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COCO LEE
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ZHANG KE FAN
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LEO KU
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YUKI
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The Best
Of My Love
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Broadband
Love Songs, Broadband Ke Fan
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Treasure
Hunt
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Love
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COCO LEE (THE BEST OF MY LOVE)
(SONY MUSIC) (JAN00)
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Having just turned twenty-five years old on 17 Jan
2000 and amidst her hectic US promotion schedule (note : her English
single "Do You Want My Love" was officially released in the US
on 25 Jan 2000), CoCo Lee (or Li Wen) managed to squeeze some time out for her Asian
fans by coming up with her very first Mandarin compilation album under
Sony Music.
Her timetable is so tight that she has to stay put
in the US to do the recording of two new songs for the collection
release plus she won't be coming back to Taiwan to promote this new
offering. I suspect the time factor is also the reason behind the
use of comic doll drawings of CoCo on the album cover and its inner
sleeve pics, since she may not have the time to spare for
specially-arranged photo shoot sessions (side-note : coincidentally,
another pop queen A Mei's recent compilation album "New
Century Collection" also adopts animated drawings of her on the
cover).
Coming back to the two new recordings, they are
both ballads with the usual R&B flavour. CoCo even co-produced
one of the new songs "Listen One More Time" (lyricist is Yi
Jia Yang). Chen Yao Chuan composed and produced the other new
number "Love You Everyday" (lyricist is Lou Nan Wei).
As for the collectible songs, there are altogether
twenty of them (including two Cantonese tracks) and they contain hits like "Past Love" (or Wang Ri
Qing), "DiDaDi" and "Hint" (or An Shi). To
signal the "importance" of this release, Sony Music has even
gone to great lengths to "buy" CoCo's hit under her old label
Fancy Pie for inclusion in this compilation album, namely "I'm
Still Your Lover" (or Wo Yi Ran Shi Ni De Qing Ren). Too bad
they didn't spend more to "purchase" another of CoCo's old hit
"The Woman Being Loved" (or Bei Ai De Nu Ren). Some of
the other misses from the collection include "Every Time That I
Think Of You" (or Mei Yi Ci Xiang Ni) and "Answer" (or Da
An), but thankfully these kind of omissions are kept to a minimal level. Refer below for the complete listing in Big5 Chinese.
The double-CD compilation comes in three different
covers (refer below for the other two cover comic dolls). Those
who buy early can go for the limited-edition release which is encased in
a box and comes with a bunch of goodies : a dog-tag, calendar cards and
a booklet detailing CoCo's career achievements to date.
 Two
More Different Cover Comic Dolls
A worthy collector's item for her
Asian fans, which is made all the more valuable by the fact that CoCo
will be spending more time on the international music scene this year.
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RATING : (4
out of 5)
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If you have RealPlayer ,
click below to preview the two new songs.
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Listen One More Time
再聽一次
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Love You Everyday 愛你在每一天
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COMPLETE SONG LISTING
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1.
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再聽一次 |
2.
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愛你在每一天 |
3.
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往日情 |
4.
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我的翅膀 |
5.
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過完冬季 |
6.
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再見一面 |
7.
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等愛降落 |
8.
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暗示 |
9.
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默默愛你 |
10.
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自己 |
11.
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完整 |
12.
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我依然是你的情人 |
13.
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愛我久一點 |
14.
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愛你是我的自由 |
15.
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DiDaDi |
16.
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真想見到你 |
17.
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你是我的SUPERMAN |
18.
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Sunny
Day |
19.
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好心情 |
20.
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Stay
with me |
21.
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2090年再愛你
(粵語) |
22.
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憂傷天使
(粵語) |
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BACK TO TOP
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ZHANG KE FAN (BROADBAND LOVE
SONGS, BROADBAND KE FAN) (JI TIAN) (JAN00)
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Zhang Ke Fan has released his latest album under a new label.
Things have changed for him since his last release "Ji Mo Hong Zha"
way back in Aug 1998. He has become a co-owner of an entertainment
company that uses the Internet as its main outlet to provide music entertainment information for surfers. His double love for
Internet and music has thereby resulted in an Internet-related title for
his new release.
Zhang Ke Fan has also dug into his own pockets to
finance the production of this ten-track album. The first
single is the ballad "Love Someone Is Not Guilty" which is written
by the duo Chen Jian Ning and Chen Zheng Qing. They also
write another ballad track "Shelter".
Zhang Ke Fan contributes three works here,
including the R&B-flavour "Bye Bye My Love" (second
single),
"Actor" and "Impulsive". He also writes the
Mandarin lyrics for the cover of the Japanese hit "La La La Love
Song" (originally sung by Kubota Toshinobu or Jiu Bao Tian Li Shen)
which is the main theme-song for the TV serial "Long Vacation"
starring Takenouchi Yutaka and Kimura Takuya.
