20080623

Nothing ado abt DT

While looking for cute panda pixs to cheer myself up, came across these fabulous comic strips by Coco Wang. Also check out her other strips on the Sichuan earthquake - wonderful stuff. So what's new & happening? Well, check out the new Taiwan wunderboy Jam Hsiao's debut album & there was a track called 活著 (Live on) which has the line 為你唱首歌 (I sing you a song) like David's earthquake song in the lyrics! Coincidental? Well, guess not an uncommon line in lyrics but the title & song is also an encouraging song almost like its written for victims of the earthquake. Only difference it's a fast song. Anyway, just a trivial thing I noticed but then all power to WaWa whose simple lyrics always has the ability to touch the heart. Also there are 4 ballads in the album that featured a longish solo piano intro. They are written by Gary Cao, Real of FIR, Qing Feng of Sodagreen & Jam Hsiao himself. For sure there must be many ballads that start with a solo piano intro but to have 4 in one album? Anyway I am no expert on chinese albums so I can't say for sure that there were not other albums that had that many ballads with solo piano intro. Or maybe its just the power of DT that even with 1 song, he can influence the way chinese ballads are arranged ^__^ Okay okay I am just your raving DT fanatic (*__*) But I do especially love the intro in 好好活下去, the way it tugs at the heartstrings.
Anyway back to Jam Hsiao who interests me cos he looks like a male version of A-Mei. He too is of Taiwanese aboriginal background. Here he is wearing a crown cos his album came up top in sales *sigh* The things chinese record companies made their singers do. Jam's company has been very safe with his album & it has enough ballads for karaoke as well as a couple of off-beat songs to appeal to the young crowd who want something more 'indie'. Of more interest is Jam's vocals whom everybody rave abt & I must be the odd one cos I honestly cannot find anything attractive abt his voice. In fact he has a rather old-fashioned way of singing like warbling with a very pronounced vibrato. Unlike A-mei who has a well-modulated voice with excellent clarity and just enough vibrato for emphasis. I noticed most chinese listeners go for singers who work hard audibly for their high notes like Jam whereas for me I prefer a singer who can go through a wide range effortlessly like Alicia Keys & of cos DT ^__^

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Zhaodi! How're you doing? Been a week since we heard from you. Hope everything is alright on your side. Cheering on for you. God bless :)

Zhao said...

Hi Seant, thanks for yr msg. Sry been a bit lazy to blog :P Thanks again for yr encouragement!