MUSIC STYLE : BALLAD/FOLK/LIGHT ROCK

OVERRIDING THEME : LOVE

My fears were more or less confirmed after I completed my first listening round.  To be fair, I did a few more rounds of re-playing but my disappointment with the album remains.  

Like the first two singles, a few other tracks sound "shu" and back-dated such as Track 3 "Is That It?" and Track 6 "Love Up To This Point".

Even the two covers that he did here are lacklustre (note : he composed both of these tracks).  While the revamped Track 4 "No Change" has added a prominent but unnecessary saxophone music component to the arrangement, I still prefer Wan Fang's simple, softer and more folkish original version.  The second cover is Joey Wang Zhu Xian's "Isolation" or "Yu Shi Ge Jue" which has been given a new lyrics write-up by Adam Hsu Chang De and is now called "Personal Reminisce Of The Beach" (Track 10).  Somehow the original lyrics of "Isolation" (also written by Adam Hsu Chang De) befit the melody better than the present version.

In the past, I've tagged Panda's music with these two words - "refreshing" and "clean".  But he seems to have lost much of these appealing music touches recently, especially when it comes to his own albums (side-note : surprisingly, it doesn't happen that often when his songs are written for others to sing such as the brilliant track "I've Really Loved Wrongly" or "Wo Zhen De Ai Cuo" by Kit Chan).

I understand the need for any singer and song-writer to constantly change and improve, however Panda seems to be evolving towards the wrong music direction.  Until he comes up with better new works, I'll rather stick to his earlier albums (such as "River Of The Blues" or "Ai Qing Duo Nao He" and "Snow Bird" or "Xue Hou Niao") whenever I want to listen to his music.

The album is produced by Xue Zhong Ming, Lin Ming Yang and Lin Wei Wen.  Half of the songs are composed by Panda himself.  Other song-writers include Xue Zhong Ming, Lin Wei Wen, Zhou Bo Xiong (or Xiao Gang), Adam Hsu Chang De, Xu Shi Zhen and Li Man Ting.

The most note-worthy song here must be him doing a cover of his own composition "No Change" (or "Bu Huan") which was originally sung by Wan Fang. 

The first two singles are backed by a somewhat out-dated music arrangement.  The first single ballad "If Can" is composed and co-written by Panda.  The second single and title track "I Care" is an easy-listening ballad composed by Xue Zhong Ming and written by Adam Hsu Chang De. 

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MUSIC STYLE : VARIED (DISCO/RETRO/ROCK/BALLAD)

OVERRIDING THEME : LOVE

ALBUM REVIEW

I like most of the songs here, including "Running", "Not Afraid To Love", the disco-feel Track 6 "It Won't You" (composed by Dick Lee) and the campy Track 8 "Electricity" (composed by newcomer Albert, the same guy who wrote "Running" and whose vocals are featured in this track).  Even the ballads here have their own personalities and do not sound like the typical Taiwan-style recycled ballad, if you know what I mean.

The one song that I was particularly disappointed was the retro-feel Track 3 "Karaoke Love Song" composed by a member of Tolaku.  It does not sound quite up to par with their previous hit "Your Telephone Call".

While I have never associated Lan Xin Mei as a "shi-li-pai" singer (note : my personal definition of "shi-li-pai" singer refers to someone like A Mei, Faye Wong or Shino), her vocals are nevertheless pleasant and natural.  The more important thing is that she sounds fitting in each of these musically-varied tracks. 

Buy this album if you are looking for an enjoyable and lively listening experience.

She has retained the female production team from her previous offering, namely, Huang Yun Ling and Sandee Chen Shanni.  Another musician Wang Zhi Ping is also roped in to helm the production work.

The first single is the light-tempo song "Running" which is written by a male newcomer by the name of Albert whom Sony will be promoting this year.  In the MTV, Shin Mei can be seen huffing and puffing away by doing a marathon run on all kinds of terrains like the beach, desert, grass patch, highway and even a suspended bridge.

Chen Xiao Xia composed the ballad second single "Not Afraid To Love" (lyrics written by Yao Ruo Long) which is considered by Shin Mei to be the most difficult song in this album to interpret due to its simplicity. 

Other ballad tracks include : "Say Love Me" (written by Sandee Chan and is Xin Mei's favourite track); and "Forget" (written by Huang Yun Ling).

A few fellow Sony colleagues have handed in their own works here.  After their successful collaboration on the hit duet "Your Telephone Call", Tolaku once more pair up with her on their new track "Karaoke Love Song".  Go Go Chen Zhong Yi (from the sibling duo Go Go & Me Me) also contributes a dance number "Leave Me Alone".

Furthermore, Shin Mei has the honour of  getting other veteran musicians like Dick Lee and Wu Bai to write songs for her.  

The ten-track CD album comes bundled with a bonus CD which contains three remixes of her old hits, "Your Telephone Call", "Tropical Fish" and "Whale".

(Side-Note : One of the things I've always looked forward to whenever she comes out with a new release is her continuously changing and refreshing chameleon image.  But too bad I won't get to indulge in her creative ideas this time round as there won't be any photos of her inside the album, only sketches of her will be featured.  The lame excuse that Sony Music gave is that listeners in the past focused more on her image than on her music, therefore they are doing away with the visual effects this time.  What a shame.)

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Titled "Now Chinese Best" whose name is inspired by the popular "Now" English collection series, this present offering is numbered volume one, with more of such compilation releases being planned to come out in the near future.

It contains eighteen of the hot hits of 1999 churned out by some of the best-known artistes of today like CoCo Lee, William So, Wu Bai, Lee Hom, Na Ying, Alex To, Phil Chang, Grace Chow, Karen Mok, Kelly Chan and May Day.  Refer below for the complete listing in Big5 Chinese.

Let's hope more record companies like BMG Music, Forward Music and Warner Music (note : the latter is about to be merged with EMI Music) will come together to release the future collection series.   

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Altogether there are eight vocal tracks and seven instrumental pieces.  

An uprising song-writer cum singer by the name of Zhang Jian Wei (refer below for his pic) performs five of his own compositions here (note : his previous works include Cass Phang's latest album title-track song "Passionate Love" or "Hao Hao Ai").  Zhang also makes a guest appearance in the TV serial.

Zhang Jian Wei

Fans of Wong Hei can get to hear his vocals for the very first time as he tackles one solo track "Shooting Star" here.  He also teams up with Zhang Jian Wei on a duet number "There Will Be Someone Who Loves Me".  

Wong Hei

Another duet song "What A Regret" is sung by two TCS actors appearing in the serial.  They are Jeff Wang (or Wang Jian Fu) and Samantha Toh (or Zhuo Shu Yi) - refer below for their pics.

Jeff Wang        Samantha Toh

A worthy mention is that the whole soundtrack is helmed by a new local music company headed by Singapore arranger George Leong (or Liang Bo Jun) who has just shifted his career base in Taiwan back to his home country.  His company has also signed on Zhang Jian Wei and Wong Hei as its pioneer singing artistes.  

(Side-Note : The soundtrack CD comes bundled with a bonus VCD which contains four music videos plus their respective karaoke videos, including Wong Hei's "Shooting Star" and the two duets "What A Regret" and "There Will Be Someone Who Loves Me".) 

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