"Waking Up" after "Dreaming Out Loud"

First post for December. Yeay! Less than 4 weeks left before saying goodbye to 2009. So can't wait for 2010.

Finally the album I've been looking forward to buy since its release in November 09. Next up will be Hello Hurricane by Switchfoot. Tapi tak sampai Malaysia lagi... =(

The first round, I was disappointed. Knew I had to be fair so I played the whole album for a second round.

The thing is (and this is from my humble point of view of course), their first album, Dreaming Out Loud was so good that I fell in love with it just after listening for one round. The 2nd time I was really impressed with Ryan Tedder for being able to create such an outstandingly good and worthy album. He had me at Apologize (I preferred the original version compared to the remix made by Timbaland) then he graced me with Stop and Stare. And before Say (All I Need) became a radio mainstream material already was the song one of my favourite hit. Other tracks that weren't played for airwaves were equally good. There was All Fall Down, Mercy, Dreaming Out Loud, Tyrant and Goodbye Apathy. Goodbye Apathy really spoke to me. Like it understood what I was feeling that time. In short, practically the whole album was brimming with good quality tracks.

Am not feeling the same way with their sophomore album though. It's sad because I was really looking forward to the release of Waking Up. It's not that it's really bad, it's just I'm not getting the "Oh-my-God-this-is-one-heck-of-an-album" vibe I usually get when listening to a really good album.

What I do like about OneRepublic's second album is there's more of Brent Kutzle (say Hello to my other guy infatuation =D ) and his cello in this album compared to the first one. Here's the thing, if you could incorporate any classical music instrument in a pop/rock genre then you've got my vote. If the instrument happens to be a violin or cello, lagi la I'm over the moon. Somehow I find the fusion of Vivaldi-like classic with modern rock to be very appealing. But that's just me.

So, what are the recommended tracks to watch out for? In order of most favourite :

Secrets - Next to Say (All I Need), this is my other top choice thus far. An awesome song by again the talented Mr Tedder. Sila tengok the video clip. Brent Kutzle is so damn.....attractive (can't think of other adjectives to describe him but I do know he's everything I looove in a musician)...Lol! Okay, okay. I'll try and be objective here. If you listen, as in really listen, you'll find the composition of this song is beautifully arranged. Kind of like symphony-rock.

All The Right Moves - This is the first single to be released for Waking Up. A polished piece of fusion between rock and contemporary R&B. Video clip can already be seen on MTV. Again, sila lihat Brent Kutzle main cello. *Swoons*

Fear - A slow number. Think Enya and her ethereal sounds.

Made For You - If you buy the album, this track is the first track. This particular song is...hmm...a bit tricky. In a good way...Because the first part was kind of pop/rock-ish. Then there's a pause at the middle of the song and followed by a gospel-like choir singing "All the right moves bla bla bla..." at the very end of the song. But the beautiful thing here is, as soon as they end then it's cue for second track, All The Right Moves. The transition from the choir's low tempo to high was nice.

Good Life - The picture that came into my mind when first listening to this song was a backdrop of wild-life Africa with half-naked men beating drums and big falcons soaring in the skies. Just like the title, I think this is one of those "feel-good" song. The kind that makes you want to throw up your hands in the air and live life for the moment.

Waking Up - I do not like this song. The first half sounded something like Use Somebody by Kings Of Leon, the next half is confusion for me and at the very last minute the tempo slowed down to a piano tune that lasted for 2 minutes and 48 seconds. And this 2 minutes and 48 seconds sounded exactly like November Rain by Guns and Roses. Huh?? Sangat tak suka lagu ni.

OneRepublic - All The Right Moves [Official Music Video]

To sum it up : Dreaming Out Loud was a variety of experimental sounds.
Apologize -> Stop and Stare -> Say (All I Need) all sounded different from each other.

For the second album, it's like they've decided to stick to just one kind of sound. Okay, you may not get my point. I think repetitive would be the word for Waking Up. Lots of chanting and drum beating/thumping. Which is why I imagined the whole Africa wild-life backdrop.

I don't however regret buying this album. OneRepublic is one of the few music groups out there whose sole intention of becoming musicians is to just create genuine, good music.

