Saturday, August 21, 2004
七里香

七里香 represents Jay Chou's strongest effort since his second album, 范特西 ,and it is certainly stronger than his last album, 叶惠美 ,which was largely uneven even though it contained pieces of flash that showed he could write and arrange.More consistently listenable as well,七里香 offers the strongest opening gambit of five songs in Chou's career so far.我的地盘 continues the vein of Chinese instrumentation fused with Western beats that Chou is so fond so.And it is a melodious song although I still have no idea what he singing about after four hearings before reading the lyrics sheet.It is a stronger opening song than 以父之名 which had a melody which was patchy at best.The next two songs,the album title track and 借口 are two pretty good ballads,although the latter smacks too much of the last album's 晴天.I am quite enamoured of 七里香's melody though.

外婆is potentially be the album's strongest track though.The lyrics here take on a more personal dimension and the melody remains catchy enough to snare my attention.I've had a fondness for Chou's songs that seem to carp on about various aspecst of Chinese culture but particularly those which seemed so obssessed about martial arts.将军 comes strikingly in this vein and while it comes off with a samey kind of feeling,I can still say that I am still not sick of it...yet...although I couldn't say the same of 乱舞春秋,which does sound samey to me (wasn't those effects something he already used in 双刀?).It's worth a mention that the final song on this LP 止战之殇 is also a pretty good song.

Chou is mostly rid of the kind of computer games soundscape he employed heavily in his last two albums which had put me off slighly and I feel that is a good thing.The fact that the rest of this album,besides the few songs I mentioned,of also of a more consistent quality is another laudable achievement.Let one be forewarned though that if you didn't like Chou before,whether it's the way he writes his songs or the way he sings,this album won't convince you otherwise.Chou is too set in his own personal style to ever change and while I had praised him for this effort,it's because I already like his current style enough.I will be looking forward to seeing how he breaks out of his own self-imposed style...or trap.

8/10