Yellowjacketstudios

Well, I finally had a chance to swing by Raffle City last Saturday to pick up David’s new album, Too Beautiful, from the stores. I’m proud to be supporting his music, as it’s positive and innovative.

上周末在来福市广场终于买了陶喆的《太美丽》的新专辑。我很乐意支持他的音乐，因特别有创新感。

As people will realize upon listening to this album it’s quite a departure from his previous albums as the majority of the songs are love songs. I mean, I’ve never seen an album with so many mentions of the word “beautiful”. In the context of Mando-pop it seems to set another standard for many to work up to. Most pop love songs/albums are usually relatively flaky, and not to mention not stuff you’d let children listen to. There are definitely songs of joy and of pain on this album and again I’m impressed with the overall quality of the album. I’m much more of a production oriented person so I usually don’t have any complaints about David’s work. Lyrics are something that I’m always interested in trying to understand the message in the medium.

Many of them were used for various commercials seen around Asia. I’ll spare you from the discography but will highlight some of the songs on this album.

As how I mentioned in my review of his previous album, a remix of an old song is put on this album. Called 忘不了, this song has totally been remade. Must say that it has a very catchy beat. I probably listened to the audio clip on replay 50 times on his website. My favorite parts in this song is the leadup to the chorus where the bass makes me put on my dancin’ shoes (not a good thing at work) and get kickin’, but even better is how when it goes to the chorus the bass stops and lets the drums take over. Some of you may find it kinda cheezy, but hey, he does say it’s supposed to be “old skool”.

On the other bookend is a song named after a woman’s name. Olia is a classic Tao piece exemplifying his smooth vocals and arranging style. But again, all this is done to get the point of the lyrics across. Stylistically, this song has a slight folksy, sullen feel, perhaps in line with Joni Mitchell?

In between, Too Beautiful, 太美丽, will probably be a classic love anthem, likely sung in future
weddings and perhaps in karaoke bars. Not a knock, just the fact that that’s where I’m sure that’s what people will be doing…

The Chase 追 is a song that reminds me of one of David’s earlier songs, High High High. You might be wondering what album it’s found on as it’s a song that he wrote for another singer.  But it’s got a very funky Latin feel to it.

自导自演的悲剧 is a very nice song with a very catchy chorus, not to mention some very nice harmonies tacked on.

Marry Me Today, is definitely the Pop hit, with additional star power given out by Jolin on this song. It’s not often you’ll hear a song proposing to someone done in this manner. 大多的婚礼音乐都很认真，可这首是比较upbeat而且可以表达一点幽默感。

不爱Forever, is the first time I’ve heard him sing so high for so long in a song! Ouch! How can you NOT feel his pain? If you notice carefully that in this song an organ with some heavy trem is used, and sure sounds like a black gospel song.  我从来没听过那么长一段唱得那么高！佩服佩服。听他这样唱真的能感觉到他的痛，你觉得呢？

As with before, there seems to be one song missing from the China release of his album, probably due to the censorship board here in the country. I don’t know why this seems to happen often with his music, but I mean, just one? What’s so wrong with this missing track that renders it unavailable for release? Not sure why but I’d like to hear anyone else’s take on it.

Rating: [4/5] Definitely one of the most solid collection of love songs put out by a Mandarin artist in a long time. Again it adds substance to love that most pop artists are devoid of. This is one definitely to put in for some romantic evenings with that special someone.

等级： ［4／5］确实个非常棒的国语情歌之收集。 他也补上爱在流行文化的意思其他歌手经常跳过。有一位特别的朋友吗？这个专辑是满浪漫的。。。

For more info on David, check out this link or for my mainland friends, try this.

Tags: Chinese, Music, Reviews //