Island Song is being marketed as a rough diamond, which may explain some of the rather shabby production values, but there is more to Tang than meets the eye.
—IAN BARTHOLOMEW
On Faith Map’s (信心地圖) release, it seemed an easy matter to dismiss this messy compilation of wannabe and youthful established artists singing under the umbrella label of New Artist Family (新藝人家族) as a gimmicky charity release that would rapidly disappear from the charts. There is no accounting for musical taste, and the album has held a spot in the right half of the Top 20 for 10 weeks since its debut. Perhaps this is a result of music lovers’ generosity. A proportion of the cover price goes to charity, a fact that the marketing for this album plays up heavily.
Faith Map’s sales were further boosted by two concerts last week, which reported 4,000 tickets sold and NT$6 million raised for the victims of Typhoon Morakot. While it is all well and good to see the pop music industry digging deep, it’s a shame that the music is so unutterably uninteresting.
All the right studio effects are there, but the total lack of structure in the selection of tracks accentuates the indifference of the individual contributors. The vague over-arching theme of following the path of faith to a better place, and generally believing in goodness, and love and such gooey sentiment is fine, but after listening to what the young artists have to offer, all that’s left is a feeling of despair.
Even the more experienced musicians don’t pass muster. FIR (飛兒樂團) member Acing (阿沁) — real name Real Huang (黃漢青) — turns up with the truly terrible I Need to Pray, which makes up for a lack of conviction with a big drum kit and cliched rock riffs when what was needed was a little more soul-searching.
Typhoon by Brit-pop band Transition is thrown in to add an international flavor, but sounds totally out of place. Then there’s the half-hearted rap number My Savior by Green Tea (綠茶). And on, and on.
There are some tolerable tracks, such as Niao Er’s (鳥兒) 17km of Coastline (十七公里海岸線) with its stripped-down cello, and a passionate duet by JJ & Sun (何耀珊/林俊傑) with elements of a Chinese orchestra, but these aren’t enough to buy the album for any reason other than charity.
—IAN BARTHOLOMEW
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