Stanley Huang 黃立行
Shades of My Mind 黑的意念
Virgin
Formerly a member of the LA Boyz, Stanley Huang (
Since then, Huang has mastered the art of solo performance and has gone on to release five fairly successful albums. Shades of My Mind is Huang's sixth solo album and his first since last year's hugely successful Yin Lang (
Yin Lang was so lauded by the Chinese-language music press and such a whopping commercial hit that even before Shades of My Mind was released, music critics were wondering how Huang would ever match his previous success. They needn't have worried, however, as Huang's latest album has everything Yin Lang had and more.
Kicking in with the gnarly, heavy guitar riff and electronica-fused Drowned (浴缸), fans of Huang's brand of rap/hip hop dance music will be as happy as pigs in muck from the get-go. What follows are nine tracks of equal intensity and equal complexity.
The highlight of the whole affair is the pulsating Who's Your Daddy (
The only real dud on the whole album is the dreamy title track. But when you consider that as a Canto/Mando pop star, he needs to satisfy his younger female listeners, then Huang can probably be forgiven this one blemish on what is best descried as one of the best Chinese-language mainstream rap albums of the year.
Lo Ta-yu 羅大佑
Beautisland 美麗島
Music Factory
Once considered to be the thinking man's pop idol, Lo Ta-yu's (羅大佑) once iconic status has long since dissipated. While he still appeals to 30-something housewives who remember swooning over his image in their teens, as far as today's youth are concerned, Lo is yesteryear's news.
Not that this has stopped the grand old man of Taiwan pop from attempting to retake the music charts with his latest release, BeautIsland (
The album was released independently because, according to divergent interpretations, Lo either wanted to get back to his indie roots or his politico-wannabe outspokenness has scared off mainstream record labels. Either way, the album is part political statement and part musical ode.
Lyrically, nearly all the material takes a cynical peek at Taiwan's political situation. The most cutting of Lo's poignantly mocking musical odes to Taiwan are the jerky, brass-section-infused Green Terrorist (
The musical crux of all the tunes sees Lo combining rock, pop and orchestration. The songs are all well thought out, expertly executed and entertaining. Some of the best moments include Juvenile Family's First Love (
Shin 信樂團
Tiao Shin 挑信
Avex Trax
Once touted as the next big thing, Shin (
Currently at number seven in the MTV Taiwan Album Charts, the band's latest album, Tiao Shin (挑信) is a blend of easy listening, pop and mild rock. More a best-of album than an entirely new studio album, the double CD set features a collection of five new numbers and 22 previously released tunes from the band's previous three studio albums.
It doesn't get off to a very good start. Instead of going for the throat with a barrage of guitar-laden heavy rock in the vein of the band's better moments, Shin gets the ball rolling with a couple of lackluster new tunes.
From this Day On (
Faye Wong 王菲
Live 菲比尋常
SONY
Released 10 months late after failing to meet its scheduled release of February 2004, the Beijing-born, Hong Kong-based Mando/Canto-pop diva Faye Wong's whopping live album package, aptly titled Live (菲比尋常), is packed with 33 of her hits and misses.
Recorded in Hong Kong in December of last year, the double CD set features Wong crooning her way through many of her better-known tunes and several lesser-known numbers in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. While much of the material is so-so, the album is not without its memorable moments.
These include the gritty post-rock anthem Be Ready for Love (將愛), Wong's classic love ballad Suppose I'm the Real Thing (假如我是真的), the rudimentary downbeat tune New Roommate (新房客), the funk-influenced 70s dance number Melancholy (悶) and the crowd pleaser Refined Color (精彩).
Sadly, Wong intersperses these fine moments of originality with some really bad cover versions. Her Cantonese covers of Tori Amis's Cold War (
Pointless cover versions aside, what really makes this album more of dud than a keeper is the total lack of any kind of personal touch. The gig could have been anywhere. There's no mention of Hong Kong, Wong doesn't interact with the audience at all and to cap it off, she doesn't even bother to introduce her backing band.
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