Mixtape Mondays: Feel-Good Music (Pt.2)

Welcome to another Mixtape Monday. If you missed the last one, you can find it here.

In this week's playlist, we continue where we left off, and thus I present you with Part Two of the Feel-Good Music playlist. While last week's playlist concentrated on songs and music we all listen to on a particularly good day of awesomeness, moments of celebration and pure bliss, in this week's playlist we mellow down and chill, concentrating on the feel-good music we all need to listen to when we're not feeling particularly great and need a little picker-upper. That or the songs we listen to to feel a bit better about ourselves and all the crap that happens around us. Let's call this set of songs

Inspirational.

To skip the banter and go directly to this week's playlist, click here.


The songs (and their accompanying videos) in this playlist range from vaguely inspiration to downright life-changing (at least in my opinion) and while these songs might not be everybody's cup of tea, this post will be a little self-indulgent as these are songs that hold special significance to me as a person and the truth is, I can't help but smile (or break into tears of pure unadulterated well-being) when I hear this songs. Let's face it, I'm pretty sure it's these types of songs we all listen to when we need to get our crap together. A fair word of caution though, this will be the first playlist where some of the songs aren't actually in English, but sometimes, it's just the music that matters, and while these songs

Let's ease our way in with one of my more recent finds. Well, not exactly. I've been following this guy's escapades for years - a fair testimony to how Youtube Video savvy I was back when I was a child. This song, Trip the Light by Matt Harding and Alicia Lemke was one specially made for Matt's latest video of travel escapades all around the world. For this reason I suggest you guys actually watch the video while listening to the song. It doubles the epicness and thus doubles the inspiration. Hell yeah.

Matt's other epic and viral travel escapades date way back to 2003 and 2004, and were first released publicly in his 2005 video - the landmark of his viral fame - where he dances awkwardly in different world landmarks, cities and wonders, the majesty of which greatly outweigh his lack of actual dance prowess. I was caught in the middle between this song and video and his earlier 2008 video which was equally as inspiring. But because the lyrics of the song that accompanied that one were adapted from a Gitanjali Poem I chose to stick to this one. This song is inspiring in two ways in a few ways. The lyrics (written by Matt himself) are monumentally moving and the composition work is exceptional. Accompanied by the fact that this man's travels were spurred by a dream and purpose, and we have the makings of a tear-jerking movie right there. I mean really, doesn't the song just make you so emotional!?!? Okay, maybe that's just me. But I'm pretty sure half of you wish you could live the life Matt has. I would probably give an arm and leg to travel to that many places, but then I probably wouldn't be able to dance as well without my limbs.

Traveling dancing man aside, the next song is more mainstream friendly. We Believe by Good Charlotte is one of the songs that is more empowering than inspirational, and while it doesn't exactly start off with the happiest of themes, it holds the promise of inspiration through the chorus of the song.

While Good Charlotte did turn into a pile of crap (debatable at best) a little after the release of this song, I do value the message and for some reason, with all the crap that happens around us, this song just manages to instill within me a little hope. Call me an optimist, a dreamer or whatever the heck you want, I like this song, end of story.

With that train of thought in mind, I doubt any inspirational playlist would be complete with one of the most cliche but well-loved songs ever. John Lennon's Imagine has to be one of the landmark songs that have shaped a generation of dreamers and free-thinkers, and while at this point, it might not be the most original choices for this playlist, I'll go on and include because I might be hanged if I don't.

This song has enjoyed numerous covers, a whole lot of pop culture references and tons of media exposure, and I'm pretty sure it's one of those go-to songs at Karaoke Bars right up next to songs from Celine Dion, Whitney Houston and of course, Frank Sinatra's never dying 'My Way'. Of course, a lot, if not all of those songs are so darn depressing that it hurts to mention them in this playlist. So let's move along now shall we?

One particularly life-changing song on my part was brought to me by my love for Japanese Culture. Some of you who may know me know that this song was one that shaped my life as a teen and if I had the courage to include this song in my earlier So Being a Kid Sucks Mixtape Monday, it would have been one of the first songs there. Angela Aki's  Haikei ~ Jugo no Kimi e (Letter: Greetings to a 15 Year Old) is definitely a life-changer for me.

In most cases I'd only post one copy of the song, but just in case one of these videos gets taken down, I'm posting both. The first is a choral rendition of her song with English Subtitles so you guys get the full gist of it and the second is the official music video. Both versions have their moments, and while I prefer the audio atmosphere of the choral version, the official music video tells so much more with its actors, actresses and portrayal of characters. If you guys are wondering why these are in such bad quality, blame Japanese Copyright Laws. Sucks, but yeah. That aside, this song would have done so well in my previously mentioned playlist, but I'm sharing it with you guys now in the hopes that somehow it'll help in some way. I know that a lot of my readers are still pretty young and this song'll probably help you through a lot of rough times. No sarcasm or snarky comments on this one, just the truth yo.

Leaving the past behind, I now move on to one of my favorite bands, Our Lady Peace and their song (which is one of my favorites as well) Innocent.

Okay, so I understand this video isn't a youtube video but I had difficulty finding the original MV on youtube, and that is one of the more important aspects of this song aside from its striking lyrics. Don't worry, I've still added a picture-vid of the song to the Youtube playlist so you can expect to still here it there. That aside, this  song, like the previous songs, holds somewhat of a sentimental value to it for me. Again, its theme isn't the happiest of themes but like Good Charlotte's We believe, it holds the prospect of a better future and the company of numerous others who have it worse than you do. In fact, this song owns Good Charlotte by a landslide, hands down and its video is definitely worth a watch.

I feel like ending this playlist off with the most meaningful song I've discovered in my lifetime, albeit mostly by accident and at the last place I'd expect to pick up something inspirational from - a video game. This song, Baba Yetu by Christopher Tin and the Soweto Gospel Choir is a song I stumbled upon whilst playing the historical turn-based strategy game, Civilization IV.

While the song in itself is inherently Christian in nature, having derived its lyrics from the Swahili translation of the Lord's Prayer, it is much more than a religious spiel, it's like a symbol of humanity. The song itself is breathtaking and there were times whilst booting up Civ IV for a quick campaign where I would just spend minutes or hours listening to this song at the startup menu of the game.

From its humble beginnings as the title song of Civ IV, Baba Yetu has won not on,e but two Game Audio Network Guild awards and was even nominated for the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, where it won Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s), effectively being the first video game piece to ever receive a nomination and also the first to ever win. In short, this song is just that awesome and that relevant. It's so relevant that the Dubai Fountain even based an entire show (which is AMAZING btw) on it.

There are no ends as to how awesome this song is.

In all honesty, I'm not one to get so overly emotional over a water works show. I mean, it's just water being propelled at speeds unimaginable to heights almost unreachable. But this song makes it seem so amazing.

Am I done fangirling yet? Yeah, I'm done fangirling now.

That just about wraps up this week's Mixtape Monday. If there are any songs you guys deem fit for this playlist, leave a comment below. I'd love to hear about you guys' awesome taste in music.


To view this week's full Mixtape Monday on playlist mode, feel free to visit my YouTube page or go directly to the playlist here.

Stay tuned for more Mixtape Mondays and comment below for next week's theme suggestions!