For those uninitiated, A Liang is one of the uprising TV variety show hosts in Taiwan.  He's probably best known for his co-hosting of the invincible variety show "Super Sunday".

Altogether there are ten tracks here and are produced mainly by Huang Shu Jun.  There's a few fast-tempo rap tracks, such as "Zi Yue" (which reportedly has as many as around 800 lyrics words in it and also features the vocals of A Bao or Zeng Bao Yi) and "I Want To Be A Nice Guy" (which sounds like he's talking and singing at the same time).  Another fast-tempo song "Super Task" even dwelves on a segment that he hosted in "Super Sunday" whereby he has to use all means to achieve his task of finding long-lost people whom the show's guest stars want to meet.  Finally he also does a cover of Wu Bai's hit "Crying Person" (or Tong Ku De Ren).

To find out whether he can sing, click below to preview listen.

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Following the synergetic collaboration with Guang Liang (from the duo Wu Yin Liang Pin) on the duet "So Long" (or Hao Jiu Hao Jiu) in her last release, she has teamed up with him again.  This ten-track album is produced mostly by Guang Liang who takes up five of the songs here.  Other producers include song-writer Guo Zi, Paula Ma Yu Fen, George Leong and Xue Zhong Ming.  

The song-writing cast looks strong too, it has Chen Xiao Xia, Chen Guan Qian, local singer Tanya, Taiwan singer Valen Hsu, Adam Hsu Chang De, Shi Ren Cheng, Wang Zhong Yan and Yao Ruo Long.

The solo title track song "Waiting For You" is a ballad composed and produced by Guang Liang and written by Rei Ye.

Rene's hit "Love You More & More" (or Hen Ai Hen Ai Ni) is a cover of the Japanese female duo Kiroro's hit "Chang Jian".  This time round, she has attempted a cover of another of their song, the Mandarin version being titled "After That" which is also produced by Guang Liang.

A note-worthy mention is that another Rock Records female singer, newcomer Jasmine Leung (or Liang Jing Ru), has lent her voice to some of the songs' back-up vocals.  She even pairs up with Rene in one particular light-tempo track "Love" which is composed by Tanya and which also features singer cum musician Chen Shen's harmonica playing.

A super-deluxe version CD has been released to stamp music piracy.  With only 5,000 in stock, it contains a diary of Rene, a CD storage unit, a travelling pouch, a bag, a VCD of Rene's award-winning movie "Zheng Hun Qi Shi" which has already been shown in Singapore, a VCD containing snippets of Rene's daily life and the music video for "After That", a poster of Rene and finally, a key-ring.  If you have lesser budget to spare, the normal deluxe-version also comes bundled with the afore-mentioned VCD containing the MTV of "After That".

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Altogether there are twelve theme-songs here, there's a mixture of Mandarin/English/Cantonese tracks and many of them have been given a complete music revamp by Harlem.  For instance, the first single "Big Eyes" (or Da Yan Jing, originally a retro-rock piece sung by Gao Ling Feng) has been transformed into a Mambo piece; Wan Fang's evergreen karaoke favourite ballad "Xin Bu Liao Qing" has become a light-tempo Spanish-folk cover; the Western ballad "Reality" is now a techno piece; Su Rei's Mandarin hit with its Hokkien name "Jiu Gan Tan Bue Bo" has been converted to a refreshing R&B track; and Zeng Shu Qing's ballad "Lu Bing Hua" is now a light-tempo Cha-Cha version.  Furthermore, the latter song "Lu Bing Hua" also features the vocals of Harlem's cartoon character Ha Baby (or Ha Bao Bao).

Other cover theme-songs include Li Shou Quan's "Zhang San De Ge", Cai Qin's "The Last Night" (or Zui Hou Yi Ye), Culture Club's English hit "Love Is Love" and the only Cantonese song Sam Hui's "Genius and Stupid" (or Tian Cai Yu Bai Chi).

