Fever (Preorder Version) (Taiwan Version)

Produced by Will Lin and arranged entirely by the band with Lin, Fever is tightly constructed with fluid pacing, masterfully carrying off the transitions between genre and musical styles. Opening track "Claps" (Track 1) doesn't capture the listeners with a bombastic arrangement, as is usually the case with rock albums. Instead, it attracts attention with its sudden switches to silence in between sections, constantly engaging the listeners. However, with its short length, "Claps" feels only like an appetizer that leads into "Summer Summer" (Track 2), which takes the album back to a lighter, commercial pop-rock sound that seems to truly mark the beginning of the album.

Fever is clearly separated into 4 acts, bookended by three strange English poems about Greek god of wine Dionysus (presumably written by lead man Wu Chin-Feng). Although the poems add an unexpected layer of sophistication to Fever, they don't really add anything to the album's content. In fact, it instead slightly affects the overall flow, as the transitions seemed to be planned for between the individual tracks rather than between the sections. Even the transition between "Summer Summer" to rock ballad "The Sound That Remains" (Track 4) would've been perfectly appropriate without the poetry interlude because the slowing in pace had long been set in motion from the transition before it.

Aside from the transitions, there are also some tracks so strong individually that they immediately make an impression on their own. "The Sound that Remains" is such a track. Its emotional composition departs slightly from the rest of the album, and despite its typical rock ballad composition, Wu's emotional vocal performance (off his own composition) convincingly sells the song and lifts it above its cliched arrangement. And even though the Taiwanese language ballad "No Sleep" (Track 10) doesn't make much sense even when reading the lyrics (co-written by Wu and Will Lin), Wu proves that his voice can pull off any genre, even on a simplistic ballad like "No Sleep". Structurally, the gentle ballad also provides a nice break before the album reaches its final section.

Sodagreen is really on the top of their game in punk. Even though Wu's voice doesn't quite fit the genre, his lyrics and composition fit the genre perfectly, especially in the rebellious "King's Garden" (Track 6). Mixing the anger in the lyrics with a bombastic, but fun arrangement, Wu doesn't let his message get in the way of the music, and the result is one of the funniest tracks on the album. "Peter and the Wolf" (Track 8) is considerably less angry in content than "King's Garden", but it's actually even more energetic and fun than "Garden", and one can literally hear Wu's passion for his composition and lyrics in his vocal performance.

Even for songs that lean towards pop-rock, the band's dynamic sound and Wu's charismatic voice remain. This applies to not only "Summer Summer", but also the album's titular song Fever (Track 12), written by drummer Jim Shih. In both the lyrics and the composition, one can hear easily how devoted the band is to their seasonal-based topic and their determination to reflect it in music. Every single musical aspect of Fever reflects the album's overall tone and sound, which is only appropriate, considering that this is the "theme song" of the album. However, Fever provides such as spectacular climax that the album's two closing tracks are weak by comparison, ending the album on a bit of a weak note.

Despite the post-summer release date, Sodagreen really does manage to capture the energy of summer in Fever. With a vocalist as outstanding and unique as Wu Ching-Feng and the passion to keep producing music as often as they do, don't be surprised if Sodagreen becomes the new voice of the Taiwanese rock scene in the next several years. However, even more so than how they will reach that peak, I myself am more intrigued about how the band will adjust their style over the next 8 months to match the inherent darker tones of the other two seasonal albums.

by Kevin Ma