In this twelve-track CD, over half of the songs (seven to be exact) are her previous Mandarin and Cantonese hits such as "Betray" (or Bei Pan), "Worth It" (or Zhi De), "Over The Border" (or Chu Jie), "Famous Words Of Wisdom" (or Zhi Li Ming Yan) and "Neither Male Nor Female" (or Fei Nan Fei Nu).  Refer below for the full song listing in Big-5 Chinese.

And while there are five brand new recordings, three of them are actually "saliva" songs (i.e. cover versions) : her beau Andy Hui's "Moon" (or Shang Xuan Yue), Rene Liu's "Love You Very Much" (or Heng Ai Heng Ai Ni) and Cheer Chan's "Lonely Without You" (or Hai Shi Hui Ji Mo).  

As for the remaining two new songs, the title track "Happy Dancing" is a Korean techno dance track with the Mandarin lyrics written by Liao Ying Ru.  "Happy Dancing" is also the main-theme song for her upcoming December concert.  The second new track "If I Am You" is a ballad written by Hong Kong composer Chen Hui Yang and written by Liao Ying Ru.

The first batch of limited-edition CD comes with a bonus VCD containing the music video of "Happy Dancing" and snippets of her previous Hong Kong concert.

If I Am You  如果我是你  --------  

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For those listeners who have always paid attention to Taiwan song writers, they may have heard of his name before.  He is the guy behind songs like Jacky Wu's "You Are Happier Than Before" (or Ni Bi Cong Qian Kuai Le), the duet hit "Rooftop" (or Wu Ding) between Jacky Wu and Landy, Valen Hsu's "Snail", Kan Kan's "The Tears" (or Chui Lei) and many more.

Judging from his debut album, Jay seems to be giving David Tao and Lee Hom a run for their money.  Containing mostly R&B and hip-hop tunes, the album is wholly produced by Jay.  He also provides the melodies for all the songs here.  I am somewhat surprised to learn that Jay isn't an ABC, unlike David and Lee Hom, considering that his compositions here are full of authentic Western flavour.

The first single "Cute Girl" is a radio-friendly R&B track with lyrics written by singer Vivian Hsu (or Xu Ruo Xuan).  Vivian also appears in the music video of "Cute Girl".  

Anticlockwise Clock  反方向的鐘 --------

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This current release is actually an EP which is inspired by his recent Wong Kar Wai movie "In The Mood For Love" co-starring Maggie Cheung.  The movie has already won him the Best Actor award in this year's Cannes Film Festival.  

While the EP is not the soundtrack album for the movie, nevertheless its production concept encompasses input from the director Wong Kar Wai himself.  As a result, all of the tracks here sound like they were made for the sixties, which is the same period setting as the movie.

The title track "In The Mood For Love" is a duet sung with a girl called Niki.  It is written by, surprise surprise, Sandee Chen Shanni.  

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However things seem to be looking up for Chiang.  Within two weeks of release, her current third offering has already clinched the number one spot in the album charts of one of Taiwan's leading record stores, Ta Chung Records.

It's probably not hard to see why.  She has wisely done away with her previous extreme styling (the pleated tomboy in her debut album and the quirky girlish image in her second album) and now spots a more natural and friendly girl-next-door image.  And more importantly, her new offering contains much more competent and radio-friendly pop tunes.

A strong production team (Chen Wei, Huang Yi, Sandee Chen Shanni, Li Zheng Fan and Chen Jian Ning) and song-writing cast (Yao Qian, China teen-band group The Flowers or Hua Er, Malaysian singer Penny Dai Pei Ni and local musician Jonathan Koh or Xu Hua Qiang) has been roped in to make this album.  

The first ballad single "Gentleness Of Your Hands" is a cover version of a famous Japanese tune, with the Mandarin lyrics co-written by Yao Qian.  Just like her previous ballad "How I Envy You" (or Wo Duo Mo Xian Mu Ni), "Gentleness Of Your Hands" is another touching sentimental song that is deeply moving.

The second ballad single "Thinking Of You" is another radio-friendly work composed by the duo Cheng Jian Ning/Chen Zheng Qing and written by Yao Qian.  A note-worthy mention is that singer Mavis Fan (or Fan Xiao Xuan) plays the flute in this track.

The third single "Following You Like A Shadow" is a folkish mid-tempo composition by singer Penny (or Dai Pei Ni).

On a final note, Xiao Mei has this to say about herself on the album cover (roughly translated as) : "Although at times I wonder whether listeners really care about my existence, but even if I were to lose the chance to sing tomorrow, I will still work hard today to sing a good song".  

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