Unlimited

Unlimited features most of her usual collaborators such as Jason Choi, Yu Yat Yiu (both of the music production collective People Mountain People Sea), C.Y. Kong, and Keith Chan, who all deliver solid works. But Miriam chooses to open with a track from a most unexpected collaborator - Hong Kong's premier young rock-n-roller Endy Chow. The result is the fun rock track "Kiss All the Girls" (Track 1) that gets the ball rolling. Miriam has explored her rock side before (although her voice has never been quite suitable for it), but this is the most fun I've ever heard her doing it. Miriam also explores her rock side in C.Y. Kong's "Walking Firmly" (Track 3) and Eric Kwok's "Big Fool" (Track 5). The former is a dark but surprisingly encouraging declaration of hard work and dedication in life, while the latter is a sweet power ballad about the bliss of living the simple life with a fool. With only a difficult crescendo disguised as a chorus, "Big Fool" features the better vocals of the two, but Kong and his detailed arrangement wins out as the better rock track.

The other new collaborator in Unlimited is rising new star songwriter/singer/producer Justin Lo, who wrote and produced "Yik Shu Says" (Track 7). While Lo is known to be a fairly talented singer/songwriter, his effort on "Yik Shu Says" seems to be largely derivative from both other Canto-pop and 70s soft rock ballads. It's a solid track, but also slightly underwhelming from an artist of his caliber. On the other hand, his producing work on "She Succeeded, He Didn't" (Track 2) fares far better. A fairy tale about a failed romance that involves a singing contest and record stores, Justin opts for a simple arrangement that allows Miriam's voice to tell the story while adding enough to create a fairy tale atmosphere. Additional credit goes to Lin Xi, who penned the lyrics for the entire album, for cramming as many words as possible into the song to craft a rounded story. However, the removal of breathing noises in the long verses shows too much tweaking on Justin's part, making the vocals sound unnatural for the sake of technical flow.

The one and only radio plug so far, "The Way of My Existence" (Track 6) by Keith Chan, is very much a repetition of the "Keith Chan" ballad that has grown tiresome over the years, but Miriam's delivery makes it sound as fresh as ever. More soothing tracks such as Pong Nan's "On Findlay Road" (Track 8) and C.Y. Kong's "I Can Only Dance" (Track 9) help move the album at leisurely and pleasant pace, which was set up at "Big Fool" and carried to the end with a jazzed-up remix of the strangely overlooked "He's Here" (Track 11) by Ivana Wong.

As someone who prefers the old Capital Artist days of Miriam, when she displayed a far more positive outlook and versatility in her music, Unlimited seems far more like a maturation rather than concession on Miriam's part. As an artist who earned her popularity from tragic ballads, the lack of such ballads in Unlimited still earned her the favorite female artist award at the CRHK Music Awards. This shows that while her recording career may have slowed down, her popularity has not slowed down one bit. Here's hoping that after a creatively mediocre stint at Gold Label, Miriam is off to bigger and better things.

by Kevin Ma