OK incase you're wondering, this is not a review of Jay Chou's latest movie Kung Fu Dunk, out 7 Feb, in time for the Lunar New Year sick-of-visiting-relatives crowd.
I left the camera in the car, so I don't have pictures of his concert which I just attended. And what a ride it was!
Strangely, as the mumbly Prince belted out ballad after ballad, rap after rap, R&B-tinged
cheena song after R&B-tinged
cheena song, I sat there and mumbled to myself that boy, I am so glad the fella's Chinese. Proud
lah you see. Which
angmo in Hollywood or MTV today can claim to be such a talented singer, composer, musician, film director and dancer? You either have a combination of some of these talents in an individual. But to have all 5 resident in one slitty-eyed, brooding
Chink is cause for unique celebration in the Chinese diaspora.
I shall not carry on gushing uncontrollably but yes, you get the idea. I am impressed with the bloke. Along with millions of other doe-eyed schoolgirls who really, I think, like him because he's cool, rather than for the kind of slick, fusion Western-Oriental pop he has made his own.
Jay, in my opinion, has 3 broad sub-genres in his repertoire of music. Rap-infused R&B tunes where his trademark mumbling has polarized a sizeable Chinese-pop generation, angsty melancholic ballads that would shoot star-crossed lovers to another galaxy and lately, an experimental infusion of styles in his songs which form a sort of great-tasting
rojak. Case in point of the latter is the Texan hillbilly swing he incorporates into certain tracks on his latest album, On The Run.
He gave us equal doses of each talented portion tonight. Squeezing in a good 20 numbers into the 2.5hr gig and serving up plenty of chatty repartee with the mostly under-30 crowd. Pity that on certain songs, the acoustics of the Indoor Stadium did not perform up to scratch. Too much echo. Making portions of lines where Jay raps (i.e mumbles) quite inaudible.
Nevertheless, a great gig by the Prince himself. Even more so when you consider he spent his Birthday playing to the gallery.
Labels: Music