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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