Tuesday 28 June 2016

Jay Chou's Bedtime Stories

Jay's 14th studio album aka Bedtime Stories was officially released on 24 June but even before the stroke of midnight, everything was available on iTunes and my chat group was full of comments as we tuned in and gave our two cents' worth.

Once again, sleep was sacrificed for His Royal Diaoness....but as always, no regrets!

As Jay had already released 5 songs over the past few months, there remained only another five to catch up on. There was plenty of his signature rap and ballads but one thing I sorely missed is a zhong guo feng song like Qing Hua Ci or Hong Chen Ke Zhan.
Apparently, the NYSM2 theme is meant as the zhong guo feng song for this album; well, it fit into the movie and has Chinese-style instruments but it cannot hold a candle to his slower numbers from previous albums nor even the ones which were more hard rock like Dragon Fist or Fearless.

Anyway, the track list on Itunes is here:


And here is my playlist of five other new songs:



My overall impression of the album is favourable and I would put it on par with Aiyo Not Bad.
The absence of the 'proper' zhong guo feng song is made up for by the Hathaway-inspired Lover From A Previous Life, which remains my favourite track.

My rating of the songs:

1. Bedtime Stories: 9/10: weird and OTT reinterpretation of what the humble bedtime story can be

2. Stay Away: 8.5/10: catchy  and nice to bop along to but what I really love is the banjo

3. A Little: 8.5/10: typical Chou ballad, emotional and heart-tugging

4. Lover From A Previous Life: 9.5/10: near-perfect mix of rap, strong memorable melody and the fact that Hathaway inspired it makes it stand out for all time

5. Hero: 7.5/10: good song for LOL, with shades of The Era and All In One Breath

6. Shouldn't Be: 9/10: beautiful duet, destined to be a karaoke favourite which will be mangled by well-meaning fans. ;)

7. Turkish Ice Cream: 8.5/10: did not like it initially but after listening a few times, now find it utterly cute! Has shades of Nunchucks. Can't wait to see this MV!

8. Love Confession Balloon: 8.5/10: simple singalong number 

9. Now You See Me: 8/10: the supposed zhong guo feng song; sounded great in the movie, though! 

10. Failure At Love: 8.5/10: another heartrending Chou ballad


                                   








Incidentally, sleep will be sacrificed again tonight as another new MV will be released at midnight!

Can't wait!

2 comments:

  1. no 8 , if im not mistaken, is supposed to mean : Love confession Balloon.

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  2. IMO, this is Jay's worst album... I was very disappointed. The ballads didn't have the punch like in his previous albums.

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