[Lyrics translation] Moody Sarah playlist: 혹시라도 들릴까봐 (Have you heard / Because you might hear me)

With school and work picking up, my schedule's getting packed and my procrastinating habits have been kicking in. As as a result, I have become dependent on music to get me through it all. Particularly, I've been gravitating to some sad but somewhat refreshing-type songs - perhaps my brain just wants a break from all the fast paced bumping bass tracks of the summer. It does affect me in that I get a bit quiet and broody, but I also blame that on my lack of sleep during the last week.

Anyways, since I hadn't posted in a while I thought I'd share my version of the translated lyrics of leeSA's Have You Heard. It was on the I Need Romance 2 OST, but I hadn't really paid much attention to it when I watched the drama. However, when I heard on shuffle leeSA's awesome voice I started to pay attention and the lyrics really came through to me. I liked that there was a story within it - a breakup with an untold story, the dumpee hopeful that it will be told in the future.

leeSA - 혹시라도 들릴까봐 (Because you might hear me)

Truthfully, I was the one that changed first
I wasn't even sorry then
Not being able to get through the day with my head straight
Those, those, those kinds of days, and
Days when I smile, smile, smile without meaning it, and
That day when I just had to get through everything

Your smile, as kind as always
My eyes, still enduring
Me, not being able to have told you even once
Look, look look, I'm this kind of person
Look at me, who is erasing you, crying
Me, who really isn't going to come back anymore

Do you regret it? Were you sorry?
Why weren't you there by my side then?
Someday, can you ask me, just once,
What had happened to me back then?

The days when I had more memories of you than of me
Back to that place, at your finger tips
The memories that remain, the memories still warm
All of those days of painful memories

While thinking that this is actually the end, that maybe you might change
So that my lying lips won't get caught

[Repeat]

I Need Romance 2 OST

It's been pretty slow in kpop lately. Given, there are always new artists and groups debuting, and there are other artists making comebacks and releasing new tracks but none of them really mattered to me. However, I do think that I should make a post about now since it's been so long, so I'm here to rave about the I Need Romance 2 OST.

An OST, for anyone that didn't know is an acronym for Original SoundTrack. Korean tv dramas have the tendency to have an OST of 5-15 tracks that they use for the entire runnning of the program (mini-series are the trendiest dramas with 16-20 episodes, aired twice a week). Sometimes half the OST consists of pieces of music with no lyrics, just instrumental melodies and such, but because they play it over and over throughout the episodes the viewers become very familiar with it.

A lot of the times, a good OST can impact how well the drama does, in a very subtle way. OST's are always released like an album, and some of them do super well such as ones that came from trendy dramas like the Dream High series, or ones featuring trendy artists.

[Lyrics translation of leeSA's Have You Heard]
I have been watching I Need Romance 2 (also watched the first series in 2011), and I really love the OST. There are 12 tracks on that OST but 7 are songs with lyrics; the rest are instrumental pieces. It's a light collection of songs that give off a chill cafe feeling. Nothing too dramatic (except perhaps the opening theme titled "Waru Waru") and pleasant. I found a YouTube playlist of the songs from the OST here:


I especially love the first track I Could Give You Love by Lasse Lindh, a Swedish singer. The combination of his voice and the song is quite lovely.

Anyways, I hope we get some new kpop tracks that I can review... I've just been enjoying Psy's rise to international fame with his Gangnam Style, and listening to all of the great summer tracks released thus far.

Kdrama Preference: Whatever tvN comes up with.

It's something that I've been noticing these past cycles of Korean dramas. Any regular kdrama follower is familiar with Korea's mini-series shows; romance-based stories told in 16-20 one hour-long episodes aired twice a week. Plot lines are always set in a variety of contexts, from ER or Grey's Anatomy-type medical backdrops, to CSI-type police/forensics/prosecution backgrounds, to just "ordinary" poor girl meets ridiculously rich and perfect guy situations. I've realized a stupidly repetitive formula for all kdramas airing these past couple of years, but that's for another post.

Anyways, I've followed dramas from all three of the major broadcasting stations: KBS, MBC, and SBS, and for a while I preferred the ones produced from SBS. I'm not exactly sure why but they've been coming up with story lines that interested me the most. However, somewhere along the line tvN were producing dramas that were much more original and fun to watch.

The Review
The first round (I'm hesitant to call it a "season") of I Need Romance was awesome; it was like a Sex and the City type girly friendships dealing with the lack of romance in their lives and other boy problems. Compared to the other kdramas sticking to the formula, it was one of the first realistically feeling drama I'd seen in a really really long time (I want to say ever, but I need to reflect on that a bit longer).

Shut up Flower Boy Band was pretty ridiculous, but there was a sense of reality in the friendship of a group of high school students, whose journey takes them from struggling to get into the competitive music industry to struggling with each other because of the fame that followed them. I like dramas that are more realistic.

I Need Romance 2 recently began to air, which I was ecstatic about. I was worried that it was going to be too similar to the first installment of the "series", which seemed like it was going to be in the first episode but they're clearly taking a different route with each of the base three girl friends so I'm good. Watching the first couple of episodes I couldn't get the original characters from the first installment out of my head, but it's only been 4 episodes now, so hopefully the characters will become more charismatic to stick.

If I may digress a little...