20070310

19 days to Toronto concert

Oh yes, Paikkuan, I have heard of Khalil Fong & listened to a few of his songs. He is undoubtedly talented but unfortunately I do not like his voice & irritated by his singing. Its the same with Leehom & JJ Lin. I feel as if they are singing the lyrics in pinyin. That's how Tension learn to sing their songs but altho their pronunciation is sometimes not quite right, at least they do sound like they are singing in Mandarin. Actually I have often wondered why David don't affect me that way with his singing cos he is not great with his Mandarin either. I can't explain it I guess. Listening to David for me is no difference to listening to Craig David or John Legend except that he is singing in Mandarin. Listening to Khalil, I get annoyed cos I can tell he is singing a Chinese song the way he would sing an english song. Of cos its just me & fans plse refrain from tagging abuse ^__^ Gotta be matured enough to accept not everybody in the world is gonna fall in love with yr idol.
Frankly I am a bit disappointed with the current crop of new chinese singer/songwriter like Khalil Fong, Tank, Zhang Xuan, Gary Cao, Justin Lo, just to name a few. They don't really have anything vry new & interesting to offer. What they done have already been done before -- the regimented r&b or jazzy or balladsy or 'chinese wind' music already done to death. Even the much hyped Zhang Xuan sounds just like another version of Cheer Chen. They don't have much personality either or know how to tell stories in their songs. I long for someone like James Morrison, Daniel Powter or James Blunt. Someone with a strong voice who can compose a simple song & sing it with conviction & a lot of heart. I am tired of pretty catchy poppy songs with poetic lyrics. I want a clear song with a msg like Melissa Etheridge's I want to wake up.
So I go & listen to Black Tangerine ^__^ Really if this album is released today, it will still be as fresh & original. David said that Tai Mei Li is his most cohesive album, then Black Tangerine must be his most diverse. I honestly dun think there is anyone in the Chinese musical industry who can write songs similar to those in Black Tangerine. The songs came from who he is, where he come from, his beliefs, his upbringing, his fears, his tears. He said Beautiful is his most personal album but I think Black Tangerine is even more personal. In Beautiful, he chose what he want to tell us abt his life journey, in Black Tangerine, he revealed more than what he wanted to tell us. That's why his fans understood perfectly when he said he no longer wanted to sing Melody. This man cannot sing without passion. Imagine what he had to go thru whenever he sing this song. Not that he still pined for Melody. He must be vry happy that she has found someone she wanted to marry. But they were together for 5 yrs -- 5 yrs of his life go thru his mind everytime he sing that song >"< So I fervently hope that he nvr have to sing it ever again. Anyway my apologies, I started off writing abt Khalil Fong & ended up writing abt DT *__*

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree. Feel like I'm running out of things to listen to. My favourite is Legend out of the bunch (besides David of course!) and I can't help but feel like people don't appreciate soul anymore.

Sometimes it gets tiring supporting these artists. Getting people to listen is one thing but they don't seem to understand. The just want beats and cliches, where thinking is unnecessary nowadays.

Zhao said...

Oh yeah I agreed Sukyee, its just disheartening :(

Anonymous said...

I agree with you on 'Black Tangerine' being the best~ since I can't seem to pick up a favorite outta the album while on his other albums I can skip certains track just to suit my taste.. with BT it's too difficult.. every tracks just spark up something too precious to ignored :)

zoe~

Anonymous said...

Are you a musician yourself?