lauryn hill - just like water

*since i found out more people read it than originally thought, i think i should update more often.

Today's featured artist is Lauryn Hill!

yesterday i took another random cd off the tower and it was lauryn hill's mtv unplugged session. it's one of those 2 cd sets, and i think she did this before she completely disappeared into a prolonged hiatus from the music biz.

anyway, my most favorite song on the 2 disc set is from disc 1, entitled "just like water". i think she does the entire unplugged session with just her guitar. lots of narrative and explanation inbetween songs, in which she's funny and sets the mood for the next song. well, if you really listen to her talk, she has a lot of references to God and how He's impacted her life... you'd think she was a Christian artist like Amy Grant or Rachael Lampa. well, she doesn't always outwardly show that in the lyrics of her songs... like this one.

this song sounds like she can be talking about the love of her life, but i interpret this as the "he" really being "He"... God. I just interpreted this from her personality and all her references.
either way, i love how she writes. like, verse 1 sounds a lot like how finding Him has put her into a state of peace and childlike trust and surrender. it's so image inducing, you can't help but try to put her words into action through mental images. loaded with symbols, it's actually kind of dense and heavy.

musically it's a lot easier to listen to the instrumentals. it's a simple sounding guitar picking pattern just moving up and down the neck of the guitar but it kind of gives it that "watery" kind of sound, rising and falling gently, not too abrupt. i think this is how simplicity is beautiful.

unplugged sessions like this always show how great an artist is. because the songs are stripped of its glitz and glam, leaving "raw" structure of music and you can't help but pay more attention to the words, instrumentals, and vocals. there aren't other parts out there to distract you from the essence of the song, which is why everyone should have an unplugged session. it would distinguish the true artists from those who are posers. haha well, at least i think. not to mention, you see them for who they are as a person in which more than just one side of them is shown to the audience. great stuff!

lol i also like how when the audience is going wild at the end of the song, she asks them if they're getting paid to clap like that. haha

"Just Like Water"

[Verse 1]
Moving down the streams of my lifetime
Pulls the fascination in my sleeve
Cooling off the fire of my longing
Boiling off my cold within his heat
Melting down the walls of inhibition
Evaporating all of my fears
Baptizing me into complete submission
Dissolving my condition with his tears

[Chorus]
He's just like the water
I ain't felt this way in years
He's just like the water
I ain't felt this way in years

[Verse 2]
Coursing through my senses, he's prevailing
Floating through the space of my design
Drowning me to find my inside sailing
Drinking in the mainstream of his mind
Filling up the cup of my emotions
Spilling over into all I do
If I only I could get lost in his ocean
Surviving on the thought of loving you

[Chorus]
He's just like the water
I ain't felt this way in years
He's just like the water, the water
I ain't felt this way in years

[Verse 3]
Bathing in the fountain of his essence
He causes my expression to remain
Humbled on a mountain by his presence
Washing my intentions with his name
Sealing off the floodgates of his passions
Saving all his liquid for his own
Moisturizing me to satisfaction
In my imagination? No no!
He's pouring out his soul to me for hours and hours
Drawing out my nature with his hands
Yearning I'm so thirsty for his power
Burning to be worthy of his land

[Chorus]
He's just like the water
I ain't felt this way in years
He's just like the water
I ain't felt this way in years

[Ad Libs Remainder]
Cleaning me
He's purging me
And moving me around
He's bathing me
And he's claiming me
And moving me around
Around and around and around
And around
Watching me, claiming me
Moving me around
He's purging me
He's been cleaning me
And moving me around
And around

link coming soon!

so for the past 2 days i've been revisiting some of my old cds... and the topic of the entry today is of one of the old "pop princesses" of the late '90s and early '00s.

mandy moore!

yep. on tuesday i grabbed a random cd out of the cd tower and it happend to have 2 of mandy moore's earliest albums (out of 4, i think). they're practically the same album, but give or take a few songs. although i like a lot of them on the first one (candy, love shot, love you for always [one of my very favorites!], walk me home, quit breaking my heart), the new ones on the 2nd one show some growth (want you back, way to my heart [?], i wanna be with you, your face).

sidebar: ever since the verbal comeback, "your face" has been in usage/style, i can't listen to mandy moore's ballad "your face" without laughing and/or giggling to myself! haha and it's also a serious song about finding her piece of heaven in her loved one's face. hahah totally ruins the "moment" but makes it a funny one instead! oh man.. and she sings it a lot too...

