Artist: Various Artists
Album/Single: They Kiss Again OST (惡作劇2吻)
Release Date: December 28, 2007

1. 幸福合作社 (范曉萱/Mavis Fan)
In contrast to the previous series opening theme, this is a more light-hearted and cute. I really like how Mavis Fan is singing. She sings with a lot of character and flare, which isn’t common for many Cpop singers. She doesn’t come across as a typical pop artist either. She makes good use of dynamics in her performance. The arrangement of this song could use more work as it gets messy at times, but Fan’s interpretation and presentation of this song is where all the attention is directed.

2. 你 (林依晨/Ariel Lin)
The opening of this song is a dead giveaway that Lin sang this in character (this is also the ending theme, just to note). Needless to say, the little vocal opening and speaking are more annoying and useless than anything else. When the actual song is underway though, it turns out to be quite a nice ballad. Lin kind of puts a cute spin on the song, shown especially in the verses. I really like the pre-chorus though, and it leads into the choruses very nicely. The choruses are also quite pretty as well. I love the accompaniment of the song during the choruses. Lin doesn’t have the best vocal ability though, and if she sang with more resonance and included more phrasing, then it would have made the musical aspect of the song more beautiful.

3. 忠於原味 (鄭元暢/Joe Cheng)
At this point, it’s turning out to be more of a character image song collection, although this song seems practically out of character for Cheng. If you don’t like cutesy songs (especially sung by males), I would advise you to avoid this song, because it’s probably the cutest song on the whole album. It actually sounds more like a theme song to some children’s TV show (save for the lyrics – which are in character). There really isn’t much else to say about the song itself, as it is fairly one-dimensional. Cheng himself doesn’t particularly have the best vocals, though for a song like this, his singing ability is probably the last thing you would key in on (and he tries, you can tell).

4. Be Your Superman (純表演)
This song is probably the closest you will come to the songs from the first series. It’s a midtempo pop song with an attempt to incorporate very light R&B into the song. The vocalist is not too bad, and he has a sort of raspy, smooth voice that suits the song well. He isn’t another monotone pop star either, and he does try to phrase and add dynamics to his vocal part. The bridge has some pretty high notes, and he struggles during that section a bit, but overall, I thought he wasn’t that bad. The brass section at the end was unexpected, but a nice addition.

5. 藏在微笑裡的秘密 (趙詠華/Cyndi Chaw)
The guitar accompaniment to this song is kind of cool and very upbeat. Chaw has a nice voice, and I think he if she focused on her singing a little more (and took a few lessons on projection), she would be a pretty good vocalist. She has a nice vibrato in her lower range, and those are some very nice moments of the song (her higher range could use some work though). The instrumental interlude includes a string section, and brings more character to the song.

6. 你曾經讓我心動 (a Chord)
This is what I call a classic vocal + guitar pop song. I love the very acoustic nature of this song, since the only accompaniment present here is an acoustic guitar. The vocalist is alright. He has his nice moments, but for the most part he sings in a very breathy, light tone and lacks substance. More resonance from his singing would really make this song more impactful and give it a fuller sound. It would also help him control those shaky higher notes. Overall, it’s a very nice song.

7. Heaven (寒 & 五熊)
Well, this is certainly a surprise. Where “It Started With A Kiss” aimed for a full out laidback mid-tempo pop sound, “They Kiss Again” is trying a lot of new things, as seen with this typica pop-rock tune. Unfortunately, that was the only thing that caught my attention as the vocalists are very weak, and they sound like they’re at some random idol audition. The song itself isn’t all that great either, and the the vocalists don’t have enough power to even make the chorus sound like a chorus.

8. 幸福合作社 (Instrumental)
I was kind of upset to see no guitar versions on this album, but the instrumentals are practically that. This one features a manipulated guitar sound playing the melody (I wanted to say distortion, but I’m not sure if that’s the correct term, and I’m pretty sure it isn’t – though there is some distortion later on). I’m not sure I like this instrumental version though. It actually sounds a little more country than I had anticipated, but the guitar soloing sort of took the character out of the song, so I don’t like it as much.

9. 你 (Instrumental)
I really like the different instruments featured on the melody of this song. It starts off with the piano, then the guitar and the strings take on the chorus. What I don’t like about this is that it doesn’t flourish as much as I expected it, and it stays relative mellow throughout. Normally I’d like something like this over the original version, but with the string version come up later, this is almost uninteresting next to it.

