Info

Song: Fly Away

Album: 飛兒樂團 / F.I.R. （Buy Album）

Artist: 飛兒樂團 / F.I.R.

Released: April 23, 2004

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Blurb

This is perhaps the best example of Chinglish in a Chinese song - Nothing I Will Be Afraid… Seriously? Now, don’t get me wrong - I like this song very much, but couldn’t they used a line that sounds less cheesy? Like, perhaps.. I Will Never Be Afraid? Their debut album was definitely great (in fact, I know some of their fans wish their latest hits could be more like the original), but it’s unfortunate that one of the hits furthers the stereotype that Chinese people can’t translate. Music video after the jump (the English is in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS in the music video, hah!)

Music Video

Lyrics ▼

Possibly Related Posts:

• 蔡依林 - 愛的練習語 / Jolin Tsai - Love Exercise
• Chinglish: J. WU - 是什麼音樂讓你覺得舒服 / J. WU - What Kind of Music Makes You Comfortable
• Chinglish: 徐若瑄 - So So / Vivian Hsu - So So
• Chinglish: 徐懷鈺 - 等不及 / Yuki Hsu - Can’t Wait
• Chinglish: 卜學亮 - 子曰 / Ah Liang (Charge Pu) - Confucius Says

We all know those songs - songs that mix English and Chinese with reckless abandon, and sometimes, they actually make sense! But yet, plenty of hit songs do mix the two most popular languages on Earth together, and that’s what this series is all about. We’re not going to go over anything we’ve covered already, so there’s lots of new blood and old classics, including some from 1999. Let it begin! We’ll be posting about 10 of them.

Possibly Related Posts:

• 蔡依林 - 愛的練習語 / Jolin Tsai - Love Exercise
• Chinglish: J. WU - 是什麼音樂讓你覺得舒服 / J. WU - What Kind of Music Makes You Comfortable
• Chinglish: 徐若瑄 - So So / Vivian Hsu - So So
• Chinglish: 徐懷鈺 - 等不及 / Yuki Hsu - Can’t Wait
• Chinglish: 卜學亮 - 子曰 / Ah Liang (Charge Pu) - Confucius Says

Info

Album: 我很好 / I’m Fine (Buy Album)

Artist: 劉若英 / Rene Liu

Released: January 11, 2008

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Blurb

Je suis dans ma peau, says Rene Liu, and “I’m Fine.” I can’t say that I’m a regular listener of hers, having before this album just one of her songs in my music library, but this, as I said before, sounds like most of her songs. Very melancholy, and quite sad. Best listened to when you’re feeling down and you want to sink further in your feelings. Oddly enough, perhaps in my opinion the best song on this album isn’t even about love perse, it’s 不能跟情人說的話 (Words That Can’t Be Spoken to Lovers), which is more about friendship than anything else. It’s also a duet with FanFan 范瑋琪.
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Possibly Related Posts:

• 游喧 - 勾勾手 / iD - Hooking Fingers
• 蔡依林 - 愛的練習語 / Jolin Tsai - Love Exercise
• Album Review: 五月天 - 後青春期的詩 / Mayday - Poetry of the Day After
• Album Review: 林俊傑 - 陸 / JJ Lin - Sixology
• First Listen: 周杰倫 - 魔杰座 / Jay Chou - Capricorn

Info

Album: 雙面飛輪海 / Two-Sided Fahrenheit (Buy Album)

Artist: 飛輪海 / Fahrenheit

Date Released: January 4, 2008

Review By: ting

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Blurb

Get it into your head now: their names are Calvin Chen, Jiro Wang, Wu Chun and Aaron Yan. The four boys represent different seasons: Calvin is Spring (warm and cheerful), Jiro is Summer (bright and passionate), Wu Chun is Autumn (pensive and cool at times), Aaron is Winter (quiet and melancholic). Together, Fahrenheit is an interesting mix of intriguing personalities. Why do you need to know them? Because they are probably the most successful Taiwanese boy band after F4. In Taiwan, their faces are printed on every single vitamin drink; they are in every single Hong Kong Disneyland promotional video, and you can’t buy a bottle of Watsons Distilled Water without seeing their names on the wrappings.

Read the rest of this entry »

Possibly Related Posts:

• 游喧 - 勾勾手 / iD - Hooking Fingers
• 蔡依林 - 愛的練習語 / Jolin Tsai - Love Exercise
• Album Review: 五月天 - 後青春期的詩 / Mayday - Poetry of the Day After
• Album Review: 林俊傑 - 陸 / JJ Lin - Sixology
• First Listen: 周杰倫 - 魔杰座 / Jay Chou - Capricorn

Info

Album: Super Sunshine (Buy Album)

Artist: 曹格 / Gary Chaw

Date Released: January 4, 2008

Review By: illuminance

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Blurb

Following our initial look of Gary some time back, the new album has been released: Super Sunshine, by Gary Chaw. In this album, fans of Gary will find much to like about it, for Gary does not stray far from the formula and style that made him popular: Soulful, romantic ballads, often mixed in with old songs.