LOL, your face!

anyway, back to the topic at hand.

i keep listening to "want you back". it's about her seeing her ex after they broke up and realizing that she made a mistake, so she wants him back.

it's not the lyrics that get me, but actually the instrumentals and her vocals. acoustic guitar picking is always pretty sounding (which is what the song opens with) with the building to the chorus from picking to strumming... then add in the drums and bass... and it's a chorus in true late 90's early 2000's pop fashion.

oh man, but my MOST FAVORITE part of the song is during the 2nd verse (from :56 to 1:14). Whie she's singing, there's the "strings" in the background with acoustic guitar picking and a drum beat (snare, bass, and high hat) and WOW. i dunno that drum beat really makes me feel it lol. it makes me want to drum along with it! but i can't cuz i don't have drums and i'm not coordinated enough. but wow!

2nd favorite part is probably the chorus breakdown toward the end of the song (2:05 to 2:22) because it's that acoustic guitar soft strumming and then if you listen closely, you got the piano adlib! (the piano part actually reminds me of jen kim cuz she plays like that) this very nicely segways into my 3rd favorite part because the breakdown ends with mandy moore belting into the chorus.

see, this song is great for mandy moore because not only does it follow the rules of late 90's pop, but it also allows her to grow vocally out of her "so real" album. yeah, her voice still sounds sweet, soft, young and innocent, maybe even passive, but she actually belts and projects a little bit out of that shell. overall, this song opens up her range, not so much with the highs and lows, but with the loud and soft.

"Want You Back"

1st Verse
Last night I saw you the first time since we broke up
I tell you baby it all came back to me
When I looked into your eyes there was something more
That I never really noticed before

Refrain
Could it be?
That all along
I was so wrong
When I realized
And turned around and you were gone

Chorus
If I say I want you back
Would you turn around and say you want me too
'Cause I say I want you back
This time I really mean it

2nd Verse
It hurts so much I want to tell you I've changed for you
But I don't know what to say or do
We grew apart but I still want you in my heart
I believe it's time to make a new start

Refrain
Could it be?
That all along
I was so wrong
When I realized
And turned around and you were gone

Chorus
If I say I want you back
Would you turn around and say you want me too
'Cause I say I want you back
This time I really mean it

Bridge
If I say I want you
Want you back
Will you turn around and walk
Away
From me
If i say
I want you back
With me
Believe

Chorus breakdown
If I say I want you back
Would you turn around and say you want me too
'Cause I say I want you back
This time I really mean it

Outro/Adlib
And if I say I want you back (I want you back)
And if you say you want me too (Do you really want me too?)
And if I say I want you back (I want you back)
And if you say you want me too (Do you want me too?)

And if I say I want you back (Want you back)
And if you say you want me too (I need you by my side)
And if I say I want you back (I want you back)
And if you say you want me too (Do you want me too?)

And if I say I want you back (Baby, I want you baby)
And if you say you want me too (I want you too, I want you baby, do you want me too?)

