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Album: 魔杰座 / Capricorn (Buy Album)

Artist: 周杰倫 / Jay Chou

Release Date: October 15, 2008

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Blurb

So, Jay Chou’s Capricorn has finally “officially” been released. Quite seriously though, this is the tackiest album cover I’ve ever seen on one of his albums - last I checked, this was a Jay Chou album, not the Taiwanese version of World of Warcraft. Since Capricorn is supposed to be all about sorcery, where’s that at?

As I noted in my really brief note that it had been leaked two weeks ago, there’s not that much that I like about the album. There’s a variety of different styles and directions, but the vocals strike me as rather weak, and there’s not a whole lot of originality in the songs - no song really “sticks,” or makes me imagine playing it over and over again.

That’s not to say there’s nothing that’s interesting on Capricorn - Fragrant Rice (稻香) is still as good as ever, though it’s actually the last track on the album. 喬克叔叔 (Uncle Joker) and 時光機 (Time Machine) I like, but the rest, meh.

Going through midterms now, will post a more through review later.

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• 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
• 魔杰座 / Capricorn Leaked?

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Album: Mirotic (Buy Album)

Artist: DBSK / 東方神起

Release Date: September 28, 2008

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Blurb

Korean boy band has released (also known as 東方神起 or TVXQ) their fourth studio album, Mirotic, with styles of mostly rap/hip-hop. Overall, a nice album - I particularly like “넌 나의 노래” and 악녀 (Are you A Good girl). (This is short, b/c I have so much work to do. )

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• BoA - Eat You Up
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So apparently Jay Chou’s new album, 魔杰座 / Capricorn has been leaked - we’re trying to see if it’s really real or just some random stuff masquerading as him… Keep you posted.

Update: Yep, we’re pretty sure it’s real…. Only thing is, first impression wise, it’s really not that good…

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• First Listen: 周杰倫 - 魔杰座 / Jay Chou - Capricorn

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Album: Stand Up (Buy Album)

Artist: 빅뱅 / Big Bang

Release Date: August 8, 2008

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Review By: sky

Review

Anyone who listens to Korean pop, should know about the mainstream artistes such as Wonder Girls and Big Bang. The latter is very active, releasing hit after hit, in the form of mini albums, and concert cds. They’ve swept the continent of Asia by storm, and their fans are regularly surprised by the release of mini albums, and this third mini album Stand Up is no exception., released on 08/08/08.
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Album: 我的電台 FM S.H.E / FM S.H.E (Buy Album)

Artist: S.H.E

Release Date: September 23, 2008

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First Thoughts

Hard to believe it, but this is actually Taiwanese girl band S.H.E’s eleventh album. Titled 我的電台 FM S.H.E (or simply FM S.H.E in English), it quite the interesting album. In this album, Hebe, Selina, and Ella all take on the personalities of radio hosts and DJs, and present the album as if it was one long radio show. Therefore, that leads to some interesting things - namely, first that you should not turn on shuffle when you hear this album for the first time - it makes more sense to go through it sequentially from the beginning all the way through to the end.

Apart from 宇宙小姐 (Miss Universe) and 沿海公路的出口  (Coastal Road Exit), which we first took a look at in this previous post, there are many other songs of note - in fact, I think overall the quality of the songs are better than Play’s, though there isn’t a single song that strikes me immediately as being easily the most famous song in the album. Personal favorites so far: 我愛煩惱 (I Love Afflictions), 我是火星人 (I’m a Martian) and 酸甜 (Sweet and Sour), featuring brother band Fahrenheit/飛輪海.

This is our first listen at it - our official full-length review will come this weekend. In the time being, sound off in the comments section, and let us know what you think!

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EP: 右手邊 / Right Hand Side (Buy Album)

Artist: 光良 / Michael Wong (Guang Liang)

Release Date: September 19, 2008

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Blurb

Everyone’s favorite melancholy singer, Michael Wong (光良) is back with two new songs, released a few days ago as an EP. I’ll be brief, since I have a lot of S.H.E stuff to write about, but essentially, if you’re in a particularly emo mood right now, go for it. Also, the second song is more upbeat (and features a harmonica quite prominently, yay!) and is a duet with Amguulan (阿穆隆), a Chinese-Mongolian singer.

Check out the music video after the break.

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• First Listen: 周杰倫 - 魔杰座 / Jay Chou - Capricorn

Info

Song: 稻香 / Fragrant Rice

Album: 魔杰座 / Capricorn

Artist: 周杰倫 / Jay Chou

To Be Released: October 9, 2008

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Preview

Literally less than an hour ago, Jay Chou’s (周杰倫) first song from his upcoming album Capricorn (魔杰座) was aired on Taiwan’s HitFM radio - mad props to Alex for letting me know. Entitled Rice Fragrance (稻香), it’s a very folksy tune, yet as Jay Chou himself put it, it has some hip-hop influences to it, and the song is primarily a lesson for everyone to be “content” (知足), and to find that spark in a simple life.

Listen to it above, and let us know what you think! I, for one like it a lot. A far better start to an album than last time. Catch the lyrics, written by Jay himself, after the break.

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Info

Song: 永遠在身邊 / Always By Your Side

Artist: 大嘴巴 / Da Mouth

Release Date: September 2008

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Preview

Da Mouth (大嘴巴) debuted last fall, and they’ve come out with their first song since that album - a love song called Always By Your Side (永遠在身邊). Good thing is, Aisa’s Chinese seems to be much better this time, and they no longer give people the impression that they’re simply ripping stuff off of other people again - contrary to their songs last time, most of which I tolerated (and some which I found positively annoying), I actually like this song. Take a listen, tell me what you think. Have you now found yourself looking upon them in a more positive light?
Read the rest of this entry »

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• First Listen: 周杰倫 - 魔杰座 / Jay Chou - Capricorn