Urban Emotions

The most surprising of that direction comes with the appearance of Jerald, who has produced some of the most refreshing upbeat tracks in recent Hong Kong pop. Here he contributes two tracks that will likely divide listeners with their relatively experimental nature. First is the upbeat "Ghostly Love" (Track 8), an electronic pop track that becomes a hybrid of multiple genres as Jerald, acting as producer in addition to composer, inserts instruments such as electronic guitar to the mix. However, Hins's voice is too emotional when those high notes arrive, and is ultimately not smooth enough to blend with Jerald's style. More effective is ballad Deja vu (Track 11), which also includes Jerald's Dad as co-composer and co-arranger. As usual, Jerald gives the song a postmodernist hip vibe with his arrangement, moving between R&B and jazz piano throughout. However, Hins again unleashes too much of his voice, overwhelming the atmosphere created by the arrangement. Nevertheless, these two tracks are easily the most captivating tracks of the album, though the degree of their successes depends on one's acceptance for such experimental style.

Hins finds a more fan-friendly new genre with rock tracks, and comes up with solid results. CY Kong, who is also one of the two A&Rs (another term for coordinator) of the album, arranges and co-produces "Invisible Man" (Track 4), one of the more intense Hins songs in recent memory. As a mid-beat rock track, the team behind the scenes provides an effective energy that allows Hins to explore an angrier side of his voice, and is easily one of the most successful tracks of Urban Emotions. Composer Dennie Wong, who is better known in Cantopop for her gentle ballads, turns in a relatively dark piece with "Alone" (track 5), a slow-burn mid-beat rock piece that matches well with "Invisible Man" in tone and atmosphere. The album itself starts off with the rock song "His Story" (Track 1), though its tone is considerably brighter and doesn't quite match the rest of the album.

As in his last two albums, Hins puts his strongest vocal performances in the ballads. The most likely hit is "Under the Sakura Tree" (Track 3), a gentle ballad by Ng Cheuk Yin with the same feeling as Hins's 2006 hit "Siu Mon Su". Unlike some of the other ballads on Urban Emotions, "Under the Sakura Tree" manages to keep Hins's showy vocal in control, only letting him bring it out when the composition calls for it. On the other end of the spectrum is "Cruel Angel" (Track 7), which lyricist Riley Lam wrote in the memory of Hins's recently deceased friend. Personal lyrics aside, the track features a chorus seemingly only written to let Hins unleash his full range. Despite his ability to meet the challenge, the composition of the chorus is too abrupt of a change in key, making Hins's screaming voice a distraction from the actual message of the song.

Unlike his two previous Cantonese albums, ballad is actually the weakest genre on Urban Emotion. Thankfully, it offers enough solid tracks from various genres to make up for it. Hins even gets the chance to step behind-the-scenes again to produce the video game theme song Xue Hua Chao (Track 10), even though he took up no other creative post in the cover song. Hins also returns to his choice genre with "Under the Wishing Tree" (Track 2), a serviceable R&B track by Invisible Men's Alex Fong that is proficiently performed. The album's other R&B offering is Hate That I Love You (Track 12-13), a "duet" with American artist Rihanna that simply replaces Ne-Yo's voice with Hins in two languages. Despite the contrived pairing, it again shows Hins' talent in the genre.

Thanks to the comparatively broader range of genres throughout, Urban Emotions qualifies as Hins's most musically impressive Cantonese album yet, despite having the most missteps. The upside to Hins' rising popularity is that it allows for his albums to gradually deviate from the formula. While Urban Emotions is far from a return to the musical peak achieved by Am/Pm, it's a step in the right direction.

Recommended Tracks: "Under the Wishing Tree" (Track 2), "Under the Sakura Tree" (Track 3), "Invisible Man" (Track 4), "Alone" (Track 5), "Ghostly Love" (Track 8), Deja vu (Track 11).

by Kevin Ma