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Too bad she kinda blurs the words together, and her voice is almost too high pitched for me to sing along to, but still a good song anyway!

this is one of my favorite songs on the Bituing Walang Ningning soundtrack.
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Felt So Right - Sarah Geronimo

I love you
I don’t know what else to say
Cuz I long for you more each day
I need you
I want to feel your embrace
And have a chance to touch your face

I was lost and alone
But you showed me the way
Now I call you my own
Things will never be the same

How could I’ve known
You would hold me close so tenderly
Even though I’m alone
I can feel your arms enfolding me
And that love, became mine in just one night
When you held me tight
Oooh.. it felt so right

I feel you
You’re always here in my heart
Its where I've kept you since we're far apart
I was lost and alone
But you showed me the way
Can’t go on, on my own
Wishin’ that you would stay

How could I’ve known
You would hold me close so tenderly
Even though I’m alone
I can feel your arms enfolding me
And that love, became mine in just one night
When you held me tight
Oooh.. it felt so right

I was lost and alone
But you showed me the way
Can’t go on, on my own
Wishin’ that you would stay
Tell me that you would stay… ey

How could I’ve know (how could I’ve known… ohh)(Ooh)
You would hold me close so tenderly (oohh)(Ooh)
Even though I’m alone
I can feel your arms enfolding me (your arms enfold me)
And that love, became mine in just one night
When you held me tight
Oooh.. it felt so right

Felt so right…Hmmm…
Felt so right.

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this is one of those songs that i love but hate simply because i love the song and how it sounds, but i hate that i don't have that in real life! hahaha seriouisly... it's a very pretty song. usually Sarah is a power balladress, always showcasing her upper register hitting whitney, mariah, regine-like notes. she has good reason too, since she's been showing off her skill to hit celine dion notes since she was 13 during that "star for a night" show 3 years ago. i admire her grounded personality as well as her humility, which i think makes her a more admirable singer. she doesn't have that diva attitude which reflects in her music.

especailly in this song. this song is so gentle and loving -- not over the top. i think she captures the feeling perfectly since she doesn't even go as strongly in the "money notes" where people are boarderline screaming! she gives power in a firm yet gentle way, during that climax of the song. wow. that's control. lol it might actually sound efortless, or maybe even laziness?

oh man! but what really gets me is her opening 3 notes - those 3 words: "i love you". not because she's saying it to me (cuz well, yeah. i don't have my arms enfolding her haha) but mostly because it freezeframes the tenderness of the sentiment in the song. the whole first 2 lines: "i love you, i don't know what else to say". That's so human... you don't always know what to say, and sometimes those 3 words are all you can fish for to express at least a portion of the sentiment overflowing in you. it shows the softness of the emotion, and i think her entrance to this song is perfect. soft, firm, but not too strong.

especially if you watch bituing walang ningning and you see the episode where she sings this to oman... she personalizes the character's longing and synchronizes it with her voice as well as her demeanor... even if it is just her looking at oman kinda jealous and sad. wow. she's getting better as an actress too. lots of potential in both fields, and i think that she can only get better.

and songs like this, although not exactly material to become a radio single (even in the philippines), are hits. it's one of those behind-the-scenes songs that end up being the best in the album although every other song has its spotlight. i'm pretty much fixated on this song. lol it's like i can't go a day without listening to it at least once. love it.

til next time. happy listening!

No Other One

one of my most favorite songs of all time is No Other One by Rachael Lampa. I remember reading the lyrics and sypnopsis on her website before actually listening to the song, and just from that i was really impressed. caution: long post ahead.

here's the stuff on her site:
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NO OTHER ONE
RACHAEL LAMPA/TOMMY SIMS

Sing to me beauty
let your voice lead the way
And in your words I’ll find the things I could not say
Oh how I’ve longed to write a love song just for you
But on my own I’ve found it’s just another thing I couldn’t do

Whisper the reason
when the sun just hides away
How do the seasons know exactly when to change
Who on earth could find a language or a line
Or count the ways to best describe the beauty found in your design?

