Ye Hui Mei (Regular Version) (CD+VCD)

New Depth Shown: "YE HUI MEI" (CD+VCD) ~ Jay Chou

While David Beckham was the hot player in the soccer transfer market, Jay Chou is the truly white-hot singer in the record transfer market!

As soon as the sensational Lord of the Chinese Music arrived at the Sony empire, Jay landed his annual Mandarin album "YE HUI MEI," with 11 unforgettable new tunes. Jay's unique style for which he is most adored for by his fans, is still manifest on this release. Jay's consistent improvement contributes to the new depth shown on some of the marvelous tunes. The present reviewer strongly believes that music fans are going to love "YE HUI MEI."

The writer of "To the Name of the Father" (Track#1) dramatically and lively describes how a father is filled with frustration, anger, regret and discontent while teaching his kids, the lyrics put the fans in a perfect position to personally experience the feeling deep down a father's heart. Also, the composer of the song has added a bit of opera- or musical-flavour to make it a natural fit with the album theme.

However, the recent TV commercial hit song "You Heard" (Track#6) is just another ordinary pop song. The story described by the lyrics of "You Heard" is indeed softly fragrant, but not distinguished at all. The melody of the song is moving and persuasive, though not unusual indeed. "Overhanging Cliff of Love" (Track#9) is accompanied by various stringed instruments. The feeling of sadness fills up the amazingly passionate and successful performance by the superstar. Unfortunately, limited subject matters have prevented the once-pleasing song writer Vivian Tsu from advancing further.

"Class 3B" (Track#4) reflects the voices of the teenagers' hearts. It genuinely describes their doubts and reminds listeners of their good old days. The use of lyrics by Fang Wen Shan on "East Wind Breaks" (Track#5) is not only elegant, but also poetic.

"Terraced Fields" (Track#10) is composed as an exotic mixture of minority tribal music, Chinese music and western music. The song sighs that while time flies, the people and things that used to be there are no longer there anymore. Naughty Jay also makes fun of Fang Wen Shan, the song writer, on the fact that Fang takes up much time to write, in the beginning lines of it.

"Dual Knives" (Track#11), which is like Jay's previous masterpieces such as "Shuang Jie Gun" and "Dragon Boxing", is his kung-fu trademark song. Although Jay's obsession about Bruce Lee has motivated him to produce a series of kung-fu-themed songs, the present reviewer must sadly admit that the series is not appealing to fans at all.

As for the other pieces, "Sunny" (Track#3), which is a love song, "Good Old Days" (Track#7), which describes people feeling like old friends at the first meeting and "Coward" (Track#2) are so good that music lovers should not miss them.

Recommendations: "In the Name of the Father" (Track#1), "You Heard" (Track#6), "East Wind Breaks" (Track#5), "Class 3B" (Track#4)

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