Asian Entertainment Review: Jason Chan's Change

Here are my long delayed reviews of the two new albums to my collection. Well, or shall I say not so new anymore since I waited so long to comment on them.

Jason Chan's Change
In terms of aesthetics: the packaging is so pretty! The colour theme is very cool and calming with blues and greys. Jason has a pretty face but I'm disappointed in his cover picture. Actually, most of his pictures in this album involves him doing some weird pose. Can't we just have a normal picture of him? But at the end of the day, we shouldn't judge a cd by its cover.

In terms of the music, I'm quite happy with the songs in this album. The genres of the songs are actually quite varied. My favourite track would have to be 我來自哪顆星 - very nice beat. He should definitely do more RnB songs like this one and like 不等於 in his previous album. 理智與感情 is a nice ballad, in collaboration with Rainie Yang. There's this one part in the song where Jason got to show off the beautiful higher range of his voice. It lasted only 3 seconds but loved it! "I miss you" has a cute melody but it wore off on me after a while since the album has 3 different versions of the same song!! Along the same lines, an alternative version of 車匙 was bleh. Like I've mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of artists doing another cover of their own song and sticking it into their new cd in an attempt to pull it off as a new song. On a different note, "Moonlight Express" allows listeners to appreciate Jason's fluent English as a result of his upbringing in Canada! Canadian pride! Well even his acknowledgments and shout outs were written entirely in English (well online abbreviated English.) They let you do that for a professional cd? I couldn't even do that for my high school yearbook shout outs.

In terms of goodies, the DVD was so awesome! The making of the "I Miss You" MV was very cute. Plus, I was very impressed with Jason's singing abilities when I watched his First Christmas Live concert. He can definitely sing live unlike some other HK artists.

Ok this post was longer than I expected. I'll comment on JJ's album next time :)

Asian Entertainment Review: 泳兒

泳兒 appeared as the guest for the New Talent Singing Contest in Toronto today. I just noticed that this girl has a very nice voice. It's not necessarily strong or loud but it's very beautiful. Apparently she entered showbiz via an EEG singing competition. I saw her performances and they weren't necessarily spectacular, which shows that song choice is so important. The songs she sings now are totally perfect for her voice and allows her to show off her talent.

Here's her newest song: 喜歡一個人好累.
The melody's not bad but I love the song for the lyrics.



作曲：小涼 填詞：姜憶萱
編曲：舒文 監製：舒文

昨天　你送我一個笑臉
今天　你經過了我身邊
每天　你這樣一舉一動
都影響我的悲傷喜悅

昨天　你多看了我一眼
今天　我有些心不在焉
那天　我才會有勇氣
勇敢面對

暗戀　喜歡一個人好美
想像　你輕輕摟我的肩
走在　人擠人的街抓緊你的手
甜蜜無限
暗戀　喜歡一個人好累
流淚　在數不盡的黑夜
想念　變成了習慣想你一遍遍
你卻好遠

時候尚早

Nan Pong's new song - very meaningful lyrics.

(I can only find a clip of it of not so good quality.. sorry)

作曲：藍奕邦
填詞：藍奕邦
編曲：Adam Lee
監製：陳德健．李漢金．藍奕邦

何解我未曾問　已跟我講你懂
何解你所有口吻　極其像個老頑童
而你不過廿來歲　無法可將一切看通

對所有事情漸忘掉衝動
談起你未來亦滿臉愁容
越去估計前途　偏偏越會幻想起暗湧

但秒針仍在跳　光陰也未窮
凡事也自有它答案　這刻不要碰

＊可知道　時候尚早
前面尚有幾多的起伏　佈滿你一生旅途　很多個未知數
行前兩步你便看到　一切總會有分數
時候尚早　讓老天替你一一安排　並未願知得太早
誰預先打小報告　快掩耳　當聽不到

人生裡總有幾對手去等你拖
人生裡問題逐條逐條地一一探索
活到七老八十歲　還有很多未曾尋獲

考究深奧的存在意義
何不試一試逐一的去試
亂去偷看結局　多糟蹋揭曉的真意思

若你心仍在跳　不需當先知
就趁有幸去生存時　你即管放肆

REPEAT＊

可知道　時候尚早
前面尚有幾多的起伏　佈滿你一生旅途　很多個未知數
行前兩步你便看到　一切總會有分數
時候尚早　學會將冀盼拋出窗外　便是最好的法寶
誰預先打小報　答一句　我不知道

Lyrics from: www.crimsonrain.com

Khalil Fong's new song

Love in this world. (press play if it didn't autoplay already)

Love it! This talented Hawaiian never fails to impress me :)

Asian Entertainment Review: Khalil and Gary

It is yet another snow day, which tends to make me appreciate music even more than I usually do.

