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Lowell Lo 08 Suddenly A Magic Moment (CD+DVD)
Lowell Lo (Singer)
I'm a fairly frequent visitor of the Hong Kong Coliseum, but something felt different on May 17 as I settled into my mountain seat at Lowell Lo in Concert 2050. For one thing, the woman next to me looked like she might be giving birth any second. Instead of the excited teenyboppers and disaffected headboppers that populate the idol and indie concerts I usually attend, this time I was surrounded by middle-aged couples, smiling seniors, and families with children. It was an event that made me feel simultaneously young and old; young because I was a good 15 years lighter than the people next to me, old because I first listened to Lowell Lo when I was the same age as the children being brought... [read more]
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Ru Guo Wei Lai (China Version)
Fusion Band
Despite the cliched name and even more cliched campus punk fashion, young Mainland band Fusion proves to be the real deal with their first album Ru Guo Wei Lai ("If the Future"). The only Mainland act signed under Taiwan folk rock veteran Jonathan Lee, Fusion makes an impressive debut here with a versatile range of ear-pleasing pop rock numbers that embody both bouncy youth and mellow maturity. Songwriting is split between bassist Tao (the bleached-hair, visual kei-looking one) and vocalist Leakey (or Sun Quan, but clearly his English name is more entertaining), both of whom show a true talent with words and notes. Picking up the album with no prior knowledge of the band, I became a believer... [read more]
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Super Sunshine (MV Encore Version) (CD+DVD)
Gary Chaw (Singer)
Other than the fairy-tale contestants, the singer who benefited the most from last year's One Million Star craze just might be Gary Chaw, considering Aska Yang and Jam Hsiao's competition renditions helped turned his "Betrayal" into the karaoke ballad of 2007. Of course, "Betrayal" is only one part of Gary Chaw's quick rise to fame since debuting in 2006 with an album that had critics tripping over themselves with superlatives. By mid-2007, he had already made the transition from awkward newcomer to experienced artist deemed senior - or at least ratings-friendly - enough to judge the One Million Star finale. It's almost too easy to forget that Gary is pretty new himself. An outstanding debut... [read more]
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Travelogue, three
Chet Lam
Chet Lam's third album in his Travelogue series doesn't take listeners to Prague or Paris, but to the city he knows best: Hong Kong. I've loved every album Chet Lam has released, and this one just may be my favorite (well, until the next one). Chet's local travels start appropriately with "City-covering Saga" (Track 1), a jaunty, breezy song drenched in Hong Kong imagery and sentiments. The title and lyrics pay tribute to late street poet Tsang Tso Choi, an eccentric local icon who declared himself the "King of Kowloon" and spent years diligently covering Hong Kong with his calligraphy. At one point, his graffiti poetry greeted pedestrians from what seemed like every electric pole the city... [read more]
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Da Mouth
Da Mouth (Singer)
Da Mouth has "short-lived concept group" written all over them, but I'll listen for as long as they last. Out of the many newcomers the Taiwan music scene coughed up last year, four-member group Da Mouth is certainly the most interesting, and their self-titled debut album is very much worth a listen. Da Mouth's fun and funky club hip-hop brings something different to mainstream Mando-pop, as does their unique member composition. The group is formed by many hyphens: Taiwanese-Japanese DJ Chung Hua, Canadian-Taiwanese MC 40, Korean-Taiwanese-American male vocalist Harry, and Japanese female vocalist Aisa. Yes, that Aisa. A former member of the short-lived pop group Sunday Girls, Aisa is a... [read more]
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In The Name Of... Love (CD + Mini Movie DVD)
Eric Suen
After a surprisingly successful comeback album in June, Eric Suen closes the year with In the Name Of... Love, making it his second full-length Cantonese album in half a year. This is certainly an ambitious move considering we've long past the days when Hong Kong artists could release four albums a year; now even top singers like Eason Chan and Joey Yung stick to the protocol of one Cantonese and one Mandarin album per award season. Though Eric wasted no time putting out a second album, it doesn't mean he shirked on production values. If anything, the success of the previous album has allowed him to reach a little higher with this one. In the Name Of... Love largely continues the pleasing... [read more]
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My Other Self
Rainie Yang (Singer)
After two very successful albums of mid-tempo ballads, Rainie Yang picks up the pace for her third release, My Other Self. These days Taiwan's Grandmaster of Cuteness can probably do no wrong no matter what she puts out, but her latest album is worth a listen for being all pop and no pretension. Other than maybe Da Mouth's debut album, My Other Self is the most fun mainstream Taiwanese pop album to come out this year. The album's opening track, "Wolf Has Come" (Track 1), is also its most addictive. From the melody to the lyrics to the dance choreography to the beat-heavy arrangement, the song makes a great stuck-in-your-head dance and karaoke number. Even the eurobeat electronica, the kind... [read more]