CHORUS
No other One - There is just no other like you
No other One – There is no one else but you
It’s in the way you will the wind to calm the ocean
That’s who you are to me
There could never be, another one

V.2
So amazing kind of crazy but it’s true
That my affection is obsession when it comes to you
And let me say as I am falling on my face
That I am lacking better words but I just write them anyway

CHORUS
No other One - There is just no other like you
No other One – Lord there is no one else but you
It’s in the way you will the wind to calm the ocean
That’s who you are to me; it’s all I’ll ever need
It’s so clear to me, there could never be, another one

SYNOPSIS
This song has been written and rewritten more times than I think I have ever seen a song rewritten, but I really always felt like this was an important song that needed to be just right. Our thought when writing this song was to write a worship song that went somewhere no other worship song went, but in my attempt to be profound, it only came out a little overdone. How do you write a love song to God? There aren’t enough beautiful words to describe such a love, let alone then try to squeeze them into a four minute song! I decided to ask myself what I thought about worship overall and realized that it was so simple. Worship goes beyond big words and music; it is an intimate encounter with God. An encounter that is just honest and real. I think the fact that I couldn’t find strong enough words makes me even more in awe of how big He is and I think that’s how He intended for it to be. So I sat down with my producer, Tommy, and we wrote exactly what came to our minds when we thought about speaking to God. It was the truest way we could do it even in all its simplicity.

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wow. let me just say that the more i listen to this song, focusing on any instrument or just zoning in on her vocals, the more i see the beauty in this song. i really respect Rachael as an artist because she co-wrote this song as well as a lot of stuff on her albums. wow. she has a true talent and i am really proud to share the same faith as her. her faith DEFINITELY strengthens mine in a way that i am most receptive - through music.

you know, it's true what they say about songs - they say what you want to say, what you feel. this could not have been more true for me, but what's rare is that this is exactly how i feel in accordance to my relationship to God. not many praise and worship songs can actually be on the same wavelength with my feelings in faith. i usually feel that i'm not at that level of grace or confidence to actually be what is written in the lyrics. how can i express precisely how loving and great He is to us in just mere words? not even words and music put together can express that feeling but it can sure try.

i think the thing i LOVE most about this song is the second verse, put in bold. my most favorite 2 lines are "and let me say as i am falling on my face / that i am lacking better words but i just write them anyway" it's just the honest admission of humanity and not being sufficient for the praise of God. it truly reminds me that we are nothing without him, and he is everything in and around us.

songs like this really make me thankful for the God-given gift of music and talent singers such as Rachael Lampa. If i meet her, I have to remember to thank her for being a child of God and expressing her faith so openly to us. She's truly one of my role models in accordance to faith.

ok that was a long post, but there's so much i have to say about this song that i can't even type it all down. lol i suck with words, so i'mma just cut it here. later!

wow it's been forever and a day since i've been wanting to update this blog. i've been so busy i couldn't even make the wallpaper i wanted for this blog, so yeah.

anyway, for the first music post i'd like to write about utada hikaru's "sanctuary" from the kingdom hearts 2 soundtrack.

In you and I there's a new land,
Angels in flight
My sanctuary, my sanctuary, yeah
Where fears and lies melt away
Music will tie
What's left of me
What's left of me

wow, where can i begin? this is the chorus of the song, and at first when you read it, it's just... simple and easily overlooked. but wow once you go and really read it and think about it, you can get some interesting visualizations.

for instance, i get this image of a piece of heaven in this refrain. haha besides the obvious imagery of "angels in flight", it's just the concept of sanctuary.

"where fears and lies melt away" - what better place to let go of fears and lies than heaven? in liwanag we say that fear is the absence of God, so here it's like we're getting closer to him since the fears and lies melt away.

"music will tie /what's left of me" - i think this is my favorite line. i guess for me it means that music fills the void left behind from the absence of fears and lies. to a lot of people, music is their passion and their escape.

here music is their sanctuary, their little piece of heaven.

wow i didn't know i can critically break down some lyrics like that, but eh. i hope it wasn't too boring haha.

more to come. eventually.

wooo! welome to my soon to be music/lyric blog! i guess it's just cuz i love music that much! ^_^