Custom Made (2nd Version)

Hacken Lee “Custom Made”

Negotiating a new contract with the record company, Hacken Lee has just launched his brand new compilation album “Custom Made” yesterday after releasing his new Cantonese album “Ever．Last” last month. The new compilation album collects 7 new tunes and 45 previous greatest hits of Hacken’s during the four stages of his music life in Polygram, Star, BMG and Universal Music, making a final effort to be honored again “The Most Popular Male Singer” award.

Almost all the classic Hacken songs in the album are works that music fans are well acquainted with. The album collects hit tunes produced in various stages. They include “Summer’s legend” (Disc#2, Track#2) and “Grand theater of City Hall” (Disc#2, Track#3) from the early stage, “Look back” (Disc#3, Track#1) and “Hope” (Disc#3, Track#6) from the middle stage, recent hits “Falling Flower” (Disc#4, Track#3) and “Tall Girl” (Disc#4, Track#8), and even the latest songs “Marriage after being long together” (Disc#4, Track#11) and “To love a person” (Disc#4, Track#12). All these tunes help fans witnessing the development and growth of Hacken’s performance career.

As for the several new tunes in the album, they are all ballads of medium-to-slow tempo and of high quality. The songs may not offer instant excitement, but are still worth listening to. Moreover, Hacken’s vocal skills have long been outstanding and do not let fans down. This album is, therefore, really a fantastic one overall.

The tune and lyrics of the leading track “I do not master singing” (Disc#1, Track#1) are satisfactory. The tune is blended with a classical masterpiece “La Campanella” performed by China’s famous pianist Lang Lang, who also belongs to Universal Music. Though the tune is merely a pop hit, fans can still feel Lang Lang’s imagination and passion in his performance. The ending section is especially sensational. (Present reviewer: who else can master singing if Hacken says even he himself does not know how to sing? Are there scorn of any kind behind?)

The string performance in “Warm winter, cool summer” (Disc#1, Track#2) is impressive while another ballad “White paper crane” (Disc#1, Track#3) is also a satisfactory work. Don’t miss out “Filial piety” (Disc#1, Track#4) and “Alumni association” (Disc#1, Track#5), especially the former. Since it also surprises fans with a fresh feeling as the previous tune “I love St-Laurent” (collected in album “Let’s celebrate”) did.

The Mandarin version of “Neighbor left and right” is also collected in this album, but the effect is not satisfactory. Frankly speaking, this tune itself is not suitable to be adapted to a Mandarin tune, and it sounds rather unnatural in Mandarin. The Mandarin lyrics by Ko Ho Ching neither pay attention to the rhyme, nor express meanings as outstanding as Hacken’s Cantonese lyrics. In fact, most lyrics by Ko are not satisfactory up till now, and more practices at home are required indeed.

Recommendations: “I do not master singing” (Disc#1, Track#1), “White paper crane” (Disc#1, Track#3), “Warm winter, cool summer” (Disc#1, Track#2) and “Filial piety” (Disc#1, Track#4)

Reviewer: Stephen Lee (Li Zhong Yan) – Hong Kong