After waiting 7 long years, Jacky’s fans received an
early Christmas gift back on December 23rd – his new Mandarin album
entitled Wake Up Dreaming. (Jacky’s
previous album, By Your Side, came
out in 2007). Of course, as a long-time fan, I wouldn’t miss this ‘monumental’
event no matter what, so I made sure to put in my order for his album as soon
as it became available for sale.
Luckily, I already knew from past experience that it would take a while
for the album to get here via ‘snail mail’, so I also bought the album on
iTunes – this way, I could start listening to the album right away (yes, I was
one of the fans who helped push his album to the number one spot on iTunes
within minutes of its release...LOL).
Ever since then, I’ve listened to the album so many times already that I
practically have all 10 songs memorized (no, I’m not kidding – his newest album
is THAT good!!).
Now, for the record, I don’t usually loop entire albums
over and over again since that’s not my usual style (even with Jacky’s albums I
don’t do it often)….but this particular album is so good, it’s absolutely worth
listening to more than once! As I’ve
been saying for the past couple months already, Wake Up Dreaming is definitely one of Jacky’s best Mandarin albums
to date (in my humble opinion, it absolutely deserves a spot up at the top
right alongside Jacky’s other ‘best of the best’ Mandarin albums such as Kiss Goodbye, True Love, I Can’t Forget You,
Want to Blow With You in the Wind, No Regrets, etc.). As
usual, Jacky (and his production team) put a lot of effort into making his
newest album as ‘perfect’ as possible, which I definitely appreciate as a fan –
sure, 7 years is a long time to wait, but with this type of result, the wait
was absolutely worth it!
With the year 2014 officially marking Jacky’s 30th
anniversary in show business, I can’t think of a more fitting way to celebrate
such an important occasion than coming out with such an awesome album! Jacky is known for having high standards when
it comes to his music and this album is no exception – from the initial
selecting of songs to actually recording the final version of each song, the
album actually took a total of 10 years to produce. Jacky also wanted fans to have the best
listening experience possible, so there was special emphasis placed on the
musical arrangement for each of the songs -- in addition to the fact that 99%
of the album was recorded using live instruments, Jacky and his record producer
Andrew Tuason (杜自持) specially arranged for some
of the sound mixing and recording of the songs to be done at the legendary
Abbey Road Studios in London, England (yes, that’s the famous studio where the
Beatles recorded all their albums, including the one that was named after the
studio itself). The meticulous attention
placed on the musical composition for each song definitely shows, as the
feeling that I get listening to each song is akin to hearing it being played
live by a real-life orchestra (add Jacky’s voice in there singing the song and
I feel like I’m at one of his concerts hearing him sing the song live on
stage)!
I don’t usually do album reviews, but given how much I
love this particular album (plus the fact that I like ALL 10 tracks on the album,
which is extremely rare, since with most albums, there are usually a few songs
that I don’t really care for), I felt it was only appropriate for me to
‘review’ this album. One disclaimer
though – by no means is this a ‘professional’ review, as I am not qualified to
give any such review, since I am not a musician nor am I involved in anything
related to the field of music. Instead,
the below are merely my thoughts on the album as a music fan (and a fan of
Jacky’s of course!).
Without question, I absolutely recommend buying this
album and listening to it more than once!
Of course, I don’t expect everyone to ‘fall in love’ with this album
like I did, but I do hope that music fans who get the chance to listen to the
album in its entirety will enjoy it just as much as I did and also will be able
to appreciate the effort that Jacky put into it (he is listed as the producer
of the album along with Andrew).
Note that for the 4 songs that have MVs filmed, I
included the Youtube links to the MVs in case those reading this review haven’t
seen them.
One last note….I know there has been some talk about
Jacky possibly winning some awards this year due to the overwhelming praise for
this album….to me though, whether Jacky ends up getting any awards for this
album doesn’t matter one bit. He already
stated in his numerous interviews promoting the album that his intention is to
give music fans a quality album that they – and himself – can thoroughly enjoy. He doesn’t care about awards – he just wants
to continue making quality music, as that’s his way of repaying the music
industry and his fans for all the support he’s gotten over the past 30 years
(well-said, Jacky!!).
