One Day in May…

Yeah, I absolutely didn’t realize it at the time. But I was just trying to think of my 10 favorite Mandopop album purchases from the last year, and I came up with (in no particular order):

1. Cheer Chen (陳綺貞), Immortal (太陽)
2. Deserts Chang (張懸), A City (城市)
3. Tizzy Bac, If I See Hell, I Won’t Fear the Devil (如果看見地獄，我就不怕魔鬼)
4. Tanya Chua (蔡健雅), If You See Him (若你碰到他)
5. Mrs. This (這位太太), Am I Not Good Enough (我是不是還不夠好 )
6. Won Fu (旺福), Won Fu Loves You (旺福愛你)
7. Joanna Wang, Joanna & 王若琳
8. sodagreen (蘇打綠), Daylight of Spring / Fever – Heat of Summer (春.日光/ 夏.狂熱)**
9. Totem Band (圖騰), Shepherd Child (放羊的孩子)
10. David Tao (陶喆), Opus 69 (六九樂章)

Honorable Mention: Superband (縱貫線), North Bound Mega EP (北[上]列車). It didn’t make the list because it’s only an EP (albeit a six-song “mega” EP), not a full album. But seriously, “Desperado” is fantastic, as is pretty much anything those four men touch. I smile every time I remember their concert in Chengdu.

**To be totally honest, I’m not sure if sodagreen’s Spring or Summer would make the list by itself on its own merits, but my iPod playlist that combines the two and leaves out the really bizarre English sections from the latter album is pretty great, so I cheated and included them as a duo. I continue to suspect that all the “Vivaldi Project” albums together will probably equal either one stellar disc or a great two-disc set… leaving the rest of the songs inescapably as filler. Thanks to Xinyi, though, sodagreen is part of the Girl Power trend, making it an impressive 8 out of 10. Compared to my list from last year (below), that’s a HUGE change.

Now, I’m sure there were other fantastic albums released last year, but these are my top ten based on what I know and have heard. Somehow, even living in China has not prevented me from being perpetually behind on new releases, probably because I work to much. (And that, by the way, is the Official Blogging Theme of 2009, because my post count was way down this year. My new year’s resolution: post when I can, and stop making excuses for the rest of the time.) But anyway….. what good albums did I miss??

Now, just because I never did manage to post it, here’s my list of my top ten album purchases in 2008:

1. Mayday (五月天), Poetry of the Day After (後。青春期的詩)
2. Fusion, If the Future (如果未來)
3. P.K.14, City Weather Sailing (城市天氣航行)
4. backQuarter (四分衛), World (世界)
5. 1976, Asteroid (這個星球)
6. Milk@Coffee (牛奶@咖啡), The Older, the Lonelier（越长大越孤单）
7. Crowd Lu (盧廣種), 100 Ways of Living (100種生活)
8. sodagreen (蘇打綠), Sing With Me (陪我歌唱)
9. Cape No. 7 Original Movie Soundtrack (海角七號 電影原聲帶)
10. 13 Band （拾參樂團), The Horse-Faced Sailor’s Summer (馬臉水手的夏天）

Honorable Mentions: Xu Wei (许巍), Love Like Youth (爱如少年). The Bob Dylan of mainland Mando-rock/pop/easy listening. Leehom Wang (王力宏), Heart.Beat (心。跳). Half cheesy pop, lots of dodgy lyrics, some innovations that don’t quite work, but man, the boy can sing. And he is constantly reinventing himself, which I admire and respect even when I don’t like the outcome.

Albums I’m looking for in 2010: Fusion’s second album will come out eventually, right? Leehom should be releasing something new soon, and he’s supposedly staying with the “chinked-out rock” concept, which I like in theory even if I cannot stand the first effort (“What’s Wrong with Rock… and the whole world when I’m hearing this song…”). Autumn and/or Winter should be on deck from sodagreen over the course of the year (late in the year, I’d imagine). I haven’t seen Peng Tan’s acoustic album (slated for December) yet, so we’ll see when that materializes. Hmm, I must be missing people, but I’m not sure who. Certain cowboys who shall remain nameless have albums coming in the next two months, but that’s more of a “can’t turn away from a train wreck” curiosity than actual anticipation.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 8:44 pm and is filed under Chang Chen-yue (A-yue), Cheer Chen, Fusion Band, Leehom Wang, Mandopop, Mayday, Sodagreen. 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.