Shut Up And Kiss Me
Elva Hsiao

Fighting For Love
Magic Power

While balladry remains a mainstay in Mandopop, there are a few acts that choose to move to a different, faster, beat.
Taiwan’s Elva Hsiao has been styling herself as a dance diva for some time now and her latest release appears to have an added edge. From the assertive title to the body-hugging leather, it seems as though she is going for sexy with a hint of naughty.
But it stops at hinting. After all, the album contains tracks such as Romance Strikes, Dare To Love and Love Like A Teen.
And despite its title, Play The Field is a ballad that laments such behaviour: “Play the field, you let us be surrounded by variables/I can only worry and persuade myself not to mind.”
At least the title track has some show of sass as she fires off a riposte to those snooping around her love life: “I am who’s who, who cares as long as I love/Who’s nagging, who’s preaching, who’s ardently probing/Don’t feel like explaining, too boring, only need to work hard when kissing.”
The low point here has to be Thunder Of Love. There is more than a whiff of desperation here as it sounds like a track grimly determined to be hip and with it. It manages to be a patchwork of cribbed ideas without a tune.
While they also tease, Taiwan’s Magic Power do a better job and nail a stronger album.
God Of War’s opening harks to the industrial metal of German band Rammstein with its war-like chant, but it quickly returns to a more mainstream synth dance-pop sound.
Adding some variety are the retro-dance vibes of Venus and the crowd-pleasing ballad, I Still Love You.
The jaw-dropping oddity here is the English track Rock Zombie in which the link between sex and rock ’n’ roll is made explicitly: “In this new age we are the rock stars/You can be my personal porn star.”
There are even more risque lines and it seems totally out of place on an album called Fighting For Love.
(ST)