An auspicious debut and a few mediocre albums later, Janice Vidal finally gets a shot at proving her vocal talent in her native language with the English-language album Morning. With boss Leon Lai determined to not let family matters stop Janice's career, Morning is easily the young singer's most promising album since her debut in 2005, and the one with the most potential to go abroad. Written by familiar collaborators like Mark Lui and Jone Tsui, Morning offers very little in the way of pleasant surprises, though it is mostly pleasant. An altogether different type of surprise though lies in the lyrics by new Amusic talent Aarif Rahman. Filled with overused pop cliches, the words of the young singer-songwriter (his own debut album is coming in October) mostly range from passable to corny. The worst example of corny is in the ballad Speechless (Track 3), in which the lyrics has the eloquence of a blog post written late at night by a 15-year old girl that just got dumped. Barely comprehensible and clichéd, the climax of Speechless feature juvenile rhymes such as "No matter how we tried and tried/Even though we cried and cried and cried." The shallow portrayal of the emotions and a humdrum arrangement by Keizoh Kawano marks as one of the album's major failures.

Aarif's lyrics are easier to ignore when the music itself excels, and that's the case with titular song Morning (Track 1). Written and arranged with a light, folksy fashion by Mark Lui, Janice's smooth voice fits the musical elements perfectly. The simple emotions presented in the lyrics work relatively well, giving the album a promising start and making it one of Lui's best works in recent years. However, Hanjin Chen one-ups Lui late in the game with Remember (Track 7), a similarly light ballad with a simple composition. Hanjin's brilliance lies in his arrangement, moving fluidly between the two tempos. While Janice is a little weak vocally in the bridge, her vocal performance is effective in evoking the emotions the song presents in written form. Overall, this is the best track on the album.

While Janice has proven throughout her career to excel in ballads, she also shows talent here in the rock-pop genre, even if it's only in that sterilized, Disney Channel-approved way. Janice was obviously having fun recording Make My Day (Track 5), keeping up with the youthful energy of Mark Lui's arrangement from beginning to end. Even in 999 (Track 6), about a girl trying to get the people she loves to stop using drugs (certainly both a sensitive and timely topic for the singer), Janice shows plenty of spunk to keep within the sound of the genre. It's also the only song whose lyrics actually show some kind of meaning beneath its surface, making it one of the standout tracks of the album.

The problem with Morning is that it barely breaks through the pop restraints that have constrained Janice in her Cantopop works. With the same group of handlers in charge, Janice is essentially delivering the same type of Cantopop music she has over the years, but in a more comfortable language. Only easy listening tracks like Morning and TV (Track 8) really play to her vocal strengths, while pop ballads like Please (Track 2) and Pretty (Track 9) are mostly forgettable with cliched lyrics and pedestrian arrangements. And despite the presence of Singaporean composer Taz Tan on Rainbow (Track 4), it remains a light, insignificant ballad. With lyrics about victims of American natural disasters finding hope (or something like that), Janice just can't get a clear grip on what she's singing about, giving this and other ballads the type of sterilized emotions that plagued her Cantopop music.

The good news is that Janice is obviously more comfortable singing in her native language instead of phonetically reading out Cantonese words. However, both the production and the creative qualities of Morning are below the par of Western music it's trying to emulate. Janice is obviously a talented vocalist in Cantopop standards, but she has let pop singers like Kay Tse pass her in popularity; Tse first found versatile musical styles to build her reputation before finding that overplayed hit, and Janice needs that kind of producer to challenge her musically as well. Even if Morning won't be the breakout album that takes Janice beyond the Hong Kong market (and by the look of the promotion Amusic is doing for the album, that might not be their goal in the first place), at least it's a suitable introduction that will hopefully open more doors to come. But whether she can walk through those opened doors is entirely up to her handlers.

Recommended Tracks: Morning (Track 1), Make My Day (Track 5), 999 (Track 6), Remember (Track 7)

by Kevin Ma