Hacken Lee Concert Hall (XRCD)

Recorded over the course of four days in a middle school concert hall, Concert Hall is not only a testament to Hacken's vocal skills, but also one to quality production. The album features several world-renowned musicians of both western and Chinese classical instruments, making an interesting combination of East and West that finally doesn't involve R&B. If there's one word to describe the music on the album, it's classy.

Music, however, is not the only unique aspect of Concert Hall; the lyrics for all the songs are written by either Hacken Lee or long-time collaborator Chan Siu Kei. As a result, the 10-track album can be split into five pairs of songs. Not all of them are spectacular; in fact, they're mostly pairings of Hacken-style ballads with either contrasting styles or contrasting lyrics.

Track 1, Before and After Ten Years by Hacken and track 6, Always By Your Side by Chan deal with the loss of a long-time love. This pairing is only worth mentioning because the former sets up the tone of the album with an intro that features a fusion of electric guitar, violin, and piano. While the song is an average ballad, the introduction sets the tone of the album as an elegant mix of musical styles. The latter takes the gimmick further by integrating traditional Chinese flute and acoustic guitar, but remains a traditional ballad that Hacken would include in any of his other albums with less impressive arrangements.

Track 7, The Unmarried Women by Hacken, and track 3, The Post-Marriage Affairs by Chan, on the other hand, are the best pairing of the album. The set of lyrics provides a comparison between the mind of a desperately unmarried woman and the regrets of a just-married man. Meanwhile, both songs take full advantage of the live instruments by giving them grand symphonic arrangements. The classical style, along with Hacken's impeccable performance on both tracks, makes this pairing the best-produced set of songs on the album.

Track 5, The Immature Union by Hacken and track 9, Papa Lee by Chan are by far the most controversial pairing. The two songs are comparatively faster-paced tracks that deal with the contrasting themes of immature adults and new fathers dealing with parenthood. This pairing stands out not only because of the use of various vulgar Cantonese slang, but also because of the musical styles that don't quite seem to fit into the rest of the album. While it's understandable that the production team wanted to prove how far they could take the album, the album would've benefited by picking songs that would be more appropriate for the elegant tone of the album.

Despite several bumps here and there, Hacken has produced his finest album in years by not making his vocals the only star of the show. The production is probably the best in Hong Kong music in 2005, and the pairing of the two lyricists provides a good reason to not listen to the album linearly. In his acceptance speech at an awards ceremony, Hacken likened himself to a suit (while he called the younger pop stars like Eason Chan and Leo Koo hip fashion). Stealing his metaphors, I would argue that if his previous albums were suits that were about a size too small, then Concert Hall is the expensive designer suit that Hacken can finally wear comfortably.

by Kevin Ma