One Day in May…

I’m traveling again (in England for a week to hang out with my sister), so I’ve been assuming that news is light for the Chinese New Year holiday but not really checking to see if this is really true. Still, I do have a few things I’d like to post about, and since it is my sister’s birthday, Leehom seems like the most appropriate topic.

I have, rather typically, somewhat mixed feelings about Heart.Beat (心跳). This is still only my fourth Leehom album, since I’ve never actually gotten around to purchasing anything before Shangri-La (心中的日月). And, of course, Shangri-La remains my favorite, as the only one where I liked more than half the tracks. But whereas my first impression of the album was kinda “meh,” repeated listening has allowed some of the tracks to grow on me, and I’m overall pretty content. I still only like about half of it, but that’s normal for my relationship with Leehom’s music, so that doesn’t worry me.

But before we can say anything about the music, we need to sit Leehom down (again) and have a little chat about the packaging. What happened to that whole commitment to environmentally friendly packaging and reduction in consumer waste? I ordered both the Chinese and Taiwanese pre-order editions (so I could get all the free gifts for my sister, still the most devoted Leehom fan I know), and I was astounded by the sheer size of the thing. The China version came in a blue plastic case (like a DVD case) that was inside a cardboard box and wrapped in plastic, and it was accompanied by a larger calendar and photo book, both put in a cardboard box and wrapped in plastic. The Taiwan version was in a large, plastic-wrapped cardboard box containing a poster and a cardboard holder for the CD, along with a large cardboard sleeve for the MV DVD and a Music-Man notebook with a plastic hologram cover… all wrapped in more plastic, of course. The Taiwan version notably lacked a plastic jewel case, and the calendar was admittedly way more calendar-like and way less confusing than the Mayday one, but still, this is a lot of cardboard and plastic to be putting out if you are a self-proclaimed leader of the environmental movement. Granted, I just came over to England “on the way” back to China from Minnesota so I’m not about to start chiding other people for their carbon footprints, but I’m also not claiming to be living an especially green life.

Anyway, on to other issues. Songs I like on this album: “Dirty Love (愛得 得體),” “Heartbeat (心跳),” “The Sun After Washed by Spring Rain (春雨裡洗過的太陽),” “No Reason to Pay Attention to You (我完全沒有任何理由理你)” and “Competitor (競爭對手).”

“Dirty Love” is not all that innovative, cross-language pun aside, and the “has taste but isn’t gay” in the opening line is certainly eye-roll-inducing, as is Leehom’s unfailing habit of referencing his music and other songs in his lyrics, like filler for when he’s out of other ideas. But the song itself is catchy and upbeat, suitable for running or driving. And, well, I do like it. I’m as surprised as anyone. “Heartbeat” is the kind of ballad that Leehom’s voice was made for, and for me it was love at first listen. Far and away the best ballad of the album, though the others don’t have too much to recommend them. “Everything” is the classic cheesy piano ballad with random English lyrics (in the vein of “Kiss Goodbye,” “Forever Love” and “Finally”), and it sounds like all the rest of his classic cheesy piano ballads, albeit with different random English lyrics. In spite of having heard the album about a billion times now (it was the only disc I had in the car for almost a week of running around the Twin Cities), I can’t for the life of me remember how “Screenplay (腳本)” goes, which does not bode well for it. There’s nothing wrong with it, and since for me half the attraction with Leehom is simply the sound of his voice, it’s certainly pleasant enough to listen to, but it is not ever going to be anything special for me.

“The Sun After Washed by Spring Rain” has that sadly ungrammatical title given as the official one in the lyrics book; it’s like the man isn’t actually a native speaker of English. The song itself is a bit strange, being neither a full cover of “Rhythm of the Rain” nor just a song that samples it, but in the end the mixture works for him. I remember calling him out on the last album for writing lyrics about weather and rainbows, and this song is another example of this, but I suppose it must be forgiven given the theme of the base track.

I like “No Reason to Pay Attention to You” in spite of the lyrics, which I find strangely immature. I mean, yes, we know that Xiao Chong offended him with his little remarks about his unoriginality, but does Leehom seriously have to write a song mocking the other man about his own crappy productions and lack of recent releases? He can’t just accept that Xiao Chong is the smaller man and move on, secure in the belief in his own capacity as a songwriter? But in spite of this, the song is fun in a Prince-like kinda way and inevitably makes me tap my foot and hum along.

Finally, “Competitor” is probably my favorite song on the album. I couldn’t even tell you why, really; it’s just that on that first listen, I got through it and thought, “ooooh, must hear that again,” and not just out of my desire to avoid the closing track, “What’s Wrong with Rock! (搖滾怎麼了!)” (Which I continue to dislike for its crappy sound and atrocious lyrics as much as I did on the first listen.) I like the swelling chorus, the very full bass line, and I even like the rap; this one is a keeper.

Now, just a few things about the other songs – the ones I don’t really like and have not complained about yet, namely “Another Heaven (另一個天堂)” with Super Girl Jane Zhang (張靚穎) and “Puppet (玩偶).” “Another Heaven” commits the twin crimes of being boring and a duet. Yeah, I’m over duets – there have just been waaaaay too many in my life of late. Not only has Mayday imposed two upon us, the saccharine “Elope to the Moon (私奔到月球)” with Cheer Chen and “Losing Ourselves in Love (走火入魔)” with Ding Dang, but Leehom had that duet with Selina on his last album too. I need a break from all the corniness, and not even the fact that Jane Zhang sings in the ultra-high-pitch whistle register redeems the song for me. “Puppet” is just not anything special, and the repeated word in the chorus gets on my nerves after a while.

So obviously I have pretty mixed feelings about the album, though certainly I like enough to enjoy listening to it (if I stop after track nine). I do appreciate how much of the album is Leehom’s own work – not just composing (and dodgy lyrics), but the guitar, piano, bass, drums – he often plays it all himself and produces his own tracks. He puts a lot of his heart into his work, and he does not rush the finished product (see posts on endless delays on this album), and I do really love that about him. I wish it was not always the minimum ten tracks, but that was expected given recent trends, and it is fun to have the songs that I heard (and misunderstood) live at his Shanghai concert this fall. In the end, I’m still looking forward to the concert album for the Music-Man tour maybe a bit more than I was watching for this album, but I am as devoted a fan as ever.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 9:50 pm and is filed under Leehom Wang. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.