RASA – Pod fonarjom

Hi! And welcome back to another installment of Media Language Learning!

This week, I felt like doing something slightly different because, as I listened to a YouTube playlist, I came across the song I want to write about today. This week, on TopHit.ru, the #1 song is by Loboda who I have already written about.

The song and group I want to write about are actually #20 this week on that same chart: RASA is the name of the group and Под фонарем (Pod Fonarjom) is their hit single!

This group is so new that this is their first big song ever and the music video was just released in April. According to this short biography, RASA is made up of Viktor Popleev and Dar’ja Shejko. They are a married couple who both had been trying to make a living by creating YouTube videos. The bio only tells how old Viktor is and it turns out he is 24. It is impolite to ask a lady her age after all.

One kind of funny thing from the biography I linked in the previous paragraph is that I guess many people thought they were brother and sister because they look alike. My girlfriend says that couples look more and more alike as time goes on, so maybe they’ve spent a lot of time together.

Now that this song has put them on the pop charts, they haven’t had time to keep up their vlogs. Maybe they’re relieved about that. What a cool success story and I wish them luck.

New words for me from the lyrics

There are relatively few words to this song but there were still quite a few that weren’t familiar to me. If you’d like to see the full lyrics, please take this link. On to the new words!

Орать – (literally) to yell, bawl, boom, shriek, scream

The reason why I put literally in the definition above is because I think the meaning in the lyrics is more figurative: “Танцы под фонарем, музыка так орет / Скорость спать не дает, мы убитые вдвоем” which I translate as “Dancing under the lights, the music is blaring / Speed won’t let us sleep, we’ll get used up together.” I am pretty sure I knew this word I just hadn’t seen it used this way before.

Миг – moment, instant

Притвориться – to pretend, make believe

Сознание – consciousness

I think a couple of these words were fairly familiar to me but I wasn’t sure so I took a look again. Here are the lines in the song where they are found: “Я дыхание задержу на миг притворюсь твоей душой / И сознании я хочу каждый миг рисовать рядом с тобой”. I interpreted them as, “I hold my breath for a moment, pretend that I am yours / And I want to draw every moment of consciousness with you.”

Дабы – that, in order to, so as to

Вывод – conclusion, output, withdrawal

Обдумать – to consider, think over, think through

Here again were some somewhat familiar words but I wanted to get a better idea of what they really meant. Of course, I know the word думать (to think) but the prefix gave me pause and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to know more clearly what it meant. Also, чтобы is definitely in my vocabulary, which I guess is a synonym for дабы.

Here is the line from the song: “Дай минуту, дабы вывод обдумать” which I translate as “Give me a minute to think it over”.

Нерушимый – indestructible, airtight, ironclad

This word is in the second “verse” in the line: “Имунитет мой нерушим, но пульс на нуле” which I think means: “My immunity is strong, but my pulse is gone.” I feel like this line is maybe referring to the drugs wearing off or maybe could be he actually fell in love?

Review of the song and music video

There was a big reason why I chose to write about this song over another #1 song by Loboda: I like this song a lot!

The first time I listened to it, I think the thing that struck me the most was the use of the male and female voice together throughout most of the song. It’s not that uncommon but it’s also not that common in songs for the man and woman to basically sing the same thing. I really liked that sound and it gave the song character.

As far as I can tell, the structure of the song goes: chorus à verse à pre-chorus à chorus à verse 2 à bridge à pre-chorus à chorus. The first verse was kind of interesting because for the first bit they were singing together but then the guy raps on his own.  The structure of the song is fairly standard but I think they do a nice rendition of it.

You would think that the repetitiveness of the song might work against this song but to me it just seems right. The chorus especially is just fun to sing along to. Also, who can resist singing along to the part in the first verse: “А губы, губы, губы, губы, губы, твои губы”?

