The way that the world works, it’s easy to get anxious. With the state of things nowadays, you and everyone else need to find strategies to relax in order to move forward. These are basic needs for the modern man, and there’s one method to achieve near-instant calm that is more popular than anything else – listening to music.
Now, it wasn’t always this way. Popular music, as something that you take home, or nowadays, stream, is a relatively new invention. Some of its fans believed that it could only be used to try dance moves, too. Others used it as a way to rebel, and there were even those who only wanted it played during fancy dinners. However, artists like Mikel know that music, more than anything, in our time, is a friendly companion.
Mikel, with the new song collection ”Poké & Chill 2,” essentially, tries to do for today’s young adults, what playing classical renditions of famous pop songs achieved in previous generations. It blends the familiar with the modern and tries to make the listener smile and allow troubles to, for a few minutes, melt away.
Yes, the album is centred on the worlds of Pokémon. But simply the fact that I don’t have to further explain what this means, the ubiquitous nature of the Japanese media empire, means that what we’re dealing with here are modern classics.
And, yes, it’s all a mood piece, or rather a collection of positive emotions sprinkled across each track. “Gotta Catch ‘Em All,” the show’s intro song, begins as a piano ballad before the mix shifts into pleasant, modern pop territory.
Is this an alternative soundtrack to all things Pokémon? Sure, something that you’d assume would please Mikel. And, indeed, the music does feel like a reimagined soundtrack of retro computer games.
“New Bark Town” is a luminous piano and trumpet-driven lead over trip-hop beats. “Violet City” contains melodic, intricate solos. And, “Lake Verity” almost feels like the intro to a modern indie-rock song played on a loop.
Music is a wonderful relaxation tool because, more than nearly anything, it can help change moods nearly instantly. And if this is the objective here, Mikel’s collection of reimaginings achieves this. It’s hard to hear the chilled-out jazz of “Route 216,” or the blissful vocal chants heard on “Eterna City,” and not have your soul feel a little bit lighter.
Mikel understands one simple thing and uses this information well. Mikel knows that most people crave returning to the simple, relaxing times of their youth. But the artist knows that there’s a way to, immediately, albeit for a short while, make that leap back. It’s music, and it’s always there to make your day better.
