Harmony
Sa Dingding
Sa Dingding, who was born in Inner Mongolia, sings in Mandarin, Sanskrit, Tibetan and even her own self-created baby-talk language.
It sounds suspiciously precious but the marriage of electronic beats and ethnicinspired music works surprisingly well even if her voice can be more schoolgirl shrill rather than earth-mother rich.
The beguiling first track Ha Ha Li Li begins with the gentle jangling of bells and then over a throbbing synth line, her voice floats in and builds up to a full-throated ululation.
It is paired with fable-like lyrics about a utopian state of nature: “Legend says that sky and earth were joined together as one, never to be separated/Hardworking men and mystical animals lived in the caves.”
The titles alone of the other songs, Pomegranate Woman, Blue Horse and Little Tree/Big Tree, point to a strong association with the natural living world, adding to Sa’s earth-mother vibe.
Steer clear though of the howlingly bad Lucky Day in which she breathily mangles pretentiously portentous lines in English such as “To live outside of time is to be free/Have a nice day”.
Harmony was out of whack on this one.
Shall We Dance? Shall We Love?
Hotcha
Anchored by the sparkly Big Occasion and the funky Enlarged, this third album from Crystal, Winkie and Regen offers slickly packaged Cantonese dance pop.
The manufactured girl group – they were put together by the record label – want to venture beyond their signature fast songs though, so we also get slowerpaced numbers such as Have Feelings For Me.
The accompanying bonus DVD featured a somewhat spotty live performance so they might want to think about working on their vocals. They could even try some harmony work instead of simply singing in unison.
After all, with Twins mounting a comeback after a two-year hiatus resulting from Gillian Chung’s involvement in the Edison Chen sex scandal, the competition among girl groups is about to heat up.
WU FA WU TIAN
Lena Yang
Who gives a flying kick that newcomer Lena Yang is a dancer with a background in martial arts?
Apart from inspiring the odd lyrical reference and an awkward pun for the album title which plays on the idiom for lawlessness, doing splits and wielding wushu moves can’t jazz up the aural experience of an album.
Pugilistic girl needs more than a gimmicky handle to stand out and a so-so voice taking on blandly passable songs just won’t cut it. It is a worrying sign when the calculatedly commercial duet Curved Moon with Gary Chaw is one of the stronger tracks here.
And despite the moniker, she is styled as either a playful showgirl or teasing nymphet in the lyrics booklet.
With multiple personas in the mix, one would have expected the album to show more character.
(ST)