Lastly, I want to comment on the music video. I really like the music video because I feel like it’s fairly normal looking. The couple is just a couple of young people, dressed in pretty normal clothing. They look fashionable and they are having fun dancing around in different locations.

Also, the way it sometimes looks like a home video with the date stamp looks really cool.

I guess if I had to hate on anything in the video is that it cuts between scenes really fast all the time. It would be nice if they let the scenes play out a little more. Maybe that’s the best footage they had of each scene so they stitched all of that together? Who knows?

Anyway, what do you think of the song? How about the music video? Did you learn any new Russian vocabulary like me? Please leave a comment! I would be quite interested to see what you think!

 

Matrang – Meduza

Thanks for coming to check out the newest entry of Media Language Learning! This week, we are back to pop music and, according to the chart I usually follow on TopHit.ru, there is a new number one song for the week of April 16-22, 2018! That song is Медуза (Medusa) by Matrang!

From this song and the imagery in it, maybe a better translation of the title would be “Jellyfish”. This also is a new Russian vocabulary word for me.

Anyway, Matrang is very new artist in Russia. So new that, at the time I wrote this, there was not a Wikipedia page about him yet. He is a 22-year-old from Vladikavkaz like MiyGi and Endshpiel, who I wrote about back in October.

The song Медуза was originally self-released in November last year but has since been re-released under the label Gazgolder, which Matrang joined around the beginning of this year. Gazgolder also has T-Fest, who I wrote about a few months ago as well, on its label. Just for fun, at the end of the blog, I will also post the original video. You can decide for yourself which one you like more!

New Words from the Song

There were quite a few new words for me from this song. I found the lyrics to be challenging but I feel like I get the overall idea and meaning of the song. Here is a link to a lyrics page I used.

Звездопад – shooting star

This word is in the first line of the song: “Мы с тобою звездопад” which I translate as “We are like falling stars together”. I feel like knowing the words “star” and “fall” made this fairly easy to understand this word but I looked it up just to be sure.

Неоновый – neon (as an adjective), fluorescent

To be honest, I got confused when I saw this word written down in the lyrics but I included it because I thought it would be useful for others: “Танцевали до утра / Под неоновым дождем” are the lines from the first verse, which I translate as “We danced till dawn / In the fluorescent rain.”

Обстоятельства – developments, circumstances, conditions

This word looked familiar but turned out not to be when I went to make sure I knew it. Here is the line from the song: “Мы меняем города / Обстоятельства на сон / Откровенно я вчера / Ты сегодня мне никто”. I included this whole bit because I don’t think it makes much sense without it and that’s the full phrase from the song, which I translate as “We change cities / And circumstances in our dreams / I was honest yesterday / But you’re nobody to me today.”

This was a bit of a challenge in the lyrics to me, so if anyone has a better way to explain the meaning, I would be all ears!

Нажимать – press, push, mash, force

Курок – firing hammer (of a gun)

This is from the part where he says he’s going to “kill” the person’s “dirt” or “taint” a couple lines later in the second verse. Here is the beginning: “Не по доброму смеясь / Нажимаю на курок” – “Laughing not from kindness / I cock my gun”.

Нутро – guts, insides

Also, from that same bit: “Остается чистота / Твое белое нутро” which I translated as “Cleanliness remains / Your white innards.” I’m not sure why the innards are white…

Бездонный – bottomless, fathomless

Here is the next line after the one above: “И бездонные глаза / Ты актриса моих снов” which I translate as “And your bottomless eyes / You’re the actress from my dreams”

Почитать – to respect, worship, honor, revere

Обжигать – to burn, scorch, bake

The first word here: почитать was a bit confusing for me. I thought it was “to read for a while” or something but nope! Anyway, here’s the line from the song: “Почитай мне до утра / Обжигай меня всю ночь” which I translate as “Worship me until morning / Burn me all night”. Maybe there’s a figurative meaning for the second part.

