission… and the mosh pitt was crazzzzzzzzzzzzy. We tried to stay back against the wall to keep from getting trampled lol. My best friend knew another couple who were going, and the guy took off his shirt and rushed into the mosh pitt while we three girls just kept back lol.

Irish punk rock, is very interesting. … This is my favorite song by Flogging Molly. Check it out below.

10. 2 Less Lonely People In The World Tonight – Cover by Daryl Ong

I’d never heard the original by Air Supply, and just stumbled upon this cover by Daryl Ong. I really love the lyrics… I feel like it describes my relationship so perfectly…. 🙂 And I looked up Kita Kita, and it’s apparently a romantic comedy from the phillipines about a blind woman who has given up on finding love, but of course, falls in love through the movie. I want to watch it now.

I went back and listened to the original by Air Supply and I actually prefer Daryl Ong’s version more. What do you think?

What are you listening to this week? Share a link in our comments section below – Also if you do English Kpop covers, send me a link to your youtube channel, maybe I will feature your video in an upcoming blog post.

Kdrama Music Review Music Videos

What I’m Listening To This Week – Kpop, English Covers, and Other Music

June 1, 2019 GeekySweetie

I thought it might be fun to share like a weekly top 10 of songs I’m listening to each week. It can be a new feature on my blog. The music won’t always be new songs, it will be very eclectic. Here’s what I’m listening to this week. I have been listening to a lot of Kpop, including some awesome amazing English covers from talented amateur youtube performers. Check them out below!

1.) Goblin – OST – Beautiful (Crush)

Ok so Goblin is one of my favorite Kdrama, like in the top 3 for sure. This is the opening song, and there are dozens and dozens of English covers of this song. Someone should make like a US version of this drama, and use one of these covers for the opening song lol. But I know it’d never be as good as the Korean version, but then I could get more of my friends and family to watch this show because it’s so good. Le sigh – lol. I seriously kinda want this song to be like my first dance wedding song. It’s nice and slow, and most of the lyrics until the last verse are appropriate. Even then, the last verse, although it is sad, especially if you’ve ever watched Goblin, even still taking it away completely from the context of Goblin, you could analyze the lyrics to be like either, you need someone when you have a sorrowful day, their love gets you through those days, or well sadly, life is cruel and in the end, you will be parted from those you love, because one of you will pass away first, leaving the other person with only memories, and since it’s the last verse, it could be after a long life together. Thus even though it’s sad, still symbolizes a life full of love and memories together. And the first few verses – depending on whose cover you’re listening to, have lines like “It’s a beautiful life. I’ll be the one to cherish you. Now and forever girl I’ll stand by you.” which definitely could apply to a wedding. And it’s just so beautiful – I tear up every time I hear this song.

So first I want to share with you the original korean version because if it wasn’t for that version we wouldn’t have any of these covers. Here is the original song from the Goblin Kdrama:

Next, I just found this English cover version on youtube when I was searching for the other cover(s) I’d been listening to, and this one has almost 11 million views… His lyrics are different than the covers I’d been listening to this week. He’s very talented. Check it out. This cover is by Daryl Ong. I just subscribed to his Youtube Channel.

And onto the English versions which I’ve been listening to all week. So good.

I started with Eric Nam’s cover here.

Then I discovered this beautiful duet with Eric Nam X Somi which is my favorite cover of this song.

And this very talented young Korean girl. Her English pronunciation is good and her voice is so emotional. Her lyrics are also a little different and I really like it!

And this version by another Asian girl. Her voice is so pure and strong too. Her lyrics are a little bit different, sadder I think.

2. Goblin OST – Stay With Me

So why not another Goblin song to take the number 2 spot. Again let’s start with the original Korean version. The English covers just can’t compare for me, the original one is so much better. I love the girl’s voice, and the guy’s voice is so deep, and they both have so much emotion and great chemistry singing together. Perfection.

And now some English covers, Because it’s always fun to have a version to sing along with:

This girl has that cutesy high pitch mariah carey thing going on.