OneRepublic is not the only (nor the first) band to ever include a classical music instrument in their music. Chris Martin and his piano put a new twist to the huge and famous band, Coldplay. Then there's Keane who for the first 2 albums made music without the use guitar. Cool kan? It was just drums, piano and cymbal. Melee also relies on the fusion of piano and guitar for Devils & Angels. And who could forget Yellowcard. Seriously, dahla punk rock. Lepas tu boleh pulak gabungkan the sounds of violin and make really good songs out of it. Who did not like Ocean Avenue or Only One eh? If there is someone who don't, then dude you're officialy tone deaf. (LOL! Suka-suka hati je kata orang tone deaf).

Oh and a special shoutout to my dear bestie, Nurul Ain a.k.a fake plastic trees : Welcome home darl! =) Assuming of course by the time you read this you've landed safe and sound in Malaysia.

Most of all it's built to last...

Cause you are the sun in my universe,
Consider the best when we felt the worst
And most of all, most of all it's built to last.

[Built To Last - Melee]


(I looooove the way Chris Cron plays the piano. That's saying a lot since guys+pianos never do get my undivided attention)

Three reasons why I love Melee.

1. They're from Orange County, California. The O.C anybody?? (I know it doesn't make any sense, but my besties should know that it does ;p ) Ok ok...that does not count as a concrete reason why I love the band. How about this : They created one of the greatest songs ever made (i.m.h.o). Built To Last is seriously good. And sweet, in a non-romantic-mushy way. I even envisioned it being played on my wedding day. (no Celine Dion please!)

2. They make the absolute great songs. Fun, highly addictive, the kind of music you can listen to while driving around in your car. And the way Chris blends his piano playing skills + vocals with the rest of the band results in good tracks that you can listen to countless of times without getting bored. They're like melodic pop meets modern rock.

3. So far, they are the only 4-piece band that looks drop-dead-gorgeous. Seriously, all four of them are really good looking in a clean-cut way. (Trying hard not to be biased, haha)

I've to thank my kid-bro for this one...One time, doing what I do best when there's a remote in my hand, I channel surfed. It annoys my mom like hell. The more reason to do it frequently. ;D Stopped at Hitz.Tv when I saw a band playing at that time what I thought was a decent song (it was almost to the end and I couldn't catch the name of the band). So I had to walk around for weeks humming the only tiny part of the song I could remember by a band I don't even know. Back then, my bro relied on me to get his weekly fix of new songs since he doesn't have a laptop. One day he told me to get him a song.

Him : Built To Last. Melee tau..
Me : Haa...siape?
Him : M.E.L.E.E. Melee. Lagu dorg slalu main kat Hitz.TV.
Me : *eyes-rolling* Fine. Nanti along carikan.

And cari I did. Music-wise, my bro share only one thing in common with me. Our love for Switchfoot. And occasionally 30 Seconds To Mars. Other than that he's into Jo Bros (YUCK!!! I detest Joe Jonas), Ne-yo, Hey Monday and some "shuffle-style (it's a dance move)" songs I don't even know about. So I was curious as to what this "Melee" might sound like that I decided to play the song on my laptop. Took me less than a minute to decide that the intro was one hell of a good intro. And when the drums and bass came, I knew I was hooked. It was when they reached the chorus did I realize that it's THE song. One that I've been humming for weeks. And by the time the song ended, I hit the PLAY button for a second round.

The next natural (and obvious) thing I did was Googled + Youtube-ed them. Found out they're huge in Japan. And they have more than one great hit. I went to several music stores in Subang but none have the album I was looking forward to actually buying. So as a last resort, I asked Sarah, a friend of mine in UK to buy the album (since it was available there) and pass it to me the next time she returns for her holidays in Msia. I'm still waiting for that cd Sarah...lol.

So, while we patiently wait for the cd, take time to hear these songs that I think are worthy of listening to.

1. Built To Last (My now top 5 favourite songs of all time)
2. Stand Up
3. Frequently Baby
4. The War
5. Can't Hold On

*They were in S'pore last year. Too bad they didn't make it to Malaysia*

Courtesy of Yahoo!Video. Just watch how "bersungguhnye" Chris is playing the piano.

(Uploading the video, like any other video might take a while. Patience is a virtue!)



@ Yahoo! Video

I could use a fresh beginning too...All of my regrets are nothing new

Hello, good morning, how you do?
What makes your risin' sun so new?

[Learning To Breathe - Switchfoot]
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As far as I can remember, Switchfoot has been the oldest and all time favourite band of mine. (Jonathan Foreman was my first *coughs* love, but that's not the main point).

