Still Fantasy by Jay Chou

Yè De Dì Qī Zhāng really opens the album on a high note, I feel. I don't know anything about the previous song that he so-called ripped off but since it was my first time listening to those melodies, I was very impressed. I thought the arrangement was perfect. Atmospheric, moody with a great build-up to Jay finally singing the chorus. A perfect introduction.

Tīng Mā Ma De Huà was a bit disappointing after such a great first song but it's almost impossible not to like a song like that (it's like all cutesy or whatever plus it's about mothers... Chinese people all love their mothers apparently). It does its job pretty well and keeps the standards high before being completely upstaged by Qiān Li Zhī Wài, a duet which is really one of the high points of this album. The only way to describe this song is beautiful. The melody is really sweet without dipping into the saccharine of the previous song.

Sadly from this peak, the whole album kind of slumps downhill. Běn Cao Gāng Mù is alright but feels kind of uninspired. Tuì Hòu, Xīn Yu and Bái Sè Fēng Chē all feel really interchangable and made for Karaoke, lacking the special something that made a lot of Jay's previous ballads enjoyable, if not outright moving. Hóng Mó Fǎng stands out as the only song in this mess that reaches the standards set by the opening tracks.

But all is not lost! After two boring K-tracks, you get slapped across the face with Mí Dié Xiāng. From cookie-cutter KTV Jay to Bossanova?! Way to contrast! Not to mention that it's a pretty passable track at that! What?! And before you have time to recover from that, suddenly, the whole album is lifted into the transcendental realm with that gem that is Jú Huā Tái, where Jay tries to write a classical chinese song and meets WILD SUCCESS. The vocals on Jú Huā Tái are enunciated with a precision and care never before heard on any of his tracks, the arrangement is glorius and the melody is... one of the best I've ever heard.

But then again, I might just be a know-nothing (quarter-Chinese) Orientalist HELL BENT ON LOVING JAY CHOU.

If I am not the above, however, my point might be that Jú Huā Tái practically redeems the entire album of its THREE TERRIBLE crap-ballads (add to the redemption Yè De Dì Qī Zhāng and Qiān Li Zhī Wài and hey, it's a good deal really) and hopefully there's something in my crap-review (LIFE) of similar (relative) worth... But probably not.