Ok, so he mumbles A LOT in his songs, and most of the time, I can fully understand the lyrics only when I actually get to sing the songs during KTV sessions. But you have to give him full credit for his ability to create melodies which not only come in a wide variety, but are also extremely catchy and sometimes, very very touching.

I'm referring to the song 菊花台, track 10 in Jay Chou's newest album offering 依然范特西. My goodness, I had goosebumps the first time I heard it on the CD (and it had to be the last track). Basically, I'm a person who forms a very strong impression on any new songs which I hear for the first time. Meaning if I like the song the minute I heard it, then I will probably like it forever. And songs which I have no feelings towards at first...well, it'll probably also stay that way. There are extremely few songs which got me to change my initial impression of them. One of these rare examples, is the old song 领悟 sung by 辛晓琦. When I first heard it, I was totally indifferent towards the melody (cos as mentioned before, I'm a melody person...lyrics usually mean zilch to me). But after hearing it for a few more times, I was greatly moved by the amount of expression 辛晓琦 had 'displayed' while singing the song, as well as the extremely stirring lyrics. But its a very sad song nonetheless.

Anyway, Jay Chou had wrote 菊花台 specially for the movie 《满城尽带黄金甲》 directed by 张艺谋. Of course, Jay is one of the actors in the movie lar, together with other big shots like 巩俐 and 周润发. The moment the song starts, you would know its a very typical traditional 中国风 type of music cos the main instrument used sounded like the pipa (I cannot really differentiate between the sounds of pipa, guzhen and yang qin). But interestingly, the cello was also pretty obvious later in the song, and despite the fact that both instruments are of different origins, their sounds actually came together quite seamlessly in the song. I must say the score arranger did a pretty impressive job!

The melody was of course top notch Jay Chou. Though my sis commented that his voice did not really manage to fit into the song, I felt it was still rather acceptable. Given the extremely poetic lyrics (done by Jay's usual partner 方文山) in the song, I could still feel the range of emotions (the anguish, sadness and 不舍得) which Jay had tried to inject while singing it. And from this song, you really would have been able to guess that this new movie is a 武侠片 with a love story in it probably. My guess lah!

Overall, I had actually only liked 4 songs in this new album. They are:
1) 夜的第七章 (Interesting MV)
2) 千里之外 (even though I get to hear it like at least 4 times a day on Yes933)
3) 退后
4) 菊花台
4 out of 10 is not too bad for me liao...haha. Cos if at least one of the songs had impressed me like to the extent where I repeat the song over and over and over again on my Ipod, then I think the album is already worth buying. I saw on the net how others had raved about the other songs like 心雨 and 迷迭香 (this is more like a jazzy number...imagine Jay doing Jazz!), but to me so-so only leh. Wasn't really that impressed.

菊花台 - still the best! Feel very 感伤 whenever I finish hearing it.