Style
Jeff Chang
Prince of love ballads Jeff Chang took part in the fourth season of the televised reality contest I Am A Singer and proved that he was music royalty indeed, finishing second behind Hong Kong-born Coco Lee.
One of the highlights of the show was his performance of Julie Su’s My Dear Child backed by a chorus of aboriginal moppets. The version of it found here retains the chorus and adds an evocative brass solo as Chang sings about the plight of vulnerable children.
But this is not simply a lazy collection of the tracks he performed during the competition. Instead, Chang goes for classics that showcase his pristine pipes, including Sandy Lam’s Suffer For You and Wang Leehom’s Crying Palms.
His cover of Sarah Chen’s Red Dust does not quite work, though, as the epic feel of the number cries out for a full-throated take rather than a delicate one.
The lone new song Grey, about paternal love, touchingly features the unpolished vocals of Chang’s father.
The remake of Chang’s own hit, Love Like A Tide, is unnecessary but it does show that he is still in fine form vocally since he first sang it in 1993 for his fifth Mandarin album, Worrying.
Trends come and trends go, but a beautiful singing voice will never go out of style.
(ST)