*****
Lyrics: Lin Xi (林夕)
Composer: Samuel Jean, McAyla Beatley, Catherine
Martin, Scott Effman, Lukas ‘Nate’ Nathanson
Musical
arrangement: Andrew Tuason (杜自持)
As the first plug from Jacky’s new album, this song was
first released back in October. My
initial reaction when I heard this song for the first time was: wow, this has got to be one of Jacky’s most
difficult songs to sing, as the key is really high, plus the musical
arrangement is quite complicated. Despite
being hard to sing though, the song is actually very beautifully put
together. For me personally, I was first
attracted to the song’s melody – it gave me a feeling of being very grand, yet
at the same time, soft enough to have a calming effect. In terms of the lyrics, I actually didn’t pay
a whole lot of attention at first, as I was too caught up in the melody (and of
course, Jacky’s voice blended in with the beautiful arrangement…LOL)…it wasn’t
until the song’s MV was being filmed and I heard Jacky talk about the
inspiration for the song that I went back and really listened to the lyrics
closely. During interviews, Jacky had
said that in the middle of producing this song, he saw a story in the news that
moved him so much, he decided to incorporate the story into the song. The news report was on the wedding of a
young couple (both only in their early twenties) in Taiwan: the bride had stage 4 stomach cancer and only
had a few months left to live – despite knowing that they didn’t have much
time, the groom still proposed to his girlfriend and married her because he
wanted to seize every remaining moment left to love her and give her happiness. Such a sad, yet heartwarming story!!
After hearing the story, the impact of the song is definitely
very different, as it stirs up emotions that I didn’t have the first couple
times I listened to the song. Now every
time I listen to this song, I think about the meaning of the lyrics and the
message that the song is trying to convey:
instead of arguing and fretting over small disagreements in a
relationship, we should learn to cherish the limited time we have to love each
other and be happy. Indeed, the title
of the song is very appropriate – ‘use the remainder of one’s life to love’…..
Track 2: 時間有淚 (Tears of Time)
Lyrics: Keith Chan (陳少琪)
Composer: Su Yi Cheng (蘇亦承)
Musical
arrangement: Johnny Yim
If we take the first track The Rest of Time and remove the real life backstory that I
described above, the song also has a different significance – based on the way
the music video (MV) was filmed, it actually creates a different story of its
own. In the MV story, The Rest of Time is part 1 (the
beginning of the story) where a guy meets his love and they commit to loving
each other for the rest of their lives. The MV features a special appearance by
Jacky’s old friend Karena Lam (林嘉欣), with whom he has collaborated
several times already (she starred in the MV for his hit classic Love Letter and they also starred in the
film July
Rhapsody together).
From this perspective, track two – Tears of Time – is part 2 of the story where the couple encounters
problems with their relationship and end up going through a painful
breakup. The MV is very beautifully made
and captures the essence of the song, with the contrast in the colors and also
the way the couple (played by Jacky and Karena) go from being affectionate and
loving to not even wanting to look at each other.
Melody and lyrics wise, this song is definitely a lot
sadder than the first track (though it’s definitely not the saddest in my
opinion). Out of all the songs on the
album, I would have to say that Tears of
Time is the most reminiscent of the traditional ‘love ballad’ that we are
used to hearing from Jacky. I recall
Jacky saying during one of his recent interviews that this song was one of the
first ones that he got back when he initially started gathering songs for this
album 10 years ago (which means that the song is technically 10 years
old!). Of course, the musical
arrangement and lyrics were revamped and rewritten, but the core concept and
essence are the same. This song proves
that music is timeless….it doesn’t matter how long ago a song was made – if
it’s a good song and people can relate to it, that’s all that matters.
