MUSIC STYLE : MOSTLY SLOW / MID-TEMPO BALLADS

OVERRIDING THEME : LOVE 

I have a personal affinity towards duo albums as I enjoy listening to harmonious vocals which are impeccably paired together.  And it is clear that these two gals have the right vocal chemistry between them.  Just like Singapore's duo 2 Girls and Malaysia's pair Wu Yin Liang Pin, Taiwan's Jin Xiu also sound natural and comfortable singing alongside each other.  

Some of the recommended tracks include the ballad tracks 8 and 9 ("River" & "Chalk Words" respectively)  and the light-tempo tracks 1 and 4 ("Zero Marks For Love" and "Hello, Colourful Balloon").

With the recent onslaught of Western-influenced music in the Mandarin pop world such as R&B, rock and techno dance, Jin Xiu's latest work offers a cosy and soothing music alternative.

Altogether there are twelve songs and they are produced by four guys who are working with Jin Xiu for the very first time : Emil Chau, Li Zheng Fan, Xue Zhong Ming and Huang Jian Chang.  

Song writers include the duo Chen Jian Ning/Chen Zheng Qing, You Hong Ming, Zhou Jie Lun, Huang Zhong Yuan, Qi Xiao Lian, Li Man Ting and Xie Ming You.

The first single is the ballad song "Still Alone" which features a vocal dialogue by Star Boxx member Xiao Quan.  It is composed by a guy called Shermann who's actually better known as Wu Xu Wen (the same guy who wrote Na Na's hit "Freedom" or "Zi You" and Liu Hung Hua's first hit "What's The Matter" or "Gan Ma").  

Another Star Boxx member Da Zhong also wrote a song "Chalk Words" for the two girls.

The second single is also a ballad titled "Speak The Truth" which is composed by Xue Zhong Ming and written by Yao Ruo Long.

This album marks the first time that Jin Xiu is singing solo (note : in case their fans are wondering whether this hints to a possible separation of the duo in the future as like their male counterpart Guang Liang Pin Guan, they need not worry.  The gals have assured that they will stay put together as a pair because they don't want to let their late mentor Yang Ming Huang down).  Each of the girl writes and sings her own solo track and they have the honour of enlisting Emil Chau to produce their works (note : if you remember, Emil Chau is also responsible for writing their very first hit "Don't Meet On Sunday" or "Xin Qi Tian Bu Yao Jian Mian").

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Background summary : he's 25 years old, about 179cm/77kg and did his studies in University of California at Berkeley.  He is the son of veteran actress Hu Yan Ni.  He began his showbiz career by acting in Hong Kong movies such as last year's action movie "Gen-X Cops" alongside Nicholas Tse, Stephen Fung and Daniel Wu, and the earlier action flick "Hot War" (or Huan Ying Te Gong) with Ekin Cheng and Jordan Chan.

While he has established himself as an actor in Hong Kong, he chose Taiwan as the launching pad for his music career.

The first single from this ten-track album is the ballad title track "Determined" written by Huang Zhong Yuan and produced by Big Brother Jonathan Lee.

The second single is the lively rock track "Bad" which is actually the cover of Jacky Cheung's "Bad x 5" (or Huai Huai Huai Huai Huai or Huai x 5) originally found in the latter's "Past 1999".  In fact Terence did another cover of his song also found in "Past 1999" : the ballad track "Unfamiliar Bed" (or Ren Chuang).  Rock Records reportedly has great confidence in Terence's vocal skills and therefore gave the green-light for him to cover not one but two of the Heavenly King's numbers.

The third single is the ballad track "I Do".

Besides Jonathan Lee, other producers include Lin Jian Hua (the same guy who produced Karen Mok's latest single "Suddenly") and Zhang Jia Tian (the former Black Box member who did a lot of music production work for artistes like Karen Mok and Leo Ku).

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MUSIC STYLE : MOSTLY ROCK

OVERRIDING THEME : LOVE

Coming to the most unpleasant find of the album, it must be Stanley's singing.  While he adopts an acceptable laid-back approach in interpreting the songs here and his falsettos are quite impressive, however I cannot get use to his nasal-sounding vocals and his heavy-slurring Mandarin diction.  I've managed to catch some of his live performances on TV and frankly there's no way I can make out what he is singing about.

He would definitely fare better if he retreats behind the music scene and further his song-writing career. 

Background info : he's twenty-six years old, about 178cm/64kg and grew up in Los Angeles.  In 1992, he ventured into the Taiwan music scene by forming a teenage trio group L.A. Boyz (refer below for pic) with his elder brother Jeffrey Huang (or Huang Li Cheng) and younger cousin Steven Lim (or Lin Zhi Wen).

From Left To Right : Jeffrey, Stanley, Steven

Although L.A. Boyz was not officially dispersed, the trio group has mellowed out from the music scene since 1997.  During these few years of absence, Stanley has kept himself busy by completing his studies and writing his own songs.  His demo tracks were reportedly heard by lyricist Yao Qian who then successfully invited him to join Virgin Music.  Some gossip stuff : he and singer Faith Yang Nai Wen used to be an item six years ago but they separated after being together for only about one month.

This ten-track album "Your Side" marks his first solo comeback into the Taiwan pop world.  It is single-handedly  produced by Korean musician Jae Chong (note : the same guy who composed and produced Elva's hit "Cappuccino").  The latter also composed more than half of the songs here while the remaining are composed by Stanley himself.  

The title track "Your Side" is the first single and it is a mid-tempo and country-rock feel song.

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For those uninitiated, he can be considered as one of the pioneer artistes to introduce Chinese R&B to the Taiwan pop music scene.  His early-nineties hit song "You Make Me Drunk" (or Ni Ba Wo Guan Zui) remains a frequently-requested karaoke track even till today.

In this new offering, he single-handedly composed, arranged and produced all the ten songs, out of which three of them are English numbers.

The first single from this new release is the friendly ballad "Love Stopped Since Yesterday Night" which is interestingly described by the record company as the kind of sentimental song that could be written by former Chicago member Peter Cetera and sung by ballad crooner Michael Bolton.  

The second single is the slow-rock title track "The Fall Of Forty-Four" which has a whopping play-time of close to eight minutes (seven minutes and forty-five seconds to be exact).

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