This next cover is by Ysabelle Cuevas – I am a fan of a lot of her Kpop covers, especially some BTS covers which I’m going to be sharing shortly. I think she has such a unique voice. Kinda deep and raspy for a girl. She also sings some parts in Korean. I can’t tell if she is Korean with a hispanic name, or half and half, or hispanic, in which case she’d be singing in 2 non-native languages. My favorite cover by her is The Truth Untold. I have listened to it probably 20 times. lol.

This version is by Jason Chen. Uhm why is his dog walking on his computer desk? lol. I like this version but it’s only about like 30% English, and the other 70% korean.

And this version is so good too, it has a duet and full English rap version too. Also great chemistry and high production values, just like the original! This is probably my favorite of the covers. The lyrics are completely different from any of the other covers. The girl’s voice is so good. She could be a professional singer, seriously.

I can’t tell if this is the exact same version as the one above… I think so… It has the rap and the girl’s voice sounds very similar. Which means someone is stealing/plagarizing and since I dunno which one is the real artist’s youtube channel, I’ll just put both of them here and let you decide. This one has many more views and subscribers, so I’m assuming that this is the real version.

And while doing this blog post and seeing what other covers of this song are out there, I found this young man, and it might be my new favorite version of this song (aside from the original of course). Were you as surprised as me when he started singing? I wasn’t expecting such a deep and powerful voice.

I don’t know about this next cover. Completely different lyrics. I do like that it’s a duet. And they even tried to recreate the official music video from a visual sense. But I feel like their timing is off or something. Or maybe it just lacks the emotion of some of the others. Something doesn’t “sound” quite as nice in this version. I like the rap parts which very few of the covers have.

This girl is not very popular, with only 500 views, but I really like her voice. She claims the song is too high for her, but I think she did a great job.

And another talented young woman also with only 500 views

And this last one, is not English, but I accidentally stumbled across it. It’s a Tagalong version. She does a great job even though I’ve no clue what the lyrics actually are. She has a beautiful voice.

3. Regular – NCT 127

I discovered this song, and this band, a few weeks ago and can’t stop listening to it. It’s so good! By the way it’s in English so even if you don’t like Kpop, you might like this one!

4. We Go Up – NCT 127

This one sadly isn’t in English, but it’s still good. Very catchy. I feel like the chorus parts could be a one direction song LOL. These boys are way cuter than 1D though and they’re more edgey – with lots of rap parts.

NCT 127 is just so cute. They seem to have a lot of chemistry and a lot of fun together which makes them fun to watch on or off the stage. Here are some more candid interviews. And most of them speak like PERFECT English, without even an accent. These interviews are in English.

Cute right? lol. For having just found this band, I’m already a big fan. I hope they do more English versions too in the future!

5. Monster – Henry

I also just discovered this guy. This video is a year old now with over 4 million views. It might be one of my favorite Kpop songs ever. It’s so good. I prefer the English version because obviously I can understand the lyrics and sing along. But the Korean one is good too.

It’s very interesting how different the lyrics are. It completely changes the whole meaning of the song. In the English version the character singing is a good person in love with a person who treats him poorly. Lying to him, leaving him, hurting him, not listening to him, etc. In the Korean version, the character singing is trying to apologize to someone he loves (and who has been loyal to him) for having hurt them (maybe physically? that’s the vibe I get, but it could be emotionally too) and begging her to forgive him and take him back. So it’s completely flipped from the English version.

I have no idea which version is the original one. They are both by Henry, and neither of them are covers. If i had to guess though, I’d say the Korean version was probably first. He has a great voice. The first time I discovered this song I think I played it about 6 times in a single day lol.

Here are both versions of the song below. Which one do you prefer? I love both of them so much!

6. Play it Cool – Monsta X & Steve Aoki English Version

This song has such a great beat, as to be expected from Steve Aoki. This is the first time I’ve heard of Monsta X, but I love them, they’re all so cute! 🙂 Great dancers and singers too.

