CD Reviews

Eternal Sunshine (我是陽光的)

Kelly Chen (陳慧琳)

Go East

Canto-pop songstress Kelly Chen (陳慧琳) returns to record store shelves this month with her latest Mandarin-language offering, Eternal Sunshine (我是陽光的) on which the she once again gets all emotional and weepy about her favorite topic -- love.

Over the past five years Chen has managed to carve quite a name out for herself as both a singer and an actress, with her most memorable role coming in the hugely successful Hong Kong police action movie Infernal Affairs (無間道). And earlier this year fans in South Korea cheered as she made her soap debut when her music was used as the soundtrack for the hit TV drama Grace and Charm.

Her latest album shouldn't

disappoint anyone familiar with her previous releases. Packed with a selection of tunes from standalone songs to theme tunes for a couple of TV dramas and the odd movie, Chen hits all the right notes time and time again.

Sure Mando-pop may not be your thing, but Chen can actually sing and is more than simply a record company creation. Tunes like the hip-hop-like Freedom (自由), the stereotypically orchestrated Mando-love ballad You're too Calm (你太冷靜) and the Cantonese-language Freedom (放) all make for an entertaining listen and prove that not all Canto/Mando-pop female singers have no talent.

Like nearly all albums released these days the CD comes with a DVD. Here we get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the hardships the songstress endured while making the music video for Freedom as well as a couple of other music videos for tunes from the album.

R.A.Y Band (雷樂隊)

R.A.Y Band (雷樂隊)

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Formed by three studio musicians in 2003 the R.A.Y Band (雷樂隊) has long since has become a permanent fixture at several of Taipei's leading rock venues and has performed to reasonably large crowds at a couple of outdoor festivals.

Individually, guitarist Rashid, drummer Alan (黃顯忠) and bassist yen (韓賢光) have appeared on countless albums as well as on stage as backing musicians for the likes of Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), Terry Lin (林志炫), Lu Ta-yu (羅大佑) and F4.

Considering the trio's reputation as highly sought-after studio musicians it comes as no surprise that the album is well produced, the tunes are tight and well-executed and there's nothing

suspect about their musical attitudes. With the exception of a couple of tunes, however, there is sadly little to scream and shout for and even less to write home about on the trio's debut longplayer.

The album begins well enough with a scorching piece of anthem-like alt-rock titled Rocking with the Big Boys (跟著大人搖擺). The guitar whines, the bass rumbles and the drums, well, they crash on a number that boast the same rabble rousing clout as anything Taiwan's leading indie-rock oriented acts like the Chairman (董事長) and Back Quarter (四分衛) have to offer.

Sadly the same cannot be said of the material that follows. While the compositions are certainly not void of songwriting talent the R.A.Y Band appears to be stuck in time warp. Instead of trying to be original the band takes listeners on a sometimes cringingly bad trip through time.

The material is so dated, in fact, that you could be listening to a natty cover band rather than one comprising three of the nation's leading studio musicians. Never too Young to Rock and Roll sounds like a Status Quo tune complete with sing-a-long chorus, Civil Boulevard (凱達格蘭大道) is a jerky, annoying and constipated pseudo-rock number, and the instrumental Go with the Wind (隨風而去) is a sad throwback to even sadder days when prog-rock ruled the airwaves.