... bewitched by the latest album from jay chou, that is.
(that's the cover)
he looks his best on the cover... compared to all his albums before... his hair on too curly on the first one, too close-up a shot for the second one, too tacky a costume for the third.. and finally.. a perfect one for his 4th volume. wonderful... his hair is cool.. way cool.
i didn't have a very good feeling about this one at first.. after all, his first single yi fu zhi ming was plainly... too him. i was worried that he would just do yet another sequel of his previous album... but... ah... cuz he's jay.. there were some surprises and some hidden gems in it!
first song was well.. yi fu zhi ming ... it was just plain weird... or maybe too weird for the public ears.. i was like... "right... jay style.... AGAIN!"... after some time... it actually just grows on you... esp. after looking at the lyrics.. i have a thing for dark.. death themed songs... and the mtv was cool.. though it seems... weird to see jay act as a mafia big shot.. it just.. .doesn't fit. muah ha ha ha ha.. and i loved the italian prayer he said at the end... of cuz i can't really make it out.. (who can?!) but translated from italian to chinese, then to english would read "glory, honour, power would be all yours forever. amen" ... right i can do this better in chinese. anyway... the opening orchestra sequence grew on me.. i love it.. had that tragedy in old europe kinda style.
second one...nuo fu.. that reads coward anyway. it's well urm.. an anti-drugs song.. and it's got that rock feel to it.. no.. it just sounds like long quan minus the china feel.. it doesn't really appeal to me... not yet.. maybe... the chorus sounds like some linkin park song... angry? nope.. jay doesn't sound that angry.. unappeased? ah... maybe that.
third one.. the current no.1 song to me...qing tian... nice song... a little bit of folk rock style over there.. and the lyrics' pretty sweet... especially the part just before chorus... a song that just grew on me.. i like this sorta style... and i realized that the songs which jay arranged himself all had this band-sound feel to it.. maybe this is the sorta style that really appeals to him? but it sounded just like what mayday will sing... what a-shin would have written.. i can even imagine mayday doing it. highly recommended!
fourth one.. san nian er ban.... a song filled with ping pong sounds... haha.. well it speaks about teen angst about competition.. life and unappeased anger.. the lyrics were pretty cool... esp. the chorus which a particular line reads as "i don't wanna to be no. 1, i just want to sweat".. .way to go man! who on earth regulated that EVERYTHING must end up in a competition amongst everyone?! but there was this very irritating sound behind which just suddenly went REALLY high pitch.. scary
fifth one..dong feng po...fang wen shan just has to do lyrics that's set in some chinese background... this one had a really solid erhu arrangement... and some pipa at the back... it seems like a series from shanghai 1943... except the latter's nicer! haha... this one's pretty plain la.. quite standard...
sixth one... ni ting de dao...the arrangement is similiar to .. an hao... listening to closely.. except this one's got a slower beat. the lyrics not done by fang wen shan or huang jun lang, so naturally we can't expect any chimz, language-show-offy kinda lyrics.. but sometimes love songs.. u just can't have the lyrics too deep.. or people can't get it.. i guess.. slow songs like these always appeal to me the last.. like an jing... i used to skip that track.. but now.. look at me! i have it as my ringing tone! muah ha ha ha ha ha ..
seventh... my no.2 song...tong yi ge diao diao... loved the solo pipa.. (or so i think)... gives a really nice feel.. and the lyrics is nice.. describing the kind of rapport between two persons who just click... and the chorus just like talks about how they share the same attitude... same way of life.... sometimes.. your whole life... aren't u just looking for a friend who's like that? an unspoken kind of rapport... words are just plain burdens at this point of life.. the chorus is a particularly kind of rhythm i like.. .i like those that's like... every sentence in the chorus.. no matter how many words.. it's sung almost like in the same melody?? listen to this song and you'll get what i mean. and i love the way he do "kuai feng diao"... sounds so.. diao!
eighth... ta de jie mao.. that's "her eyelashes" by the way.. it's another band-sound feel song.. .but now.. it sounds like what david tao will sing! in fact... jay sounds like david in the opening lines! the song's pretty much about how a guy feels, secretly admiring a girl... well.. what can i say?! is jay contemplating a change in his music style? i guess he can do it quite comfortably~ but risk sounding like someone else...
nineth... ai de xuan ya... i'm beginning to like this one.. the beginning.. jay sounded really whispery and.. weak.. esp. when he reach the high notes... but when the chorus came in... VOILA! mayday on the loose!!! this one sounds more like mayday than the previous one! cuz mayday loves to do band with orchestra.. .a personal favourite of mine as well!i REALLY can imagine a-shin doing it! though a-shin seldom do such high notes... lyrics' by vivian hsu.. so u can expect really sweet ones... and it does sweeten my ears!!! oh my god... mayday better come do their concerT!
tenth... ti tian ... a song about being environment friendly.. and protecting the earth.. lamenting about how humans are destroying earth themselves... the theme's pretty heavy and has this tribal thing corporated into the chorus.. good try ... though it gets a little sloooow... but i like the beginning.. when he started by saying... "wenshan.. by the time u finish ur lyrics, my next album's out... it's ok.. take your time.. i'll do this myself." fwah. and i like the part where the piano suddenly.. .sorta got stuck. cute.
eleventh...shuang dao...as usual is the martial art freak (that's jay anyway) must-do in his album.. the beginning has this very... world music style to it... and it seems it has more breadth than long quan and shuang jie gun which only is like.. .china style.. but eventually it all sounded like.. the same? there's this particular part of the music where jay sings along with it... really cool... sometimes in the whole song.. i just love it because of a particular line.. muah ha ha weird me.
so overall.. it's a jay-style-as-usual album but with a lot of surprises.. like.. the mayday-influence? haha.. glad to see him do band sound.... nice try~~~~
ok.. i've GOTTA get the GD88 now.
let the jay frenzy in me start all over again!!!!!
listening to: jay chou -- tong yi ge diao diao
whatever you want here
