Her latest album is produced by Singapore twins Peter Li Si Song/Paul Li Wei Song, Taiwan twin Tino Bao Xiao Bo, Chen Wei and Eric Chen Zi Hong.  Besides containing her past music style like ballads, band sound and rock, new music elements such as retro, World Music and jazz have been incorporated to spice up her latest offering.

The first single cum title track "Kite" starts off nicely with Yan Zi singing amdist the sounds of winds gushing and without any instrumental backing.  It is a competent breezy track composed by Paul Li Wei Song and written by Kevin Yi Jia Yang.

For the first time, Yan Zi's two compositions are included in her own album : "Abandon" and "Really".  Her maiden music effort is impressive.  The ballad "Abandon" (lyrics written by He Qi Hong) has been selected by the record company as the second single.  As for "Really" you may find it familiar-sounding because its melody has already made an appearance as the demo opening and ending track "On The Road" in "My Desired Happiness".  The song has been given a lyrics coating by Jennifer Hsu Shi Zhen and arranger Anthony Bao Xiao Song has chosen a jazz-feel to complement the melody.

Most of the songs are locally written.  Besides works by Peter Li/Paul Li/Yan Zi, other uprising local song-writers include Chervun Liew Zhi Wen, Tan Boon Wah (same guy who co-composed Grace Chow's first hit "Don't Want To Let You Know" or "Bu Xiang Rang Ni Zhi Dao) and Wyatt Yang Jian Wei.  These three guys' respective compositions "You Don't Really Love Me" (ballad), "Practice" (a mid-tempo track with a folk-country feel that showcases Yan Zi's brilliant falsettos) and "Love Dictionary" (ballad) are radio-friendly and have been selected by Warner Music as forthcoming singles for the album.

Another recommended number by Warner music is the retro band-sound "Quiz" composed by Lotus Wang Mei Lian (the same gal who composed Sammi Cheng's dance hit "Firing Glamour" or "Mei Li Ran Shao" and more recently Jasmine Leung's title track "Shining Star" or "Shan Liang De Xing") and written by Francis Lee Zhuo Xiong.

The last track in the album "That's The Way I Am" is a band-rock duet number written by a newbie called Sun Jin (note : he paired up with Yan Zi on the vocals).  This uprising song-writer is the leader of a band group who has just signed on with Warner Music.

One of my personal favourites, the opening number "Green Light" is a World-Music composition by Peter Li Si Song and is executed impressively by Yan Zi who also does a rap here.  I'm surprised that Warner Music has not chosen it to be one of the leading singles although it has already been given radio airplay in one of Singapore's leading radio stations.

This is one album that I enjoy listening thoroughly and there is no doubt that her winning streak will roll on with "Kite".  (New update : In its first week of release, "Kite" has already topped the album charts of Taiwan's leading record stores, beating the likes of May Day and Jolin).

In Singapore, if you buy the first-batch of the album, it comes bundled with a 20cm X 20cm EP which contains the demo version of "Abandon", an acoustic version of "Really" and short audio snippets of "Kite", "Love Dictionary" and "Quiz".  This is the same EP which Taiwan fans received when they ordered "Kite" in the above-mentioned pre-sale launch in June.

Green Light  綠光 --------  

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Originally scheduled for a 13th July 2001 release, Universal Music was "forced" by her fans to bring forward the release date of "Lucky Number" to 10th July 2001, but even that was not "accepted" by her fans, and so the album finally hit the record stores on 7th July 2001.

This album is produced mainly by her old-time music collaborators like Singapore twins Peter Li Si Song/Paul Li Wei Song, Xiao Ma Yi and Chen Wei.  This time round, producer Huang Yun Ling was also roped in for the first time to add some female touch to Jolin's latest offering.  The album contains a mix of ballads, dance and R&B.  Prominent song-writers include the Li twins, Chen Wei, Jae Chong, Yao Qian, Chen Zhi Yuan, Yu Guang Zhong and Adam Hsu Chang De.  

Before the release of Jolin's album, she has been making promotional rounds in Taiwan singing the Chinese movie theme-song ballad "Can't Help It" (or Qing Bu Zi Jin) from the Disney animated film "Atlantis: The Lost Empire".  A music video was even shot for it, with Jolin spotting a hideous short-hair wig.  One automatically assumes that this would be the first single taken from her new release.  However her fans will be disappointed to find out that this song is not included in "Lucky Number".  Sad, but true.

The "official" first single from "Lucky Number" is therefore another karaoke-friendly ballad "If You Don't Want" composed by budding Singaporean song-writers Chervun Liew Zhi Wen/Lu Shao Ying and written by Xie Men Juan.  The second single is the title dance track "Lucky Number" composed by Paul Li Wei Song and written by Xie Men Juan.

Other highlights : 

- After her cover of Bette Midler's "The Rose" in her debut album "1019", Jolin has attempted another English cover here, this time it's Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water".  A black-soul touch has been added to Jolin's cover version.

- Taiwan's R&B hot property Jay Chou (or Zhou Jie Lun) has composed a R&B ballad "Why Can't You Speak Clearly" for Jolin (gossip side-note : Taiwan tabloids have been fuelling rumours about a messy love-triangle between Jolin, Jay and our own Sun Yan Zi, which gets even juicier with some reports suggesting a lesbian romance between Jolin and Yan Zi.  All these rumours have since been flatly denied by the three stars.)

Jolin continues to show improvement in her vocals and personally I applaud her courage and determination, since we have seen and heard cruel remarks hurled at her in the past by showbiz people, most notably by Sandee Chan (or Chen Shanni).  After all, she's still a student, having to juggle her time between her music career and her studies workload.

Final note : the first-batch of the album comes bundled with two glossy photo booklets showing Jolin's dual life as a pop star and a student.

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