Breathe Me 呼吸
Sandy Lam 林忆莲
At last, her long-awaited follow-up to 2001’s excellent 原来…林忆莲. In a sense, this album can be seen as a companion piece to last year’s Cantonese release 本色, in which she returned to her dance roots.
The lead single was a cover of New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle, which actually worked as a slice of Mando dance pop. It was easier to accept than expected perhaps because frente! already did a more radical reworking of the track. The cover of The Cardigans’ Communication however, sent me scurrying for Nina Persson’s haunting take on the ignored Long Gone Before Daylight album. And oh yeah, I’m not too thrilled that 4 of the tracks are covers.
The highlight of the album is undoubtedly the Peggy Hsu-penned 放开手, with its shifting rhythms and soaring chorus deftly handled by Sandy. Unfortunately, the return to her dance roots means we don’t get a stirring mid-tempo ballad that Sandy is so good at. The most obvious contender 相信 is let down by its dated production and also by the fact that it’s meant to be an obvious contender.
I’ll take a new release by Sandy any day but this one seems to have fallen short of her own high standards. Then again, her albums have always been growers, so maybe I’ll just reserve final judgement on this album for a while yet.