Senses Around
Yoga Lin
Cindy Yen
Cindy Yen
Diamond Candy
Elva Hsiao

Thanks to the television show One Million Star, Yoga Lin made it big and even held concerts before releasing his debut album Mystery last year.
While his continued willingness to try new things on his second record is to be lauded, his voice can sound rather affected at times.
Senses Around is a beautifully packaged and ambitious, if inconsistent, concept album, with commercial ballads such as Fairy Tale sneaking into the line-up.
The most intriguing track here is the jazzy number You Are What You Eat with Hong Kong lyricist Wyman Wong’s wicked take on (sexual) appetites. "Hey boys, why so picky, just eat what you see/Hey girls, what are you waiting for, a bad meal is better than not eating at all." Tuck right in.
For the most part, newcomer Cindy Yen plays it safe with a debut aimed squarely at the Sweet Young Thing genre, as unthreatening as the gleaming, toothy smile she displays on the album cover.
It is noteworthy that the overachiever not only composed and produced all 10 songs but also co-wrote some lyrics and played the piano and electric violin on the album. Alas, all that industry does not translate into a stellar offering.
The first single is the misfire Sand Painting, a duet with Jay Chou. The lack of chemistry is painfully apparent in the awkward music video in which they look, and sound, as if they have nothing to do with each other.
Maybe it is because Chou, co-founder of JVR Music, is her boss.
On Hot Air Balloon, lyrics such as "You’re the honey/I’m the sugar/Love is like a hot air balloon" mix metaphors with wild abandon to unintended comic effect.
Strangely enough, the more interesting tracks are buried at the end of
the album, including Dancing That Brings Threat, which at least threatens to swerve away from the middle of the road.
Diamond Candy being her 10th album, one would hope that Elva Hsiao might deign to venture off the well-trodden path, but no such luck.
She sticks to a safe mix of dance numbers and mainstream ballads, a formula established way back on her self-titled debut in 1999.
There isn’t anything that is terribly wrong with the material here, though the preponderance of thumping tracks makes it best to take this in small doses. The ballads such as No Hand In Hand are welcome breathers but they are not as catchy as, say, Impulse from 3-Faced Elva (2008) or Red Rose from the 2000 album of the same name.
The gaudily glitzy cover and lyrics such as "shining boy" and "let you shine bright" are consistent with the album title but perhaps she would do well to remember all that glitters is not gold – or diamond.
(ST)