Words Of Silence (CD+DVD) DVD Region All

Unlike Chapel of Dawn, Words of Silence no longer has a unified theme. Nevertheless, the tracks are carefully arranged in terms of musical style. The album is essentially split into two sub-genres: piano-driven ballads and guitar-driven ballads, with the latter section making up a 4-track middle section. It starts with "Can We Not Keep Struggling" (Track 3), a somewhat rare acoustic guitar-driven track from Juno that effectively sets up the tone of the section. However, the true standout doesn't come out until "Queer" (Track 5), a moving mid-beat rock ballad that's also lyricist Chow Yiu-Fai's upbeat love letter to sexual minorities. The biggest surprise of the section, however, is "Iron Man" (Track 6), featuring a rare arrangement/backing vocal effort from the girl duet group At 17. The result is an electronic instrumentals-filled track that not only matches the lyrics (about an iron-made creature falling in love), but also strangely matches the ballad-based composition. Considering that Juno has to work with 6 composers for 9 tracks as the album's co-executive producer, Words of Silence ends up flowing surprisingly well between the two piano-driven sections and the middle rock section. Of course, it helps that Carl Wong produced 8 out of the 9 tracks.

Though the middle rock section features some solid songs, the best tracks are in the beginning and ending piano ballad sections, especially "To Borrow a Light" (Track 2), a traditional Karaoke-friendly ballad written by Vicky Fung, who also wrote the excellent Poor U from Chapel of Dawn. The standout here is the vocal, with Juno delivering sections of lyrics in a single breath. However, the strongest aspects of the song are actually the simple use of traditional ballad instruments (the first 45 seconds feature only a single piano) and the reliance on good composition to fulfill the traditional requirement of a "K-song", while still excelling in quality. In other words, "To Borrow a Light" embodies Juno's goal for the album.

Carl Wong's "Too" (Track 7) may not follow the standard definition of a "K-song", but its post-modern take of the waltz (with various electronic trickeries) and Chow Yiu-Fai's motif-driven lyrics help make this another standout track. On the other hand, "Humans Who Eat Whales" (Track 8) may offer little more than another solid ballad for non-Cantonese speakers, but those who understand the language will find Wyman Wong's lyrics, made up of various resentments towards humans from the perspective of a whale, either jarring or brilliant. Based on creativity points and its ability to show that a "K-song" doesn't always have to be about love, I pick the latter.

Compared to Chapel of Dawn, the songs in Words of Silence rely on composition more than arrangement and production values (no European orchestras or Japanese rappers here). As a result, the songs present a larger challenge to Juno, who had to battle respiratory illness during the recording of the album (hence the multiple delays). That may explain why the vocal quality is somewhat hit-and-miss, especially in his excessive reliance on falsettos. While the falsetto doesn't seem so jarring in "Human Wall" (Track 1), it is somewhat overused in tracks such as "Light Tower" (Track 4), "Iron Man", and even in the final section of "Humans Who Eat Whales".

Without the need for expensive production, the money is spent instead on Fumar, a 20-minute short film co-written by Juno that accompanies "To Borrow a Light". Shot on 35mm film (the feature film standard), the short features good-looking locations and good-looking people who do very little acting. It also plays too much like a silent film by relying on lines and lines of intertitles. In the end, a movie with not one, but two long takes of Juno eating noodles just doesn't add much to the album.

Spotty vocals and short films aside, it's nice to see Juno really expanding his musical range to prove that Chapel of Dawn is not just a one-hit wonder. While the album may not be as engaging as his previous work, it's not really fair to compare two completely different albums with two different goals. In this case, "too many K-songs" is purely a statement of fact rather than a justified criticism. Believe it or not, Hong Kong "K-songs" have been and will be around for as long as there is pop music in Hong Kong. While Juno has not exactly produced a "perfect" album of "K-songs", he's shown that following the rules can still produce some solid music. If you still would like Juno to go back to a more alternative route, no worries: the second chapter of Chapel of Dawn comes out later this year.

Recommended Tracks: "Human Wall" (Track 1), "To Borrow a Light" (Track 2), "Queer" (Track 5), "Iron Man" (Track 6), "Too" (Track 7)

by Kevin Ma