VALEN HSU

NICHOLAS TSE

SHINO

HUANG AN

 LEON LAI

JIMMY LIN

Piano Diary

 Grateful For Your Love '99

 Love Song For You

What Then

Belongs To Me

Straw Man

TIN TIN

FAITH YANG

KARENA LAM

SARAH CHEN

 A NIU

TAO JING YING

Love Victory

 Silence

One-Sided Love

Love Connection

Love Me For A Long Time

You Are Alive Again

TOLAKU

PETER HO

ALEX

LUAN TAN

ZHU TOU PI

CHEN YU PEI

Welcome Tolaku

True Without Me

Gotta Have You Now

Luan Tan

Proud Life

Rookie Tango

Don't be misled by the album name "Valen Hsu - Piano Diary".  This is merely a piano instrumental release containing Valen Hsu's past hits.  The only traces of Valen's presence here are her brief word-recitals on three piano pieces : "If The Cloud Knows", "Suddenly Thinking Of Loving You" and "Seen Through".  Other instrumental tracks include "Dreams Come True", "One-Person Show", "Victory", "I Still Love You", "Sea Of Tears" and "Morning Airport".  The album features piano-playing by composer Chen Jian Ning  (note : this is the same guy who pairs up with another composer Chen Zheng Qing in song-writing - their best known work is probably A Mei's "Blue Sky" while their more recent works include Eason Chan's "Blessed Wedding" and Kit Chan's "Restricted Level").

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Nicholas Tse (or Xie Ting Feng) has released his debut Mandarin solo LP.  While the album's name and title track "Xie Xie Ni De Ai 1999" coincides with the name of an earlier Mandarin hit by Andy Lau minus the "1999", however it is actually a brand new ballad composed by Chen Jun Yan and written by Lin Li Nan.  But after listening to it, I must admit the song sounds like something that Andy Lau could have sung too (side-note : you can preview it yourself below to find out).  The album is produced by musicians who were better known in the eighties period, namely, Chen Xiu Nan, Huang Da Jun and Chen Yao Chuan.  Composers and lyricists include You Hong Ming, Huang Zhong Yuan, Xie Ming You (the guy who co-wrote Valen Hsu's "Don't Say Goodbye").  Nicholas even composed a track for himself here.  If you can help it, buy the Hong Kong CD release version rather than those of  Taiwan and Singapore as the HK version comes bundled with a bonus VCD containing a bonus live track "Me & You" plus a live version and MTV version of his second single "Live For You Another Day".

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Shino has released a new single which aims to introduce her to the Japanese pop music market.  If you are wondering whether she can sing Japanese competantly like A Mei does, the answer is a resounding yes.  In fact, she recently wowed the media and fans in a Taiwan live concert by singing a Japanese number originally sung by the group Luna Sea.  This release contains the Japanese and Mandarin version of the title track "Love Song For You".  

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Huang An has released a brand new Mandarin album.  Spotting a Superman image on the cover, the release contains the theme songs (both main and supporting) for the Taiwan TV serial "Da Mo" starring Li Liang Wei.  

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Leon's first Mandarin album since he joined Sony Music.  Altogether there are sixteen songs, eleven of them are brand new while the remaining five are previously-aired tracks such as "Sugar In The Marmalade", "Happy 2000" and "Heart Is Beating".  The eleven new numbers were reportedly chosen from over two hundred demo tracks.  The light-tempo title track "Belongs To Me" is a mix of rap and Brit-pop style.  Leon even took the helm of directing his very first MTV for "Belongs To Me".  Besides his long-time collaborator Mark Lui, the other producer roped in to help out is Bao Xiao Bo, this is also the first time that Leon and Xiao Bo are working together.  The CD album also comes bundled with a bonus VCD containing the MTVs for the five old tracks - shame to the record company for not including the new MTV of "Belongs To Me" directed by Leon, it would have been such a nice treat to all his loyal fans out there.

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Jimmy Lin (or Lin Zhi Yin) has released his brand new solo Mandarin offering.  Produced by Wang Zhi Ping and Chen Guo Hua, the album contains mostly sentimental ballads interspersed with a few light-tempo and fast dance numbers.  The title ballad track "Straw Man" (composed by Chen Guo Hua) is the supporting theme song for a Taiwan sword-fighting serial "The Story Of The Twins" (or  "Jue Dai Shuang Jiao") based on the novel by Gu Long (side-note : Jimmy is also the main actor in the serial, he took on the role of one of the twin brothers Xiao Yu Er while the other brother Hua Wu Que is acted by ex-Small Tiger member Daniel Su You Peng who recently hogged the limelight with another successful serial "My Fair Princess" or "Huan Zhu Ge Ge").  The album also contains the main theme song "Happiness" for the "Twins" serial, this light-tempo tribal world-music style track is written by Pan Xie Qing.

