I like to listen to music that has a great feel to it and in languages I do not speak or understand. That way I can enjoy it without the burden of terrible lyrics. ☺️
I have a few that I listen to a lot:
Amatz by Shanti Dope - Filipino rap
Mundian To Bach Ke by Punjabi MC - upbeat Bollywood style
Life on Mars by Seu Jorge - just him and a guitar
Update: I have created a Spotify playlist with the songs so far. I will continue to update the list as new songs get added. If you find your song on the list but meant a different version please DM me a link to the one you want. Enjoy!
New World, by L’ArcenCiel
if anyone here likes goth music, i highly recommend:
- she past away, most of their discography tbh (turkish)
- lebanon hanover (german, some of it)
- στο σκοτάδι (sto skotadi) by selofan (greek)
- nasha by aurat (urdu)
- reflejos by vacíos cuerpos (spanish)
- fantasmas by twin tribes (spanish)
- à contrecœur by hante. (french)
Good news everyone!
And if you don’t speak English, let me know what you think:
Seu Jorge’s full album of Bowie covers is so epic. Love it, and really adds to the Life Aquatic
Cafe Tacvba - Hola Adiós
Dude! I love mundian to bach ke!
But most of my “foreign” language music pleasures are less identifiable.
Like, there’s a lot of zydeco that’s in French that I love, but it’s hard to find recordings of any kind, much less digital options.
And I can essentially endlessly listen to what’s called throat singing, but have no idea what titles would be to recommend. Almost all that I have is Mongolian or tuvan, and didn’t come from a CD.
“Baba Yetu” - we learned it for the choir. Luckily, i found a translation, so we now know that we are not ordering fridges or something. Look for “baba yetu stellenbosch” for a nice version.
I love their version. Also Maytree.
NAIMONONEDARI (not sure how much this counts. I took Japanese in high school but can’t maintain a conversation to save my life.)
Песенка (also grey area for me, I took Russian in uni but I’m far from conversational with it.)
edit: forgot to include Spanish
Several Japanese songs, such as Summer of Goodbye, Message in Rouge and Contrails
Garland of a Hundred Flowers - My neighbours’ national anthem can’t be this cute! (Nepali)
Halls of Hueyteotl and Baba Yetu (both Swahili, both from video games)
The lyrics of Rouge no Dengon are really good. It’s about a woman who’s on a train, leaving town to get away from her cheating husband. She left a “message in rouge” for him to find in the bathroom, that she won’t be back until he changes his ways. She’s actually going to his mother’s house, and she’ll have his mother call him to scold him in the morning.
If you’re familiar with the song as the opening theme to Kiki’s Delivery Service, it really really fits Kiki’s character as she listens to the song while leaving home for the first time. You might get the feeling that the themes of the song are things relates to herself: independence, anxiety, maturity, and female solidarity. And of course, if you watch the movie, those are all things she experiences in her new town.
Basically it’s a REALLY REALLY good song and absolutely perfect choice for the movie it’s in. I also love the singer’s other Ghibli movie song you mention, Contrails/Hikoukigumo.
absolutely perfect choice for the movie it’s in.
I’m aware of the meaning, but I actually found it strange that they put a song about cheating in a film aimed at children.
Liu Yuning - Unintentional Big Dream (Fangs of Fortune OST)
刘宇宁 - 无心生大梦
This song is a departure from LY’s usual genre. It goes hard and is so exciting. All my friends know this song and can sing the chorus because I made them listen to it many times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBTNyJ33LWI I like rammstein’s zick zack, I know they are lambasting plastic surgery but as a trans person I love enthusiastically shouting CUT IT OFF when the chorus happens in a sort of ironic way
I’m a basic bitch, so some of the first that came to mind have already been mentioned by others:
- Papoutai - Stromae (along with some other of his songs)
- Baba Yetu - Christopher Tin
- Dragostea Din Tei - O-Zone
To those, I’ll add some other meme songs / songs that have been used in English-speaking media:
Also the ultra-popular ones everybody already knows and I won’t bother to link, such as Bad Apple, Gangnam Style, the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack, etc.
