Written by Marilù Ciabattoni
Discovered via Musosoup
Asian-Canadian artist Leanna Oki’s latest single, “I Taught You How To Dream,” has two sides to it: the soft, soulful side and the electric, unapologetic one. The song's title could at first remind you of the typical caption you see under an Instagram post, written in a fancy design to make it more appealing, but Leanna’s song goes deeper than that.
I absolutely love the sample vocals in the background of the instrumentals, which form an ethereal and sensual beginning to the song. When Leanna starts singing on it, it gets even better as her vocals melt perfectly with the sample.
Then the instrumental halts and builds into the chorus, which is more aggressive and electronic than the verses. Full of resentment, she sings: “Wasn’t I the one who taught you how to dream? / Thought I was the one who let your demons free.”
The instrumental halts again before restarting as it did in the beginning. It’s interesting how sharp the contrast between these two “moods” is, and I believe that’s on purpose: following a breakup, you can feel two contrasting feelings for the same person who filled your heart with happiness and then broke it. When the artist sings, “So good luck finding someone else like me / The one who taught you how to dream,” I especially felt that.
Finally, the vocals are just too powerful to ignore: layered over each other, they create a beautiful net of melodies and harmonies, even when the chorus is blasting in the background. This is particularly true when we get to the outro that closes the song: although she only repeats “The one who taught you how to dream” for the most part, it’s the harmonies that ultimately leave the listener wondering if the past three and a half minutes were real or just a dream.
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