And while you can bet there will be more entries relating to Switchfoot in the forseeable future, I'm going to start today's "commentary" with Learning To Breathe. Yes, I should've started with "Dare You To Move", being that it's my most favourite song of all time and THE one song I absolutely can NOT get tired of listening to but this particular one is my second close fav. It's more of a private and personal song to me than DYTM is.

For those who've yet to know who or what Switchfoot is, they're a band (like,duh) from California. I started listening to Switchfoot in 2002 and got to know about their songs from watching A Walk To Remember. Two of their most famous tracks were in that movie. Ever wondered how sometimes you just "fall-in-love-at-first-sound" with some songs? Well, Dare You To Move was one of them. In 2002, I wasn't that good with computers and all the tech stuff. So the only time I got to listen to Switchfoot was when Hitz.fm was kind enough to play it on air for me. They weren't exactly mainstream-material, unlike Nickelback or Daughtry nowadays. When I finally got my monthly allowance, no need to guess that I made Speedy RM40 richer. The Beautiful Letdown is still one of my fav albums so far.

Anyway, last year Switchfoot came to Malaysia for their tour (Jon Foreman ate Nasi Kandar and surfed at Sunway Lagoon. How cool was that??!!). And while I was ready to fork out $ for the tix to their show, my mom said there's no absolute way she's letting me anywhere near a concert stage as long as I'm living under her care. (This was my 2nd attempt. The first was when I was in high school and Westlife came to Malaysia. I remembered Sarah, Amal and I wanted to go and watch the fab-five-irish-lads badly). Anyway, I found out that a former classmate of mine got free tix to Switchfoot's show and he said the concert was "Biase je". Biase je?? Hello, are you like tone deaf or something? (no, I dare not say that directly to his boyish face. Haha) And I remembered at that time two of my friends (Ain and Hern) were rooting for me to go to the concert. I'm still in envy with Ain for getting to go to Him's concert. How she did it and how she dressed for it is still a mystery to me...Mind you, she's a tudung clad girl who's really into "dark-goth-rock" music. And that's putting it mildly. When MCR first came to the scene in Malaysia, she was the first one in our class to even know about them. When the rest of us finally caught up with the MCR-Helena fever, she was already into new bands by then. She single-handedly made The Rasmus a household name in our class. She even won a dinner date with the band itself when they came to perform in Malaysia (really, I'm not making this up. She got the chance to sit in the same table with four rocking finnish dudes) but her mom said no (Wait, did she even told her mom she won?) So yeah, she's kind of my music Guru. Haha

Right, getting back on track.....

So it was a drab that I couldn't watch Switchfoot live and up close. There's always youtube, I tried to convince myself. But when I saw the commercial that 8TV is airing Switchfoot's showcase in Malaysia on one Sunday night, I knew instantly 8TV had made my day. Thank You soo very much Mr Izham (CEO of 8TV). I owe you one. So on Sunday night, for one hour I was in complete bliss. I was so jealous of Rina because she got to be the hostess throughout Switchfoot's stay in Malaysia. Then came the concert part. They performed Meant To Live, This Is Your Life, Stars, Dare You To Move (obvie) and other of their major hits. Cia and Teha, my roommates were such good friends for humouring me and my "Oh-My-God-It's-Jon!" moments. They sat with me for the whole hour and even turned up the volume (I was afraid it would bug them since they were studying but being such darlings, they said what better way to enjoy a rock concert than having the volume on full blast). And having them with me was not even the best part. The band was about to perform "Learning To Breathe" when Jon said "....This one's a personal favourite of mine..." I couldn't remember what else he said but the main point is : His personal favourite song is exactly the same as mine. OMG! Life could not be any more perfect than it already is. (See, I don't think it takes much to please me..Just a few of rockstars saying they composed a song for me and having their fav song being the same as mine Ha.Ha) Teha and Cia were smiling and shaking their heads at the sight of my love-struck expression.

So yeah..maybe it would've been much better had I gotten the chance to watch them perform live, but a girl can't have everything she wants in life right? And the fact that Jon and I now share something in common totally compensate any dissapoinment I felt for missing their show. Who knows, maybe the next time they're in Malaysia, I could be in the same table with them, eating Nasi Kandar. A girl can dream, aight..