Track 3: 你說的
(You Said It)
Lyrics: Siu On (小安)
Composer: Siu On (小安)
Musical
arrangement: Andrew Tuason (杜自持)
As the third plug from the album, this song is also the
‘end of the trilogy’ so to speak: after
their breakup, Karena has moved out and Jacky is alone at the house they used
to share. As he is looking around,
everything he sees and does reminds him of her – simple tasks such as folding
laundry, reading a book, drinking coffee, playing the piano, even looking at
the mirror, etc., he is reminded that the two of them used to do all those
things together. In the MV, everything
is almost dreamlike, as though Jacky is actually asleep and imagining Karena is
there with him (which ties in nicely with the ending scene of the MV). Speaking of the MV, it’s actually one of the
best ones I’ve seen in a long time – I like how it was simple, yet classy and also
conveyed the song’s message so well.
If I had to pick a favorite amongst the 10 songs in this album,
You Said It would definitely be my
choice! Perhaps it is the catchy tune or
the perfectly timed lyrics, or just the way Jacky sings the song….unlike the
other songs, I actually ‘fell in love’ with this song the very first time I
heard it! It’s interesting that out of
the 4 ‘plugged’ songs from the album that have had music videos released, this
song has been the least promoted and has the least amount of ‘fanfare’ (so far
at least). But that’s ok though, since I
understand that it’s hard to give the same amount of attention to very single
song, especially when all the songs on the album are so good!
Track 4: 我愛上你 (Fall In Love With You)
Lyrics: Keith Chan (陳少琪)
Composer: Frederik Cornelius, Elisa Smekens
Musical
arrangement: Andrew Tuason (杜自持)
This is one of the ‘fast’ songs in the album and probably
one of the most ‘cheery’ songs in terms of music and lyrics, though the style
is very different from the rest of the songs.
The first words that come to mind when I listen to this song are: “cute” and “fun” (which is why I like to call
this the ‘cutesy fun’ song…LOL). Now I
have to admit that I wasn’t too attracted to the song at first because I felt
it was a bit too cutesy and didn’t really fit Jacky’s style (or the style of
this particular album)…but then after listening to the song a few more times, it
really started to grow on me.
The funny thing is that Jacky also commented on this song
in one of his earlier interviews. He
half-jokingly ‘admitted’ during one of the interviews that the style he used to
sing this song was ‘incorrect’. He
basically said that he should have used a ‘cutesy’ style that was more
appropriate for his current age rather than use a style that sounded too young…LOL. Well, the style did sound a little different
but it’s actually a good thing, since it’s important for an artist to explore
different styles and have variety to their music.
Overall this is a good song with a ‘jazzy’ feel to it
that is fun to listen to and gives off a sweet, romantic feeling, though it
might take a few tries to warm up to…
Track 5: 我只想唱歌 (I Just Want To Sing)
Lyrics: Riley Lam (林若寧)
Composer: Siu On (小安)
Musical
arrangement: Andrew Tuason (杜自持)
Out of the ‘fast’ songs on the album, this one is
definitely my favorite, mainly because it is the song that is most
representative of Jacky -- to the point that sometimes I have a hard time
convincing myself that Jacky didn’t write the song himself (listen to the
lyrics carefully and you’ll understand why I feel this way). It’s pretty common knowledge that Jacky loves
singing – for other people, singing might be a job, but for Jacky, it’s part of
who he is as a person. If given the
chance, he could sing non-stop all day and continue to sing until he can’t sing
anymore – THAT’s how much he loves singing!
(I actually love hearing the stories that his friends tell about how
Jacky always ‘hogs the mike’ when they all go karaoke because he loves singing
so much and seems to know every single song…hahaha!).
Here is where I have to give kudos to the song’s lyricist
Riley Lam – the lyrics he wrote are absolutely brilliant!! Each line of the lyrics describes perfectly
Jacky’s attitude toward singing (as I was reading the lyrics, I couldn’t help stopping
at each line and saying to myself “yup, that’s Jacky!”) The other impressive part is that Riley
incorporated the names of a few of Jacky’s past hit songs into the lyrics and
blended them in so well that I didn’t even realize it until I heard Jacky talk
about it in one of his interviews (I don’t always have the lyrics in front of
me when I’m listening to songs, especially the first few times). For those who get a chance to listen to this
song, keep your ears open for mention of the following Jacky classics: 初吻 (First
Kiss), 吻別 (Kiss Goodbye), 情已逝 (Love Has Died), 不老的傅説 (The Legend That Never Ages), 愛火花 (Love Sparks), 頭髮亂了 (Messed
Up Hair).
