Another year, another Jay Chou album. Almost 7 years and at the moment nothing can stop the ugly boy from Taiwan. Millions of fans in Asia and some numbers in the Western world await eagerly the release of a 7th album. Usually blasted for the recycling of tunes and can't-be-helped-ugliness, but the high sales and continous support from fans is nothing but laughable.
4-5 years ago I sat in a classroom of Blk G extension. Simon Sim Hou was listening away in LaLaland. I grabbed his earphones and listened. It was Jay Chou. I hated Jay Chou then. After the millenium I had given up on music. All those handsum boys and pretty girls filled the charts of music stores. But the songs were horrible and nothing compared to those of Jacky Cheungs and Michael Jacksons.
I listened in, 'Wei She Mo Zhe Yang Tze' came in and I was indefinitely hooked. Such was the sincerity in the voice and the smooth chorus and delivery. The rest, as they used to say, is history. From then on, I listen to Jay Chou religiously. Jay Chou was Chinese Music. There might be the Alexander The Greats and David Taos (I like David Tao too), but there's just something about Jay Chou that appeals to me.
Jay album was horrible in singing, but excellent in music. Fantasy was the ideal album. The 8th Dimension was decent. Yeh Hui Mei was mindblowing, diverse and mature. Qi Li Xiang was stagnant. November Chopin feels brilliant at first, but falters away.
It's sad to say that Still Fantasy is far from being the ideal album (Fantasy/Yeh Hui Mei). The album is mixed at best, and I find some songs to be seriously lacking.
The opening track is a typical Jay Chou sound. A Harry-Potter-Esque intro and entry, rollicking and masculine delivery, and a mysterious and catchy tune that hooks you. The eerie female voice completes the song.
Next, we have another 'semi-biography' in Ting Ma Ma De Hua after the severely-underrated Fen Lie. The melody and vocals are light-hearted, upbeat and most importantly, sincere and down-to-earth.
The 4th track is just an offspring of Wo De Di Pan and Ren Zhe. The lyrics are it's strong points, while at the end it seems like Jay is trying too hard to insert new effects to make things sound different. It's a decent track but you can't help but feel that it's all downhill from here.
And downhill it went. Tracks 5, 7 and 8, though decent, are weak songs. The 3 songs suffer from the same problem. The potential is there, they start off promisingly, but eventually falls short. I really tried to love these songs by listening to them over and over and over. But the end result is what sound like something that he would compose for S.H.E and those Boybands. Whatever happened to Ta De Jie Mao, Hui Dao Guo Qu and Xin Qing? Listen to these songs and then listen to those 3 tracks, and you hear startling differences. Jay is so much better than this.
Bossanova track number 9, Rosemary, is the surprise and remarquable track of the album. When you thought you had listened to the best part of the song, it proves you wrong with each turn. The final track brings you back to the olden days with it's retro mood throughout, reminding you of the late Teresa Teng (not vocal-wise). It's purely old school Chinese music, and is a fitting closure to a disappointing album.
There are tracks which are evident of Jay's talents but at the same time tracks like 5, 7 and 8 tells you otherwise. It only makes listening to the album even more frustrating, because you know Jay can be so ahead of everyone. It feels like he doesn't have enough time and merely composed those songs out of fufilling the '10-songs-a-album' rule. It's growing apparent that commericals and movies are taking a toll on him.
And the fact that he doesn't even come up with the album name says a lot. It looks like he doesn't give a shit and is so damn cock-sure that his fans will love it no matter what and he is increasingly taking his fans for granted. And what's with those topless promotional photos? Does he have to resort to this? Jay was evidence that you don't need to be a pretty face to make it in Taiwan's music industry, to make it to TIME magazine's cover, or in life for that matter.
While Still Fantasy isn't a bad album, the signs are showing. Signs that he's settling to be at the same level with his fellow Taiwaneses. He managed to paper over the cracks this time round, but the paper is running thin.
Posted by TheLast | 
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