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MAR G	AMANDA	VICTOR & MICHAEL	SANDY LAM	FEI FEI
*Incorrigibly*	*Singing On The Roof*	*Hope To See You*	*Clang Rose*	*Departure Arrival*


	MAR-G (INCORRIGIBLY) (GLOBAL MUSIC & MEDIA) (MAR99) MUSIC STYLE : MID-TEMPO (GOTH POP/ALTERNATIVE BALLAD) OVERRIDING THEME : LOVE
Another newcomer on the music scene. Another singer who will be compared by many to Faye Wong. Mar-G's (or Wu Ming Hui) singing style resembles that of Faye Wong's. Just listen to "Lift of Feelings", the one song in the entire album which most aptly depicts this alikeness. The track sounds just like a song Faye Wong would have recorded herself. Another point worth mentioning regarding this album : all the songs are composed and arranged by Chris Babida (an accomplished musician in the Hong Kong & Taiwan music scene). One can certainly appreciate the hard work that Chris Babida has put in as there are a couple of songs here which are well-arranged. The title track "Incorrigibly" is one such example (lyrics written by Adam Hsu or Xu Chang De). With a mix of slow-techno and African-drum percussion beats, the song successfully depicts the mixed feelings of a damsel who's unable to save herself from a love triangle. This song has done a perfect weave of melody-lyrics-arrangement-vocal performance together. Towards the end of a song, Chris "shows-off" some of his true stuff by blending nicely the beginning and chorus parts of the song together. A gem. Another album highlight is the haunting ballad "Break-Up Diary". If you like ballads, this is the perfect song for you. It also demonstrates a good combination of melody-lyrics-vocal performance. If you are just breaking up with someone, skip this song unless you want to have a good cry. On the whole, a sincere production although the first half of the album boasts stronger material than the second half. I swear I almost fell asleep listening to the last track of the album "Spring Has Turned Cold" : for all the good intentions and mood that Chris may have wanted to express through this song, it was ultimately too slow and long (six minutes) for me. Although a newcomer, Mar-G truly has some substance of her own. She has handed in an above-average performance for this debut album. Let's hope she can shake off that Faye Wong tag in the years to come. (For info : Global Music and Media is also a newcomer to the Taiwan music scene. Its holding company, Grammy Entertainment, is a mega entertainment powerhouse in Thailand. Grammy has set up Global Music to expand its music business into other parts of the Asian region. Launching its presence in the Taiwan music pop scene with Mar-G, it looks set to take on the other Taiwan music giants like Rock Records and Polygram Records)
RATING : (3 out of 5)
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	AMANDA LEE (SINGING ON THE ROOF) (POLYGRAM) (FEB99) MUSIC STYLE : VARIED (BALLAD/INDIE POP/COUNTRY/70's BAND) OVERRIDING THEME : LOVE
This album needs a few rounds of listening sessions. The first time I heard it, I don't have a distinct impression of the album as most of the music style is quite "rojak" (refer to the description of music style above). Sure, there are the usual ballads like "Understand", "Grey Sky" and "Irreplaceable Love', but they are relatively few. In particular, "Understand" stands out among them. The title track "He's Singing On The Roof" (I'm assuming this is the title track because the album title does not contain the word "He's") sounds like a Tanya (or Cai Jian Ya) number - very catchy and country pop. In case you haven't heard, the MTV for this title song heralds around lesbian themes and was therefore banned from Hong Kong TV prime-time slots - seems that the director interpreted the song as "She's Singing On The Roof". Three numbers here were taken from Amanda's recent Cantonese album "Break Free" (I'm deducting some rating points here for lack of originality): "Sensitive" (Cantonese version "Liar Lover"), "Forgotten" (Cantonese version "Make-Up") and "No Need To Say Sorry" (Cantonese version "Break Free"). In particular, Forgotten sounds very much a Cantonese-like song since it's written and arranged by Hong Kong composer Zhou Qi Shen. I've always regarded Amanda as an accomplished singer and I'm glad to say that she has maintained that level of standard in this album. Her Mandarin diction may be far from perfect but overall, it is still good when compared to some other Hong Kong singers. At the end of the day, this is a sincere production (if you ignore the inclusion of the three songs from the Cantonese album) but it will not leave a lingering taste as there not many outstanding tracks which stand out on their own. Strictly for Amanda's fans only.
