Cao Fang

i believe you guys have all received Cao Fang's album sent by Zhu, who was asking me to write something for the newly emerged singer in China mainland. i hope her songs will leave a good impression to ppl who has never listened to Chinese pop before.

(to zhu: it's hard to write an original review... i should just put the Chinese review into google translate and get the English text...)

initially i didn't have a high expectation for her. since i'm already used to the old, traditional styles of most mainland Chinese songs. however her production came to me as a shock. she has adopted a very unique folk-song style lacked by most of her counterparts, and her voice is so natually integrated into her songs. this album "Encounter Me" is her second one so far, released 2 years after her first album, "Black Perfume". i like two of her songs in "Encounter Me" best, "Straw Man" and "Wind Blows over Rainy Days". her monologs in the front part of the songs have characterized Cao Fang's unique singing style well.

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zhu:
Added Discography translations. I suck at translations. Bear with me.


Debut Album (2003) - 黑色香水 | Black Perfume
1. 黑色香水 | Black perfume
2. 春花秋开 | Spring flowers blooming in autumn
3. 失陪 | Excuse me
4. 透明对白 | Transparent dialogue
5. 橘子汁 | Orange juice
6. 基诺山 | Jinuo Mountain
7. Two weeks holiday
8. Garbled account
9. So cool
10. 落单 | Loly (lost + lonley)
11. 小病人 | Little patient
12. 别样生活 | Another kind of life


2nd Album (2005) - 遇见我 (Encounter Me)
1. 遇见我 | Encouter me
2. 神秘礼物 | Mysterious gift
3. 风吹过的下雨天 | Wind blowing over rainy day
4. 城市稻草人 | City scarecrow
5. ICY是淑女 | ICY is a lady
6. TROUBLE
7. I don't care anyway
8. 秋凉 | Autumn chill
9. 在夏天 | In summer
10. 落单.续 | Loly . c'td
11. 孤单的独白 | Lonely monologue

Icy's fansite: http://www.icyfans.com/forum/index.php

Music Bombs

We resumed our music sharing business obviously. There're too many links so I'll just sum them here and you can pick whichever catches your fancy.


Dido - No Angel

>> Dido's debut album which's rather original. The wikipedia entry categorises this album under 'easy listening' lol. Sure someone's heard 'No Angel', 'Thank You', 'Here with me'?

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Dolly Parton - The Collection
>> Dolly Parton's an amazing country singer. Not sure where this album comes from. Maybe it's just an universal edition but you'll get a pretty good idea of her styles and voice. (2 tracks missing btw).

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Pat Metheny - A Map of the World
>> Genre: new age, guitar
Pat Metheny is an American guitarist who works mainly on jazz genre. This album is sadly beautiful and quiet. Perfect background music for studying/reading, or maybe sleep inducing.

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Yoko Kanno - Tokyo Sora
>> Tokyo Sora is a Japanese movie and it seems the setting is in an art university. Yoko Kanno wrote the scores and it was one of her earliest solo works. Some of the tracks are very minimalistic and humourous.

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Cao Fang (Icy) - Hei Se Xiang Shui (Black Perfume)
>> This's Cao Fang's (English name 'Icy') debut album. She recently won the best mainland selling artist. Personally I find her lazy style of singing rather attractive and she's a very talented song writer. Won't pass any more comments. Maybe yaya will write a review.

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雲のむこう、約束の場所 OST (The place promised in our early days)
>> It's an anime feature film OST. Even if you have no idea about the anime, the music alone is attractive enough, mostly strings and symphonie.

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The rest of the albums are from Jady. I'll leave you to edit the posts.

Wong Faye - Chang You (Scenic Tour)

Alanis Morissette - So-called Chaos

Damien Rice

Yann Tiersen Albums(composer of 'Amelie')

Yann Tiersen - Rue des Cascades

Yann Tiersen - Retrouvailles

views, reviews, and stevie nicks

Confession--I didn't manage to study after all today--obsessedly browsed and read all music-related stuff, and did some extensive update on ukulele. The recent posts (and the lack of them) made me ponder if we had got it right after all the zest and labor: if the initial rush was too strong and tired out the drive to follow up, if too many people were invited, if the implicitly set tones and themes were too formal and contricting when all we ever wanted was personal views and random thoughts and (if it should happen) freely indulging in artists/genres we share common interest in. I should hope it's just the mad busy end-of-April period. I should also hope it's just my occasional streak of intolerance/impatience stretching its limbs. Hmph.

Rants and grunts aside, I am bursting to ask you this--do you know that Stevie Nicks (that gender-neutral voice that sang Touched by an Angel on Sweet November OST) is female?!! and an attractive, young woman at that?!! BLEW MY MIND AWAY! I was reading Dixie Chicks biography and it cited that the band had covered some classic item of Stevie Nicks--one click away and I was looking at a blonde girl/woman, and my first and only thought was: wrong spelling, name of that voice should be Steve Nicks. So, some more browsing..and arrrrhhhhh, it's her, it's her! Gosh. How this will change the listening experience of Touched! Incroyable..

upcoming album releases (to be completed)

Dixie Chicks - Taking the Long Way

The nine time Grammy-Award winning Sony Recording artists will release this highly-anticipated fourth album on May 23, 2006. Release notes and review.

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Jewel is returning to her folk roots after the 0304 stint, releasing album GOODBYE ALICE IN WONDERLAND on 2nd May. news and review on the new album.

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Zhu: added a promotional video on Jewel's upcoming album.