Grown Up
BY2

Twin sisters Miko and Yumi are now all of 18 and old enough to, um, cradle a giant apple from the looks of the album cover.
Despite the clumsy reference to forbidden fruit, Grown Up actually pulls back from the jail-baiting sexiness of their second album Twins (2009).
Opening track Take Me Away, by the memorably credited Dr Moon, is sweetly escapist: “Suddenly want you to take me away, leave this dust, find a region with no smoke/A sky full of starlight, will make all wishes come true.”
After that highlight, alas, the rest of the album fails to deliver.
Do check out Moon’s lyrics on What Do U Want though. Comparing the dance floor to a farm, the lyrics go: “Your vegetable has run off with someone else.”
Label mate JJ Lin lends a hand by composing and rapping on Get Together but the bouncy tune is let down by mundane lyrics – it is never a good sign when they have to resort to spelling out their name in a song.
The girls try their hand at composing and writing lyrics for This Is Love, which is supposed to be about the thrill of falling in love but fails to convey it.
Perhaps, they need to grow up even more before their efforts bear fruit.

The Drifters
The Drifters

This new Taiwanese duo comprise Darren and Yannick, both of whom have backgrounds in visual art and, fortuitously for them, both have ties with Mandopop star and label boss Jay Chou.
Darren got to know Chou through another singer friend, Alan Kuo, while Yannick was the son of Chou’s high school music teacher.
It just goes to show the importance of knowing the right people in the music business, as it was Chou’s brainwave for the two to come together and form an act.
His shadow hangs heavily over this debut album. The sing-song-rap of You Are My Band-Aid is reminiscent of his style, and he also contributes a couple of tracks. The Drifters even have a pointless remake of the Jay Chou-Vincent Fang-penned hit Where’s The Promised Happiness?. A pity, for there is a light breezy vibe to the record that can be quite pleasant.
If the indication of who sings what in the lyric book/calendar is right, then Yannick could well be channelling the laid-back groove of surfer-singer Jack Johnson in Paris Lovers while Darren’s voice is slightly richer and more evocative.
Still, there is not such a big difference between the two that a song like, say, Miss You And I Write A Letter, needs to be parcelled out between them. And no thanks for burying this memorable Chou-Fang collaboration right at the end of the album.
For the moment, The Drifters are getting publicity for the Jay Chou connection but they will need to come up with a more distinctive sound if they want to stick around.
(ST)