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MUSIC STYLE : ACOUSTIC/FOLK/BALLAD/RETRO/INDIE POP

OVERRIDING STYLE : LOVE

The ten-track album is produced by two local musicians Billy Koh (or Xu Huan Liang) & Wu Jian Hong, plus Taiwan arranger Wang Ji Kang.  The music is a mix of folk, pop and retro.  Over half of the songs here (six to be exact) are composed by one of the members Yang Xiao Fen while the other girl Liao Yong Qi also contributes one composition.  Other song writers include Bao Xiao Song, Hong Kong lyricist Lin Xi, local talent Liang Wen Fu, Wu Yu Kang, Yao Ruo Long and another local female talent Tang Yu Xuan.

Most of the songs here range from slow to mid-tempo and they are characterised by catchy, easy-listening melodies and mellow but straightforward lyrics.  The first single from this ten-track release is the radio-friendly ballad title Track 3 "2 People 3 Roles" (composed by Wu Jian Hong and written by Yao Ruo Long) which delves into a triangle relationship whereby two female pals fall in love with the same guy.  Other pleasant tracks include the acoustic Track 2 "Turning In Circles", the ballad Track 4 "Go Away" and the light-tempo folkish Track 10 "Sing A Song Together".  One particular number stands out from the rest as it's belongs to a music genre which 2 Girls has not seemed to tread on before - Track 8 "High Level Of Feelings" which has an indie-pop flavour coupled with a mysterious touch.

For me, the most enjoyable listening pleasure is derived from their harmonious vocals.  In the first place, each girl already has a set of good voice to start off with, so one can imagine the vocal potency when they are combined together.  

All in all, this album offers a clean and tasteful listening delight which is hard to resist.

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There are two new tracks included here : the mid-tempo "That Day That Night" which sounds a bit dated to me and the ballad "Not Serious" which is composed by the duo Chen Jian Ning & Chen Zheng Qing and written by Adam Hsu Chang De.

The highlight lies in the twelve collection songs which range from her early recordings in 1993 to her latest numbers in 1999.  These include "Spoil The Friendliness" (or Shang Le He Qi, her very first Singapore hit in 1993), "Aching Heart" (or Xin Tong which is the song that propelled her to stardom in Taiwan way back in 1994), "Force Too Hard" (or Bi De Tai Jing), "Worry" (or Dan Xin), "Tug Of War" (or Ba He), "Sad" (or Shang Xin), "Like You" (or Xi Huan Ni), "Too Deep In Action" (or Ru Xi Tai Shen), "Dazzling" (or Xuan Yao) and "I Really Loved Wrongly (or Wo Zhen De Ai Cuo).  Refer below for the complete song listing in Big5 Chinese.

However there are a few glaring misses such as the Mandarin version of her very first Cantonese hit "Wait & Wait" (or Deng Le You Deng), "Don't Let Me Hate You" (or Bie Rang Wo Hen Ni), "Lover" (or Qing Ren) and "See The Moon" (or Kan Yue Liang).  I can understand why "See The Moon" may not have been included here because it is only popular in Singapore but not Taiwan (note : the song is originally enclosed alongside her Cantonese album) and this collection is mainly targeted at Taiwan listeners.  But I can't see why "Don't Let Me Hate You" and "Lover", both of which are contained in her 1997 release "Don't Let Me Hate You", are not included when another less obscure song "Slipper" (or Tuo Xie) from the same album can find its way into the compilation.

In fact twelve collection tracks are just too few, considering that the recent spate of compilation releases from other singers contain much much more.  For instance, A Mei's  "New Century Collection" contains eighteen old songs, Sammi Cheng's "Love Story Collection" has nineteen of them and Ronald Cheng's "Love You Collection" has seventeen collectibles.  We mustn't forget also that Kit started her Mandarin music career much earlier than any of these three artistes and therefore it is rather unforgivable that her fans have to settle for so much less.

We can never know what the guys at What's Music are thinking about.

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