Унять – to settle down, bring to heel, silence, control

“Не получутся унять / Настоящую любовь” is the last line from the second verse, which I translate as “Real love / Will prevail.”

Review of the song and music video

One thing I have to say about this song is that the vocals are super different from most pop music. They have a Middle-Eastern vibe to me which, because it’s not what I am used to, I really like! Matrang’s voice is relatively low too, which adds to the uniqueness.

The beat is simple and the background music is nothing special. It fits though and there is one point where I found the song does something unexpected. This is after the second verse. One would expect another chorus after the verse but it immediately goes into a musical breakdown. I was all ready to sing more “Медуза!” right then but had to wait a little while. When songs buck the normal structure, it’s refreshing.

One other way that this song’s structure is a little divergent from most pop music is that the verse parts are super long and the chorus is short. The chorus is extremely catchy though and easy to sing along to, which makes it a lot of fun.

I read in this biography that the song is about his girlfriend, which is kind of sweet except for the part with the violent imagery to “kill” the “bad/dirt” in her. It tells a story but I just can’t really relate to that part.

Now personally, while the production value of the Gazgolder video is much better, I kind of like the self-released video you can see below more. I think the new one is just trying too hard to be artsy and the original has way more jellyfish in it. Let me know what you think. Which video is better in your opinion? Leave me a comment! I would be glad to start a conversation!

Allj – Minimal

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 2^nd through the 8^th.

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!

Ruki v Verkh – Plachesh’ v temnote

Hey! I hope you’ve been having a good week. As I browsed the top ten songs on the list for TopHit.ru, I noticed that I have already reviewed almost all the songs there. When I started writing this blog, I assumed that maybe the chart would be a little more volatile, but songs really have a lot of staying power it seems. That’s great for those artists!

So, this week, I decided to write about the new Руки в Верх! (Ruki v Verkh!) song. Yes, the exclamation point is part of the name! Their new song Плачешь в темноте (Plachesh’ v temnote) is number 10 for the week of January 8 to 14, 2018 and, because this is one of the first Russian groups I liked ever, I wanted to make sure to write about them.

I first learned about Ruki v Verkh when I began studying Russian back in 2002 and, to help me listen to more Russian, I started listening to an internet radio station called Russian! Radio which happens to broadcast out of Germany. If you follow the link, you can still listen to them. There’s also an app for your phone.

Some of Ruki v Verkh’s earlier songs I enjoy include: 18 мне уже, Ай-яй-яй, Крошка моя, and Дома не сиди. The YouTube videos for the last two songs there are not official and I mostly chose the video for “Дома не сиди” because it’s funny. I feel like the sound Ruki v Verkh had from then is still quite influential in Russian pop music.

Ruki v Verkh first got popular in the late 1990’s according to their Wikipedia page. Their first big hit was Студент in 1997. Also, according to the Wikipedia page, they disbanded in 2006 but started making music again with a release in 2012. I have heard one of their other new songs called Когда мы были молодыми which is alright.

Song Review

This time around, I was excited to talk about the song, so I will start with my review. After listening through once or twice, I was really impressed with how the song is really similar to the older songs but also is updated for today. I thought they did a great job straddling that line but also I think it really shows how much Russian pop is still similar to back then.

Thinking about the song structure, I like how the chorus is almost non-existent. If you call the chorus the part where he sings “Ты плачешь в темноте” (You cry in the darkness), it’s very short and just seems to finish off the idea of the verse that was sung. I wonder if you’d even call it a chorus, to be honest. It’s very unusual in a pop song to not have a chorus that’s like a big hook, which is refreshing.

The song seems to be about a couple that is having hard times or may be about to break up. There are lots of lines referring to an empty home, someone crying in the darkness and things left undone.

The part at 1:55 in the music video where there’s a female singer doing some “Ah’s” is a nice contrast to the lead singer (Sergey Zhukov). After that part, he comes back in where they recorded him twice singing two different octaves. It sounds really cool. This is something that Fallout Boy did a lot of in their music.

