Category: Music

All connected to music

Song: Noize MC x Yegor Letov “Everything Like the Others”

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I’m going to say something that might sound sacrilegious to some: I was never a fan of Yegor Letov or his band Grazhdanskaya Oborona (Civil Defense). Even though I’ve listened to pretty much all of their albums. Sure, I know some of the songs very well—but I never felt the urge to go back and listen again.

And then, a few months ago, I stumbled upon a music video by Noize MC. The song had the same title as one of Letov’s most famous tracks—“Vsyo kak u lyudey” (“Everything Like the Others”). And that’s no coincidence. This track was written for a Yegor Letov tribute album as a kind of homage. But Noize MC didn’t just cover the original—he wrote a completely new, original song. The only part preserved from Letov’s version is the chorus, sung by Letov himself between Noize’s verses.

And this version really hit me. Maybe because it feels so much closer to the present moment, while fully preserving the spirit of Letov’s original message.

Interestingly, the video came out in 2019—but if you look at Noize’s outfit, you’d think it was filmed during the madness of the current war. The colors of his jumpsuit are very fitting.

In short, highly recommended.

Song: Tin’ Sontsya “Peramogi Scyag” (The Flag of Victory)

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Just a few days ago, the Ukrainian folk-rock band Tin’ Sontsya (“Shadow of the Sun”) released a new song titled “Перамогi сцяг” (“The Flag of Victory” in Belarusian). What makes this project unique is that the Ukrainian band not only performs the song in Belarusian, but also dedicates it specifically to the true heroes of modern Belarus — the Kalinouski Regiment, which is currently helping Ukrainians defend and liberate their homeland. The music video is a tribute to the military glory of Belarus, combining artistic scenes with real footage of the regiment’s fighters. Sadly, some of them have already given their lives for freedom in this war.

The lyrics and the performance are also quite good, but what impressed me the most was the visual side of the video.

Tin’s Sontsya — Peramogi Scyag (dedicated to the Kalinouski Regiment)

Glory to Ukraine!

Long live Belarus!

“Highlander”: The Soundtrack

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Yesterday I talked about the two MacLeods from the Highlander series, but since I’ve already brought up this franchise, it would feel incomplete not to mention the film’s music.

True fans know, but many people never even stop to think about what music played in Highlander or who performed it. And yet, the soundtrack definitely played a big role in the film’s popularity, since it was created by none other than the mega-popular band Queen. In fact, based on songs written for a couple of films (including Highlander), they released the album A Kind of Magic.

It included the following tracks featured in Highlander:

  • A Kind of Magic
  • One Year of Love
  • Who Wants to Live Forever
  • Gimme the Prize
  • Princes of the Universe

All of these songs were written specifically for the movie, which is clearly reflected in their lyrics. Among them, two tracks gained the most widespread popularity.

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Song: Ludwig Göransson “The Book of Boba Fett”

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Modern TV series have become a separate form of art. And the quality of many of them is no lower — and sometimes even higher — than that of recent films. At the same time, music plays far from the last role. Many series can boast excellent theme songs and soundtracks.

When Disney released The Mandalorian, they managed to win back the trust of Star Wars fans after a few rather questionable films in the cinematic universe. That series also had a compelling main theme. But in the recently released The Book of Boba Fett, I think they took the music even further. The result is a strikingly memorable theme with a Nordic vibe. Over the past few days, it’s become the favorite song of my younger kids. And honestly — mine too. It hits something deep inside, like it triggers some kind of inner vibration.

Ludwig Göransson – The Book of Boba Fett (From “The Book of Boba Fett”/Audio Only)

Songs: “The Sound of Silence”

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Back in our youth, there were so many songs we recognized by ear, but had no idea who actually performed them. Or maybe we just didn’t care — I certainly didn’t. And back then, I didn’t really understand English anyway. A few of those songs for me were now-legendary tracks by the duo Simon & Garfunkel. I still listen to them with great pleasure.

But I only learned the details about their very first song quite recently — thanks to the YouTube channel “Longplay.”

Their very first recorded song was “The Sound of Silence,” recorded on March 10, 1964. It was part of their debut album, “Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.” Interestingly, the original version was performed with just one acoustic guitar as accompaniment. In that stripped-down form, the song went mostly unnoticed. In fact, the entire album made so little impact that Simon and Garfunkel decided not to continue — their duo nearly fell apart right then and there. Here’s that version:

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Songs: Cheboza “Vasilki” & Eminem ft. Dido “Stan”

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In today’s edition of “good songs”—a personal anthem to me as the biggest musical slowpoke.

