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.

This is Fahrenheit. The hottest commercial boy band phenomenon. Did anyone ever think they could sing after listening to their first album Fahrenheit? Probably not. But since that debut, their vocal skills have matured, and this is made clear in Two-sided Fahrenheit. Poppy romantic songs are still in majority, but they are not all so cutesy anymore. Fast songs like 新窩 New Digs and Superb are the new radio hits. 小小大人物 Small, Yet Significant Character is a tribute to Mickey Mouse, foaming with optimism about the future and the value of individuals. The song is being played in all the Disneylands in Asia now, so there is a good bit of festivity in it, too.

But of course, if you are still up for sentimental ballads, 不會愛 Can’t Love is a pretty decent on in R&B style with a Jay Chou-esque under beat. I will give another thumbs up for Ti Amo for its linguistic hybridity. Remember Fish Leong’s j’Adore? It seems that English is not enough for our pop singers to show the present extent of Westernization in Taiwan/China. No, we need to import more random phrases. In the case of Ti Amo, though, you wonder how well this works for love songs: “Wo Ai Ni” is apparently not exotic and expressive enough. So Aaron Yan and Jade incorporated Spanish, and Korean versions of “I love/like you” – “Ti Amo, Te queiro, and Sarang Heyo”, with admirable results.

As usual, S.H.E. gave their little brothers a hand in boosting up the album’s chart-rankings. After 謝謝你的溫柔 Thank You For Your Tenderness and 只對你有感覺 Only Have Feelings For You last year, New Digs is another sure-win remix. Mind you though, the tune is extremely catchy and contagious. Do not hit replay too much it if you don’t want to be infected by a pink mentality. (editor’s note: There’s the all-male version, which I heartily dislike and call the “cockfest” version.

Other recommendations and why:

至少還有我 At Least You Still Have Me – it has all that kinetic energy of Mcfly and Busted. Or better perhaps because it’s in Chinese? A definite Pan-Asia concert piece.

為你存在 Exist For You – another profound exploration of the nature of love and existence….? No. Not really, but you can’t hate the MV, because they were all dressed as cupids in a completely heterosexual style.

Videos

Lyrics

新窩 / New Digs

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為你存在 / Exist For You

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不會愛 / Can’t Love

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Ti Amo (我愛你義大利文) (Italian for I Love You)

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小小大人物 / Small, Yet Significant Character

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