dognovel Chapter 318 "Bare Face"
Chapter 318 "Bare Face"
The response to the release of "A Little Sweet" was even better than Lu Ran had expected.
Lu Ran also plans to strike while the iron is hot and continue to release new songs.
Lu Ran has figured it out: his album can be released anytime, but Shen Yuege's album must be released first.
"This song is so sweet! Lu Ran and Shen Yuege singing together, what an amazing combination!"
"I listened to the whole thing with a smile on my face. Lu Ran's ability to write love songs is absolutely amazing."
"Yuege's voice is naturally warm, making her perfect for singing sweet songs like this. Lu Ran's voice is also very nice, and you can feel the chemistry between them even through the headphones."
"Is this a real duet between husband and wife? It's not the kind of forced CP feeling; there's genuine emotion in it."
"Playing on repeat. I've listened to it twenty times already, I can't stop. This song is addictive."
On Wanwan Music, the rating for "A Little Sweet" is also ridiculously high.
The score is out of 10, and the number of ratings has exceeded 300,000, with an average score of 9.9.
The comments section was filled with hundreds of pages of messages. Some people said this song was "the best duet love song of the year", some said "it makes me want to fall in love after listening to it", and some even tagged their significant other with the caption "This song is for you".
The internet was flooded with praise, which gave Shen Yuege a sense of confidence. She realized that her songs could be enjoyed by so many people.
"Lu Ran," Shen Yuege sat on the sofa, holding her phone and scrolling through the comments, unable to suppress the smile on her lips, "Look at this comment, 'Sister Yuege's voice is like it's been soaked in honey, sweet but not cloying.' This person's description is quite accurate."
"And this one, 'Lu Ran really knows how to write love songs, they're not pretentious or affected, they're just genuinely sweet.' I think he's right." Lu Ran leaned back on the sofa, his right leg resting on a footstool, and looking at Shen Yuege's happy expression, he felt happy too.
The two of them started boasting about themselves, but since there were no outsiders around, they both found their self-praise quite fitting.
"By the way," Shen Yuege put down her phone, turned to look at him, "didn't you say you wanted to strike while the iron is hot and finish this album within a month? Shall we continue tomorrow?"
"Continue." Lu Ran nodded. "Write another one tomorrow."
"What should you write for the next song? Do you have any ideas yet?"
Lu Ran thought for a moment and said, "Yes. I have a melody in my head that I'd like you to hear."
He used the handrail to stand up and limped towards the study. Shen Yuege quickly followed to support him, muttering, "Slow down, what's the rush? Your leg isn't healed yet."
"It's okay, I'm much better now." Lu Ran sat down in front of the computer, opened the music production software, and pressed a few notes on the virtual piano.
The intro melody flowed from the speakers, simple and cheerful, with a touch of youthful energy.
Shen Yuege stood beside him, listened for a while, and her eyebrows twitched slightly.
"This melody... is quite unique," she said. "It feels different from 'A Little Sweet.' 'A Little Sweet' is a very direct kind of sweetness, while this one seems more restrained, like there's a story behind it."
"You noticed?" Lu Ran smiled. "The song is called 'Bare Face.' It's not the kind of intense, dramatic love, but the kind of ordinary, everyday love where you can meet without makeup."
He paused, then added, "Moreover, I still plan to make this song a duet. You'll sing the lead, and I'll do the harmonies."
Shen Yuege was taken aback: "Another duet?"
"Mm." Lu Ran nodded. "Since this album is a duet album for the two of us, it's a duet from beginning to end. Also, the theme of the song 'Bare Face' is different from 'A Little Sweet.' 'A Little Sweet' is the sweetness of being in love, while 'Bare Face' is the tacit understanding and naturalness that comes after spending a long time together. Two kinds of sweetness, different."
Shen Yuege sat down on the chair next to her, stared at the musical notes on the screen for a while, and then said, "Then play the complete melody for me first, so I can get a general feel for it."
Lu Ran did not make a move immediately.
After thinking about it, he decided to use a special method to advance the creation of this song.
"Actually, I only have a rough framework for the melody of this song; it's not complete yet." He turned to look at Shen Yuege. "Yuege, can you help me think about how the first line of the verse should go?"
Shen Yuege blinked: "You want me to write it?"
"It's not about writing, it's about thinking," Lu Ran said. "Just hum a couple of lines, whatever comes to mind. Did any melody pop into your head after you heard the intro I just played?"
Shen Yuege hesitated for a moment, then hummed softly.
Her voice was very soft, as if she was testing the waters. After humming a few notes, she paused and looked at Lu Ran's expression.
Lu Ran didn't interrupt her, but listened quietly, tapping her fingers lightly on her knees to the beat.
She hummed a few more lines, this time more smoothly than before. At a certain point, her voice naturally rose slightly before falling back down.