The last thing I will mention about the song itself is that I really liked the piano in the intro to the song. I wish it was in more of the song similar to my comments about the guitar in the Loboda song last week. It was a great contrast to every other instrument in the music coming from a synthesizer.

My last comments are about the music video. I think that it is pretty bland and doesn’t really make any sense. I do like the part toward the beginning where the singer plays with the lights to the beat. In general, I mostly enjoyed this song as a trip down memory lane.

New words

The website I normally look at for lyrics to Russian songs for this blog did not have this one on it yet so I found the lyrics at a different place. Here is the link for you to check it out!

There were 5 new words for me in the lyrics to this song. Overall, it wasn’t hard for me to follow the general idea of the song but these new vocab words helped me get a few more details.

Прикоснуться – to touch, contact lightly, adjoin

This word appears within the first few lines of the song: “Прикоснись ко мне / Пока нам ещё всё можно” which might be translated as “Join me / While we can still do anything”. I feel like this line captures the feeling that things are coming to an end but maybe they can make it work.

Опустеть – to empty out

These lines are right after the two above: “Но дом наш опустел, / И слёзы на твоём лице” – “But our home has become empty, / And there are tears on your face”. It seems perhaps unlikely that they will be able to reconcile.

Стынуть – to cool, freeze, get cold

This word is part of a line with one other new vocabulary for me, so I will wait to give the line to you until after I give you the other one.

Плита – slab, stone, plate, range, stove

I think this word was sort of easy to guess but also I think in this particular case, it probably meant stove. I thought maybe “plate” but here is the line from the song: “Но дом наш опустел / И стынет ужин на плите” which can be translated as “But our home has become empty / And our dinner is getting cold on the stove”. With that kind of image, it feels like something major happened.

Раствориться – to decompose, dissolve, vanish

The line from this song makes it pretty clear that the relationship is over: “Всё, что хочешь ты / Просто взять и раствориться” which I translate as “Everything that you want / Just take it and disappear”. The cool thing though, is that this word was also in the Ёлка song that I reviewed in December!

It’s cool to see the word again. I still didn’t recognize it but maybe next time.

In any case, I hope you enjoyed the song as much as I did. What are some older groups still making new music that you have been enjoying?

Burito – Shtrikhi

Introduction

After two weeks off for Christmas and New Year’s, I am back with my latest blog entry. This week, we’re going to take a look at the song Shtrikhi (Штрихи) by Burito, which is number 4 on the TopHit.ru charts for the week of December 25 to 31, 2017.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure whether I had heard of Burito before but, after visiting his Wikipedia site, I discovered I had! Well, I hadn’t heard of him specifically but I discovered that he is part of a pop group I had heard of called Банд’Эрос (which you can read like the Spanish word Banderos).

Some songs I like by Банд’Эрос are Караоке, Эти сумасшедшие ночи, and Про красивую Жизнь. Follow the links to the YouTube clips!

According to his Wikipedia page, Burito started doing a solo project back in 2015 after being involved with various projects in the Russian music industry since the mid-90’s.

New words for me

This song had twelve(!) new words for me so, as I listened, it was hard for me to figure out what the song was about. As I looked up a few of them, it became clearer. Here is a link to the lyrics that I used because my normal website did not have it.

Штрих – stroke (of a brush), line

This is the title of the song and it appears in the first line: “Мы штрихи одного рисунка” which can be translated as “We are all strokes of the same picture”. This already sets a tone for the song as one about unity and finding common ground among people.

Безлинкий – faceless, anonymous, commonplace, impersonal, nondescript, featureless

This word also appears in the first verse: “Безликие тени на пустых перекрестах” which I translate as “Featureless shadows on empty street corners”. I think the point of this line is to juxtapose a bleak world with what the song-writer wishes it could be.

