I am a sucker for a good acoustic track, especially when it’s a cover. It is so simple and raw and what makes it good is the emotions brought out to it, because art, after all, is supposed to make you feel something.
Link to Of Sound Mind and Memory EP on Spotify
I forgot when I first heard Reese Lansangan but I knew where I heard her first. I heard her first from my mom; Reese’s Grammar Nazi song played on the radio and it’s such a great introduction because she appealed to our grammar Nazi hearts (though I am guilty for hardly ever being grammatically incorrect), but so far, that was the only song we heard from her. Until I fell into the Filipino Indie wagon last year and I rediscovered Reese again.
I fall in love a lot, so I decided, when I heard one of the songs in this EP, to find some time to review playlists in between studying, this way, I get to keep my messy, floaty head in check and give it some time to breathe and express itself. So, this is Reese Lansangan’s Of Sound Mind and Memory EP:
- Aristophanes
When I first heard this song, I did not notice the auto-tune-like vocals of Reese until I decided to make this review. So, I searched through the comments of her acoustic version video to see other viewers’ reactions, that’s how I knew that it was a vocoder she was using since when performing this live, she has a keyboard in front of her.
After BTS’ Anpanman and Tear, my view on auto-tune has been changed although I don’t want them to use them live (SING!), so in this song, the auto-tune wasn’t initially obvious, it only had a group effect for me, like she’s singing with other people behind her, which gives it a haunting and sweet feel.
I didn’t experience intro tracks until BTS, so to hear this song in Reese’s EP is new to me, but after listening to the album, music-wise and lyric-wise, it was perfect. The lyrics reminded me of Regina Spektor’s way of writing because it questions life in a dreamy poetic way. I love stories that include old people sharing wisdom and in this song:
“’Kid, one day you will grow old,
And find a love worth growing old for’
So, I am just a lonely soul.”
Those lines were sung laced with sentimentality, and I find that beautiful; even if those words have been said more than once, but I love the phrase “lonely soul”. That phrase speaks to me personally and socially. Thinking about how many people out there are lonely souls too and are listening to this song to connect with that part of them, is beautiful.
- Machines and Men
So, I just thought of Regina Spektor, Sara Bareilles, and Jason Mraz. (Yes, she’s good, listen to her!!!)
This is another factor of acoustic music that I like, it is light, which allows me to listen to the lyrics, and if the lyrics are as light, this is easy music. Well, lyric-wise, I don’t think this is easy music. This is where the Regina Spektor factor comes in, because her song On the Radio has lyrics that starts darkly and ends a bit lightly matched with a light happy beat which sort of echoes “sigh, life sucks, how do I work through with this, oh, Purple Rain is playing, it’s too long but it’s good, okay life, let’s do this again”. In this one, we’re described like aging robots and it starts with childhood and ends with death. I feel like, if I ever have to be a substitute teacher in Philosophy, there is bound to be a moment where I can use this song to help them understand a theory or something.
I felt like it is a mixture of Ed Sheeran’s Castle in the Hill and the first part of On the Radio. I love how she just described our bodies creatively as it ages to portray the emotion of emptiness as the person is dying.
“And our bodies were so restless
And our bones used to be kind
And our muscles, they seemed to be so strong
And our limbs were so connected
Neurons coursing through our minds
But our parts are getting in and going wrong
We were younger then
Now decaying machines and men”
- For the Fickle
My mom calls my music morose and this song is proof of that because this is my favorite Reese Lansangan song.
For the Fickle – Reese Lansangan MV
The song touches on my tendency to fee lonely a lot. It also touches on the part of me that is afraid of falling in love.
“I made a list of things I love just in case you go
All my love has been about waiting for people to go.”
The list thing shook me because I love listing things.
“Your love’s uncertain won’t you hold it down in chains,
Or won’t you break me now, so I won’t feel the pain.”
At least, I think it is my fear of falling in love that gets to me. I read romance (fluffy/smutty) stories and fanfics when I want a quicker way to pass time (novels take time) so, I spend a lot of my emotion and my missing acting there. So, in one way or another, I have fallen in love, and I have had my heart broken, and as much as what I have read is fiction, we can’t make fiction out of nothing so those stories are partly real, which scares me because of how emotional I get and I’m scared that others can’t handle it. That’s why I love this song.
- Wildwood
So…tell me you didn’t think of sunlight in the woods when you heard this song.
I love the vulnerability brought forth by the acoustic guitar and Reese’s lovely simple voice in this song. I have been thinking about healing a lot, and though I have written about BTS’ new album, I still love Epiphany and I’m still ranting about it every now and then because the music to me depicts the slow process of healing. The guitar here has such a happy note that it does not match with Epiphany, but the voice does. Reese prefers to sing in a simpler manner, she’s not exactly a powerhouse like Jin but we all deserve that kind of singing sometimes. I think that her singing draws all the emotion out because it’s as simple as the lyrics in the song.
“And all I need
Is all that I’ll take
All I need
Is water from the purest lakes
The gentle winds,
A loaf of bread to break
And I know I’m happy now”
I thought of Hufflepuff house the entire time when I listen to this song. It echoed that part of me that prefers a simple life than a grand one, especially since I am not an ambitious person. In a sense, the song is almost like Palette, because she’s listing the things that make up herself and she is saying that these things are all that she needs.
I think this is a side of Reese that I didn’t expect to see. I’ve always connected to her because I feel like I’m listening to myself calming myself when I listen to her music, and this EP is a lot darker than I pegged it to be. It’s a whole journey in the span of 17 minutes, like the span of doubting yourself and convincing yourself that it’s okay can twist around the same minutes. Her music hasn’t changed except for Aristophanes that showed more than an acoustic guitar (but there is an acoustic version on youtube). Over all, I think everything here will go on my calming playlist.
I urge y’all to check her vlog out, it is such an aesthetic.
P.S. All credits of the pictures belong to the original owners, I got them all on Pinterest.
P.S.S. I would like to thank everybody who stops by to read my posts. It means so much to me. Have a nice day and remember to be yourself.
Daydream 