In my opinion, this song is definitely a ‘must listen’
for all Jacky fans, especially long-time fans who have followed him from his
early career to now – it’s a pretty good recap of the different stages of
Jacky’s career and also brings back a lot of great memories of past times. Oh and I love the chorus, which starts with
the sentence “I just want to sing” and ends with “If I don’t sing, what else can
I do?”
Track 6: 控訴
(The Accused)
Lyrics: Siu On (小安)
Composer: Siu On (小安)
Musical
arrangement: Andrew Tuason (杜自持)
This is probably the only song on the album that I don’t
have much comment about. Don’t get me
wrong – I enjoy listening to the song and I like the melody, but for some
reason, I don’t feel as ‘connected’ to this song as I do to the other songs on
the album….I don’t seem to feel much for the song after listening to it. I’m thinking perhaps the reason is because
the lyrics are too complex, which kind of takes away from the relatability of
the song. Seeing that Siu On was the one
who wrote the lyrics, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that the lyrics are
not as easy to understand. I remember Jacky mentioning during one of his
interviews that sometimes Siu On’s lyrics are hard to understand – he said that
when he received the first draft of a few of the songs where Siu On wrote the
lyrics, he had no clue what the songs were trying to say (lol…the way he said
it was actually quite funny – the final drafts of the songs came out much
better of course!). Overall, this is a good song, just not really
my taste.
Track 7: 我醒著做夢 (Wake Up Dreaming)
Lyrics: Lin Xi (林夕)
Composer: Harry Mikael Sommerdahl, Jasmine Baird
Musical
arrangement: Andrew Tuason (杜自持)
As the title song of the album, I actually feel that this
song deserves to be the first plug (I was actually kind of surprised that it
ended up being 4th plug). The
song starts off soft, but then quickly builds to a climactic chorus and
continues to retain that grand, climactic feel throughout the song. To me, the best way to describe the song is
that it is very grandiose and takes a lot of effort to sing – which also means
that this is another difficult song that not everyone will be able to sing with
the fervor and emotion that Jacky put into it.
I actually can’t wait to hear Jacky sing this song live,
as I’m sure it will blow audiences away.
The only bad thing is that because the song requires a bit of ‘shouting’
at the top of your lungs, it is very difficult to sing if you’re not feeling
well (it’s hard to reach the high notes and the various climactic points of the
song). This is the reason why Jacky
decided not to sing this song during his opening performance at the KK Box Music
awards ceremony in Taiwan a few weeks ago – he had been dealing with a bad cold
for 2 weeks already and wasn’t at 100%, so he decided last minute to sing Tears of Time instead…actually, at first
he was going to cancel his performance, but because he didn’t want to
disappoint his fans, he decided to still sing, but chose a song that he knew he
would be able to handle (and yes, he sang beautifully – if he hadn’t said that
he had a cold, no one would have been able to tell that he was sick!).
The MV for Wake Up
Dreaming is just as grand as the song itself! The visual effects utilized in the MV are
quite stunning, with the contrast between fire and water, the burning bed, all
the water machinery, etc. – it’s too bad though that the final version of the
MV cut out a lot of the effects that were showed during the filming process. Regardless, watching the MV while listening
to the song definitely enhances the overall experience.
Track 8: 來得及 (It's Not Too Late)
Lyrics: Abrahim Chan (陳詠謙)
Composer: Lindy Robbins, Toby Gad, David Archuleta
Musical
arrangement: Andrew Tuason (杜自持)
This is definitely another “must listen” song for
me! First, this song is unique in that
it is Jacky’s own interpretation of Gospel music, which is a style that he hasn’t
tried before (in terms of his albums).
If you listen closely to the song, you’ll hear what sounds like a choir
group doing the background vocals – well, that actually WAS a real life gospel
choir group! However an interesting fact
that probably not many people know is that Jacky blended his own voice into the
background vocals – the reason for this is because the choir group consisted 100%
of Westerners who don’t know a single word of Mandarin (I’m assuming they had
to rely on some type of English pinyin lyrics to sing their piece), so the
pronunciation during a few segments was a bit off…given Jacky’s high standards,
he decided to ‘clean up’ the background vocals himself. I actually could not tell at all just from
listening to the song, but I heard Jacky talk about this during one of his
radio interviews – after that, I listened really carefully to those segments
and indeed, I could make out Jacky’s voice in the background vocals.
