Sweet Dreams - Sing and Play
Sing and Play - perhaps my most eagerly anticipated album of the year. I rushed out one fine 20 Oct 98 to cd-rama Orchard and laid my hands on the plastic-encased dual-CD album, as well as a stunning poster of Faye-looking-at-the-universe.
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Ripping open the protective plastic film around the album, I found myself looking at one of the most beautiful images/pictures of Faye since her Tian Kong album style. This time, Zing had decided to come up with a more 'conventional', serene-looking style instead of the wild and unconventional style they had done with Faye in her earlier self-titled album. Truthfully, I like this style better; it gives Faye a more relaxed, natural, etheral look and I believe Faye looks more beautiful this way as well. Flipping through the pictorial book, I found even more enchanting pictures of Faye inside, although the background graphics were a little amatuerish; like some kiddy or first-hand attempt at Photoshop with all the len-flare special effects.
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Nevertheless, it was the music that matters. Upon reaching home, I popped the CD into my cdrom and started with the first composition, ·P ±¡ ¥Í ¬¡ (Emotional Life). It had a nice heavy bass which I liked; and the intro lasted almost 1 minute! It was a good start to the album, with Faye displaying her crisp and sensual voice throughout the whole song.
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The second song, Áy (Face), currently ranks among my most favourite songs now. I did not really like it at first, because of it's incomprehensible lyrics and 'noisy' ending, but after reading an English translation of the lyrics from Inspiration - A Faye Wong Site, I fell in love with the poetry-like lyrics and the aristrocratic style of Faye singing it. Penned by Lin Xi, the man behind many of Faye's songs in this album, the song begins with Faye singing with a lyrical and poetry-like style, which she later changes to an avante-garde mode. She then switches back to the musical/lyrical style and ends with the avante-garde style, with the chorus "It's best nobody understands what I'm saying". The MTV is also great, with Faye dolling up as an aristrocrat in a gothic-kind of mansion, and her changing styles as a sunglass-wearing, mircophone-welding wild singer during the chorus parts. I especially like the background vocals (which are sung by Faye herself) during the second rendition of the chorus, which really brings out the power and might of Faye's singing. Hear it out for yourself! Definitely my favourite!
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¦â »| (Sex Commandments), the third song, exudes a mysterious and secretive feel, which is shown in her MTV as well. The MTV shows Faye doing housework, and she is being haunted by a shadow of a man which keeps flitting here and there. There is also a cantonese version of the song, Love Commandments, which have similar lyrics to the mandarin version.
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The 9th song, ¬õ ¨§ (Red Bean), a ballad, does bring out the best in Faye again and although many critics have labelled it as ordinary or something that other singers could have sung, the meaningful lyrics (penned by Lin Xi again) captured my heart. Lin Xi perhaps has become one of the reasons why Faye's songs are so popular; both the cantonese and mandarin rendition of Red Bean, as well as the no2 song, Face, are extremely musical/poetic as well as thought-provoking; and as Kim of Inspiration - A Faye Wong Site has put it, Lin Xi is "brandishing his poetic license" and his lyrics are like "reading verse".
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µ£ (Tong), the 10th song, is a composition by Faye herself. It has a nice hip-hop style and even has Tong Tong (her daughter) making some baby gurgling noises inside. A rather motherly song, livened up by the heavy use of heavy bass and synthesizers.
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All in all, Sing and Play is very listenable; even more so than Faye's previous album, Faye Wong. Unlike the previous album which has more unconventional songs and singing styles, this album has more balladdy-type songs which should appeal to the mainstream of listeners. However, I would certainly recommend the highly poetrical Face as the special song to look out for. - juz my 2 cents!
Faye2 - ramblings/dreams
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