I’ve already written about how much I love the work of Vasya Oblomov, whom most people only know for a single song—”Edu v Magadan” (“I am travelling to Magadan”). But at the beginning of his career, he had a band called “Cheboza,” and together they recorded the song Vasilki (Cornflowers). It’s written as a fan letter to Dima Malikov, a Russian singer.

On New Year’s Eve in the 2004 show Negoluboy Ogonyok, Cheboza performed it together with Dima Malikov, where he sang “his own part.” And I loved this song like crazy. It has been playing on repeat in my playlist of favorite songs for years.

So why am I a slowpoke? Because only yesterday, thanks to my beloved wife and eldest daughter, I finally realized why the chorus “V chistom pole vasil’ki…” (In the open field, cornflowers…) always reminded me of some well-known song. I’m sure 99% of people would have immediately recognized what it sounds like. Forget “reminds”—it’s practically a slightly altered version of Eminem’s Stan, in which he used the chorus from a completely separate song by Dido. And Cheboza’s lyrics? They’re almost an adaptation of Stan rewritten for Russian realities.

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Song: Beautiful Far Away… Far Away, But Not There

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Today, I learned something completely unexpected about a childhood song that everyone knows—”Prekrasnoye Dalyoko” (“Beautiful Far Away”). Yes, the one from the movie Guest from the Future. And the revelation shocked me so much that I decided to dig deeper, do a little investigation, and prove that we’ve all been deceived. Turns out, we have been—but not entirely. So, here’s what I found.

I don’t know about you, but as a kid, I absolutely loved Guest from the Future. And like most Soviet boys, I had a bit of a crush on Natasha Guseva, who played the main character, Alisa Selezneva. I also read Kir Bulychev’s novella One Hundred Years Ahead, which the movie was based on—but it was completely different. Not the point right now, though.

After the movie, the song that played at the very end of the last episode became a massive hit. “Prekrasnoye Dalyoko” exploded in popularity—it was performed by various state and school choirs, released on vinyl records with children’s songs, and practically overshadowed every other song on the charts at the time. Probably the only real competition came from “Krylatye Kacheli” (“Winged Swings”) from The Adventures of the Elektronic.

“But what’s the big deal?” you ask. And here’s where things get interesting—something often called the Mandela Effect. That is, when many people collectively remember something that never actually happened. With this song, everyone remembers and sings the lyrics as: “I hear a voice from the beautiful far away, it calls me to wondrous lands…” (This research is about the Russian lyrics, but I am providing them in a literal English translation.) Sometimes the lands are far away, sometimes beautiful, sometimes something else. But in every breakdown of this phenomenon, in every reference to the Mandela Effect, they say that these lyrics never existed. Because in the actual song, the words are: “It calls me not to paradise lands.”

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Song: Kalush Orchestra “Stefania”

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Somehow, almost immediately after our wedding, my wife and I started a tradition—watching Eurovision every year. I wouldn’t say we’re huge fans of European pop music, but every now and then, some genuinely interesting bands pop up, and some of them even end up in my playlist. More often than not, they’re not even the winners. And honestly, we’ve always enjoyed the voting part the most. For example, I’ve been convinced for a long time that all professional juries should be kicked out. From those selecting the songs for the contest to those sitting there with serious faces, pretending to judge them. Ever since they started showing the jury votes separately from the public vote, it became crystal clear how far removed these so-called professionals are from the actual audience.

This year, Ukraine was the clear favorite. Of course, most commentators were yelling that it was all because of the war, that nobody actually cared about the song, and that Ukraine was going to win purely for political reasons.

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Song: Nogu Svelo! “Generation Z”

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I wouldn’t call myself a die-hard fan of Nogu Svelo!, though I’ve known the band for many years, and quite a few of their songs have made it into my playlist. But Max Pokrovsky, the band’s frontman, really caught my attention when he joined the reality show “The Last Hero” and was one of the first to openly talk about how tough it actually was. (Well, there was also the ‘clown’ Nikita Dzhigurda, who bailed from the island in the first few days, ranting about how he had been deceived and that they really weren’t going to feed them—not just on camera but for real).

And now, during these wartime days, Max is one of the few who openly speaks his mind about what’s happening—including about Russians themselves. Opinions on his new song vary widely—some even call him a sellout imperialist, standing with one foot here and the other there. But the song is raw and honest, without embellishments. And for that alone, I’m grateful to Max.