Ten Chinese Albums to Brag About
2001 – Mavis Fan – Lounge Diva (絕世名伶)
From one diva to another, though I’d be lying if I described Mavis Fan as a diva. Starting her career singing children songs, moving onto the path of a pop idol into a daring career of music experimentation. Mavis Fan is now most known for her rock flare with her band known as 范曉萱&100% (or Mavis Fan & 100%) and their 2009 release of Innocent (赤子) [Xiami].
In 2001, however, she released Lounge Diva — part pop cabaret and part jazzy ballad, the album furthering the love critics began showing her since her career turnaround with her 1999 album I Want Us to Be Together (我要我們在一起) [Xiami], and later with Is There Any Other Way (還有別的辦法嗎) in 2004 [Xiami].
You can listen to Mavis Fan’s Lounge Diva on Xiami.
2002 – Cheer Chen – Groupies
Let’s continue our decade with our third “diva,” Cheer Chen, who began her career with the launch of the folksy pop rock Think Twice (讓我想一想) [Xiami] in 1998, and continued with the folksy vibe with her 2000 album, Lonely Without You (還是會寂寞) [Xiami] — now you see WHY I had such a hard time making the list?
Though for many, Cheer Chen’s best album to date is still Peripeteia (華麗的冒險) [Xiami], released in 2005, and she is now more known for her pop rock flare, in 2002 she released her album Groupies, which turned out to be a really great mix of acoustic pop rock with folksy vibe.
You can listen to all of Cheer Chen’s Groupies on Xiami.
2003 – Stefanie Sun – To Be Continued… (未完成)
To be brutally honest here, I had never paid attention to Stefanie Sun until last year — I had always pegged her as another skinny pretty face in the music scene. But after the release of The Kingdom of Fools [1], I paid more attention.
Her fifth album is filled with pop rock flare with classical elements that mixes in Sun’s characteristic… er… tone of voice. The album opener is even a Bollywood-esque track. Yes, way before we even began singing along to Jai Ho [MV].
You can listen to Stefanie Sun’s To Be Continued… on Xiami.
I’m so glad you picked Faye’s Fable to “brag about,” Amy.
While Restless sure is an exceptional album by Western music standards, Fable has a special place in Faye’s discography in that the first five tracks constitute a mini-saga about the Buddhist beliefs of life, love, and destiny. Equally important is the fact that they were all composed by Faye herself, and so this mini-saga does serve as a prototype of the original Faye sound …
And here’s my favorite track from this saga, The Cambrian Age:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5u00t_faye-wong-long-time-ago_music
@Adrienne Lew, if it’s Chinese music we’re bragging about… Faye’s gotta be there. It was either Fable or her 2001 release or Jiang Ai… in the end, had to pick one.
What about the others? Who would you choose?
@amy, there’s one more album you might want to take a look at if it’s Faye’s Cantonese album we are talking about: Di Dar (1995). The title track, Vacation, Lost, and Shooting Stars were kind of trendsetting and pretty much defined Faye’s mystically tragic yet beautiful style of music.
As for other singers, I would say it’s between Eason Chan and Jay Chou. Because of my personal bias towards rock, I’d prefer Eason over Jay (who’s strength is in producing Mandarin-style R&B).
Here are my picks from these two singers’ discography:
Eason Chan – Blurting Out
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/EZlw-q5syq4/
Jay Chou – Williamsburg
@Adrienne Lew, I actually got almost all of Faye’s discography, and I have listened to Di-Dar :)
I’m a little surprised… or maybe not, that you life Jay Chou. Hahaha. I don’t usually like his R&B style, but I definitely like his ballads. I also have a weakness for his country boy style hahaha.
I’m not that familiar with Eason’s body of work, but then again… I have LOADS to catch up with~
No pick of ten albums?
@Amy, haha — no, Jay isn’t exactly my taste. But objectively speaking, he does rule in the Mandarin world of music in Asia … so I feel that I needed to pick a song or two from his discography that has this little extra something in it — like Williamburg. I love that he mixes the organ sound with the R&B beats. But between him and Eason, I’d say in a sense Eason could have been a lot more creative but is unfortunately bounded by the preference for traditional Cantopop style “karaoke” showpieces on the part of many music fans in Hong Kong.
Speaking of this, there’s an album by Jan Lamb that’s pretty “non-mainstream” … “Thirty-Something.” And here’s my pick from that album:
http://divadamrau.blogspot.com/2011/01/karaoke-singing.html
(I refer you to my blog coz there’s also the English translation — which is the whole point of this “pop song” … :P)