After so many years of absence on the frontline, he has signed on to Sony Music to release his brand new album "Transfer".  While he has done away with his past clean-cut, boy-next-door image and opted instead for a rugged cum macho look, there has not been much change in his distinct high-pitch, crystal-clear vocals.

This twelve-track album is produced by, among others, Jim Lee, Li Si Song and Steve himself.  It contains a mix of his new works plus his previous compositions for other singers.

The first single "Forget" is a mid-tempo ballad which I thought is a relatively weak track to re-introduce him to the world, considering that he has written stronger chart-topping material before for other singers.

Some of the past works that he has chosen to re-interpret include : a classic piano cover of Na Ying's "Betray" (or Chu Mai), the R&B version of Zhang Ke Fan's "Lonely Bomb" (or Ji Mo Hong Zha), a soaring cover of Kelly Chan's "Diary" (or Ji Shi Ben) and a rock version of Peter Ho's (or He Run Dong) "When We Were Seventeen Years Old" (or Na Nian Wo Men Shi Qi Sui) which has been given a new coat of lyrics and is now titled "Time".

Lonely Bomb  寂寞轟炸 --------  

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After more than a year, the newly-married Cyndi has finally come out with her fifteenth solo release "Love Cyndi" which contains brand new tracks and portrays a happier side of Cyndi.  She has also elevated to producer status, with about half of the tracks being overseen by herself.  Other producers include Chris Babida and uprising female producer Li Xin Yun.

The first light-tempo single "Angel" is the cover of French singer Lara Fabian's work "Yeliel (My Angel)".  The second single "Realize" is a ballad duet which is another cover of English pop group a1's hit "Everytime".

Other song-writers include Dick Lee, Tanya, Rock Records' newbie Jyotsna Peng Jin Hui and fellow singer colleague Umi Hsieh Yu Shu.  Cyndi also contributed three of her own works in this new offering.

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Produced by twins Li Si Song/Li Wei Song, Chen Wei, Xiao Ma Yi and Jae Chong, the ten-track album promises to showcase a much mature side of Jolin.  But her fans need not fret becos there are still lots of up-tempo Western-flavour dance tracks found here, inter-mixed with a few ballads here and there.  Jolin's vocals have shown a marked improvement in this album, her Mandarin diction is also less muffled.

The first single cum title track "Show Your Love" is a local work composed by Li Wei Song and written by Chen Jing Nan.  In Taiwan, this dance track is also the Chinese theme-song for Jim Carrey's movie "The Grinch".

The second single is the R&B ballad "Do You Still Love Me?" composed by Malaysian musician Azlan Abu Hassan and written by Hu Ru Hong.  

Other recommended tracks by the record company include the ballad "Can't Bear" composed by Jimmy Ye Liang Jun, the catchy soul track "Love's Coming" composed by Chen Wei and written by Adam Hsu Chang De and the dance number "Baby Face" composed & produced by current hot music commodity Jae Chong.

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Jacky Cheung's Compilation CD "Friendship Song : 1995-2000 Collection"

Originally, the two CDs were to be distributed separately by two separate record companies : "Touch Of Love" by What's Music and "Friendship Song : 1995-2000 Collection" by Universal Music.  However, following the recent (and sudden) merger in operations between these two companies (which also led to staff retrenchment), the two albums have now been released and marketed together.

Let's talk about "Touch Of Love" first.  It contains ten original English compositions (reportedly selected from over 600 demos) and feature a range of varied music styles like dance, country, rock, Latin, Spanish and ballads.  The first single is a Jacky-style ballad called "Lost Christmas" which is obviously timed for air-play around the same period as the Xmas season.  There is even a country duet "For My Broken Heart" sung with country singer Reba McEntire.  While Jacky's English diction is passable, I thought many of the songs lack punch and do not possess chart-topping qualities.  While "Touch Of Love" may have fulfilled Jacky's long-time dream of recording an English album, I feel it fails to fulfill his fans' listening taste-buds.

"Touch Of Love" comes with a bonus CD which contains two brand new Mandarin tracks and two new Cantonese songs.  The first single from this bonus CD is the Mandarin ballad "Every Time Is A Good Time" which sounds like a charity song.  Composed by Chen Guo Hua, it is actually an advertisment jingle for Taiwan's McDonalds.  The other Mandarin track "On The Road" is the main theme-song for Jackie Chan's upcoming Lunar New Year's movie release "The Accidental Spy" (or Te Wu Mi Cheng).  A Cantonese version is also included.

"Friendship Song : 1995-2000 Collection" marks Jacky's second Taiwan compilation in more than five years, following his best-selling debut collection "True Love" (or Zhen Ai).  His latest fifteen-track compilation contains many bona-fide hits such as "Love Letter" (or Qing Shu), "Heart Is Like A Knife Cut" (or Xin Ru Dao Ge), the duet "You Are Most Precious" (or Ni Zui Zhen Gui) with Frans Gao Hui Jun, "Love Is Forever" (or Ai Shi Yong Heng) and "Deep Sea" (or Shen Hai).  Refer below for the full song listing in Big5 Chinese.

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