Onimal Part Two: Slow Jamz and Love Songs

It's been about 15 days since I wrote "Onimal Part One: The Cure for OBWS - Tiremarks and Tents"... it's about time I continued with Part Two... with Andy's blessings (**thanks again, dude!**).

Heavens knows I'm a music lover, and being a romantic at heart, I have to admit that I have a really soft spot for slow jamz and love songs, so I just wanna share some of my favourite songs with you... which includes a few songs sung by Andy On as well.

Here are some of the slow jamz and love songs that are close to my heart... I especially enjoy listening to them late at night, when I'm laying down in bed and just before I fall asleep.

"Slow Down" by Bobby Valentino
I first heard this track on an R&B love songs compilation album, and I fell in love with it the moment I first heard it, the beat is just contagious! Almost as contagious as OBWS... haha!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmUGtbPIkj8

"Don't Leave Me" by Blackstreet
The first time I ever heard Blackstreet was when their album "Another Level" was released... there were so many amazing tracks in that album that although I only heard it at a listening post in a CD store, I just HAD to get it. This is one of my favourite Blackstreet songs, but it's not on the album I bought. Instead, I recently found it on CD 3 of the "R&B Classics Collection" CD Boxset. There's a hook in this song that was also used by 2Pac in his track "I Ain't Mad At Cha". But yeah, this is a lovely song by Blackstreet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OQ5HrOwbTo

"DJ Play A Love Song" by Jamie Foxx
I first heard this track in Myspace, and I've loved it ever since. Jamie Foxx is an incredibly talented guy, he sings and he acts, and he does both equally well. Another wonderful late night track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekFbLUseFsE

"Hey Baby" by Machi
Well, I featured some Western artists above, thought I would also mention some Asian artsts here. The first time I heard this song, Machi was singing it "live" onstage in Singapore, when they were here to promote their second album. I have a bunch of memories associated with this song, but I shan't share them here. In any case, this is a lovely song with really sweet lyrics. I used to fall asleep listening to this song, 'cos I just found it such a comforting song. Among the people involved in producing this song are AnD artists Jae Chong and Luke Tsui. This song remains one of my all-time favourites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kekdIYxp-xo

"2Night" by David Tao
One of my most favourite Asian artists is David Tao, and this is a song off his album entitled "The Great Leap"... I like this song, because when you listen to it, it gets you into a certain mood. Very nice indeed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJNQDwCRQfE

"Keep Me Alive" by Linda Liao
OK, I just had to include this song here. It was first featured in the Singapore-made TV series "Chase", starring Linda Liao and MTV's VJ Utt. I loved watching this TV series and I enjoyed this song a great deal, so here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18mllyhcM30

The songs above are just a very brief selection of my favourite slow jamz and love songs, but wait, that's not the end yet.

As some of you may already know, Andy On has featured a few demo songs in his AnD profile... songs that were mostly produced by Terry Tye Lee, and I had written "reply" lyrics to 2 of those demos... "One Minute" and "Hate It When I Cry".

For those of you who wanted to actually buy Andy's songs on CD, the demos he has in his AnD profile are not available for sale anywhere, 'cos they haven't even been recorded on a CD. They are just demos made to show what the song possibly sounds like. Just as how artists make sketches to see what their final piece will look like, musicians and songwriters make demos to hear what their song might sound like, so these demos are actually unfinished pieces of work and have never been recorded on CD.

But that being said, did you know that Andy really does have a few songs that have already been recorded and released on CD before?? Well, I didn't know this myself, till I started my "research" for this blog entry and found out about them.

There is a song that Andy calls "Heartbreaker" in his AnD blog, which is available in a compilation CD. The actual English translation of the Chinese song title is more like "The People I Love All Hurt Me" and it was a song for a movie entitled "Qing Ai De". The English title for the movie is supposed to be "Forgive or Forget", but the English translation of the Chinese title actually means "Loved One"... or at least, that's the best possible translation I can do for the movie title. This movie stars Alice Tzeng.

Andy has also recorded 2 other songs, both of which appear in the soundtrack CD for the movie, "Why Me? Sweetie?!". The movie was directed by Jingle Ma and stars Louis Koo and Cherrie Ying. This movie is basically a Chinese version of "50 First Dates", but in this case, the guy is the one with the amnesia, and not the girl. The English translation of the Chinese movie title is actually "My Amnesiac Boyfriend".

Check out the music videos below.

"Angel Of Love" by Andy On and Jolin Tsai
Personally, I love this song. I think that Andy and Jolin's voices sound good together, and since there is a karaoke version of the original music video available, those who want to try singing with Andy can do so... *grin*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIBt1Db7B9A

And if I thought my "reply" lyrics to Andy's songs were something new, apparently they were not new, 'cos in the same movie soundtrack, there is a song called "Darkness" by Jolin Tsai, and Andy's song "No Darkess" is a kind of reply to her song.

"Darkness" by Jolin Tsai
(Direct English translation of the song title: "I'm very afraid of the darkness")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVvzeRoDcSM

"No Darkness" by Andy On
(Direct English translation of the song title: "Don't be afraid of the darkness anymore")
I love the way Andy's voice sounds in this song. Not quite R&B, but a lovely ballad all the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRJpIzNpEn4

If you wanna get these few Andy On songs on CD, just do a search for "Andy On" at YesAsia.com and you should be able to find the CDs with these songs in them.

OK, Part Two is now done, but the "fun" has just begun... Part Three is in the works, just trying to get my screen grabs done first.