Info

Album: 為你而活 / Live For You (Buy Album)

Artist: 神木與瞳 / Y2J

Release Date: August 15, 2008

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Tracklisting:

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Review By: illuminance

Review

With the introduction of a new band, there always comes forth an abundance of promotional literature attempting to tout the band’s “new” styles, direction, and spirit. While most of the recent ones are pop-oriented (Fahrenheit/飛輪海, Lollipop/棒棒堂, among numerous others), this time the new group on the block is Y2J, perhaps better known by their Chinese name 神木與瞳. The name 神木與瞳 comes from a combination of nicknames of the two - Lai Ming-wei‘s aboriginal nickname and Huang Mei-zhen’s nick of 小瞳.

Consisting of Lai Ming-wei 賴銘偉 as the male vocalist/guitarist and Huang Mei-zhen 黃美珍 as lead female vocalist, the group is touted as “Taiwan’s only rock band with both male and female lead vocalists.” (台灣唯一一個雙主唱搖滾男女組合) The words “rock” and “female lead vocalist” are bound to evoke Taiwan’s current most well-known band that regularly uses rock music in their compositions - F.I.R.

These comparisons aren’t necessarily unfounded, and indeed, many of the promotional literature and imagery for the two groups are similar (notice the camera angle from the ground is used for both of their debut albums) - however, the main differences between Y2J and F.I.R. lie in that in Y2J, both members generally get an (approximately) equal amount of vocal time, whereas in F.I.R., there is no question that Faye 飛兒 is the voice of the group. (Ian and Real, at most, lend a mere supporting role). Furthermore, Y2J’s goes for more deep rock than F.I.R., who some would describe as “popified” rock. (Don’t get me wrong, I still love F.I.R.)

So, let’s stop comparing the two and get to Y2J - what is its album all about?

The title track, Live For You (為你而活) is an excellent song, that I think really demonstrates in a great opener that rock can be done in Chinese - excellent vocals, good rhythm, but with lyrics a bit on the repetitive side. It’s a nice song.

Armed Rosa (武裝的薔薇) - FYI, rosa is a type of flower - the second song has a faster beat, and complements Live For You nicely. You can see the similarities between Y2J here among music videos - compare the music video for this song with F.I.R.’s Revolution, and let me know what you think. Eerily similar, eh!

Love Before Doomsday (愛在末日前) is a slower song, also great vocals, and the rest of the album alternates between  in truth, I actually enjoyed this album very much, despite unconsciously comparing them to F.I.R. some of the time. I really like their fresh approach to Mandarin/Chinese rock and think this album is certainly worth buying. Again, looking forward to their future endeavors, and where their creativity takes them.

Videos

Lyrics

為你而活 / Live For You

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武裝的薔薇 / Armed Rosa

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愛在末日前 / Love Before Doomsday

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愛鍊 / Chains of Love

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草戒指 / Straw Ring

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• 楊丞琳 - 我的愛吊點滴 / Rainie Yang - My Love Drips and Drops
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