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coco

COCO LEE (THE BEST OF MY LOVE) (SONY MUSIC) (JAN00)
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.

coco1coco2Two 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.

RATING : (4 out of 5)
If you have RealPlayer , click below to preview the two new songs.
Listen One More Time   再聽一次 --------
Love You Everyday   愛你在每一天 --------
COMPLETE SONG LISTING

1.

再聽一次

2.

愛你在每一天

3.

往日情

4.

我的翅膀

5.

過完冬季

6.

再見一面

7.

等愛降落

8.

暗示

9.

默默愛你

10.

自己

11.

完整

12.

我依然是你的情人

13.

愛我久一點

14.

愛你是我的自由

15.

DiDaDi

16.

真想見到你

17.

你是我的SUPERMAN

18.

Sunny Day

19.

好心情

20.

Stay with me

21.

2090年再愛你   (粵語)

22.

憂傷天使   (粵語)

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zhang ke fan

ZHANG KE FAN (BROADBAND LOVE SONGS, BROADBAND KE FAN) (JI TIAN) (JAN00)
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).

If you have RealPlayer , click below to preview three of the tracks.
Love Someone Is Not Guilty   愛人無罪 --------
Bye Bye My Love  --------
Shelter   避難所 --------

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leo

LEO KU (TREASURE HUNT) (FORWARD MUSIC) (JAN00)

MUSIC STYLE : MOSTLY LIGHT-TEMPO POP/RETRO

OVERRIDING THEME : LOVE

ALBUM REVIEW
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.  

RATING : (3 out of 5)
ALBUM INFO
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".

If you have RealPlayer , click below to preview three of the tracks.
Treasure Hunt   尋寶 --------
Not Friends Anymore   不再是朋友 --------
In Love   相愛吧 --------

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yuki

YUKI (LOVE) (ROCK RECORDS) (JAN00)
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.

If you have RealPlayer , click below to preview five of the tracks.
Na Na Na   --------
Promise   誓言 --------
Missing Diary   失蹤日記 --------
Mess   亂了 --------
Fly   分飛 --------

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