Созвучие – chord, harmony

This word is also in the first verse: “На созвучие сказанных слов”. There were 3 words in a sentence that I was unfamiliar with, so I will wait to translate it till I introduce the other words…

Мутный – Troubled, foggy, dull

Here is word number two from that group, which is in the line: “Поминутными мутными формами в воздухе”. We’ll bring it all together with the last word/line next!

Разлиться – to overflow, spill, flood

So, now I will give all 3 parts: “На созвучие сказанных слов / Поминутными мутными формами в воздухе / Разольется любовь” which could be translated as: “Love spills out / In the harmony of the words spoken / By the foggy figures outside”

That was kind of hard to do it justice. If you don’t mind, I would love a little help with this set of lines. Leave a comment!

Перо – feather

I know this word, but I didn’t recognize it when it’s in the instrumental case like you see it in the lyrics to this song: “Яркими перьями белыми укрывая внизу города” which we can translate as “Bright white feathers hide them underneath the city”. I think “them” here are the clouds from the previous line in the song.

Разлучить – to part, separate, sever

This word is in the last part of the chorus: “Наши сердца не разлучит никто, никогда” which can be translated as “No-one will ever separate our hearts”.

Распадаться – to decay, crumble, break up

Частоты – frequency shifts

I put these words together because they appear in the same line of the second verse: “Краски снова станут ничем / Распадаясь, становясь частотами” which I might translate as “Colors become nothing again / Decaying and becoming radio noise”.

Чётный – divisible by two, symmetrical

This word is in the second verse as well in the line: “Чётнымй и нечётнымй / Радиоэфирными волнами / Нас кто то встретит ещё” which is a bit difficult to translate but I’ll try: “Symmetrically and asymmetrically / By radio waves / Someone will meet us again”. It sounds a lot better in Russian.

Вселенная – the cosmos, world, universe

It’s the last new word I found! We made it! It appears in the final verse of the song in the line: “Руки вселенной держут нас” which can be translated as “The universe’s hands are holding us”. I think this is just talking about how we are all brought together by the world.

Song and Video Review

Since there were so many words I didn’t know in this song, I don’t have much space for a review of the music video and the song itself. Therefore, I will keep things short here.

I think that, overall it is a pretty good pop song but it won’t be that memorable much like most of the genre.

I like the sentiment in the lyrics though. After I finally had a chance to examine them, it seems like a nice idea that the world is kind of bleak but there is beauty if we just look for it. There are things that can unite us. I like that a lot.

Burito’s vocals in this song really sound like he’s got a reggae influence over his rap, which is cool but not terribly surprising after listening to some of the music from his time with Банд’Эрос. That group had a lot of Latin influence over their music as well. Several of their songs have a reggaetón beat and they even have a song called “Adios”!

The last bit I wanted to mention that I liked about the song was structural. There was a fairly unexpected part when he launched into the second verse immediately after the first chorus. In many songs, there is a short musical interlude between the two. The musical interlude did happen after the second chorus which then also became unexpected because of how he handled the transition from first chorus to second verse. I really liked the fact that there was something a little different to make the song not completely predictable.

I feel like I may have misunderstood some of the lyrics now that I listened to his phrasing again so if you can help me, I would be really thankful!

Vremya i Steklo – Troll

Introduction

For the 7^th straight week, Элджей ft. Feduk – Розовое Вино is number 1 according to Tophit.ru. This week we have a new number 2 song though and that song is Тролль by Время и Стекло! Макс Барских has been moved down to number 3 for last week after spending 6 weeks at number 2 on that chart, which is very impressive!

