Taiwan's favorite variety show host and master of the natty one-liner, Chang Fei (張菲) returns to record store shelves this month with his second English-language release, Romance.
The album picks up from where his 2004 debut English-language release When I Fall in Love left off and once again sees the loathed and loved all-round entertainer tackling a myriad of classic romantic lounge tunes.
While Chang tried very hard to pass himself off as Taiwan's answer to Vic Damone on last year's release he has thankfully ditched the pretense this time around. Chang instead sticks to sounding like, well, himself and the result is quite pleasing.
OK, it's not brilliant, but you can't help but be charmed by Chang's crooning capability. This is especially true on the album's opener, the wonderful cover version of Giovanni Capurro's classic 'O Sole Mio, which will leave even the most cynical of unromantic of individuals looking for love.
Sadly Chang's rather wobbly command of the English language still lets him down on occasion, but for the most part the material on Romance is a step above the tunes he warbled his way through last year. Regardless of Chang's linguistics faults, those with a whim for romantic lounge music will find the album worthwhile, as the material is all great sing-a-long stuff and the tunes are guaranteed to leave not a dry eye in the house.
Chang hits all the right notes and listeners can't help but be impressed by his renditions of numbers like Al Hoffmann's Papa Loves Mambo, Willie Nelson's Crazy, Edith Piaf's La Vie en Rose, Cole Porter's I've Got You Under My Skin and Tom Jones' My Cup Runneth Over.
The highlight of the whole affair, however, is Chang's spotless cover version of Riz Ortolani and Marcello Ciorciolini's love-loaded lounge classic, More. The brass section and orchestration are both spot on and the tune brings out the best in Chang's versatile vocal chords.
The Records of Won Fu (
The album's tunes are tight, well-produced and, in what has become typical Won Fu fashion, packed with an eclectic mix of uplifting jangle/bubble-gum-pop hooks and riffs and, of course, large amounts of tongue-in-cheek wit and retro chic.
Like all Won Fu releases, the band opts to mix it up with a wide range of genres and styles. And while the crux of the album revolves around cutesy jangle pop, the combo still makes time to throw in a few contrasting and pleasing musical curve balls.
Kicking in with the bouncy pseudo-country number Ringo, which even if you're not familiar with Won Fu you might have heard on TV as the backing track for the MP3 Agogo commercial, the album takes listeners on a hurdy-gurdy ride that sees the combo poking rhythmical fun at and waxing lyrical about a crazy assortment of subject matter.
Be it a bubbly and playful love song, a slow folksy tune, a jerky retro take on bee-bop or a polka-based and inanely comedic tune about a little fish, Won Fu never misses a beat and comes up trumps time and time again.
It's not all jangle-pop, as The Records of Won Fu includes a couple of rudimentary slices of buzzsaw-guitar-loaded power-pop. With gnarly punk-oriented guitar riffs and a heavy reliance on drum and bass, The Aspirations of Ah-Liang (
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