Yellowjacketstudios

As the contemporary praise music genre has been one of the fastest growing genres in the Western music industry, Asia’s has grown in all directions. A significant reason are the varied cultures and states of the church in these countries. Personally, it’s refreshing to hear various styles of Chinese praise that reflect the reverence and worthiness of our Creator. But one album recently has caught my eye in its refreshing approach.

Hear Us Out III is an album recorded and produced in both Singpore and Malaysia by a company called Soulworksmusic. This being their 3rd offering in the Hear Us Out series of songs, this album contains ten written by different song writers. Styles range from R&B to some hard rock, of which I dig. Lyrically very diverse, but even more outstanding is is the quality of production for a contemporary Chinese praise album. The songs are all very melodic, and some quite catchy and you won’t be able to get them out of your head. The producers did an excellent job of chosing appropriate songs and integrating them into a cohesive album.

Some highlights from the album:
他听到 - solid lyrics, with an arrangment with an edge
有你与我同行 -I love the groove with this song. 吴慧慧 does a great job of singing on this song, a sometimes whispy feel combined with a certainty of truth. The words “所以我要开口赞美“ really hit home with the well-chosen chord changes, not to mention some very creative effects processing.
一无挂虑 - I can imagine this song being played in a very big stadium, with big guitars, and with a strong orchestra. And the guitar solo is pretty decent, playing and recording-wise, so you can’t complain (I won’t even begin my rant here about how poorly electric guitars are usually played in Chinese CDs).
Yes I Do - great beat, in an R&B style, with a nice arrangement

To be honest, in a musical sense, I don’t have a song on this album that I don’t like. I’ve heard quite a handful of different Chinese praise albums of which usually ranged from “Um…This recording doesn’t do it justice, guess you had to be there” to “My stereo system doesn’t do it justice. Gotta find a hi-fi system.” This album successfully falls towards the latter.

It seems much of this production for this album revolves around a drum machine and probably a tool like Reason to produce most of the loops and effects. There’s nothing wrong with that but I’d be more than happy to hear a couple of tracks with a live drummer, bassist as well in the future. In any case, this is one album that’s been consistently playing on my iPod for the last 2 months. I mention contemporary Chinese praise albums because this is one area that is, mark my words, needs to seeing continuing creativity. It’s got to or it’s going to fall into the same trappings that North American worship had gone through in the past (but finally catching up), a follower rather than a leader in musical arts and production.

Rating: 4/5 - I’m going to give this one a 4 because of how it stands out at this time compared to other contemporary Chinese praise offerings at this time. Definitely one to get if you like this genre!

If you have other contemporary Chinese praise albums that you would recommend, leave a comment!

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On Faith:
A quote from a podcast called Catalyst Space on leadersthip training in the Western church today:
“In the American church the church will allow you to prostitute youself if you choose to, they will hire you based on your talent, overlooking all of your character and then when you crash they’ll pretend they never saw the signs. We need to run as fast as your character is deepening, and not as fast as our talent is expanding. When we hire from other churches and go after talent form other place and staff based on resume, we many times circumvent and undercut the process that Jesus Christ implemented in the body of Christ. Many of us have gone from high school to college to seminary, and because of our professional degree we’ve gotten a job in professional ministry and we have never paid the hard pirce of walking with Christ and developing the kind of character that is able to face the spiritual warfare and human conflict that leadership requires.” - Erwin McManus

关于世界杯 On the World Cup:
中国人非常爱看世界杯 （中国的足球其实听懒的。。）。 昨晚过了午夜能听到很多人喊叫，可能是捷克队跟美国队的比赛。 我相信五点早晨也有人大叫可我好几个小时前已经睡了。
China has gone World Cup crazy. I heard screams after midnight after a near miss of what I believe was the Czech-USA match. I’m sure there were more screams by 5am in the morning when some of my friends ended up going to bed after a productive evening of watching the 3 matches of the day, but I was sound asleep many hours before then.

Tags: Chinese, Faith, Shanghai by Administrator
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Perhaps now that I have some time I’ll write a few reviews about some albums I’ve been listening to. Music has been a very important part of my life since I can remember (I began playing piano at 3 but don’t ask me how I did it because I don’t remember!)

So I’m going to start with a review of David Tao’s album 太平盛世 Great Leap 2005. I’ve been hesitant on reviewing it because I’m generally biased toward liking most of his work. However, I hope to point out some intricacies of WHY I like it and why you to go pick up a copy.

To give you some background info, on this album, David’s moved over to a larger recording label (EMI), and mentioned that it’s been a new start for him with songs that may very different from what he’s written in the past. For me, I wouldn’t expect anything less, as each of his albums are quite distinct from one another. He’s decided to simplify things to get the most of the instruments he’s using. Does he succeed? I’m going to highlight a few of my favorite songs on the album so let’s get into it and find out.

鬼 Ghost：
One noticeable difference between the Chinese release of the album is that it’s missing the first song “Ghost” 鬼。 I’m probably guessing this was done specifically for the Chinese market. I was able to get a listen to it and can definitely hear why it may not be receptive the Chinese market. If you look at the music video (WARNING: not for the faint of heart), I can see why it was excluded from distribution here.
I haven’t had a chance to look over the lyrics for this yet so won’t be able to comment on the content at this time.

Catherine:
Mr. Tao seems to have a knack for putting a song titled after a female name on every CD he’s released (look up Katrina, Angeline when you’ve got time). This one is another keeper. I love his knack for really capturing dynamics of the emotion of a song without making it “canned”. I hate canned music (perhaps I’ll write one day about how I abhor most Cantopop and most American pop). My favorite part in this song has got to be the “no no no no no no no” harmony at the end of the song. It’s got such a 1970s Motown-look’en-in-the-eye-and-shake-your-finger harmony that makes this song your typical guitar ballad to something special. One key characteristic of many of his songs is how everything sits very well together and doesn’t sound forced.

孙子兵法 Art of War:
This song takes its title from one of the most popular Chinese books called “Art of War“. Guest performers on this CD are the 12 girl band, which were one of the hottest groups in China in 2004. A hot trend nowadays in Taiwanese pop is to do the whole “get back to your roots” pop music, integrating classical chinese instruments and stylings into the music and this song is a good example of playing to the strengths of both the 12 girls band and to some hard rock.

爱我还是爱他 Who do you love?：
Great lyrics that very well crafted. Check out the music video too when you got time.

Susan 说 Susan Said：
Oh groove me to heaven! Like that last sentence made any sense! Mr. Tao has a magic touch with classic Chinese songs, bringing them back to popularity with a few lyrical additions and groovy beats. You’ll also notice that he’s also included some chinese instruments with the dizi and guzheng to add and extra sparkle. I appreciate hearing these classic songs for the first time.

祷告良辰歌 Sweet Hour of Prayer：
A rendition of a popular hymn, this is a great way of ending the album. Simple and relaxed.

Summary 总结:
I honestly don’t think you can go wrong with buying any of David’s albums and this one is no exception. Consistently solid lyrics and great melodies and arrangements are usually a surefire way of leaving a lasting impression.

Rating: 4/5 - definitely one for your collection

Tags: Music, Reviews by Administrator
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