Vremya I Steklo is made up of 2 people: Aleksey Zavgorodniy and Nadya Dorofeeva who are both from Ukraine. They started working with Potap in 2010 when he founded Mozgi Entertainment. I learned of Potap, who is a Ukrainian rapper, through this song back in 2008 or 2009. In fact, I think you can see Zavgorodniy in that video during the breakdown bit. In any case, Vremya I Steklo has been active since about 2010 with their first single, Так выпала карта and they’ve enjoyed critical success since 2011 when they won the Golden Gramophone award in Ukraine for the song Серебраное море. Just this year in May, they won the RU.TV Award for best song for their song Навернопотомучто, which I happen to like a lot too.

Most of their music is fun, especially their recent stuff since about 2015. It’s upbeat and fun to listen to. Plus, they seem to enjoy some word-play in their lyrics which also makes it fun. Troll is no exception. Let’s go on to the review!

Things I liked about the song and music video

I really enjoyed this song and the music video. To start, I will talk about the music itself, which I think is a cool departure from a lot of pop music. To me, it seems very sparse and there isn’t that much going on so you can focus on the voices of the singers. It’s mostly dominated by drums and bass which, as a bass player, I can always get behind.

One other thing I enjoyed about the music itself is the synthesizer sound they have during the pre-chorus and chorus. It has a cool kind of 80’s tinge to it like the synthesizer in the original Bladerunner soundtrack. Also, they have some good samples. For example, the sample during the second verse at the end of the lines where Nadya is saying “быт с тобой” is a cool guitar riff (at around 1:15 in the video). It’s kind of subtle but I like that. It fills the pause and feels a bit like a call and response.

On to the video! I like the fact that this video is kind of goofy but artsy at the same time. It doesn’t take itself very seriously and I love that. A lot of Vremya I Steklo’s newer videos have been kind of like this. I also really liked the video for Имя 505 which is similarly artsy but also silly at the same time. It’s creative and fun. These are two things I can definitely support.

One kind of funny moment I liked toward the beginning of the video was when Nadya spanks and then caresses the lobster. The dancing throughout the video is silly but you can tell the dancers are all professional and they seem to be having fun. During the breakdown, Aleksey pulls out his banana phone and I love that too!

Lastly, I enjoyed the story of the song. It seems kind of like the woman feels a bit misled by the man she met at the club and maybe disappointed by his appearance. She says she’ll never be with him but then he apparently drives a Mercedes, so she seems to reconsider. Based on the whole “troll” element in the lyrics I feel like maybe this song is making fun of that but I could be totally off base.

Things I didn’t like about the song and music video

To be honest, I really like this song and I really like this group. One thing I think that is rather problematic in the music video that I didn’t really think about until I watched it a few times was there is a scene in it at around 1:02 where one of the male backup dancers is groping one of the female backup dancers. It’s hard to tell whether she thinks it is the guy directly behind her or the guy behind him but she seems to like it. Heck, I am looking for something to dislike about this music video and that’s the best I can do.

The other thing that was a little frustrating is that, since this is a pretty new song, the lyrics that are out on most sites don’t actually match the song especially in the breakdown part. I’m not sure why. Anyway, I found this link, which shows the actual lyrics for the breakdown, which was great.

Words I learned

Since the lyrics to this song weren’t completely accurate at my usual site, I also used this one to help me find the words. Here are a few of the words that I learned from this song:

Тряпка – milk toast, wuss, wimp, pushover

“Ты оказался тряпкой, я жалею что хотела” – is the second line of the song. We might be able to translate it as: “You turned out to be a wimp. I feel bad for wanting (you)”. Harsh!

Язык тела – body language

This was a little confusing but I was able to figure it out as it’s basically a translation of the concept in English. It’s in the second verse: “У тебя не все в порядке с языком твоего тела.” This could be translated as “Something is wrong with your body language”.

Погнали – Come on! – Go on! – Move on! (and other similar possibilities)

This is in the breakdown, which I had to find separately from the other lyrics. The line it appears in goes like this: “Всё по местам расставить. Погнали!” Maybe you could translate this as “All is in place. Let’s go!”

I hope you enjoyed the song too. If you learned any new words or want to share with me what you liked, please comment!

