While I
Shin
Let's Smile!
F.I.R.
Chris Lee
Chris Lee
Magic Power
Magic Power
Do Chinese people have rock? If they do, what should Chinese rock be like?
Singer Zhao Chuan posed this query in the song Fen Mo Deng Chang, meaning “to put on make-up and go on stage”, back in 1991 and it is something that artistes still grapple with today.
On his third solo offering, Shin, previously of Shin Band, takes the rock ballad route and topped the Taiwan album charts for his pains.
Come Back and Can’t Be Without You exemplify this approach: dramatic mid-tempo songs that have him wearing his heart on his sleeve as he wails and scales his falsetto range.
It gets wearying, with the growling and snarling coming across as so much posturing and the musical arrangements merely a recycling of the most hackneyed rock cliches.
Zhui Gan Shi Jie (Chasing After The World) provides a brief respite from the theatrics but is buried deep in the album. Shin should take his own advice when he sings: “I’ve never been afraid of change, bravely challenging what’s new.”
So should pop-rock trio F.I.R., who smile determinedly in the face of familiarity.
The whiff of deja vu on opener Find My Way only grows more pronounced over the course of the album. The trio are stuck in a rut they cannot seem to get out of.
When they do try something different on the summery Surfing Season, they end up sounding like Won Fu instead. Mostly though, the conundrum for F.I.R. is how to create music that does not sound like what they have done before.
Chris Lee has the opposite problem as she struggles to create a distinctive sound. Better known as Li Yuchun, the winner of China’s singing competition Super Girl in 2005 tries everything on her third, self-titled album.
The end result is a scattered effort that goes from the dance-rock of A Mo to the breezy pop of See You, Next, Corner to the cutesy Little Universe.
She even throws in snatches of Cantonese on Serves You Right and also tries her hand at rap. She has always stood out for her androgynous look and voice but the material she writes does not always gel with those singular qualities.
Which leaves newcomers Magic Power to cast a spell with their energetic debut.
These six guys in their 20s may look like a boyband but they write their own material, with most of the compositions from vocalist Yen Yen.
Purists may sniff, but this refreshing record mixes rock, dance, rap and hip-hop into an irreverent and irresistible whole. Check out Busy Man where the boys have fun with a jokey use of falsetto as they take a dig at the bustle of modern life and then give advice to take it easy.
Their optimistic outlook on tracks such as Be OK, Going Back In Time and New World is a welcome ray of sunshine, though Get Out strikes a contrarian note by railing against society’s injustices.
Still, the lads get what Zhao Chuan sang about: “You said rock can sometimes be an attitude towards life/Do as you please with the melody but the rhythm must be clear.”
(ST)