January 2019

This month is peculiar in that 5 of the songs are international. Track 11 is French, from Canadians Coeur de Pirate and Loud.

Track 18 is Chinese, from Chinese hip hop group Higher Brothers.

Track 27 is Spanish, from Spaniard Rosalia.

Track 36 is Korean, from South Korean Jennie.

And track 40 is Spanish, from Colombian J Balvin.

One thing that struck me when I was abroad in France was the widespread origin of hits that were played in bars, in clubs and on the radio. Mostly English and Spanish language-wise but every now and then some Arabic or some other random language.

French people will be the first to tell you that they are not the best at English, and yet, as I found myself amongst them yelling the words to Usher’s Yeah, I realized they’d been listening to Usher this entire time too. It wasn’t necessarily about the words, or understanding the lyrics, or even knowing what the heck it was you were yelling out. The music went deeper than just the words. And while I’m a sucker for quote-able lyrics, this month’s Jamm has forced me to give a nod to catchy melodies, foot-tapping beats and the sheer exoticism of a different language.

America is catching up a bit to the international music scene; Spanish hits like Despacito are becoming more and more mainstream. But ask anyone here if they’ve heard Canadian French pop, Chinese hip-hop, Flamenco-inspired R&B, K-Pop, or Colombian-infused Reggaeton recently and I doubt they even know what you’re talking about.

But that’s what we have in this month’s Jamm with Coeur de Pirate’s reflective Dans La Nuit:

L’ennui des jeunes adultes: passer la nuit seuls à deux / The problem of young adults: to spend the night together alone

Higher Brothers braggadocious 16 Hours:

你的feel誰在乎 鑰匙裝背帶褲 / 他們排隊只為看我們show /Who cares how you feel, keys in overalls / They line up just to see our show

Rosalia’s ultra-smooth MALAMENTE:

Ese cristalito roto / Yo sentí cómo crujía / Antes de caerse al suelo / Ya sabía que se rompía (¡uh!) / That little broken glass / I felt how it creaked / Before it fell to the ground / I already knew it was breaking (oh!)

Jennie’s solo-debut SOLO:

이건 아무 감동 없는 love story (oh oh oh) / 어떤 설렘도 어떤 의미도 (oh oh oh) / 네겐 미안하지만 I’m not sorry (oh oh oh) / This is not a touching love story (oh, oh, oh) / No romance, no sincerity (oh, oh, oh) / I’m sorry, but I’m not sorry

J Balvin’s ode to Reggaeton with Reggaeton:

Dios bendiga el reggaetón, amén (Amén) / Hasta abajo, así soy soy / Yankee pa’ esta me inspiro / Bajo fuerte como ron (ron, ron) / God bless reggaeton, amen (Amen) / So down, that’s how I am / Yankee pa ‘this inspired me / Strong bass like rum (rum, rum)

Hope you like some of these, and maybe you find yourself humming along to that weird French song 😉

– theMonthlyJamm | January 27th, 2019

P.S: The cover album for this month is one of my favorite new artists Miya Folick, herself, half-Japanese and half-Russian by ethnicity. Quite international!