Other note-worthy mentions : he does a English
cover of Billy Joel's golden hit "Honesty", he also tries his
hand on Shanghai composer Li Quan's (the same guy who wrote Mavis Fan's
hits "I Want Us To Be Together", "Cried" and
"Blue Cheongsam") earlier composition "Walk Slowly"
(or Man Man Zou Ba) and finally he re-sings his ex-group Hong Hai Er's
hit "You Still Don't Know Now?" (or Nan Dao Ni Xian Zai Hai Bu
Zhi Dao).
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If you have RealPlayer ,
click below to preview three of the tracks.
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Love Someone Is Not Guilty
愛人無罪
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Bye Bye My Love --------
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Shelter 避難所
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BACK TO TOP
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LEO KU (TREASURE HUNT)
(FORWARD MUSIC) (JAN00)
MUSIC STYLE : MOSTLY
LIGHT-TEMPO POP/RETRO
OVERRIDING THEME : LOVE
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ALBUM REVIEW
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Although the first single title track 1"Treasure
Hunt" and another "zhu da" track 6 "Not Friends
Anymore" are slow ballads, don't
be misled into thinking the album is soaked with sentimental
numbers. On the contrary, Leo Ku has gone for a livelier music image in
this new
release. Containing mostly radio-friendly and light-tempo tracks,
they tend to go hand in hand with his boyish and cute physical looks.
His vocals are good, handling both fast and slow
numbers with confidence and ease.
Up-tempo songs such as Track 2 "In Love"
(a world-music flavour track written by Pan Xie Qing), Track 5 "I
Have A Good Friend" (a retro song written by Leo himself), Track 7
"Someday" (a country feel number composed by Zhang Jia Tian)
and Track 9 "Future Is Beautiful" (written by singer Tai Zheng
Xiao) should go down well with his teenage fans.
However for older listeners like myself, these predominantly
lively tunes only manage to penetrate the skin-level and not into the
heart. They make easy listening but leave no residual impact on
me.
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RATING : (3
out of 5)
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ALBUM INFO
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The new Mandarin offering from Leo Ku (or Gu Ju Ji).
It contains
easy-listening pop tracks and their music varieties include the
retro-style and contemporary-ballad categories. A marked music
departure is the absence of folkish numbers which he sang a lot in his
previous Mandarin releases. The ten-track album is produced by Chen Zi Hong, Chen Wei
and Leo's long-time Hong Kong music collaborator Zhang Jia Tian. A
continuing (and welcoming) vocal trend carried over from his last self-titled album "Leo
Ku" is the sparingly-use of his vocal falsettos, something that
he tends to over-rely upon in the past.
Song writers include Pan Xie Qing, singer Tai Zheng
Xiao, Chen Wei, Zhang Jia Tian, Yao Ruo Long and uprising composers Ke
Zhao Lei & Zhou Jie Lun.
This time round, Leo has made a significant music
leap forward by participating in the making of the album : not
only does he contribute two of his works here, he also co-produces one
of them.
The first single is the ballad title track
"Treasure Hunt" composed by Ling Wei Wen and written by Shi
Fang. Other songs recommended by his record company include
another ballad number "Not Friends Anymore" (written by two
music newbies, the composer is someone by the name of Chen Li Hen and
the lyricist is Peng Ni, the latter having written the recent hit
"Half Happiness" (or Er Fen Zhi Yi De Xing Fu) for Jacky
Cheung) and the light-tempo "In Love" (written by Pan Xie Qing).
If possible, go for the Hong Kong edition of the
album because it contains an additional Cantonese track "Hold The
Snow".
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If you have RealPlayer ,
click below to preview three of the tracks.
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Treasure Hunt 尋寶
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Not Friends Anymore 不再是朋友
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In Love 相愛吧
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BACK TO TOP
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YUKI (LOVE) (ROCK RECORDS) (JAN00)
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Spotting a new hair fringe (almost similar to those
recent images of Kit Chan and Sandy Lam), Yuki (or Xu Huai Yu) has
come out with her brand new offering.
As in her previous releases, this ten-track album contains
quite a few dance numbers plus some other music varieties like Spanish,
Latin and Korean flavours.
The album is produced by three musicians, among
which are Chen Guo Hua and Korean producer Wang Pei Rong.
The first single is the merry-dance song "Na
Na Na" while the second single "Promise" is a
Spanish-style dance track.
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If you have RealPlayer ,
click below to preview five of the tracks.
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Na Na Na --------
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Promise 誓言
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Missing Diary
失蹤日記 --------
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Mess 亂了
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Fly 分飛 --------
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BACK TO TOP
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Copyright
© 1999-2000 ASIAN MUSIC POP . All Rights Reserved . |
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