The Era
Jay Chou

Album No. 10 is a major milestone by any measure but the stakes are even higher when you are the reigning king of Mandopop.
When each of Jay Chou’s releases is feted as the saviour of the ever-shrinking music market, it is little wonder that he feels the weight of the world on his shoulders.
On the wryly titled first single, Superman Can’t Fly, he looks back on his decade in the business and vents his frustrations: “I don’t know when I turned into an example for society/Have to be magnanimous and not raise my middle finger when I’m snapped by the paparazzi.”
Regrets, too, he has had a few: “Can CNN wait till my English is better before doing an interview/Can the cover for Time magazine be retaken?”
Speaking of covers, you can tell how much things have changed with him by looking at how his album sleeves have evolved over the years.
On his 2000 self-titled debut, the cover is of a fresh-faced 21-year-old wearing a pair of headphones and totally grooving to the music. Ten releases later and it is a much manipulated and fussed-over concept picture with Chou as a vampire.
He will have you know that it is still all about the music, though. On opener The Era, which offers a by now familiar blend of rap, graceful piano phrases and pulsating beats, he serves up the lines: “Don’t need to be worshipped/This beast-like tragedy/Only surviving for this eternal melody.”
While it seems he is behind the curve with this vampire makeover, he has a point to make about wanting his work to straddle the ages and to never grow old.
And don’t forget that fantasy and role-playing have always been a big part of his music. It is no coincidence that his breakthrough second album was named Fantasy (2001) and the title of his creative rejuvenation after the ho-hum November’s Chopin (2005) was Still Fantasy (2006).
He has morphed from ninja to man-machine hybrid to cowboy and that playfulness and restlessness have given us hits such as Nunchucks, The Orcs and Cowboy On The Run.
The problem for a while was the predictability of his records. Ode to gongfu track a la Nunchucks? See Dragon Fist and Double Sabre. China-style ballad a la East Wind Breaks? See Hair Like Snow, Chrysanthemum Terrace and Blue And White Porcelain.
To be fair, it didn’t matter when the offerings were as stellar as Chrysanthemum Terrace. The gripings were over the lesser efforts.
So how does The Era compare to his previous body of work? From a couple of spins and given his high standards, this feels like an above-average Chou record but one which does not hit new highs.
For starters, it is less frenetic and frantic than the jokey Capricorn (2008). One of the highlights here is Long Time No See, which slips between Mandarin and the Minnan dialect in a smoothly effortless mid-tempo number.
Chou wrote both the tune and lyrics here though, as much as The Era marks his 10 years in the business, it also marks the decade-long partnership between him and his lyricist, Vincent Fang.
The two work their magic once more on Fireworks Cool Easily, an elegantly elegiac track which could have done with a more evocative vocal performance. Diary: Fly For Love is a less successful work, reminding one too strongly of Sunshine Otaku.
Regardless of how one feels about the songs on record, it’s a whole other ball game when Chou is up on stage and performing them. Little wonder then that his three dates at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in July sold out in a matter of hours.
A more recent collaborator is Huang Jun-lang who penned the lyrics for Cowboy On The Run. Here, he contributes the cheeky lyrics to Free Tutorial Video, musically a sequel of sorts to Cowboy’s old-school rock ’n’ roll crossed with hillbilly blues. There’s even a wink and a nod to the perils of being a pop idol: “Rock ’n’ roll is not to get girls but to realise my dreams/Of course, since I’m irresistible, I can’t help it if others fall for me.”
He also dishes out the advice: “If you want to be a rocker/Then you first need a guitar.” Take away the magazine covers, the blah movies and the celebrity status, and this joy of making music has always been what it’s about.
Ten years on, it is clear that Chou is beginning to think about his musical legacy and it is heartening to see that he still has ambitions. Hopefully that will sustain him, and, in turn us, for a long time to come.
(ST)