To Hebe

Hebe Tien

The Next Chapter

Chase Chang Jay

They both started out as part of Taiwanese music groups, but are now striking out on their own.

Hebe Tien is still onethird of the popular girl group S.H.E, while Chase Chang Jay, formerly of the quartet Nan Quan Mama, has made a more definite split.

Tien’s To Hebe is no slapdash effort. A carefully engineered debut, it ropes in some of Mandopop’s top composers and lyricists, including Sandee Chan, Derek Shih, Lin Xi and Chen Hsiao-hsia.

Her sweet, disposable voice fares better on uncluttered pop numbers that don’t tax it, such as A Condominium With No Attendant and You’re Too Much.

One of the album’s highlights is Love!, about a daisy chain of relationships ending in a failure to connect: “I love you, you love her, she loves her, she loves him/You love me, I love him, He loves him, He loves her/Why does no one love each other in this world, why is everyone unhappy in this world/Why does everyone love someone else in this world, but not themselves?”

This is more adult fare, compared to the sometimes kiddy and playful pop S.H.E churn out. Kudos to Tien for trying something different, even venturing into indie rock, with I Think I Won’t Love You, and jazz, with Super Mary.

I can’t shake the feeling, though, that a better set of pipes could have knocked this out of the park.

Chang Jay’s vocal stylings bring to mind Mandopop superstar Jay Chou’s, though Chang’s diction is a little suspect at times.

But he definitely leaves his own stamp on the songs here, having written both lyrics and music for most of them.

The autobiographical lyrics raise a smile on the title track: “Dad and Mum tell me to endure, don’t think of acting in an idol drama with your looks”.

He also refers to advice he got from Chou, who was Nan Quan Mama’s mentor: “Chieh-lun, he tells me, you’re the one writing the songs, don’t ever lose yourself in order to be popular”.

The line-up reveals that the personal makes for stronger material such as on I Won’t Listen, while generic-sounding tunes such as Firefly do nothing for Chang. He also shows that he can write commercial hits with Repeat Broadcast.

Both Chang and Tien prove they have something different to say. Going solo, in their cases, was no mere ego-stroking exercise.

Heaven And Earth

Huang Wen-hsing

The likes of Jody Chiang may still determinedly peddle old-school Minnan pop, but rock groups such as Mayday and sodagreen are taking it in a different direction.

Boyish-looking newcomer Huang Wen-hsing, who placed second in the first season of the Super Idol singing competition in 2008, brings a pop sheen to the genre. Unfortunately, he does not take it far enough.

Opener Hook My Heart kicks off promisingly with a rock riff, but then settles back into a dated arrangement. More successful, though, are the catchy duet In Two Minds and the sprightly Half A Lover. But, it is Wooden Love Song, co-written by androgynous popster Chang Yun-jing, that is most promising, with its refreshing acoustic pop vibe.

Given that this is subtitled Vol. 1, one hopes that Huang will take off in the direction of acoustic pop for his follow-up.

(ST)