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Tin Tin's debut LP did not come easy for her : she had to "compete" with two other girls, namely Xiao Jin and E-Lin, before she can get to release her own solo album.  The contest goes something like this : all the three girls are collectively known as "3EP Pretty Girls" as they got to release their own EPs at the same time (refer below EP cover pics) and based on the sales figures of their EPs as well as votes from Taiwan listeners, the girl with the best results wins.  

E-LinJinTin Tin

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This is Faith Yang's (or Yang Nai Wen) second album after more than two years.  The title track "Silence" is a rock-feel track composed and produced by Will Lin Wei Zhe.  The MTV for "Silence" shows a cool- and aloof-looking Faith working along the streets of New York with her "don't mess with me" face.  Other composers and producers contributing to this mainly-rock style album include Zhang Zhen Yue and Sandee Chan (or Chen Shanni).  Furthermore, Faith wrote a track "Fear" for herself  here plus there's a cover of Depeche Mode's timeless ballad "Somebody".  Get more news about Faith at her own Chinese website http://faith.magicstone.com.tw/ .

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This latest offering by Karena Lam (or Lin Jia Xin) is her second solo album after more than four years (her first release "Thinking About It" was out in 1995).  It is produced by, among others, Lin Ming Yang, Chen Wei and Zhou Zhi Ping.  Now for a bit of gossip : this release has just been marred by the filing of a law suit against her by her mentor and rumoured lover Zhang Hong Liang.  Apparently Zhang Hong Liang was peeved that Karena did not choose to renew her contract with him when he felt she should have under the terms of an earlier contract.  This turn of events has led to a complete halt in Karena's scheduled promotional activities for her new album.  Hope everything works out well for her.

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For those of you who don't know who Sarah Chen (or Chen Shu Hua) is but wants to know more about her music, this collection album is highly recommended (side-note : Sarah holds the honour of being the first singer in Taiwan pop history to top the one hundred thousand sales figure mark with her 1989 Jonathan Lee-produced album "Talk To You, Listen To You" which contains the hit "Moment Of Awakened Dreams").  This is a comprehensive collection which includes almost all of her past hits including "Moment Of Awakened Dreams", "Wait For A Lifetime", "Smart/Foolish Heart" and a bunch of hit duets like "Understand My Heart" with Jackie Chan and "Real Is Good" with Leslie Cheung.  It even contains her 1983 "extinct" hit "The Song Of Sea".  It is a two-CD collection containing a total of twenty-nine tracks.  A must-get collector's album.

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This latest offering by A Niu is released by Rock Records of Malaysia, which means that it is not officially released in Taiwan.  Once again, all the tracks are written by A Niu himself.  The title track and first single "Love Me For A Long Long Time" is a nice slow track which has a feel of a Malay song.  

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Just when Tao Jing Ying has just come out with her brand new release after more than two years, her old record company has resorted to the increasingly-common tactic of releasing a collection of her previous works so as to "share" the free publicity generated from Tao Zi's new album.  This is a 2-CD collection which contains practically all of Tao's past tracks, including "I Know I Am Not Pretty Enough" and "The Edge", the latter having been covered earlier by the composer herself Romi (or Li Qi).

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Another band release in less than two months (following those by Luan Tan and May Day).  This time, it is from the four-member all-male group Tolaku who has come out with their debut solo LP.  This is a two CD-album : the first CD contains nine brand new works, all of which are composed by Tolaku themselves.  The first single "I Love Summer" is a fast rock number with a touch of Hawaiian flavour.  The second CD contains a complete listing of their previously aired works, including their very first track "Fall In Love", the duet "Your Telephone Call" with Lan Xin Mei, another duet "La La La" with Hong Kong singer Candy Lo and the ballad track "1:48".

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After benefiting from the recent screening of his movie "The Story About Jane And Sam" (also starring Fann Wong), the increasingly popular ABC singer has released his second Mandarin solo album "True Without Me".  Just by listening to the mid-tempo title track and his first single "When We Were Seventeen Years Old", one can certainly see the obvious improvement in his vocals.

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