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Change Me
Leehom Wang
"I believe that my strength, though minute, can also change the world's landscape." - Leehom Wang I rarely latch onto singers for extended periods of time, but Leehom Wang gives me ample reason to continue supporting his music. His 13th album to date, Change Me is filled with simultaneously familiar and refreshing compositions, which all fall under the umbrella of Leehom's feel-good, charmed, and of course, "chinked-out" music. The first song up to bat is the second track, Change Me (yes, the same title as the album). With its mish mash of eighties pop, country rock, and church organ, the song is a surprising blend, but pleasantly palatable. Penned by Leehom, the lyrical content is just as... [read more]
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We Can't Stop Smoking In The Vicious And Blue Summer
My Little Airport
But not as much as I love my little airportHong Kong indie pop duo my little airport sounds sweet, cheerful, and kid-friendly - until you listen closely to the lyrics and realize they're anything but. For their new album We Can't Stop Smoking in the Vicious and Blue Summer, the group seems to have taken a liking to French, going as far as to offer two French "poems", two songs with French lyrics sprinkled in, and two short, cute numbers that go something like this: "You teach me French, but I cannot speak well". Lest this foray into French be misconstrued as uppity, my little airport is as disarmingly down-to-earth and charmingly unpredictable as ever with their soft-talking electro-pop numbers. One of the songs that features French... [read more]
October 31, 2007 Picked By Sanwei See all this editor's picks
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X2 (2CD)
Soler
Though the novelty of Italian-Burmese twins singing in Chinese has faded away by now, the draw of their music has not. In a market defined by packaged pop, Soler's strong, organic pub rock numbers are like a breath of fresh air, jiving and relaxing with just the right amount of soul. Their latest album X2 offers double the music, one disc of Chinese songs and another disc of English songs. All songs are composed and arranged by Soler and Peter Gorton, and the brothers take care of the album's piano and guitar instrumentation. The brothers also wrote all the lyrics for the English songs. The first song of the album, Cantonese number "She" (CD 1 - Track 1), is also one of the strongest. It has... [read more]
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Fresh Water
Cass Phang (Singer)
Cass Phang, today happily married and no longer active in the music scene, was once one of Hong Kong's most sought after artists. Fresh Water, her 1996 follow-up to the classic Outside The Window featuring the marriage tune Love Token, is a good example of her unique vocals which are still remembered by numerous fans. This album sees the singer's premier attempt as executive producer, and the easy-listening songs on the album are fine picks during sunny days and in the later hours of the night. Cass teamed up with songwriters like Erica Li, Tu Zi Chi, Lin Xi, Wyman Wong, and Albert Hammond for the album. In general, the songs are carried by her pleasant expressive voice which is nicely... [read more]
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Dual Fantasy (China Version)
Age of Water & Wood
After making their name in student-friendly campus folk rock, Mainland duo Age of Water & Wood took a turn for the dramatic last year with their Fantasia of Life album. Soft acoustics were replaced with grand, almost luxurious arrangements and earthy folk became soaring rock ballads. In many ways it's a bit surprising that I have taken so well to the revamped Age of Water & Wood, considering how nonplussed I was when New Pants, The Flowers, and Wang Feng changed their styles. But Age of Water & Wood has embraced their new sound so completely that it somehow just makes sense. Considering the members had long left their college years, the duo had outgrown its sound. With their two most recent... [read more]
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So Far So... Close (New + Best Selection) (2CD + Live Concert DVD)
Eric Suen (Singer)
There's something mildly surreal about seeing Eric Suen back in Hong Kong and back in the local entertainment columns. There he is participating in promotion events, singing on music programs, and even holding a concert - as if he hadn't just spent the last decade of his career in Mandarin market exile. Eric, it's good to have you back. We hadn't realized how much we missed you. I must admit when I picked up So Far So... Close, it was not so much for the music but the person, or more specifically for that residual fuzzy feeling of 90s pop idol goodwill. I purchased Lose, Eric's most recent "new songs/best of" Mandarin album, for the same reason in 2002, and that album was a disaster as he... [read more]
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OK
A-yue Chang
Shirt, tie, and a dapper hat? A-yue Chang may have traded in his usual T-shirt, baseball cap, and cargo shorts for fancier album cover threads this time around but, don't worry, the music is the same - only better. I completely fell in love with his new album on the first listen, and that's something I rarely do these days, especially for an artist I'm already so familiar with. Actually, I just may go out on a limb and declare this my favorite Chinese album of the year thus far. OK is quiet by A-yue standards, as he decided to focus on mid-tempo tracks this time (an album focusing on fast tracks will come later). With the anger and profanity set aside, what we get in OK is a more mature... [read more]
