If It’s Not a Breakup Song, I Won’t Write It: New School Losers Choir – May 2024 Week 2 Playlist
Meow meow everyone, welcome back! Ever since the Summer Invasion project, I started giving some Chinese bands a try, and since then I’ve been dipping into a few of the more well-known ones and quietly falling for a handful of them. The thing is, they’re really hard to introduce to you all, because even in Taiwan you can hear pretty much every Chinese band’s songs, but finding their history, interviews, and all those little behind-the-scenes stories is way harder. So whenever I think about introducing them, I always feel like the content is a bit thin and I’d be letting you down. But then I figured, maybe just sharing their good music is already enough. So… this time’s playlist feature is going to introduce a Chinese band I’ve loved for a long time – New Pants… I mean, the New School Losers Choir (新學校廢物合唱團)!
New School Losers Choir playlists on the major platforms
Spotify playlist:
YouTube playlist (missing one song, mostly re-uploads):
NetEase Cloud Music:
Honestly, I’ve always been someone who loves punk, rock, and weird songs, but the New School Losers Choir won me over with their ballads instead, and now I just can’t stop! At the same time, the band is incredibly prolific. Someone once asked their lead singer “Liu Ao” how he stays so prolific, and Liu Ao said he doesn’t really consider himself prolific at all – he just dares to put his stuff out there. Some artists keep polishing their work endlessly, but he’s really confident in his own work and isn’t afraid of outside scrutiny or criticism. And because of that, the songs I’ve gathered up that I love added up to a full 5 months’ worth, 35 songs total, that I want to share with you. Some of these songs can only be found on YouTube, or even only on NetEase Cloud Music. So my approach is to put all the songs that are available on Spotify together in one week, while the playlists for the other weeks can only be heard on NetEase and YouTube. So let’s get started!
(Photo 1 – New School Losers Choir)
New School Losers Choir – Goodbye Lionel (再见琳尼尔)
Our first song is their signature track, “Goodbye Lionel” (再见琳尼尔). Sometimes a breakup is just a breakup, but truly letting go is a whole other thing. This song is about that moment when you finally let go of someone you’d loved for a long time but ended up parting with anyway. “Just pretend the past was all fake / told myself, forget it / you were never there when I needed you / so lost / Just pretend the past was all fake / as time slips by, my stubbornness / squanders all of me, my brave heart will never go cold again / so burning hot.” Sometimes that’s just how this world works. Sometimes the things that aren’t meant for you won’t change no matter how hard you try, so you just tell yourself, forget it!
New School Losers Choir – Give Back to You (还你)
The second song is a slower-paced one, “Give Back to You” (还你). This song feels a lot like regret – regretting how you ended up where you are today! He says he’s grown up, says he doesn’t love anymore, yet he also says the other person hurt him, as if he still cares. Even while claiming he doesn’t love them anymore, he still asks whether they’re any different with someone new. “I don’t love anymore / because I’ve grown up / I’ve given back what I could / and what I couldn’t, oh well / You’ve learned your lesson / learned how to make me hurt / I’ve given all I should / what more do you want?”
New School Losers Choir – How Many People Can You Love in a Lifetime (一生能爱几个人)
The next song, “How Many People Can You Love in a Lifetime” (一生能爱几个人) – just the title alone hit me hard. It reminds me of that one person I spent thousands of days on only to end up with a breakup. That stinging feeling is so real, yet so worth missing. Back in my university days (yeah, I’m still in university now) I could never let go. That kind of love – unfiltered, not overthought, chosen without worrying about whether you could even afford it – is always too beautiful. Every time, I’d wonder: how many people like you will I get to meet in this life, and could I really just give up that easily? “How many people can you love in a lifetime / so sincerely / or maybe it’s just impossible / don’t carve scars with those loving eyes / even healed, they’ll still hurt.”
By now you’ve probably noticed that a lot of these songs are about love. That’s right! The New School Losers Choir has tons of songs about love, but every single one of them gets right into your heart, as if it’s telling your own story – that deeply.
(Photo 2 – New School Losers Choir)
New School Losers Choir – Wasted (废了)
The next song I’m introducing isn’t about love. It’s a track with a really strong rhythm that always gets me accidentally playing it on repeat several times. “Wasted” (废了), put simply, is about the life of ordinary folks – how in this world you seem to be just a nobody, exactly like everyone else, as if everyone is supposed to become a doctor, everyone is supposed to be good at studying, as if your whole life is just spent buying a house you can’t even take with you when you go. “School turns kids into one mold / parents hand their savings to the developers / the poor boy can’t find the girl he loves / I feel wasted, wasted / this life makes me feel wasted, wasted.” So who are we, really? Maybe some people will spend their whole lives never understanding what they’re even living for.
New School Losers Choir – Evening Glow (晚霞)
The next song, “Evening Glow” (晚霞), has that slightly grumbling feeling to it, like the whole world is working against you – doing a job you hate for a wage that won’t let you eat your fill but won’t quite let you starve either, working from dawn till dusk every single day. But even if your life is going badly, the world won’t pause its steps just because you leave, as if you never existed at all. I think everyone has a few days in life that don’t go so well, but no matter how hard this life gets, that’s part of being human – the sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy of life that we have to experience! Sometimes I feel pretty useless too, but I’ll still go look at the evening glow when I’m in a bad mood, because no matter how rough life gets, that sunset is just as beautiful. “I don’t eat my fill / have nothing to lean on / who’ll hold me when I wake / the streets roar, an unfamiliar shape / I can’t recall when I met you / flowers fell into the pond by this house / turning into the shape of silt.”
(Photo 3 – New School Losers Choir)
New School Losers Choir – Seagull (海鸥)
Alright! Today’s second-to-last song (oh my, time flew by) is called “Seagull” (海鸥), and this one is seriously gorgeous! I really can’t find the words to describe just how good and beautiful this song is. I love the way the cello and the acoustic guitar come together in the bridge – that constantly repeating melody is like the footsteps of someone walking forward without stopping, but when the cello joins in, it brings a touch of melancholy to the original melody, like missing someone. Who, though? “Singing a whole summer’s wind / never finishing one dream / who’ll fall into the waves with me / and not feel any pain / you say he listens, I watch / who’s putting on another act for the crowd / at a music festival with no lover.”
New School Losers Choir – Wound (伤口)
Today’s final song is also my favorite on this album, “Wound” (伤口). This is a must-listen when you’re going through a breakup! It captures that heart-wrenching feeling right after a split, and the chorus in the middle – oh my god, it’s written so well, with so much push and pull. It’s like yesterday’s lover becoming today’s stranger, wanting to forget but not yet used to a life without them, that mood of not wanting to think about it but still thinking about it nonstop – it’s written so, so, SO well! “I want to forget / the sweetness back then / it only makes a bitter life more bitter / I want to forget you / but I’m powerless / oh, I finally understand / you left, I went mad / I tear open the wound you gave me / I dont need u.”
And that’s it for this week’s recommended playlist~ It’s been a while since I wrote this few words, and it still feels a tiny bit unfamiliar, but I hope you’ll enjoy it! See you next week for the next recommended playlist!
Mydondon’s new recommended playlist bucket (the all-drumstick meal) on Spotify:
Mydondon’s new recommended playlist bucket (the all-drumstick meal) on YouTube:
Mydondon’s new recommended playlist bucket (the all-drumstick meal) on NetEase Cloud Music:
Other recommended playlist articles: