Hello, beautiful people!

I hope everyone is feeling good today, and better than yesterday!

I woke up this morning wanting to write a new article, but to be honest, I am not too inspired lately. I was looking for a nice topic for a new piece and while doing so, I was reminded that today was Michael Jackson’s birthday.

The King of Pop would have been 60 years old today, and thinking of him made me reminisce all the good times I spent with my father listening to his music. My dad is a HUGE MJ fan, and a fan of music in general, so that love I definitely got from him.

When I was younger, while driving my siblings and me to school, he would put a song and ask us to reproduce the same sound or to identify the instruments used in the beat, offering something to the winner. That was always the best part of my day, because we were all together, enjoying each other’s company.

Growing up, habits like this slowly change, but the love for music he passed down to us never faded away. My oldest brother is a music producer; my sister sings, and my other brother and I spend our time listening to music. I don’t remember spending a day without listening to some type of music.

I just feel like music is such a powerful way to transmit feelings and emotions. It’s just like writing to me. Sometimes you listen to a song and you think « that was written for me » or « I can relate to this SO much », and so on. It happens way to often to go unnoticed.

People could relate to MJ’s songs, they could feel the lyrics deeply, and he’s managed to touch so many lives during his short one. Some artists have so much talent that their achievements become timeless. I don’t know a soul, old and young, who has never heard of him or listened to at least one of his songs.

I don’t think such people even exist! Ha!

He is a timeless icon and I truly believe that he didn’t even realize how much he has done for music.

Now, I know some people just don’t connect to music this deeply, but there must be something that makes them feel like that. Something that heals their souls whenever it is hurt or broken.

When I go through a rough path, I like to listen to a lot of different types of music, various genres, until I find one that speaks to me in that particular moment of my life. Then I listen to it all the time, and it honestly helps me cope with whatever it is that I am going through.

Most of the time it’s all in the lyrics, but it can as well be in the sound, the rythm, the flow of the song. It is more about how it hits me, and at what pace. Sometimes I don’t like a song when I first listen to it, then I hear it somewhere a second time, then a third, and then a reaction comes.

I like creating playlists that remind me of a moment in time, when I was surprised, or sad, happy, confused, and so on. Then I look back on them and I laugh at the memories of those feelings and the situations that created them. A lot of songs are attached to feelings, to people I’ve met, people I’ve loved, people I don’t see anymore, etc…

I think it is fun to go back and re-explore all of that from time to time. I am sort of unconsciously creating a playlist of my life.

As for 2018’s Narcisse, I have a lot of albums and songs that I liked so far, so I am going to cite a few and maybe make you discover some new things that you will like.

First of all, I am a very old school person (music wise) so some of my recommendations for this month will be by older singers or groups.

Here we go!

EVERYTHING IS LOVE – THE CARTERS :

Every single song on the album. Go listen to it now. You won’t regret it! My personal favorites are FRIENDS, LOVEHAPPY, NICE, and HEARD ABOUT US.

SCORPION – DRAKE:

MOB TIES and SUMMER GAMES.

KELLY – REVOLUTION (Ivory Coast):

Music video

OTW – KHALID

One of my favorites of the moment

HOW FAR I’LL GO – MOANA

Whoever you are, if you haven’t watched MOANA yet, drop whatever you’re doing and just watch it.                                             Avant Goût

 

QUEEN – NICKI MINAJ

GANJA BURNS, MAJESTY (ft EMINEM), COME SEE ABOUT ME, SIR, and CHUN LI!

 

SWEETENER – ARIANA GRANDE

GOD IS A W, BREATHIN’, NO TEARS LEFT TO CRY, EVERY TIME, BETTER OFF. Great album, as always!

LOCKED AWAY – R.CITY (ft ADAM LEVINE)

Music video

NEW EDITION

CANDY GIRL, IF IT ISN’T LOVE, YOU’RE NOT MY KIND OF GIRL, CAN YOU STAND THE RAIN, and special BBD mention, POISON.

New Edition is an 80’s\90’s group that was extremely famous in its time. I have loved their music for years, but since watching « The New Edition Story » early last year, my consideration for them has rocketed even higher. If you’ve never listened to them before, just watch the biopic first, and you’ll surely fall in love with their music, as well as their personalities.

Here are the two versions of CAN YOU STAND THE RAIN:

The Originals

The Biopic New Edition

Ps: JG and LJ’s voices are out of this world (The first ones to sing)

But of course, we always save the best for last.

MICHAEL JACKSON

THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT US, MAN IN THE MIRROR, HEAL THE WORLD, EARTH SONG.

Those are the songs that speak the most to me. I think they still resonate quite strongly in this time and age. This is literally the world we’re living in, and those are the emotions I feel, looking at it.

To think that these songs were written and composed so long ago… it is a crazy realisation. MJ was a visionary artist, that is for sure.

Happy birthday Michael Jackson. We miss you and your music.

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Voilà, for this new entry of the Narcisse’s Diary. It was just a fun and light one that I wanted to share because I just felt like it.

I hope you will all have the best day, and an amazing rest of the week!

Much, much love,

Narcisse. Xx