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Ultrasound 1997-2003
David Tao
He has been hailed as the Chinese godfather of R&B and his success along with the frenetic reaction of music lovers everywhere says it all. David Tao simply has that special sound - Ultrasound. The 38-year-old singer/songwriter no doubt has music in his veins, which may partly be inherited from his father, David Tao (Tao's original name was Anthony, but he changed it to David later on), who also used to be a well-known singer in his younger years. No doubt, David Tao is today a source of pride for his father. Here are a few comments on the material featured on Tao's Ultrasound. Melody comes blowing in as a melancholic ballad reminiscing about opportunities lost in the past, while Shanghaied... [read more]
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Welcome To My World
Alan Kuo
It all started with Wake Up, the theme to the 2004 Taiwanese TV drama Say Yes Enterprise. Much of the drama was rather forgettable, but the theme song, the theme song was a different story. The hauntingly dramatic Wake Up simply jumped out with its melody and lyrical intensity. The singer's name - Kuo You Lun - rang a bell, but I didn't know from where. A few months later came the Mars theme "Zero", another dramatic theme song with wrenching lyrics in that same forceful voice, easily outshining the TV series to which it was attached. I was officially intrigued, all the more so after I finally placed his name as the son of late action star Blackie Ko. (It took a bit longer before I placed his... [read more]
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The Selection of Faye Wong - Faye For Sale (XRCD)
Faye Wong
Flying high with the sound of Faye...The first time I came across the sound of Faye Wong was around the mid-90s, which was just about the time that her career started to become very stable. As for the songs featured on this classic selection, they display Faye's fine sense for rhythm and music in general and are a worthwhile retrospective of the songstress' work, which is strongly marked by her unique vocals. Many of Faye's signature songs present focused performances with her voice rising and sinking as well as drawling and pausing in irregular intervals harmonizing with the flow of her songs' lyrics and melodies. Below are some of the tracks that Faye and non-Faye fans may want to check out on this release that mainly... [read more]
May 25, 2007 Picked By A-Xiang Joe See all this editor's picks
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Boo Boo Boo
Korean Various Artists
Bringing together some familiar mid-profile names that have been floating around Hong Kong's indie scene for a while, Boo Boo Boo is the third album in the Boo series (hence the title), which is meant for indie musicians yet to release albums. With five fairly different acts on the tab, this compilation is inevitably a mixed bag offering and pretty much incoherent overall given the range of music covered, but it provides a great sampling of the sounds Hong Kong's underappreciated indie scene has to offer. All but two of the ten tracks in this album are in English, although comprehension is not guaranteed. First up is Hong Kong-based Japanese band Very Ape and their noisy, bouncy pop rock... [read more]
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The Private Life of Chet Lam Yat Fung (2CD)
Chet Lam (Singer)
The intellectuality of a musical diaryI have always associated Chet Lam's music with travelling, probably because of his previous Cantonese albums Travelogue and Travelogue, Too. His latest Mandarin album The Private Life of Chet Lam Yat Fung, though more like a musical diary with all the everyday details from kitchen to pillow, still contains the motif of travelling, with a score titled Private Life - Astor Place, New York at the beginning of the track list. Actually a lot of the songs were written while Chet Lam was travelling around the world in the past decade, as he details in the booklet accompanying the album. This little booklet actually provides another reason for me to love the album. (For those who can only read... [read more]
April 30, 2007 Picked By Siu Heng See all this editor's picks
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Shanghai Lounge Divas Vol.2
Hong Kong Various Artists
Harmonic nightingale sounds from a classic era...My partner was kind enough to introduce me to this nostalgic treat from classic female crooners from the heyday of Shanghai-feel music that I first came to appreciate in the 70s through my mother. Among the golden hits on this second volume of Shanghai Lounge Divas are such memorable titles as Lover's Tears, Without You, and Eternal Smile. As for the music served, expect everything from melancholic songs like Three Years, which talks about a desperate love relationship by popular Sino-Japanese songstress Li Xiang Lan (a.k.a. Otaka Yoshiko), to traditional harmonic numbers like Rose Rose I Love You. Whereas the aforementioned Three Years may remind the listener a bit of the dreariness found... [read more]
April 13, 2007 Picked By A-Xiang Joe See all this editor's picks
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