Kelly Chen - Love

Mostly Tender Ballads: "Love" ~ Kelly Chen

Even though dynamite Canto-pop princess Kelly Chen has recently been troubled by her hoarse voice, she is back with two brand new albums at a time, one in Cantonese and the other in Mandarin. The Mandarin masterpiece "You Don't Mean It" first sprang into action in Taiwan in early August. Here comes the red-hot Cantonese album "Love", offering 11 sensational solo melodies and a bonus track.

Unlike the last Mandarin album "You Don't Mean It," the majority of songs on "Love" are tender and loving ballads with only very few up-tempo songs. Though the songs, in terms of the quality of music and lyrics, is not as breath-taking and as excellent as those on previous albums such as "Baby Cat" and "Flying Dance Party," there are still some ear-appealing pieces. Besides, the Canto-pop diva has also improved her skills in releasing emotions during a performance.

The leading and dance track "Shake Shake" (Track#1) is a commercial song for the global fast food chain store McDonald's. It's catchy lyrics and lighthearted rhythms, are already known by people all over Hong Kong.

Kelly's recent smash duet "To Love a Person" (Track#3) with notable Hacken Lee was once thought to be unbeatable, but the solo version (Track#12) which she has just done on this album is an even more groundbreaking improvement . As for the second principal song "She Doesn't Look as Good as Me" (Track#2), which is being plugged in various local media channels, it is the Cantonese version of "It's My Fault," a song from the last Mandarin album "You Don't Mean It."

"Love" (Track#8) is a god-created, perfectly divine art masterpiece. The song is not only with angelic-sounded stringed instruments, but also with memory-refreshing flute accompaniment, both of which echoing with the song theme of telling things of the past. "Lover's Queen" (Track#10) is re-composed from a Korean song with a very familiar rhythm. Its lyrics were written by Zhou LiMao and are much better than those for the theme song of the TVB drama "Vigilante Force" that he wrote for Bowie Lam. "Freud Laughs at Me" (Track#6) and "Kiss Me Goodbye" (Track#5), of which the Mandarin versions have earlier been released on "You Don't Mean It," are also worth sparing your time listening to.

However, neither the music, the lyrics nor Kelly's performance is amazing in the songs "Greatly & Completely Admire" (Track#4), "Don't Protect Me" (Track#9) and "Still Wanna be a Woman in the Next Life" (Track#7).

Recommendations: "She Doesn't Look as Good as Me" (Track#2), "Love" (Track#8), "To Love A Person (Solo Version)" (Track#12), "Lover's Queen" (Track#10)

Reviewer: Stephen Lee (Li ZhongYan) - Hong Kong
Translator: theDan (Chen EnNeng)