some sounds

Story of your life? Maybe you wouldn’t know; you only have access to one side of the situation. A girl and a boy share some small talks. Everything seems utterly insignificant on the outside.

“Where are you heading?”  “I’m just walking.”  “What’s on your mind?”  “Just this and that...”  “Could I walk with you?”  “Why not.”

Yet this person has nudged your heart - not too harshly that you plunge into blind infatuation, not too lightly that you forget it all after a day, but just enough to make things interesting. Every flat remark seems too flat to be flat. What’s hidden inside that mind? Something creative, something beautiful? Well, you have to find out, right?

“Hold on.” “What’s wrong?” “Oh, it’s nothing.” 

He’s not being cold, he’s not warming up to you either. So you keep paying attention to see what sense you can make of this...game. He looks you in the eyes with no apparent signs of excitement or nervousness. Maybe he doesn’t care about you in that way. If you were to be honest with yourself, you really like this person. He’s the real deal. But all these mind games and uncertainty make you take one, two steps back. You act like you’re unfazed. You can’t care, because he doesn’t. 

One of those late night songs that allows you to close your eyes and let the world just float away. Just the right amount of mysterious indie and clean acoustic to spark interest, too. 

Direct translation of the title would be “You like spring?” and not in the tone of “Do you like spring?” but more like “So, you like spring, huh?” with tints of sarcasm and bitterness.

This is a Korean culture thing for sure - I don’t think many other nations have a huge cherry blossom craze and culture. And of course, as with any other case of something cute and lovely, the spring cherry blossoms have been permanently associated with romantic walks in the park, cute dates, the shy step-by-step development of a relationship, and the list goes on. 

Amongst the substantial number of fluffy “spring romance” songs released yearly during this season, this song offers a breath of fresh air for the suffocating singles spread far and wide, those of us who are watching movies alone, those of us who are enjoying the warming weather and cherry blossoms by ourselves. 

“봄이 그렇게도 좋냐 멍청이들아 벚꽃이 그렇게도 예쁘디 바보들아 결국 꽃잎은 떨어지지 니네도 떨어져라 몽땅 망해라

손 잡지 마 팔짱 끼지 마 끌어 안지 마 제발 아무것도 하지 좀 마 설레지 마 심쿵하지 마 행복하지 마 내 눈에 띄지 마”

translated,

“Is spring really that great, you fools? Are cherry blossoms really that pretty, you idiots? Their petals eventually fall; you all should fall too Screw all of you

Don’t hold hands, don’t link arms, don’t hug each other Could you just please stop it all? Don’t get butterflies, don’t skip a heartbeat, don’t be happy Get out of my sight”

Less is more? Yes, I guess.

Guitar strumming at its finest…okay maybe not its finest, but it’s pretty close. Most people just know Vance Joy’s “Riptide,” and don’t get me wrong - I love that song. But this song shows that this guy isn’t just a one time luck prodigy thing. He has other good songs, too!

It’s just one of those songs. It places you into a specific space. The world fades away, time forgets its ground, and in that moment, everything is as it should be. Just kidding, nothing is ever all as it should be. But this is pretty darn as close as it gets. 

Nothing too special about the lyrics. It’s just a simple love song...with some extra heart warming lyrics. Just a song that gives me all the feels all at once. 

“We are surrounded by all of these lies

And people who talk too much

You’ve got that kind of look in your eyes

As if no one knows anything but us.” 

You know that moment when you hear a song on the radio, in the dining hall, in the supermarket, and it’s the song. It nudges you back a couple months, maybe years...yes, you know this song, you know it quite well. It’s as if a long lost friend of yours dropped by to have some tea and talk of good times...maybe bad times. And together you guys would throw your heads back and laugh at the memories, cherished and suppressed - now all beautified by the tinting, softening touch of past. How things have changed.

How things have changed...

One of the three songs (including Coldplay’s Paradise and Ed Sheeran’s The A Team) that I listened on an infinite loop during the winter of my senior year of high school. Not sure when these songs were released or if they’re at all related, but in my mind they eternally are the three songs that kept me company during the annual lonely winter nights.

Let’s face the facts; I haven’t had a lover who had his friends collect his records, changed his number, and violently broke all contact with me. But I did passionately tune into this angry vent of feelings, thinking of my crush that I was in the process of bitterly forgetting.