Beginner’s Guide to Leehom’s Chinked-Out
Change Me ( 改變自己)
改变自己 (Gai Bian Zi Ji) – Change Me
When Leehom released Change Me in 2007 he seemed to incorporate a broad variety of music on the album, including rock&roll, which he will later explore a bit more in his next album, Heart Beat.
爱在哪里 (Ai Zai Na Li) – Where’s Love
He also returned to simple pop ballads with the simply wonderful piano-accompanied Ai Zai Na Li.
Cockney Girl
Played around with more Chinked Out style with the single Cockney Girl, blurring the lines between urban dance with Chinese instrumentalization. This is also probably his most dance club friendly track.
爱的鼓励 (Ai de Gu Li) – Encouragement of Love
And the upbeat pop tune of Ai de Gu Li accompanied by Leehom’s piano skills — note: Jay Chou is the more skilled pianist of the two [1]. I’m divided on whether the studio sounds better than the live version, but here’s Leehom on the Music Man Tour.
First off, I love the article, I think you did a great job writing it.
Intro (more personal) ====
I’m a big fan of his music. He was actually the drive behind my interest in Mandarin music. I am Chinese, but I grew up speaking Cantonese in the US. He actually grabbed my attention when I first started to learn Mandarin Chinese a few years ago. I actually self-discovered his music through youtube. I’m still not fluent but I do take the initiative to learn his lyrics (meaning/characters I don’t know) as well as other singer’s lyrics as well.
What do I think of Leehom’s music? ====
I think his music is outstanding. I agree with you, you’re not really going to find people that top his music in the Chinese music industry. He have so many great qualities. He plays so many instruments, have great vocals, composes his own music, and doesn’t limit himself to one genre. His willingness to explore and experiment with new music is something to be admired. It shows that he makes music for music. Unlike you, I still love his ballads more, but I did began to love his chinked-out music a lot too. I don’t think I get biased about his music because there are songs I don’t like from him and I’m not going to suddenly like them because of him.
Besides composition, I love the way he expresses himself through his music. Sometimes when you listen to his music, you can feel that it is him because he often composes/write through his own experiences. It been rumored that many of his ballads are based on his love life. If it is true (which I strongly believe is), it is unfortunate, but his music is very touching and feels almost like a diary.
What are my favorite Leehom songs? ====
Favorite one is actually 永远的第一天 (Forever’s First Day). It’s an old track from 2000, but I love it. People usually say it is romantic, I agree that it is but I usually find it more powerful/sad. I think it is sad because to me it shows such a strong desire to reunite with the other part and that he loves her so much, but it may only stay as a dream.
Other Top Favorites of Mine ===
Mostly songs that I find his vocals best
安全感 (Sense of Security)
爱错 (Loved Wrongly)
Kiss Goodbye
唯一 (One & Only)
你不在 (You’re not Here)
All of which I believe he performed great live.
I like his new single “open fire,” but I’m not too big on it because of the musical style, just not my usual taste. I do love the lyrics actually because it’s very bold and expressive. When you listen to it you can think, this is leehom, this is him speaking his mind and not focusing on playing safe.
I wrote a bit more than I expected, I apologize for that lol.
@Jim, thanks for the comment.
I love when artists get you to learn their language to be able to understand their songs. It’s unusual to find fans that predate all the way back to his 2000 album. I would have probably made this a 20-track list if I’ve had access to some of the previous albums.
I also love Leehom’s ballads, though his voice doesn’t move me as… let’s say Zhou bichang, I admire his talent. I really really wish he were more famous beyond the Chinese language music scene. I also don’t like some of his tracks, but I think he makes up for those skip songs with some of his best tracks. It’s not like he puts one-track albums like some other artists. xD
I would love to see him live once.
@amy
Yeah, despite not being an early fan of Leehom’s, I have explored his earlier works. Usually this is discouraging for artists with 5+ albums (and he had like 13), but because he doesn’t do one-track albums like you said, and he often maintain variety, I have found many of his albums quite rewarding to visit. His first set of albums, of course, is still harder to get into as it it comes from an earlier decade, but still many I like:
Last night, 如果你听见我的歌, 白纸, dream again, 愛在思念蔓延時, 信任, 公轉自轉, 愛你等於愛自己, 流泪手心, Julia, 失去了你, etc
Furthermore how I can’t agree more that beginning with Leehom is dangerous for getting into Chinese music because he’s really hard to top. It’s unfortunate despite his popularity that it seems there are still many who don’t recognize his talent, usually classifying him as a primary ballad or hip hop artist, never seeing both or beyond that.
Zhou bichang, I recognized her more as Bibi Zhou myself. I think you mistakenly classified her as a he above. I actually knew of her name for quite a bit of time, but it never clicked to me to listen to her as I never heard her music before. So I took the chance today to listen to a few of her songs and I liked it, I think I understand what you see in her singing.
If you don’t mind, I would like to ask for some of your personal bibi zhou recommendations for starters.
@Jim, heh. the “I admire his talent” part was referring to Leehom’s. But that’s my own fault at writing. I do love BiBi, though.
I love Leehom’s Julia as well, but I wasn’t able to get his older albums… so my collection of him only reaches until Forever’s First Day.
In terms of commercial Chinese music, yes – starting with Leehom can be terribly disappointing, unless… you decide to explore more indie and not so popular music. I love that I’ve gotten to know a lot about the pop folk indie Taiwan scene (like Cheer Chen) – I particularly love Crowd Lu’s happy music. Then there’s also some older music like Mavis Fan – 范曉萱 – (I think if you love Leehom’s jazzy stuff, you will love her music) or Ding Wei 丁薇 even though she hasn’t released an album in like… forever!
@Jim, in terms of Bibi… we cover her career on the site, so just check through her tag. All her discography has been reviewed, and we’re expecting to get a profile on her sometime soon.
Though I really REALLY love her voice in her ballads (like Season, or I Miss U Missing Me)… be it a pop ballad or an R&B one or a zhongguo feng one – I like her weird stuff like most of her fast tracks on her album WOW or some other tracks like Poisonous Mushroom 毒蘑菇.
I first came across Leehom from a song called Gai Xi Xiong (I hope I spelled that right; I don’t pretend to know any kind of Chinese dialect). He thoroughly impressed me, I must say. However, I don’t know much about him beyond the song I just mentioned and another called Ge re Man (again, hope I spelled that right).
It’s interesting that he’s been around for so long and that he’s released so much music. It’s also interesting to know how versatile he is. I’ll have to dig a little deeper and find some more of his music because he seems like quite an underrated artist (though, I imagine, not in Asia).
@Camiele White, LOL. The song you’re referring to is Heroes of the Earth (Gai Shi Ying Xiong) xD it’s also included on the list if you check it out. And I think the other might be Brothers (Ge Er Men).
I think this list does a good job at showing some of the variety of Leehom’s music, and still leaves plenty of good stuff to listen to. So don’t forget to check out these 15 songs!
@amy, Yup! Fantastic stuff :)
I’ll have to check these songs out real soon!
I don’t know how Leehom manages to release 3 compilation albums. It seems weird, but you managed to get a decent list compared to his compilation.
@ghost, I’ve never checked his compilation album. I wonder if he cheats and repeats songs in his collections hahaha. I think I was one of the first to compile all his studio albums (sans the rare years) into one file. xD
Sorry, Leehom!