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MANDARIN MUSIC MUSIC CHARTS
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Just
like fella Hong Kong friends Eason Chan (or Chen Yu Xun) and
Edmond Leung (or Liang Han Wen), Miriam Yeung (or Yang Qian
Hua) has also signed on to What's Music to launch her music
career in Taiwan.
Her debut Mandarin effort "Smile" was released on 11 November 1999 in Taiwan. The album is produced by, among others, Lin Ming Yang, Xue Zhong Ming, Huang Yun Ling and Yuan Wei Ren. The musical style is mainly main-stream pop, peppered with ballads/folk/light-dance flavours. There is also an acoustic feel in the album's overall music because many of the tracks use guitar as the main arranging instrument. The ballad title Track 1"Smile" is composed by Lin Long Xuan and written by Adam Hsu Chang De and it sounds uncannily like a Sammi Cheng number. I heard one Singapore radio DJ commenting that Miriam could not invoke the "smile" feeling that one is supposed to feel after listening to the song but I feel there's no basis behind this remark - maybe the DJ made the comment based solely on the title as the lyrics tell another story : it's about a girl who tries to force herself to smile (when in fact she wants to cry) after learning that her loved one has left. Therefore it is actually a sad song despite the ironical title and Miriam has done a competent job of interpreting it. The second single Track 2 "Break-Up Diary" is written by Shen Bai Se (Arys Chien), it's a catchy dance track which writes about a celebratory break-up experienced by an optimistic girl who has been rejected by her boyfriend. The third single Track 3 "I'm Not The Only One Who's Lonely" is a nice ballad composed by Xue Zhong Ming and written by two heavyweight lyricists Yao Qian & Adam Hsu Chang De, the only minor complaint is the rather out-dated music arrangement by George Leong at the beginning of the track before Miriam's vocals come in. The always-reliable Panda Xiong has composed another good-quality light-tempo folkish Track 8 "I Want To Move To Tian Mu" here, however it's seriously marred by the incessant inclusion of Miriam's "unbearable" telephone dialogue in the song's background, there's nothing wrong with the concept of placing a background dialogue, but having to hear Miriam's crooked spoken Mandarin throughout the song is a bit too much ..... the producers probably thought they could pull it off since the female protagonist in the song is in fact about a girl from Hong Kong. A personal favourite is the Yuan Wei Ren-produced acoustic Track 9 "Lonely Night" which has a light touch of jazz in it, the composer is someone by the name of Dai Pei Ni and the lyricist is Wu Yu Kang. The remaining tracks are mostly acoustic tracks which range from slow to mid-tempo, they make easy listening but lack the fire to grab one's attention for long. Being her debut Mandarin offering, Miriam's vocal performance is passable but there's still room for improvement in her Mandarin diction. For now, I still prefer her Cantonese works. The limited-edition album CD comes in a box and is bundled with a photo booklet containing Miriam's pics and some of her personal thoughts. |
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RATING :  (3
out of 5)
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Copyright © 1999 ASIAN MUSIC POP . All Rights Reserved . |