RATING : (3 out of 5)
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	VICTOR & MICHAEL(HOPE TO SEE YOU)(ROCK RECORDS)(FEB99) MUSIC STYLE : MID-TEMPO/SENTIMENTAL POP OVERRIDING THEME : LOVE
The big difference between this album and their previous ones is that these two guys only sang three songs together (out of a total of thirteen songs). However if you are one of those who have always liked them as a group, don't worry. Although they seem to be venturing out more on their own now, they have still maintained the same music style, namely, mid-tempo / sentimental easy-listening pop music. I'm sure some people will criticise that if they keep churning out the same kind of music, what is the point of releasing new albums. But I feel that they are missing the point here : if their fans like them for what they have done to their music and Victor & Michael themselves have no complaints about the music style and ( I feel this next point is the most important) their latest song offerings in terms of melody and lyrics do not repeat what they have done before, then it is perfectly all right for them to stick to the same music style. Returning to this fourth and latest album, I must admit myself that I'm amazed at the high pop potential of the songs here : every song here (thirteen of them altogether) qualifies as a potential hit single. I can safely enjoy the whole album over and over again without hitting the skip button on my CD player. Michael (or Guang Liang, you know the guy without the specs) has even attempted a commendable English song. However a major hitch lies in the way this whole album is packaged : three CDs are enclosed here, two of them containing five songs each and one of them having only three songs. Therefore if you are one of those who don't have a multi-CD player (like myself), you'll have to keep swapping the CDs so as to hear the whole complete album. The irony is that I understand this package is supposed to be a collector's item so as to show appreciation to all the fans who are bound to buy the album once it's out. But if this is the case, then I'll rather wait for the "normal" package to come out as I figure all the songs will then be included in one complete CD! (An update to this last sentence since last written : the "normal" package has arrived - it contains two CDs with one CD containing ten songs and one of them three songs, the latter being similar to the collector's package)
RATING : (4 out of 5)
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	SANDY LAM (CLANG ROSE) (ROCK RECORDS) (JAN99) MUSIC STYLE : VARIED (COUNTRY ROCK/BALLAD/WORLD MUSIC/ TECHNO DISCO) OVERRIDING THEME : LOVE
OK I need to admit upfront : Sandy Lam is my number one idol singer. Having said that, I was sorely disappointed with this brand new release after waiting for more than two years. So what if the advert says that this is a production spanning two years, so what if the advert says that the album is produced by one of the hottest producers around town now, namely, Jeff Chia (or Jia Ming Shu, the guy who produced Shunza's brilliant song, Come Home), so what if the album has garnished good reviews from some media critics. At the end of the day, most of the songs here do not reach that kind of level which makes you sit up and go "Wow, this is such a great song". Take the first single "Clang Rose" as an example, I've read a comment which says that this song sounds quite outdated to be considered as a front-runner single. I would not go too far to say that because it actually has a catchy/breezy tune (also, if you consider that this song is Sandy's first public-released music composition, I think her efforts are commendable and should be encouraged), but I agree that "Clang Rose" lacks that kind of "OOMPH" to be considered as a big potential hit. And that basically sums up the weakness of this album : while the producer has tried to come up with a musically-rich album, most of the songs here do not have that quality to stand up on their own. However there is one track that stands out : "Let Go" and incidentally, it is a ballad which Sandy is renowned for as a performer. The lyrics by Jonathan Lee (or Lee Zhong Shen, you should know who he is, guys) are also enjoyable to read but he only contributed three song lyrics for this album (one of which he co-wrote). Another concern : why must there always be only nine songs in Sandy's Mandarin albums ever since she joined Rock Records???? In "Love, Sandy", the tenth and last track is just an instrumental version of the song "Scars" (or Shang Heng), in "The Night Is Too Dark" album, the tenth and last track is also an instrumental version of "Street Of Temptation" (or You Huo De Jie), and finally in this latest Mandarin album, the tenth and last track is just a different version of the sixth track "Fly". It's not as if the song "Fly" is too fantastic either, the song does head off to a promising start (Sandy's vocals are solid and the arrangement is good too) but once it reaches the chorus part, it transcends into a trivial and repetitive (somewhat irritating too) world-music melody which basically aims to encourage young folks to fly high and reach their dreams, duh! Regardless of my disappointment with this album, Sandy's vocal performances in this album are top-notch, and I am now looking forward to her next release.
RATING : (2 out of 5)
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	FEI FEI (DEPARTURE ARRIVAL) (WHAT'S MUSIC) (JAN99) MUSIC STYLE : DISCO OLDIES / BALLADS OVERRIDING THEME : LOVE
I feel sorry for Fei Fei (she's previously known as Ouyang Fei Fei). I'm sure in many people's minds, she's a 70's/80's diva queen (just like Su Rei, Feng Fei Fei etc although I think only Tracy Huang stands as an exception here) who will forever be stamped to that era even as the rest of us are moving towards the end of the 90's and into the new millennium. Sadly, this new album will do nothing to change people's perception of Fei Fei, in fact it will further augment that thought. What the production team has done is to give Fei Fei two new songs to decipher and eleven of her oldies to cruise by with. The result? An album outdated-sounding album, despite the fact that the oldies are re-arranged by some of the leading arrangers in the music scene today. Even the two new songs sound like they were written for Fei Fei during the eighties period (I know eighties music are in the rage these days but I thought they only apply to Western pop and not Mandarin pop). And to think that this album is produced and released by What's Music which boasts some of the most well-known music artistes today like Power Station and Valen Hsu (or Xu Ru Yun). The latter incidentally sang a disco-type oldie duet "Hey Hey! Taxi" with Fei Fei in this album but the results are nothing to brag about. The music producer plays a part in the the way the album has turned out : he is none other than Eric Chen (or Chen Xiu Nan) who, like Fei Fei, used to be a well-known producer in the eighties (churning out albums by Sally Yeh, Su Rei, Little Tigers - or Xiao Hu Dui - under the ex-giant UFO Record company). This album took only around one month to prepare - from the signing of Fei Fei to What's Music up to the production/recording of the whole album. Maybe if more time is given, a more sincere album could have been produced. The fact is Fei Fei has a set of powerful and rich vocals and indeed it is the major saving grace of this record. Hearing her rendition of "Love Is Over" is an exhilarating experience, a chance reminiscence the old times. Ultimately this album is strictly for those who have always liked the Ou Yang Fei Fei that they knew in the seventies/eighties period. What a pity, because this Fei Fei could really deliver some of the hottest tunes today if she's given a chance (like, Ah-Mei's "Listening To The Ocean" or even Shunza's "Coming Home").....Sigh.
RATING : (2 out of 5)
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