Max Barskih – Moya Lyubov

Introduction

Welcome to the first entry in my new blog! I am trying something out to find the music I want to listen to for review so I can make these entries and settled on using this website. After that, I clicked on the МУЗ-ТВ chart and found that for the week of August 29^th, the song Moya Lyubov by Max Barskih (Макс Барских – Моя любовь) was number one on this chart!

Why not? Let’s go with that! If he’s still number one next week, we’ll review the number two song. I can’t control what is popular but I can always review it and give my opinions.

Before we start, here is some background information on Mr. Barskih: He is a Ukrainian singer who has been making electronic pop music for close to ten years. His first single came out back in 2009, which is about when I stopped listening to Russian music so the only other song of his I have heard is called “Туманы/Неверная”. This song came out last year and is pretty good! The music video for “Моя любовь” came out on July 27, 2017 and appears to be Barskih’s only release this year so far.

The song and music video

After checking out the charts, I popped the music video on almost immediately in Youtube. The first thing you hear is a sample of some kind of sound from the seaside – waves and some children playing – and then the song starts with a synthesizer hook. It’s a good hook but you never hear it again. I thought that was an interesting choice.

The song is upbeat but the beginning verse is relatively slow, which is a cool contrast. Then the second part of the verse is quicker and matches the beat. This builds up to an energetic chorus. The chorus appears to also have two sections that are slightly different but both make use of off-beats. The off-beats in the chorus really set it off from the verse which primarily follows the on-beat. At the end of the chorus, things drop out and it goes back to that quiet, driving beat of the verse. Things build up again and fall. I’m sure if you hear this while driving or dancing at a club, the build-up, break and build-up again feels great!

As I listened a few times, I found that I really enjoyed the dreamy sound of the song. Barskih’s voice as well as the sounds of the background music is very dream-like and the music video adds to that feeling. It feels very light like you’re floating in the air as you listen. It definitely works for a pop song and I can see why it is so popular.

My favorite part about the music video is toward the end when all the people in pink pajamas jump off a high dive into an empty pool to make a pink splat of liquid. Eventually the pink liquid fills the pool and Barskih jumps in. It is so weird but it adds to that dream-like feeling of the whole experience: the music and the video work really well together. It doesn’t have to make sense because you’re in a dream.

The song follows a pretty standard pop structure of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, breakdown, chorus. It’s a tried and true way that lots of people write songs in. One thing that keeps it sort of interesting comparatively speaking is that each part has two differing parts within them. This adds some cool layering to the song that otherwise could make it rather bland.

Since this is my first blog post, I have not entirely decided on whether I want to have a rating system or not. If you have a suggestion about this, please feel free to comment or send me a message. A rating could be worthwhile or a complete waste of time.

Words I learned from this song

To find the lyrics, a quick google search helped me find this site! After reading through, I found 3 words that I was not quite familiar with:

The first word I learned was отвозить which means to take (someone/something) away (from somewhere). Figuring this word out from context was not too difficult since it appears in the line: “И опять рассвет отвозил меня одного домой.” This could be translated as “And again the sunrise takes me alone back home.” Judging by the definitions I found, it has kind of a connotation of a truck hauling something.

The next word I found, which I wasn’t sure about was нечаянно, which means by chance, accidentally, or unexpected. It appears several times in the song since it is part of the chorus. A major theme of the song is meeting someone and falling in love by chance, which makes it pretty romantic.

The last word I found in the lyrics which I wasn’t sure about was отражение, which means reflection or possibly gleam. The line in the song where it appears is: “Я устал искать в каждой паре глаз отражение.” Since Barskih is looking for love by chance while out and about in the lyrics to this song, it seems the best translation here would be “gleam” since that could be a sign of interest from the other person.

It’s kind of cool to have one verb, one adverb and one noun among my list! Were there any words in the song that you learned? Take a look at the lyrics and send me a message/comment.