He has gone back to his own roots by coming out with a release that contains mostly covers of Korean songs (note : he is a Korean Chinese), including the title track "The Choice Of A Woman" which is a typical Jiang Yu Heng-ballad.

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Some background info : he's 24 years old (turning 25 this October), stats (173cm/60kg) and is currently a student in Taiwan.  Before becoming a singer, he has dabbled in advertisements as well as taking up stints as TV compere and radio DJ.  He also tried his hands on song-writing, having written the lyrics for Ruby's ballad hit "Say You Love Me Now" (or Xian Zai Jiu Shuo Ai Wo).  People have highlighted his facial resemblance to singer Zhang Zheng Yue.

In this twelve-track debut release, he writes the lyrics for all the songs with the exception of one.  Being someone who loves to reminisce on oldies, he hopes that his album will transport listeners back to the early years of the sixties and seventies.  Therefore one can expect to hear quite a bit of old rock-style music in his offering.  Take for example the first single "Save Your Heart For Me", it is a light-tempo track that is actually a cover of the 1965 oldie hit by Gary Lewis And The Playboys.  The title track "What A Boring Life" is also a cover of a Hokkien oldie and is the only Hokkien song contained in the album.  There are even two different music versions of "What A Boring Life" found here.

The second single is an easy-listening mid-tempo song called "Love Me, OK?".

On a final note, Mountain has flown specially to Japan to do up his image as well as to shoot his album cover pic.

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MUSIC STYLE : VARIED (ROCK/FOLK/R&B/BALLAD/TECHNO/JAZZ)

OVERRIDING THEME : LOVE

The melodies are mostly highly listenable, the lyrics are down-to-earth & easy to follow, and her vocals exudes confidence.  I even thought her cover of her own work Track 5 "Breathe Fresh Air" (or Tou Qi) overshines the original version by Valen Hsu.

Some of the songs that I particularly fancy include the first single Track 1 "Don't Think", Track 2 "Can't Guess", the second single Track 3 "Get Used To This" and Track 6 "Four Seasons Day".

The most promising offering by a newbie that I've heard so far in year 2000.  If you ask me, I think Penny is like the "Tanya of Malaysia" (and I mean it as a compliment) in that both of them have done a good job in singing and writing their own songs.

Background info : She's 21 years old, comes from Malaysia (born in Johor Bahru), just graduated from Malaysia's university in which she specialised in Chinese Literature, she is a qualified dance teacher and more importantly, she writes her own songs (some gossip stuff : she is currently attached and her boyfriend is reportedly a Malaysian singer who has already released an album in Malaysia .......... hmm, wonder who he is).

She started writing music at the age of 17 and has to date accumulated close to a hundred compositions under her belt.  Some of these have been sung by other singers such as Valen Hsu (her song "Breathe Fresh Air" or "Tou Qi" is included in Xiu Xiu's 1998 album "The Best Love") and Miriam Yeung (she wrote the song "Lonely Night" which is a personal fave of mine and is found in Miriam's "Smile" release).

Penny is discovered by two music producers Huang Yi and Chen Zi Hong.  Both were captivated by her singing after they happen to listen to her demo recordings featuring her own works.  Accordingly her self-titled debut release is produced by these two music talents.

There are altogether thirteen vocal tracks and with the exception of one song whose lyrics is penned by a friend of hers, the remaining tracks are written solely by Penny herself.

One can expect to hear a lot of different music styles here : country rock (such as the light-tempo first single "Don't Think), acoustic (e.g. her own cover of the song "Breathe Fresh Air" or "Tou Qi"), folk rock (such as "Four Seasons Day"), hard rock (like "Fifteenth Ear Hole" and "Protect Me") R&B ("Get Used To This"), bossanova ("Not For Sale"), techno (like "Unsettled" and "Dust") and jazz ("Loving You").

The album contains a fourteenth track which is titled "Penny In Studio".  It contains audio snippets of her practicing during studio recording sessions.

Her record company seems to have full confidence in her.  On 10 March 2000, she was given the chance to hold her very first big-scale concert at the prestigious venue Nan Gang 101 (note : singers like A Mei, Power Station, Jacky Cheung, Sammi Cheng, Valen Hsu and Aaron Kwok have also performed there in the past when they came out with their new releases).  Her record company has even presented a gift to her in the form of an expensive Manley golden-coloured studio microphone which is reportedly used by many accomplished singers like Mariah Carey, A Mei and CoCo Lee.  Lucky gal.

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No offence to anyone, but I personally thought that Sky Wu's music days were over after I listened to his previous early-1999 album "How To Be A Friend" (or "Zen Mo Zuo Peng You") and feeling bitterly disappointed with it.  However a few months later in August 1999, this guy wavered my conviction after I heard the outstanding track "Autumn, Don't Come" or "Qiu Tian Bie Lai" that he wrote and produced for Beauty Ho Xiang Ting.

Come Y2K, he switched to a new label and came out with this double-CD new-song cum collection release.  One of the three new recording tracks is the cover of his very first hit "How To Express Love" (or "Ai Yao Zen Mo Shuo") (CD 2 Track 13).  Again I was skeptical as to whether he could pull it off after learning that he is turning it into a R&B version.  And once more, he proved me wrong as I was hooked to this refreshing and tasty new cover which does not sound out-dated at all after all these years.

The highly listenable new composition "Loving You Once & Forever" (CD 2 Track 15) also provides corroborating evidence that he is still capable of writing nice and chart-potential hits.

