Miracle World (Taiwan Version)

Miracle World starts off with "Superman" (Track 2), which is basically an Andy Lau-style 90s fast song disguised as a modern pop dance track. When Andy screams in the chorus "I'm Your Superman" in English, one can't help but think back to the days of "I Hate My Obsessed Heart", regardless of how many American pop arrangement clichés arranger Edward Chan packs in. The next track, "Most Popular Male Singer" (Track 3), sees Andy and his team going Limp Bizkit by mixing rock with rap lyrics about the world of Hong Kong musical awards. Although the whole song is sung in Mandarin, the inclusion of Eric Tsang (the choice host of a certain Hong Kong television network's music awards), lyrics about Paco Wong, and the lack of rhyme in the rap lyrics signal that the song probably would've worked better if written in Cantonese for the Hong Kong market. As for the other two fast songs, "I Am a Cow" (Track 9) attracts more attention probably for the fact that the lyrics are written from the perspective of a cow (Really, what else would you expect from the title?). In fact, Andy seems to love the song so much that he named the Chinese title of the album, The Whimsical World of a Cow, after the song. However, the only thing worth noting about "I Am a Cow" is its lyrics, as its Spanish guitar-driven arrangement simply sounds recycled from last decade's "Summer Fiesta".

A genre that works surprisingly well in Miracle World is the R&B ballad. However, it's only explored in "One" (Track 4) by Michael Lin, who has arranged several Jay Chou songs. While Andy's handling of the genre makes up a good part of the song's success, lyricist Vincent Fang's creative motif of starting every line with the word "one" makes the song clearly stand out at first listen. With many of these Chinese pop lyrical gimmicks doomed for failure, it's refreshing to see one that actually works, making "One" easily the best song of the album.

The cover songs, a staple of Asian pop albums, are also fairly solid on Miracle World. The best among the three is the mid-beat acoustic song "No Falling Snow in Winter" (Track 7), which marks the second Mandarin song about global warming by one of Hong Kong pop's Four Heavenly Kings since Jacky Cheung's "Original Criminal". Despite the depressing subjects of melting ice caps and Eskimos lining up for air conditioners, Andy (who co-wrote the lyrics) sings "Winter" in a pleasant soft tone that matches the surprisingly light arrangement by Lau Chi-Tat, making for a relaxing environmental awareness song. However, I would still pick Jacky's global warming song over Andy's just because an angry rock scream seems to bring more of the necessary immediacy to the issue.

It wouldn't be an Andy Lau album without the ballads. Even the advertisements use "Andy Lau-style ballads" as a selling point. Sadly, the most disappointing part of Miracle World happens to be those ballads. This time, listeners have two to choose from - "Destination" (Track 6) and "Cocoon Person" (Track 10) - but both songs carry a certain "been there, done that" vibe. A fan might, at most, feel nostalgic for Mandarin classics such as "The Water of Forgetting Love" when listening to the two ballads, but neither of these tracks is destined to be a classic. Then again, a pop artist with as many classic hits as Andy Lau doesn't need to strive for any more of them. The words "business as usual" may not be much of a compliment for an album, but considering that Andy still churns out at least one album every year (something that the other Heavenly Kings can no longer do), the ability of Miracle World to maintain the "business as usual" quota should really be considered a compliment.

by Kevin Ma