Do you listen to albums in a language you don't understand?

I’m listening to one of my favourites, “Ruith Na Gaoith” by Arthur Cormack: all in Scots Gaelic. I don’t understand a word, but it’s lovely.

I have a couple of albums by a South African group. It has a bit of English, but is mostly Swahili. A great sound.

I also listen to a LOT of Spanish language music and can understand most of the lyrics while paying active attention, but little to none of it while not paying attention. I like the fact I can hear human voices, but there’s no ideas behind the syllables; it’s just the sound of humanity being human. This lets me keep thinking about whatever I’m actively doing while the tunes are running in the background providing company, not distraction.

Tons. I have many albums in Korean and Japanese, also some in Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Mandarin and Italian. I don’t speak any of those languages.

I also have a lot of French albums but as it happens, I do speak that language.

I enjoy listening to mid-century French music, specifically by artists like Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel (yes, I know, he was actually Belgian). I barely understand any of the lyrics, but I enjoy the style of music, and their voices, all the same.

We recently did a thread on songs in languages you don’t understand that has a lot of album mentions.

Me too. Well, maybe not a LOT but Spanish language music is in my mix.

Oh yeah…

Can’t edit last post…

Jump to @1:00 in the video above for the music.

Many!

It’s 2023, so I don’t really listen to full albums anymore. But I do listen to music from other countries in languages I don’t understand. I’m a fan of Rammstein and a few of their songs are in my walking music rotation.

Rammstein and walking? I am afraid to ask what your relaxation music is like. :wink:

A friend made a tape of a Francophone African pop compendium he had on record. It was great, and I took the opportunity of the rapidly growing interest in world music to access more African music for a while, some French and Arabic but a lot in national and ethnic languages. I had and still have no idea what they were banging on about.

Not really, no. For vocal music, the words are part of the experience, and if I can’t understand them at all, the experience isn’t as satisfying.

Lots. The Hu have been a favorite for a couple of years now. Also Kila, Ningen Isu and Abathandwa. Honestly I could go on but I’ll stop there. I grew up on everything from Edith Piaf to Italian opera so was always well accustomed to not understanding the lyrics.

I can’t even understand the words in many of the English language songs I like, so for me it’s not a big deal.

Music has always been more important to me than lyrics, so yes.

Seriously, yes! :rofl:

Every opera lover must. I hate opera but then i used to be married to an opera fan.

I like a lot of Russian post-industrial music such as this. For many years I did a college radio show and I would always hope the lyrics of what I was playing were not objectionable or ugly. The sound of the voices and the unknown meaning was just part of the chaotic mystery.