avant l'ombre et l'indifference

un vertige puis le silence,
je veux juste une derniere danse.

recently i've been getting a kick out of international artists, specifically utada hikaru, or hikaru utada, whichever you prefer. i have a love for international artists like her because it's always good to get your fill on different types of music, even if it's in a language you're not familiar with. i've recently gotten back into french pop-rock as well, like yelle, kyo and bb brunes. there's a new zealand artist i've been getting into as well - his name is tiki tane, and there's a spanish band i've been listening to called cafe tacvba. good stuff.
for years utada's been trying to jumpstart a career in the states but she's only gotten a small fanbase, which is why she decided to switch over to japan instead, where she's now known as a jpop icon. she claimed that there aren't a lot of asian artists in north america that have gone mainstream, so it's a little harder to break out here. there's a lot of truth to that, and i'm kind of disappointed, seeing that there's a bunch of asians inhabiting the states and canada, and a lot of them are talented musicians. youtube stars like gabe bondoc, passion and david choi aren't getting enough recognition in the entertainment industry when they clearly should - have you seen their videos? i can't even dream of playing and singing as well as they can.
i guess one of the many reasons why utada hasn't been successful in the western world is because of the way her music sounds, but i don't mean that in a bad way - it's very poppish, and the lyrics are kinda weird, which is partially because they're a 'translation' of the original japanese version. the beauty of music lies in its lyrics, and you can only experience the full impact in its original form, including the language it's been written in first. you can listen to a song in a different langauge and not understand a single word of it, yet it can drive you to tears. it can sound beautiful to you though it's in a language you don't understand. if you try to translate it into a language you do understand you're taking away its meaning - just because you understand it now doesn't mean it has the same meaning when you listened to it in its original language. you can't ever really get an exact translation, and the music just doesn't sound the same when it's translated. take utada's passion and its english counterpart, sanctuary. if you translate the lyrics in passion, they're completely different from sanctuary, and when you listen to both her voice in passion sounds better. her newest english single, come back to me, is one she written solely in english and it's pretty decent; the lyrics are kinda corny though, which is probably the only fault in her english music. one of the lyrics goes as such:
i wish that i could photoshop all our bad memories
'cause the flashbacks, oh the flashbacks
they won't leave me alone.
ehh, 'photoshop all our bad memories' could definitely be replaced with something more practical, and flashbacks...well i guess it isn't as bad as the photoshop thing, but that could be switched around too. it's funny because utada was born and raised in new york, and you'd think she'd have a better grasp on western contemporary music - i'm not saying she doesn't; the music is great and her voice is spectacular, but the lyrics can use a little work. the key to making a good song is to write meaningful lyrics that come straight from the heart, and of course a melody that can entertwine with it. she already sang a remix of neyo's do you on the japanese release of because of you and it sounds amazing; i think it sounds better than mary j blige's version. she also sang covers of the carpenter's close to you, bart howard's fly me to the moon, u2's with or without you, ah ha's take on me and green day's boulevard of broken dreams and she sounds great in all of them. it's definitely possible that she can be successful in north america with a talent like hers - she just needs to step it up on the lyrics a bit, haha.
her new english album, this is the one, comes out on march 24th, i think...and i think i'm gonna get it. it's gonna be different than her past english albums; she primarily focused on dance and pop, but on this album she's veered into a more r&b-ish sound, which is evident in her newest single, come back to me. i advise you all to listen to it, because it's a really good song - corny lyrics, but great music.
besides utada, i am currently in love with kyo, a french pop-rock band, and their song une derneire danse, which is primarily why i've pasted a few lyrics of it at the top of this entry. listen to that too! it reminds me of a slower version of sugarcult's pretty girl, somehow. haha. this is one band i definitely don't want translated - french music sounds great in french, thank you very much.
maybe i should try and learn french again...being canadian i should be able to speak at least one or two sentences in french but after being forced to take french for nearly ten years i've grown disillusioned of it. why didn't i pay attention in class? now i'm regretting not learning another language. french sounds so awesome when spoken fluently too. maybe i should get one of those 'learn french' mp3 things and i can listen to it while i sleep, like in dexter's labratory, ahahaha. i'm just scared the thing will break and i'll spend the entire day muttering omlette du fromage. but sears, i think that should be one of the things i have to accomplish before i die: learn my birth country's second native language. then i can feel cool because i'm bilingual. hahaha. sigh.