Music

Because there cannot be a forum without a "what music are you currently listening to"-thread.

I'll start with:

Nightwish- Music

I loved the intro, so atmospheric. Less so the vocals, though I would have been a major fan a few years ago. It's funny how things change!

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, here's a 3-hour version of a piece of music that spawned a current obsession with Chinese music and the guqin. It's one of many on my relax and do work playlist.

A piece of music featuring a guqin. Cannot tell you anything else.

Have to admit, I wasn't a fan of the vocals either at first (Floor shines so much more in Ghost Love Score or Poet and the Pendulum, I think), but they've grown on me and the lyrics are beautiful!

I hope that Wyn sees this and that you unknowingly ended up at The Untamed. We've been talking about the series just recently! ;D

Just to make it complete I'll add that damn flute melodie I couldn't get out of my head for way too long:

I shall have to look at those other songs when I have a moment (work has gone from nothing to oh god when can I have a day off!) as she does have an amazing voice. I agree I love the lyrics themselves.

The Untamed is life. I have no words to describe the emotional wreck it makes me become and I'm absolutely not watching it for the third time since lockdown with a friend because the gay fluff is everything. It is hands down the best thing netflix has ever decided to recommend to me and has spawned a spiral into the rabbit hole that is weird fantasy-based Chinese drama.

That piece is so pretty, and such an earworm. And if you look up the translation of the accompanying lyrics it's just beautiful.

Her voice is pure perfection and her training allows her to sing anything. *_*
Try the live versions. Nightwish is one of those rare bands where the live version is so much better than the studio version!

Ghost Love Score:


Poet and the Pendulum:


And as bonus, Floor singing Shallow:


Both, Chinese fantasy drama and Chinese historical drama are often just so well done. It's like Game of Thrones, but people have friends and families they love and care about instead of just meaningless violence and boob shots AND everyone and their grandmother is Littlefinger (in terms of plotting and scheming, power struggles etc.). XD Who's your favorite The Untamed character?

Ghost Love at least shows off her vocals so much more and suits her a lot better imo. She does have such a beautiful voice. (i will listen to the others tomorrow promise!)
I tend to hate live versions because of the crowd, although I got a good giggle at the fact that one of the crowd surfers looks like my bffs dad XD

well done if you ignore the often horrific sfx from what I've been seeing But yes, the plots are soooo well done. I was actually really impressed with the writers for The Untamed, especially after I read the web novel, which fun as it is, does have a very fanfic-esque approach to plot in places (not aided by the translation I've heard). Not to do it down at all, because it is fundamentally a pretty fun read, but the way the writers introduced certain characters earlier and the whole yin iron concept brings it together beautifully.

As for favourite characters... I mean, I love Wuxian, and grown-up Wangji. Both so similar, yet so different. How can you not love them It's hard to pick a favourite because all the characters are so strong... uhhh, I love Wen Qing as she is in the series. She's not the loudest or most noticeable but she is so strong in her own way. She's introduced as one of the 'bad guys' yet it is so well done how we are shown that she is not evil herself. She is so devoted to Wen Ning, and while she does everything to keep him and her clan safe, she doesn't turn the other cheek and let herself be blinded to what is actually going on. Every time Wuxian needs help she helps him when there were so many reasons not to. They repaid the debt of Wuxian saving Wen Ning several times over. Even when she knows it could end in the death/imprisonment of her family she does what she believes to be the right thing (aggh i'm tearing up). Not to mention how talented she is; in a story where there aren't many women, but all of them are so strong, she still stood out to me. Also shout out to Mianmian for having the shiniest spine ever..

I thought Nie Huaisang's character arc was cracking as well. Not only did it do a great job at showing how much time had passed and how people had changed, but who would have expected our little goofball to grow up like that

I*'m stopping myself before I pick out anyone else I really want to fangirl about. Because I could keep going all night wbu? any particular favourites?

Side-note. For what is essentially a side story, that of Song Lan, Xia Xingchen and A-Qing was single-handedly one of the most heart-breaking things I have ever seen.