Super Sunshine has been seen before, and of interest is 起床歌 (Wake-Up Song). To me, it sounds like a 1950s song, vaudeville-like. 無辜 and 愛到最後一秒也不委曲 are songs that show off Gary’s voice quite well too. 你的歌 is a reminiscent song for Gary, and mostly is about him thinking about his rise as a singer. A good album, overall!

Videos

Super Sunshine

Lyrics ▼

起床歌 / Wake-Up Song

Lyrics ▼

無辜 / Innocent

Lyrics ▼

愛到最後一秒也不委曲 / The Song of Last-Minute Love Without Wrongs

Lyrics ▼

你的歌 / Your Song

Lyrics ▼

Possibly Related Posts:

• 游喧 - 勾勾手 / iD - Hooking Fingers
• 蔡依林 - 愛的練習語 / Jolin Tsai - Love Exercise
• Album Review: 五月天 - 後青春期的詩 / Mayday - Poetry of the Day After
• Album Review: 林俊傑 - 陸 / JJ Lin - Sixology
• First Listen: 周杰倫 - 魔杰座 / Jay Chou - Capricorn

Well, it’s the start of a whole new year, and just in time for our completion of our first-ever series, 2007 in Review. Examining 12 albums in such quick succession was quite challenging for all of us, but we did it! Stay tuned for more series - I have some interesting ideas in the pipeline.

Just to clarify things, the albums covered in 2007 in Review aren’t necessarily the most important albums of the month, but ones that we thought were important for some reason or another and haven’t covered. (For example, arguably the most important albums of November included Jay Chou and Fish Leong, which we have already covered.)

Here’s a recap of the series, in case you missed anything:

• January: 五月天 - 為愛而生 / Mayday - Born to Love (2007 in Review)
• February: 曹格 - Superman / Gary Cao - Superman (2007 in Review)
• March: 孫燕姿 - 逆光 / Stefanie Sun - Against the Light (2007 in Review)
• April: 吳建豪 - V.DUBB / Vanness Wu - V.DUBB (2007 in Review)
• May: S.H.E - Play (2007 in Review)
• June: 張棟樑 - 王子 / Nicholas Teo - Prince (2007 in Review)
• July: 林俊傑 - 西界 / JJ Lin - Westside (2007 in Review)
• August: 王力宏 - 改變自己 / Leehom Wang - Change Me (2007 in Review)
• September: 楊丞琳 - 任意門 / Rainie Yang - My Other Self (2007 in Review)
• October: 蔡健雅 - Goodbye & Hello / Tanya Chua - Goodbye & Hello (2007 in Review)
• November: 卓文萱 - 幸福氧氣 / Genie Zhuo - Oxygenie of Happiness (2007 in Review)
• December: 許茹芸 - 北緯六十六度 / Valen Hsu - Latitude 66° (2007 in Review)

Possibly Related Posts:

• Should We Cover Jolin’s Love Exercise?
• 2007 in Review: 許茹芸 - 北緯六十六度 / Valen Hsu - Latitude 66°
• 2007 in Review: 卓文萱 - 幸福氧氣 / Genie Zhuo - Oxygenie of Happiness
• 2007 in Review: 蔡健雅 - Goodbye & Hello / Tanya Chua - Goodbye & Hello
• 2007 in Review: 楊丞琳 - 任意門 / Rainie Yang - My Other Self

Info

Album: 北緯六十六度  (北緯66度) / Latitude 66° (Buy Album)

Artist: 許茹芸 / Valen Hsu

Released: December 21, 2007

Post By: illuminance

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Blurb

Brr, it’s cold, just look at the album artwork! Apart from the freezing cold, Latitude 66° is 許茹芸 Valen Hsu’s first full-length album in five years, since the last one 芸開了 in 2002. (Not counting an EP in 2007).

I think perhaps the best aspect of Valen’s Latitude 66°is her voice. In fact this album does remind me of Tanya Chua’s Goodbye & Hello. The album focuses on her voice, and again, it is an album with simple background music and not a whole host of bells and whistles.

I enjoyed this album - especially 手寫愛 (Handwritten Love), which has lyrics by Vincent Fang. You can’t go wrong with that!

Read the rest of this entry »

Possibly Related Posts:

• 游喧 - 勾勾手 / iD - Hooking Fingers
• 蔡依林 - 愛的練習語 / Jolin Tsai - Love Exercise
• Album Review: 五月天 - 後青春期的詩 / Mayday - Poetry of the Day After
• Album Review: 林俊傑 - 陸 / JJ Lin - Sixology
• First Listen: 周杰倫 - 魔杰座 / Jay Chou - Capricorn