7. Waste it On Me – BTS & Steve Aoki

And then since I heard that great Kpop Collab, I had to re-watch Waste it On Me. I remember hearing this song on Sattelite Radio Hits 1 last year, and liking it, but it wasn’t til a few weeks later when I looked up the video that I realized it was BTS and a Kpop song. (kinda one of the sad things that happens to digital radio, you don’t have DJ’s for most of the stations so you don’t hear who the songs are by anymore. – But I also don’t like Talk radio and the commercials and so on, so overall I think Sattelite Radio is amazing. I cancelled my subscription recently which actually is what has led me to exploring more music on my own this week. There are lots of alternatives to get your music, such as spotify, pandora, youtube, amazon music, google music, apple music, the list goes on and on. But I think this was the first ever English Kpop song I’d heard, especially one so popular on American radio stations. The music video is so funny too!

8. TXT – Cat and Dog

Ok excuse me while I geek out for just a minute…. I literally just now as I type this… just now… discovered there is an English version of this song… It’s not a cover… it’s the real deal. OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am freaking out right now. I can’t handle this cuteness!!!!!!!!! I just discovered the original Korean version a week or two ago… and now THIS!!! They just put the English video up 4 weeks ago and it already has almost 7 million views. I am geeking out soooooooooooooooo much. This should actually be number 1 on my list, because it’s that good. It’s SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :squeals:

Ok though after watching it… I still have no idea what they’re saying like 30% of the time lol. Maybe it’s too fast and their accents are throwing me off a little. Or maybe some parts of it are still in Korean? lol. Maybe it’s just me? My hearing isn’t that good anyways. I still really like it though 🙂 I came on here just to share the Korean version with ya’all, so I was so shocked to see an English version. Even if I can’t understand a third of what they’re saying lol.

Here’s the original Korean version.

9. Eyes, Nose, Lips – Taeyang Originally, and Lydia’s Answer, and some covers.

So this one actually has a REALLY interesting story behind it. Taeyang was dating his manager (I don’t know if Lydia is his manager or if she’s just doing an English cover of the manager’s version of this song… but I digress… for the purpose of this blog post, let’s just say they’re one and the same…) Taeyang then cheated on her with another famous Kpop artist. Taeyang regretted his bad decision and wrote this song to try to apologize for his behaivor and hopefully get back together with his manager. His manager then released a cover of his song, which she changed the lyrics, and posted it to youtube and got more views and more positive feedbacks than Taeyang, basically telling him to screw off. Some comments said things like “When the manager sounds better than her band”. And then the song became very popular because of the sad drama/history behind it and spawned a lot of covers, including an English cover by Eric Nam and this really great Korean duet on some show that must be similar to American Idol, like a Korean version, that has even more views than Lydia’s version. All I can say is, the story is crazy, and the song is good. I love all the versions, but I think Lydia’s is my favorite. Check out all the versions below.

10. BTS – Truth Untold ft Steve Aoki

I hinted at this song up above when I shared some of Ysabelle’s covers of Goblin’s OST. So I thought it only appropriate to end with this song. It may be the saddest song of all time. First, the original Korean by BTS.

And now Ysabelle’s Cover, it’s so good. I love her lyrics and her voice.

There’s also this cover by Emma Hesters. It has a lot more views, I suspect part of the reason why is because she’s a pretty blonde girl. Although she does have a lovely voice too. I just prefer Ysabelle’s version more, but my grandma likes Emma’s voice better and disagree’s with me which one is better. What do you think?

There’s a lot more covers of this song also on Youtube.

This one by Michigopyon doesn’t have nearly as many views, only 20k, but I think her voice is really soft and sweet.

The lyrics to this one are different. Her voice is deep and unusual too.

Another one with completely different lyrics. I like when people write their own lyrics instead of just using Ysabelle’s lyrics, although Ysabelle’s is still my favorite. It’s neat to hear other people’s works.

I really like Joytastic Sarah’s version and her lyrics that she wrote seem to fit the song super well – She has a lovely voice too.