Usually the singer's voice is just disappointing live, but hers shines even more. I'm so impressed by that! And, more importantly, she brought my very first favorite band back. The singer before her wasn't bad, but her style just didn't fit. Too much pop-rock, too little symphonic metal. Floor brought all of that back and added a little extra that the original singer couldn't do, that powerful, growling quality.

Poet and the Pendulum has been inspired by the band's break up with their first singer (and close friend for many years), the hurt and drama that followed. Its said that Tuomas (the keyboarder, composer and writer of most of their songs) still struggles with it, because it is so personal and relates to such a dark time in his life.

Maybe it was your bffs dad? You never know! XD I like the crowd, though. They're so into it and just generally happy to be there!

Talking about underappreciated women, I even forgot her name, but the lotus mom was badass. I really disliked her in the beginning, but when she showed some backbone she won back all those points she had lost earlier.

I think that side-story is so sad because we can all easily imagine how it could end happily. Besides, seeing trust and kindness abused so terribly just hits hard. The Lan Xichen - Meng Yao arc did the same to me. So, those two are favorites. Xichen is such a kind and caring guy, but he never questions when he should, that's his fatal flaw.

Thinking about it, I think that's the main difference to many of the (mostly Us-american) shows right now: those characters are good people, even the "bad guys", they just make the wrong decisions or don't stop when they should, but all for understandable reasons. It's not all so ... so very bleak. There is happiness, beauty, hope, kindness. Grey-morality is good, but without any stronger contrasts (light and dark) it just gets boring.

I still haven't read the novel. I tried, but the style just doesn't captivate me. I'm blaming the translation, though. (Not the translator! Just how some things don't really translate well.)

Have you watched the spin-off movies?


PS: Look at my awesome signature!

A good live singer can really bring a performance together! I agree her voice fits so perfectly, and that might explain why I haven't always been hugely impressed with Nightwish tracks I've heard before, they may have been the other singer.

I still haven't got round to listening... I will, at some point. Looking forward to it, as songs which the band is emotionally tied to are often so much better.

I normally dislike live performances for the crowd tbf. I love being there, but find it distracting in videos XD

Madame Yu? The Violet Spider! I love how much they hint at her background without ever really showing it. And I don't think it's really explained all that well in the drama, but she actually pulls most the blows she gives Wuxian with Zidian so that they're mostly for show. Which is just so sweet, despite all the animosity she had for him.

It's all just too tragic. Poor Xichen. In the sort-of extra chapters in the book, he's basically broken, doubting all he ever thought to be true. I also agree, there needs to be a happy medium of both grey and dark and light, to really bring it together.

It's not great... There's lots of notes with the translators saying that they really didn't know how to express a lot of the descriptions and things. A friend said it was pretty fanfic-esque untranslated though so who knows. There's lots of really nice detail at the end with some more motivations for Meng's actions though.

There are spin-off movies! where can i find these!

Toumas has the ability to tailor his songs to his singers. Nightwish has had three of them so far: first was Tarja (operatic), then Anette (rock-pop), now Floor (can sing whatever, even growl). The first few songs after Floor took over from Anette were still pop-rock-ish, but the newer ones are doing her justice. Oh, and then there is Marco (Try: While Your Lips Are Still Red or The Islander).

Whenever you feel like it. I'd just be happy to hear what you think if ever you do listen to them.

Maybe we need another thread for movies and series. I've long since fallen into the never ending rabbithole of awesome Chinese and Korean drama series ...

All the more impressive that the series turned out so good!

One centers on Wen Ning and him comming to terms with ... well, being a zombie. It's called "The Living Dead". I've watched it (somewhere on the interwebs, I think it could even have been youtube) and can recommend it. The other centers on the Nie-brothers, Wyn told me about it, but I haven't watched it so far. It's called "Fatal Journey" in English.

That's quite a skill.

I still haven't got round to listening. But I do bring you the obsession that has been inspiring our warg fight. I don't like his older stuff, and I wasn't actually that convinced the first time I listened to couple of tracks last year, but... I'm so addicted right now.





I wouldn't say I love every track in this mix, however, it is an absolutely cracking mix, really well done, even if there are segments where I'm like ok meh. I also just love the way they did the accompanying vid. Especially when I'm sitting in a dark room.