"Stop." Lu Ran suddenly spoke up, "Hum that part you were humming just now, starting from that upward inflection point, and hum it again."
Shen Yuege was stunned for a moment, then hummed it again as he asked.
After listening, Lu Ran pressed those notes on the virtual piano and then recorded them into the software.
He listened to it several times, then added a few more melodies to complete the passage into a full musical phrase.
"Is this okay?" He played the completed clip once.
After listening, Shen Yuege smiled and said, "It's beautiful. So, did you write this part or did I?"
"You started it, and I finished it," Lu Ran laughed. "So it counts as us writing it together."
Shen Yuege looked at him, a hint of suspicion in her eyes: "You're not doing this on purpose, are you? Deliberately giving me only a starting point and making me figure it out myself?"
Lu Ran's thoughts had been exposed, but her expression remained unchanged: "How could that be? I really only have the framework in my mind; I haven't thought of the details yet. The part you hummed gave me inspiration, otherwise I would still be stuck there."
Shen Yuege looked at him with some doubt, but in the end she didn't ask any further questions. Instead, she turned her attention back to the melody.
The two of them kept going back and forth like that, saying one sentence at a time.
Lu Ran provided a melody fragment, and Shen Yuege tried to continue it.
Shen Yuege hummed an idea, and Lu Ran helped her refine and adjust it.
Sometimes Shen Yuege would suggest directions that were unexpected by Lu Ran. Although those directions did not have the original melody of "Plain Face", they were surprisingly pleasant to listen to.
Lu Ran decided not to force a direct copy of the original version, but instead followed Shen Yuege's line of thought, making only minor adjustments to some key parts.
By the afternoon, the melody of the song had basically taken shape.
Compared to the version of "Plain Face" that Lu Ran remembered, this version has some changes in the chorus.
Shen Yuege's version of the plot twists is gentler than the original, and the overall emotions are more restrained. It lacks the stubbornness of the original and has a more gentle texture.
"I think this song would be a great match for 'A Little Sweet' on the same album," Shen Yuege said earnestly after listening to the demo. "'A Little Sweet' is the sweetness of being in love, the kind of sweetness where you want the whole world to know how much you like someone. 'Bare Face' is the sweetness of being together for a long time, the kind of sweetness that doesn't need to be deliberately shown, it's natural. The two sweetnesses are different, but both are very touching."
Lu Ran nodded: "That's what I think too. So the overall tone of this album is 'sweet,' but each song is sweet in a different way. Some are the sweetness of being in love, some are the sweetness of everyday life, some are the sweetness of memories, and some are the sweetness of anticipation. The goal is to let listeners find resonance no matter what stage of their relationship they are in after listening to these songs."
Shen Yuege looked at him and suddenly smiled: "You've thought of everything quite thoroughly."
"Of course." Lu Ran leaned back in his chair. "This is an album I wrote for you, how could I not put my heart into it?"
Shen Yuege felt a little embarrassed by his words and turned her head to pretend to look at the melody on the screen, but she couldn't suppress the smile on her lips.
The two of them spent another hour finalizing the first draft of the lyrics.
The verses written by Shen Yuege depict a very everyday scene—when two people have been together for a long time, they don't need to dress up or find topics to talk about; they just naturally stay together, each doing their own thing, occasionally exchanging a few words, without feeling awkward.
Lu Ran helped her adjust some wording to make the sentences flow better, and added a few lines in the chorus that echoed the verses, making the structure of the whole song more complete.
"It's almost done." Lu Ran played the demo she had finished one last time. "We'll go to the studio to record this song tomorrow."
"What about my part of the melody?" Shen Yuege asked. "The few verses I hummed myself, do you really think they're usable?"
"Of course it can be used." Lu Ran turned to look at her and said seriously, "Yuege, to tell you the truth, the melodies you hummed are of very high quality. I'm not just flattering you, they really are. Most of the pieces you hummed before were just average, nice to listen to but not special. But the melodies these past few days are different; they have a very unique quality that no one else could write."
Shen Yuege felt a little embarrassed by his praise, lowered her head and whispered, "I was probably able to hum it because you were there to help me."
"I'm just a catalyst at most," Lu Ran laughed. "The reactant is yourself. Without you, I can't catalyze anything."
Shen Yuege looked up at him, her eyes full of smiles.
The two sat quietly for a while, neither of them speaking.
The sky outside the window gradually darkened, and the light from the study cast the shadows of the two people on the wall, very close together.
Just then, my phone rang.
Lu Ran picked it up and saw that it was Zhou Mingzhe's call.
"Brother Zhou, what's up?"
Zhou Mingzhe's voice came through the receiver, tinged with barely suppressed excitement: "Lu Ran, League of Legends is launching tomorrow."
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