Besides the three new tracks (plus one additional interlude track), the release contains nineteen old numbers spanning from his days in Coden Records up till his time with EMI Music, including golden hits such as the ever-green acoustic ballad "Lonely Highway" (or Ji Mo Gong Lu) & "Sharing" (or Fen Xiang).  It is truly a must-buy collector's music item.  No wonder the compilation is presently selling like hot cakes in Taiwan. 

His new release is a 2-CD collection album containing twenty-three tracks.  This may be the first time in Taiwan music history that a singer is coming out with a compilation album as his first work under a new label.  It is made possible by Sky's willingness to allow his previous works to be included in this forthcoming collection.

Some of the old hits which can be found in the compilation are : from his days with Coden Records, "Lonely Highway" (or Ji Mo Gong Lu), "Unique Love For You" (or Te Bie De Ai Gei Te Bie De Ni), "Happy Birthday" (or Sheng Ri Kuai Le) ......... from his Dian Jiang Records period, "Sharing" (or Fen Xiang), "You Are My Most Love" (or Zui Ai De Ni), "Love And Sorrow" (or Ai Yu Chou) and "Touched" (or Xin Dong Le) ........ and finally up to his times with EMI Music, "Dancing Under The Moonlight" (or Wu Yue Guang) and "The Shepherd Of Love" (or Ai De Mu Yang Ren).  Refer below for the full song listing in Big5 Chinese.

Other note-worty mentions : 

-   Sky has re-sung his first hit "How To Say Love" (or Ai Yao Zen Mo Shuo) by transforming it into a R&B-style cover.  

-   He does another cover of his own composition "Autumn, Don't Come" (or Qiu Tian Bie Lai).  Originally sung by Beauty Hou Xiang Ting, this hit was chosen by his Internet fans as the cover song they most want to hear among the several competing numbers that he wrote for other singers (such as Jacky Cheung's "Love Net" or "Qing Wang", Stella Chang's "Thinking Of You Until Anxiety" or "Xiang Ni Dao Xin Huang" and Jin Xiu Er Chong Chang's "Tomorrow Has Company Too" or "Ming Tian Ye Yao Zuo Ban").

- A brand new song "Loving You Once & Forever" is also found here.

02>我最愛的朋友
＊ 獲1990年新加坡地區十大龍虎榜金曲No.4
＊ 入圍1990年金曲獎『最佳作詞獎』
＊ 1999年新加坡龍虎榜十年金曲第三名

03>特別的愛給特別的你
＊ 獲1990年新加坡電台龍虎榜最高榮譽歌曲
＊ 獲1990年新加坡十大龍虎榜金曲榜首
＊ 新加坡龍虎榜、麗的呼聲、新加坡唱片暢銷榜三連冠5週
＊ 獲1990年中廣知音排行榜5週冠軍
＊ 入圍金曲獎『最佳演唱專輯製作人獎』『最佳年度歌曲』『最佳作詞』『年度歌曲』
＊ 金曲龍虎榜、知音排行榜、流行暢銷榜三連冠3週
＊ 獲1990年香港電台『十大中文金曲獎』
＊ 獲1999龍虎榜十年金曲NO.1

04>寂寞公路
＊ 獲1991年第三屆金曲獎『最佳錄音獎』
＊ 獲1990年新加坡電台龍虎榜最高榮譽歌曲

05>愛的過火
＊ 入圍1992年金曲獎『最佳國語男演唱人獎』

06>生日快樂
＊ 被選為1989年全民國慶活動主題曲
＊ 得到1989全年最高榮譽歌曲榮銜

07>愛情面前變得渺小

08>愛你一世到來生

02> 最愛是你
＊ 入圍1993年 金曲獎『年度十大金曲』、『最佳國語男演唱人』、『最佳製作人』
＊ 獲1993年Channel V Top 20排行榜歌曲

03>分享
＊ 獲1993年KTV點播率最高歌曲
＊ 為大專院校最佳驪歌指定曲

04>一半
＊為1993年發行『最愛是你』專輯，歌迷回卡最受歡迎歌曲

05>愛與愁
＊ 獲得1994年各排行榜冠軍各三之五週不等，並奪得各排行榜之年度十大
＊ 獲1994年金曲龍虎榜全年第四
＊ 入圍1994年第六屆金曲獎『最佳演唱專輯製作人』『年度歌曲』『最佳國語男演唱人』
＊ 獲1994年Channel V Top 20排行榜歌曲

06>有夢有朋友
＊ 獲得1994年社團團康歌曲票選最佳歌曲之一

07>心動了 
＊ 獲1995年Channel V Top 20排行榜冠軍
＊ 獲1995年金曲龍虎榜亞軍
＊ 入圍1995年金曲獎『最佳男演唱人』

08>你愛誰
＊ 入圍1996年金曲獎『最佳男演唱人』
＊ 入圍1996年Channel V & Buildboard排行榜合辦『亞洲最佳創作歌手獎』

09>心上沒有心
＊ 1996年歌迷票選最受喜歡歌曲

10>舞月光
＊ 獲1997年Channel V『最佳MTV獎』
＊ 入圍1997年Channel V & Buildboard排行榜合辦『亞洲最佳創作歌手獎』

11>愛的牧羊人

12>愛上每一個你

13>愛要怎麼說 (2000年版)
＊ 獲1988年中時晚報最佳新人獎亞軍
＊ 獲1988年年度十大金曲排行亞軍
＊ 獲1989年新加坡電台龍虎榜最高榮譽歌曲

14>秋天別來 (原創版)

15>曾經愛你 永遠愛你

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