This one by a girl group is interesting… I like the lyrics they wrote. I always wondered why Ysabelle’s version changed sandcastle to “mess of thorns” 3 syllables. Sand Castle is also 3 syllables and closer to the original korean version which uses the korean word for Sandcastle. I also also thought (and sing when I sing along) that the line after “Don’t smile at me” should be “Lie to me” instead of light on me – although light on me is the same as the korean version, but Lie to me just sounds better in English – even though its in English in the korean version too. Anyways this is a great cover 🙂 Props to these ladies.

And some more covers:

Men are even getting in on covering this one –

I did not know the story behind this song. I had never heard of this Italian story. Recently also a map has been discovered, and it was at one time a real city. La Cita De Smeraldo. It may be the true story that led to fairy tales such as Beauty and the Beast. There was a duke who fell in love with a gardener’s daughter, and bore a child out of wedlock. Because he was born out of wedlock, the duke sent the child to a far away place. The child was also rumored t

o be extremely ugly, and wore a mask at all times and locked himself away in his castle. One day a girl breaks into his garden and steals a flower. He is very angry and so he wears a disguise and follows the girl and discovers that she is very poor and stealing flowers to sell in her village in order to survive. He immediately feels bad for the girl, and he again locks himself away in his castle in order to research new flowers that will sell for a higher price that he plans to give to the girl. But the girl never returns to his garden. After some time, the boy returns to the village and discovers that the girl has died. He feels regret for never telling her his true feelings, but because he was ugly, he felt that the girl could not accept him as a man. He returned to his castle where he died alone. A very sad, and apparently true story. read more

Anime Anime News Anime Review Editorial Kawaii Cute Music News Music Review News Opinion Review TV and Film

Porter Robinson’s Shelter Is an Anime – and Here’s Why

October 19, 2016 GeekySweetie

I just watched a short film – or more precisely, a music video by Porter Robinson. Although he is an American artist, he contracted with A-1 Pictures a famous Japanese anime studio — It’s being marketed by crunchyroll (who most people associate with “anime”) — and the film first debuted in Tokyo, Japan, to an audience of Japanese people. Although it is marketed for worldwide release and distribution, it was developed, drawn, animated, and premiered first in Japan and made by a famous anime studio consisting of largely Japanese staff. It is a Japanese animation, or anime for those facts alone.

It’s true that similar “Big Eye, Small Mouth, Brightly colored” animated films are NOT anime – I fully agree. RWBY and Avatar and Kora for example are not anime – because they are not made by Japanese anime studios, they are made by westerners.

So what if someone is “paying” or “contracting” the studio – Is anime, and the animation studios not allowed to be paid for their work? How does that fact alone disqualify Shelter from being an anime?

Also bear in mind, anime is gaining global attention and branching out to a global market. Long gone are the days where anime was a niche hobby back in the 90s. It is becoming increasingly more mainstream. Perhaps some fans feel threatened by this, that their hobby will become too “mainstream” and not “cool” anymore – but going “mainstream” is a good thing – when studios can make money and increase their audience share, this means more anime will get made!

The lines of what defines “anime” are quickly beginning to blur.

One example of this is a Studio Ghibli series coming to Amazon Prime in the near future. It’s been contracted by Americans, but being developed by a famous Japanese anime studio.

Other examples of anime contracted by an American company but produced by a Japanese anime studio include 7 Deadly Sins and Perfect Bones.

My take is – if it comes from a Japanese anime studio – and has all the markings of an anime (similar animation style, writing techniques, etc) – then it’s an anime.

Shelter takes it a step further and even has original audio in Japanese by a talented Japanese voice actress. This further proves it was originally intended for Japanese audiences.

The debate on if Shelter is an anime or not has been a hot button issue this week according to Kotaku

But you can watch the anime for yourself below and decide if Shelter is an anime, or just a cartoon. It’s a beautiful short film about a lonely girl who finds escapism in a game very similar to Minecraft. After watching this film, I really want to play Minecraft, or similar voxel games such as Peria Chronicles or Islet.

There is also now a new Behind the Scenes video that shows how Shelter was made, which further proves it should be considered as an Anime: