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After introducing the new group May Day to
listeners just last month, Rock Records has now got another new group in
their hands : Y.I.Y.O. Made up of three
members, this all-male group is billed as a "pure vocalist
trio". The emphasis on their vocals comes about
because all three of them used to be Taiwan folk-lounge singers
and it's a known fact that artistes who hail from such a
background tend to be accomplished performers. In fact,
one of the members has been singing for as long as seven
years. Each of them also has an
unique interrelated English name : Wing, Flying and Birdie
(refer individual photos below).
  
(From Left To Right : Wing,
Flying, Birdie)
In their self-titled debut
album, they are involved in all aspects of the record-making
including composing, music arranging, mixing and
production. Two producers hold the helm in this album :
Xue Zhong Ming and Weng Xiao Liang, the latter being more active
in album production in the eighties period (when he was then
with the now-defunct record giant UFO) than he is now.
The title Track 2 "Y.I.Y.O"
is a nice R&B mid-tempo number composed by Xue Zhong Ming.
By pronouncing Y-I-Y-O roughly as Ai-Yi-Ai-Wo, it basically
means "love me".
The second single Track 3
"Love Delivery" is another highly-recommended R&B
number composed by one of the members Flying. It has a
catchy melody that will have you grooving along with it in no
time.
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Each of the guys also has a
chance to sing individually their own compositions in the album
: the rock-feel Track 7 "Here I Am" by Flying, the
folkish Track 8 "Naturally" by Wing and the ballad
Track 9 "Tireless Love" by Birdie. While all are
highly listenable, my personal fave is Wing's
"Naturally" which sounds like something that David Tao
(or Tao Zhe) could have sung too.
There is also a commendable attempt
on a pure voice-accapella version in one of the songs Track 1"Marry Me OK?".
A second version of the same song but with a complete music
arrangement can be found in Track 11.
It is tempting to compare
Y.I.Y.O with another Taiwanese group IPIS which also specialises
in R&B tracks. All I can say is that both have their
individual merits and on Y.I.Y.O's own part, they have made an
impressive debut as newbies to the pop music scene.
If you are into Chinese
R&B pop music in the likes of David Tao, Alex To and IPIS,
then you won't go wrong with this one. On the whole, a
good debut album which is filled with radio-friendly
tracks.
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(4
out of 5)