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Kang Kang (康康)
Don't Care Who You End Up With (管妳媽媽嫁給誰)
Sony
Love him or loath him, you have to hand it to foul-mouthed entertainer Kan Jin-rong (康晉榮), or Kang Kang (康康) as he's better known. Along with his one-time sidekick, the equally potty-mouthed Jacky Wu (吳宗憲), the pair not only brought laddish toilet humor to the masses but also got rich doing it.

Although better known for his crude humor rather than his musical prowess, Kang Kang has released a couple of albums over the past few years. Packed with cover versions of other people's tunes the records failed to capture the hearts and minds of the general public.

His latest album, however, is a far cry from his previous ventures and is, sad to say, pretty entertaining, albeit in a slightly unoriginal way. Sure it's not award-winning stuff, but there's something about the way Kang Kang mixes it up with everything from comedic and rudimentary hip-hop tunes to orchestrated piano driven ballads that work quite well.

Packed with an eclectic selection of sounds, Don't Care Who You End Up With (管妳媽媽嫁給誰) has been plugged as Kang Kang's "latest original work," but in reality it's very different. He may no longer be singing other people's tunes, but the all-round entertainer tries way too hard to sound like his peers.

The album opens with the Joy Topper-like Drain Your Glass (乾杯), this is followed by Kang Kang doing his best to impersonate Jay Chou (周杰倫) on the slow grinding track My Family (我的家庭) and then he gets all moody and mushy and the slow piano driven love song You're Not One Person (你是一個人), which sounds like anyone of a dozen Mando-stars.

Don't Care Who You End Up With is not without its highlights, however, and the album's title track on which Kang Kang mixes it up with a brass section and grinding nu-metal guitar makes for reasonably good listening.

Jay Chou (周杰倫)
November's Chopin (十一月的蕭邦)
Sony
Released to great fanfare on Tuesday, Jay Chou's (周杰倫) sixth and latest album November's Chopin (十一月的蕭邦) looked destined to become number one throughout Asia even before its release. On-line music retail outlets and music stores alike were inundated with pre-order requests a month ago when news was first leaked of the album's pending release.

Named after the renowned composer for the simple reason that, according to Chou, his songs "tend to lean towards the works of Chopin [rather] than Liszt," the album features 10 new tunes, a handful of previously released bonus tracks and, as is now the norm, a couple of music videos.

For the most part the album sees Taiwan's favorite musical son veering away from his tried-and-tested Mando-hip-hop format and is instead wooing fans with moody piano- and guitar-based ballads.

And it is these ballads that prove the highlights of the album. Here listeners get to hear Chou at his previously seldom heard best. One such tune is Nocturne (夜曲) on which Chou's vocalizes over a backdrop of easy-going guitar on a soulful number about the death of a girlfriend.

In addition to the moving ballads Chou still takes his time to croon his way through a couple of up-tempo classic Mando-pop melodies. These are, needless to say, pretty much on a par with the material that propelled Chou to superstardom four years ago and if you like Chou you'll like these.

While the crux of November Chopin may not be quite what the hordes of teenage girls who swoon whenever Chou appears on TV like, for the rest of us, who are either a little to old or too cynical to enjoy Mando-pop, Chou's latest album could be considered a breakthrough and one that should earn the already popular star even more fans.

La Petite Nurse (小護士樂團)
Pubescent Legumes (青春豆)
Rock
La Petite Nurse (小護士樂團) has been on the edge of the local indie scene for almost half a decade. In that time the group has managed to build up a loyal following of fans due to the genuine musical talent of its four members and its original sound.

Unlike many of its peers, La Petite Nurse doesn't follow the over-played format of power pop and rock. Its music is hard to categorize. The band is able to switch and swap from Coldplay-like downbeat numbers to up-beat and typical Taiwan indie scene noise without either missing a beat or sounding stupid.

This ability is markedly noticeable on the band's recently released debut, Pubescent Legumes (青春豆) on which the four-piece perform a mixed bag of tunes.

While there's nothing wrong with the band's more rock/pop oriented tunes oriented such as the Oasis-like opener Into The Sun, the power pop tune Smash the TV (摔電視), the jerky rock anthem Spice Girl (辣妹) and the great alt-pop/blues inspired number Mad Mask (瘋狂假面) it's the album's downbeat numbers that really make it such an original album.

Downbeat and Coldplay-like tunes such as Die For You, White Lie (善意的謊言) and The Cigarette Afterwards (事後煙) are fantastic and put Taiwan's wee nurses in a league of their own. Of the album's 11 tracks only one is a blooper. The final tune, Little Sun (小太陽) is a hurdy-gurdy affair on which the band doesn't know if it's coming or going.

Bobby Chen (陳昇)
Fish Says (魚說)
Rock
The bad boy of Taiwanese pop/rock returns with a new album this month entitled Fish Says (魚說). Fans of the boozy crooner, looking for Bobby Chen's (陳昇) up-beat rock sound, will be a wee bit disappointed with the material on his latest album.

Instead of sing-a-long anthems and heavy rock riffs Chen's Fish Says is a melancholy affair that sees the popular singer tackling material of an easy listening nature.

Slow ballads, folksy guitar, orchestrated moments and traces of world music all combine to give Fish Says an appeal that is so often lacking from Chen's less personal and more commercial releases.

After a couple of iffy openers the album's title track cuts in like a breath of fresh air. Fish Says sees Chen doing his utmost to sound like any one of a dozen indie-folk crooners, but instead of coming off the worse for the experience Chen is on top form. He can't quite hit all the high notes, but the tune's uplifting beats compensates for his rather off key vocals.

Other tunes of note include the offbeat, yet interesting tango-influenced 1989, the mild rock/blues-like London's Disabled Spaces (倫敦廢人區) and the wistful, piano driven Dream River (夢河).

The bottom line is that Fish Says might not be what one would expect from the hard drinking, hard playing and aging womanizing pop star, but Chen's pensive musical mood pays dividends on what is, in the end, a pleasing album.
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