I've recently been listening to Khalil Fong (Wonderland) and Gary Cao (格格Blue, Superman, Super Sunshine). They're both very strong singers with quite the talent for song writing.

Khalil's Wonderland
Looks like Khalil decided to change his look with the new blue appearing on his cd cover and on every shirt in his wardrobe now. It's pretty funny since he used to only wear dark/dull colours. Enough about aesthetics, the songs in this cd are wonderful as usual. Must listens: Track 1: Love Song and Track 4: 爱在. I instantly fell in love with both and both are included in the playlist on this blog. The other songs are great too but just doesn't have the umph factor.

Gary's 格格Blue, Superman, Super Sunshine
He's been around for a while but I just recently discovered this talented Malaysian singer. Very strong voice with quite an impressive range. His first two cd's were very well done. Lots of great songs like: 數到五答應我, 燭光晚餐, 情人節快樂, 妳是我的寶貝,天使忌妒的生活, just to name a few. His latest album, Super Sunshine, is not as great. Similar to Jay Chou, he seems to be experimenting with new styles and I'm not really feeling it. For example, Qi Chuang Ge. What is that??? Sorry, but it's too bizarre for me. I don't really have a favourite in this album. Maybe Ai De Hu Du because it's jazzy but still not a must listen.

Random discoveries

I randomly stumbled across this during my study break. It's pretty cute :)
Warning: When the girl starts crying, it sounds like she's hiccuping - that can be slightly disturbing.

Asian Entertainment Review: Dancing Talents

Prologue: I found something that is worse than not giving me the solution to a practice exam, and that is giving me an answer key that doesn't actually contain "answers", especially on questions which I'm really not sure about! Feeling totally pooped out right now from studying, I will attempt write about my exciting new discoveries.

I'm always excited when I discover new talents, especially new dancing talents! They're not professional dancers, so don't expect too much from them. They're already a lot better than so-called professional dancers like Ron Ng. (Why do I keep picking on him? I just have something against 偶像派 artists. He's hilarious; I just found out people call him 吳唱k.)

Johnson Lee: (02:00) In addition to his impersonating, acting and singing talent, this guy can dance very well! I'm pretty sure he was lip-syncing, which I'm a little disappointed about; however, I have yet to figure out whether the recording was done using his voice or Aaron's. If it's his, then that's all around talent right there. Hope he knows he has a lot of supporters. Side note: 王祖藍's performance was below average that night. He's a lot better when he imitates male singers.



Raymond Lam: (02:50 and you can see him in the background for most of the performance) Not bad. Not bad. Looks very natural. His singing is not perfect but that's probably because he was tired out from all that dancing. If you compare him to Stephanie Cheng right after him, then he would be considered outstanding! Side Note: Patrick and Hins' performance after the dance performance was pretty hilarious too. Hins can be so feminine, it's actually quite scary.

Asian Entertainment Review: Khalil, Raymond, Justin

I feel totally exhausted for some reason, so I decided to give myself a break while I sit here listening to my new cds.

Khalil Fong's This Love Live album was amazing as usual. He has this very unique voice that totally suits the soul/R&B genre. According to my brother, he sounds like an asian version of Jason Mraz. I hope to see more new songs from him soon. I've heard a lot of the songs on this album before but it was different to hear them "live". My favourites are still "Goodbye Melody Rose", "詩人的情人" and my all time favourite: "南音". His renditions of classics such as "Signed Sealed Delivered" were also great!



Raymond Lam's debut is not that bad. I was a little worried at first because all I've ever heard him sing were themes of tv shows, but the songs are pretty good. The only problem I have is that there isn't much variation in terms of the style of his songs. He managed to try a more upbeat/more hiphop sounding tune for Track 5 though. I hope to see more of that since he needs more upbeat songs to enable him to show off his dancing talent :) After listening to the whole album I still like the Drive of Life song (ie the title track) the most. Despite the fact I'm not a big fan of the series, I actually like both the main theme and subtheme of the series a lot. The last track is pretty but I really don't like the "wee-oo-wee-oo" sound in the background. I find it a little inappropriate. The packaging was very cool, nice poster-lyric book hybrid, awesome photo collection; however, the cardboard cd case is not very durable. I already ripped it :( His music is not as catchy or amazing as Khalil's but he definitely deserves more attention than Ron Ng etc.

