Welcome back to another post here at Media Language Learning! I took a week off due to a friend visiting from out of town, which was really fun.
This week, we have a familiar face in Allj or Элджей but a new song of his has reached number 1 on the chart I follow on TopHit.ru! That song is called Minimal or Минимал. It’s been out for a while but I guess he just came out with a music video for it around a week ago. This is probably what propelled it to number 1 for the week of April 2nd through the 8th.
If you haven’t yet, please take a look at my previous blog post about Allj for his collaboration with Feduk called “Rozovoye vino” – that song topped the charts at TopHit.ru for about 17 weeks from mid-October to early February! Amazing.
New words for me
There were quite a few new words for me from this song and I wanted to concentrate on sharing them with you. Just like the other song I reviewed by Allj, he uses a lot more slang, which as a foreign language learner, you certainly don’t get many chances to learn. Please follow this link if you would like to see the lyrics for yourself with an English translation next to them!
Минимал – minimal is a subgenre of techno or electronic music. Here’s an example of what it sounds like.
This is the name of the song and also it’s a big part of the chorus. The song begins with the chorus and it’s in the second line of the song: “На баре синие / Мы танцуем под минимал” – “It’s blue at the bar / We’re dancing to minimal”. It sets the scene of the song.
До хуя – up the wazoo, a fuck-ton, a lot
Of course this is not a polite way to say “a lot” since it includes the word хуй. If you don’t know that one, you can look it up yourself. This line follows directly after the one above “Да-да-да, ты красивая / Но таких как ты до хуя” – “Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re pretty / But there are so many like you”. You can already tell he’s not that into her – just on the prowl.
Светодиоды – LED’s (light-emitting diodes)
Pretty sure I didn’t know what LED stood for in English before, so that’s great. This word is in the first line of the verse: “Вокруг одни идиоты и светодиоды” – “All around there are idiots and LEDs”. The rhyme works way better in Russian.
Шмотки – personal belongings
Проваливать – wreck, fail, reject
You can find these words in the first line of the second verse: “Забирай свои шмотки, проваливай!” – “Grab your things and get out!” This song definitely isn’t romantic!
Вдребезги – smash, to smithereens, in splinters
This word is in the following line: “Мои мозги вдребезги” – “My brain is in splinters”. This sounds like he had some kind of realization, which is revealed in the next words.
Палево – a tell, a dead giveaway, a smoking gun
This person must have had some bad motives he could see. “Быть с тобою – какое-то палево” – “With you, something wasn’t right”.
Уёбывать – to get the fuck out, fuck off
Since something wasn’t right about this girl, he tells her to leave: “Хочешь мои? Забирай и уёбывай, блять!” – “Do you want mine? Get your things and fuck off, fuck!”. Now there’s some frustration.
Похоть – lust
At this point in the song, he’s unhappy with himself and with her. Maybe we can live vicariously through it or relate depending on who you are: “Такая пиздатая похоть” is the line from the song, which I translated as “Some fucked-up lust”. I had to double-check the meaning of “пиздатая” because sometimes it’s good or bad. You can always tell by context though!
Бесить – to enrage, madden, infuriate
And this is the last word that was new to me in the song. This line is also in the second verse: “А остальное бесящее” – “And what remains makes me angry” is how I interpret this line. It sounds like he had a pretty bad experience here.
Review of the song and music video
I really like this song! Now that I am aware of minimal as a subgenre of techno, I can feel the influence of it over Allj’s music. When I first heard this song, I had the chorus stuck in my head and would find myself singing it to myself.
The video is also pretty good. I think it does a pretty good job of sticking with the content of the song. Maybe the violent scene that you see throughout is a bit too much for some people but I didn’t mind. It wanted to know why they were all dead.
Maybe one complaint I have about the dead bodies is that they were all women. Also, it mostly shows the vengeful woman killing other women. This is so common in media everywhere – always victimizing women. I guess it would make sense sort of that the woman would focus on other women in her rampage though, considering the situation.
In any case, I quite enjoyed this song and the music video. I feel like, especially after I learned the lyrics, the music video also made more sense. I like that the song tells a story. It’s not a happy story. It’s a pretty cliché story for pop music but I prefer that kind of song.
What do you think of the song and its music video? Please leave me a comment to let me know. Also, were there any new words for you that you learned? I like learning a bit of slang here and there like you can from a song like this. What about you?
Also, last month was my best month so far in terms of viewers of this blog, so I want to give a quick thanks to everyone who has been visiting my blog! It’s always nice to have encouragement and knowing that some people are reading what I write gives me just that!
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