Guitar Fever (LPCD 45)

As the title suggests, Guitar Fever is made up entirely of guitar-driven songs. Even though it's a 10-track album, it actually only has five songs, with the instrumental versions taking up the other half to further show off the recording quality. As always, the album features work by not only Mark Lui, but also composers from Big Bang Productions such as Yeung Chung Bong, who serves up opening track See You Next Time (Track 1). With only classical guitarist Yang Xuefei on the guitar in the background, the song relies on Yeung's bittersweet composition and Leo's subdued delivery to bring out Lin Xi's melancholic lyrics. The result is a quiet ballad that nicely shows off the production values, despite featuring only two musical elements.

The guitar most associated with audiophile albums is the acoustic guitar, and it shows up in the Karaoke-friendly ballad Eyes with Tears (Track 2). Instead of sticking to the "simpler is better" formula of See You Next Time, Lui chooses to go with a more crowded arrangement, incorporating drums, bass guitar, and even a background chorus for a more dynamic-sounding song. However, Leo sings the song in the same gentle style that he used for See You Next Time, causing a clash between laid-back vocal and overproduced arrangement.

Lui finds a much better balance between arrangement and vocal in Flowers Don't Hurt (Track 3), a relaxing ballad written by Singaporean musician Tanya Chua. Since the composition has a uniquely Tanya Chua style throughout, Leo also delivers the song in her laid-back, almost nonchalant vocal style. Along with Lui's combination of electric guitar with the tambourine, a relatively soft drum accompaniment, and even the strings, the arrangement nicely matches with the composition without being obtrusive, despite the presence of the various instruments.

Leo finally lets loose with La La (Track 4), an energetic Irish-style folk song that makes use of the banjo. However, the banjo doesn't really make itself a standout presence in the vocal version of the song. Even when the banjo takes center stage in the instrumental version, it fits with neither the bombastic, bass-driven arrangement nor Clayton Cheung's Irish folk-rock composition. It almost seems like Lui carelessly blended the Irish folk song with American country music to make something that simply passes off under the all-encompassing term "World Music". Lin Xi also continues to show that he needs a break by filling in half the song with just repetitions of "la la la".

Lui wraps things up with power ballad All Yours (Track 5), which features a by-the-book composition by newcomer Yu Yik Jun that will satisfy ballad fans. More disturbing is Lui's arrangement, with the intro seemingly straight from Kary Ng's The Final Second from her album earlier this year. It's hard to believe that Lui can't come up with a different intro to the song, or at least come up with an intro that doesn't remind listeners of a better power ballad by another pop singer in the same year.

Guitar Fever is essentially a rehash of Leo's past musical genres with a more stellar production: See You Next Time is a more bittersweet version of Nobita; Eyes with Tears is another Karaoke-friendly ballad in the vein of hits like Love and Honesty; Flowers Don't Hurt is a smooth, laid-back ballad like Wu Kong (written by David Tao, another Taiwan-based musician); La La sounds like a companion piece to Dream Person; and even though Leo rarely sings power ballads such as All Yours, the song plays out like every other Hong Kong power ballad, and Leo's venture into rock is just about the only new thing on the album.

The expensive production values make the biggest difference this time around, and it shows. All the songs are well-produced, with excellent demo-worthy use of the various types of guitars. The sound of the guitar is crisp, with every instrument and their location in the sound field brought out clearly without one drowning out the other. Even though Guitar Fever is indeed a breakthrough in Hong Kong pop music production, it's not quite the breakthrough in Leo's discography. Still, he's proven himself vocally this time, foreshadowing that he's ready to take on the ultimate challenge. Bring on the one-take album.

Recommended Tracks: See You Next Time (Track 1 and 6), Flowers Don't Hurt (Track 3 and 8)

by Kevin Ma