Another reason why I highly recommend this song is
because, well, it’s another one of my favorites from the album. I love the upbeat melody of the song as well
as the encouraging lyrics – it’s a very uplifting, positive song and it makes
me feel good each time after listening to it.
The song itself talks about the negative feelings that result from
various unhappy events in life (i.e.: failed relationships, business ventures
gone sour, losing unfairly in a competition, etc.) and how we should step back
and deal with these issues in a more positive way. Basically, the message is that life is too
precious to waste so much time lamenting over things that upset us – instead of
dwelling on the bad, we should focus more on the good. My favorite part of the song is the chorus,
which goes something like this:
How about this, let
us change the way we look at things
Don’t let anger create a jail for yourself
Don’t let anger create a jail for yourself
There are already a
lot of tragedies in life
So why can’t we
cherish each other more
Release yourself
now, it’s not too late, not too late
I also like the last stanza of the song, as I feel it
sends a strong message of hope and optimism:
Perhaps you are in
a sea of darkness right now and it feels like you’ll never reach the light
I’ve experienced
this, so I would like to tell you right now
Take your most
beloved and think about them
What kind of a
person do you want to end up being?
It’s not too late
[for] all kinds of forgiveness
Track 9: 白自在 (Vain Ease)
Lyrics: Lyrics:
Riley Lam (林若寧)
Composer: Amir Masoh
Musical
arrangement: Andrew Tuason (杜自持)
This is another fun, fast song that is upbeat and
enjoyable, with a very interesting title (note that the English title is the ‘official’
title in Itunes). I’m actually not sure
why the title was translated in that manner, as it doesn’t seem to relate to
the song (except for the ‘ease’ part, since the entire song is about being
carefree and at ease). Though the song
may not be as uplifting as track 8 (It’s
Not Too Late), there’s still a good message contained in it about being at
ease with oneself and not worrying so much about everything. The song can also be considered a reflection
of Jacky’s carefree attitude toward life and career, especially right now (interestingly
enough, both songs on the album that reflect Jacky’s attitude toward life and
career were written by Riley Lam…). The
song teaches the lesson that basically, we shouldn’t get so caught up in the little
things, especially what others may think or say about you…instead take it easy
and let the chips fall where they may.
Easier said than done in my opinion, but still a very practical lesson
nonetheless!
Track 10: 不錯 (Not Bad)
Lyrics: Keith Chan (陳少琪)
Composer: Lindy Robbins, Marci Marinangeli, Jeffrey B.
Franzel
Musical
arrangement: Anthony Chue, Lindy
Robbins, Marci Marinangeli, Jeffrey B. Franzel
For me, this is the saddest song in the entire album,
both from a melody as well as lyric perspective. The song tells a story of 2 people who love
each other but cannot be together and the resulting pain of having to let
go. It’s a very melancholy song, one
that gets me teary-eyed just listening to the sad melody, even moreso hearing
the lyrics – and of course, with Jacky’s emotional singing, it’s hard not to be
moved by the song as a whole. This is
also one of the first songs that attracted me from the getgo in that I already
liked the song the first time I listened to it.
And similar to Tears of Time,
this song is also reminiscent of Jacky’s traditional ‘love ballad’ style.
One thing that is worth commenting about with this song
is the title, as I feel both the Chinese and English versions of the title don’t
match with the song at all. The title “Not
Bad” by itself sounds too positive – in fact, when I first read the title
(prior to listening to the song for the first time), I thought this was going
to be another one of those upbeat songs, so I was a little surprised when it
turned out to be a sad, melancholy song instead. I haven’t heard Jacky mention much about this
song so far in his interviews (and I honestly don’t know if he will, since the
focus seems to be on the 4 plugged songs), but I’m definitely curious to know
how the title of the song was decided upon.
Hopefully I’ll find out eventually down the road…