Justin's JTV is also very good. My favourites are "紅地氈", "一句" and "男人KTV". I swear "頭條新聞 " is pretty old. I heard it way back when. I'm not a big fan of intro's and outro's though. I think they're supposed to tie the album together, but they're not something I would actually enjoy listening to. Also, I don't like it when artists sing the same song in different languages/dialects, like how Stuck On U is the English version of "紅地氈" and "路人甲" is the Mandarin version of "貝殼". It's like, did they run out of melodies so they had to recycle them? I always end up liking the first version I hear more than the second(or even third) so it just doesn't help in terms of increasing the album's value for me. The outer sleeve of the album is normal looking but what's up with the ugly inner cover. Oh well, it's the music that counts right?

Since I am trying to be objective, I noticed I mentioned a lot of bad points but don't get me wrong; overall, I'm very happy with my purchases.

MAL Visit

I finally got the chance to go to MAL over the weekend. I decided to respect intellectual property rights and to support those artists who work so hard to produce great music. What a coincidence that there was an article in 24 today talking about the demise of CDs. Some might call me crazy for not following the crowd; some might call me stupid for wasting money, but like Jackie said about being punctual, I felt great after doing it and that’s all that counts. I felt like a little kid in a candy shop! Raymond Lam’s new cd immediately caught my attention. I’ve only heard one song off his album but the attractive cd covered lured me over. Then I start grabbing so many cds off the shelf. Fortunately I had someone there with me to bring me back to reality. I had to give up on some and decided to purchase Raymond Lam’s debut《愛在記憶中找你》, Khalil Fong’s This Love Live, and Justin Lo’s JTV. I usually don’t spend this much but I wanted to give myself a little treat because of the stress I had to endure this weekend. Listened to some songs from both Khalil and Justin’s albums. I’m glad to say that they are totally worth my money. If I have time, full reviews are to follow.

Asian Entertainment Review: TVB Award Presentation 2007

2 posts in one day but I really wanted to share my thoughts. Just finished watching the show. I was very disappointed for most of the show because I really wasn't happy with a lot of the people who received awards. The show definitely turned around for me as Moses Chan and Lee See Kei were awarded as they were the only deserving winners in my opinion. Lastly, and most importantly, I was extremely touched at the end of the show. The appearance of Lydia Sum really touched me. I never really liked her as an artist. I thought she was loud and egocentric, but today all these thoughts dissipated as I see her appear in a wheelchair and she seemed like a totally different person. Chemotherapy has really affected her as she now looks very weak and very thin. I truly truly wish her good health and longevity. For everyone else, please value your good health now as I just realized nothing is more important than that.

Asian Entertainment Review: Welcome to the House

Time to take off my philosophical hat and put on my Asian hat. Welcome to the House - A sitcom revolving around the Ko family. When I watched the first few episodes, I was thinking: "What is this? This is so 無聊." I decided to stop watching despite the fact that Raymond Cho and Johnson Lee are in it. I've recently decided to give it a chance after finding out that the Drive of Life is not my cup of tea. I still have to agree that the plots are sometimes very 無聊 and pointless and some episodes are better left out, but if you're looking for something light-hearted to watch after a stressful day, this is the right series. I'd rather be watching something relaxing like WTTH than to have to suffer more stress and turmoil from watching the Drive of Life.

Johnson Lee doesn't have the looks but he's definitely got the talent. In my opinion, he has the best acting skills in the series. Some actors who used to play small parts before who I liked are actually leads now (e.g. Michael Tse, Roger Kwok, Joe Ma). Hope the same happens to him. Can't wait to see his performance tomorrow night at the TVB anniversary! Another plus is that his English is great. And I definitely can say the same about Chung King Fai. Him breaking out into his Shakespearean monologue out of nowhere was hilarious. Raymond Cho is stuck playing a greedy, selfish, vain jerk again after having a similar character in At Home with Love. Not loving it. Shermon Tang is actually not bad for a newcomer. Her character is also very likable. I really want her to end up with Johnson after the cholesterol episode but I don't think that's going to happen. Although she's only 1 year older than Annie Chung (Go B), her acting is so much better. And yes, Go B is apparently 23 years old! I seriously thought she was 16. When I saw her with Vin Choi in one episode I thought Vin was a pedophile, apparently not; they are the same age. Christine Ng has really got to stop saying "REElax" because it is not sending the right signal to those in HK who want to learn proper English. Lastly, the addition of Sharon Chan and her brother is bringing the series down. Can't wait to see Nancy Wu though. All in all, not an award winning series but definitely something to raise my spirits.