10. 藏在微笑裡的秘密 (Instrumental)
Once again, this is basically a guitar version of the original song, and for once, I think I like this version more than the original. It’s mostly because I like the guitar work done on this version, and it’s a little more stylistically pleasing. If you’re ever on a beach on vacation, this is probably the song you want to be tanning to. XD

11. 你 (Strings Version) (林依晨/Ariel Lin)
As mentioned earlier, this strings version of the ending theme is much better. It’s more dramatic and sweeping, which than the original, but it’s done in such a lovely way. I wish it had more of a true sound to the strings though (and that the strings played a bigger role throughout, not just the intro and choruses). The piano does well to support Lin though. When Lin is trying to sing with a fuller voice, it makes all the difference in the world. It’s much more nicer to listen to. Lin’s vocals are still relatively weak and she needs to work on her control, but this is still a huge improvement over the original.

Overall -
Favourite Track: 幸福合作社, 你 (Strings Version)
Early on I said this OST was more like a character image song collection, and I still stand by that. This OST has the cast of the drama more involved, solidifying its status as an idol drama. Naturally, there are pros and cons to approaching an album this way. What I really enjoyed was the increase variety of songs on this album. It offered more styles than the first OST, and kept my interest a bit longer. Unfortunately, not all of the songs were of good quality, leaving me with the impression that it probably could have been left out. Like its predecessor, the vocals weren’t much to praise about, but it was a decent album with nice songs (for the most part).

Artist: Various Artists
Album/Single: It Started With A Kiss OST (惡作劇之吻)
Release Date: October 21, 2005

Note: Once again, I think Chinese is too hard to translate, so I’m leaving it untranslated (unless it was written in English).

1. Dream Waltz
The album begins, not with the theme song, but a cute little waltz tune that was played throughout the show. It’s mostly a piano solo with the support of a string section. It’s played in a very detached manner, giving it a cute atmosphere. It does repeat a few times, but there are variations underlying the main theme.

2. Say U Love Me (Jason & Lara)
Now getting into the vocal work, this is the opening of the series. There’s a certain charm to this song that makes it very enjoyable to listen to. Lara sounds like a kid in her passages which can be kind of annoying, but she does a decent job with her parts. Jason mostly raps, but he does have some singing roles (and man, does he have a low voice), but he does a good job switching between the two to bring together the song. It provides a very laidback style, but it gives serves well as the series themesong.

3. 遇到 (方雅賢 – Fang Ya Xian)
The first of two songs from this vocalist, and I think it’s the better of the two. I find the vocalist lacks tone and she could use more vibrato in a song like this. It’s a very nice ballad however. The accompaniment is very gentle and lovely. The verses flow well into each chorus, and the chorus ends off well. It’s a very sweet song, and establishes helps establish the type of OST this will turn out to be very early on.

4. 愛情海 (葉慶龍)
This guy sings quite well, and carries through nicely for the most part. He has a very warm vibrato and really brings out the character of the song in a very natural way. I don’t really like the song that much though. Although it’s a decent song, it unfortunately sounds like any generic C-pop ballad out there, and the accompaniment has some random sounds from the programming, that sort of ruin the nice mood established by the vocalist.

5. 聼見 (方雅賢 – Fang Ya Xian)
The vocalist from Track 3 makes an earlier reappearance, but doesn’t provide a very good follow up. I find this song highlights her weak vocals even more so this time around. The melody has many more leaps and movement, and she has a hard time nailing them. The song itself isn’t that tasteful either. The accompaniment is a little light playful thing, and doesn’t do well with the overly dramatic mood they tried to establish here. Speaking of dramatic, the whole song gets really annoying because they really did try for something so ridiculously dramatic that it sounds more cheesy than anything else, then put together with her weak vocals, it just didn’t turn out as emotional as it needed to be.

6. Say U Love Me (Guitar Version)
This is the theme song with a cute twist put to it. It surprisingly made for a good guitar solo song.

7. 靠近一點點 (Lara)
Lara is back, and actually, she does sound like a kid. She has a very light voice, but without all the layering this time, she sort of has a pleasant (but cute!) voice. She doesn’t carry through well though, and she sings in a very unsupported way. The song suits her voice well and with better technique, it would have turned out better.

8. 能不能 (Jason & Landy Wen)
Funny, I don’t really remember this song being played in the series. I really love Jason’s voice for some reason. It has a very soothing tone to it. Once again, I like how he incorporates his singing and rapping (though his singing isn’t the strongest). Landy sings her parts decently and gets the job done, but I think Jason once again is the highlight of the song. Jason really feels the rhythms of the song, so in comparison, Landy tends to sound like she’s simply singing her part, and doesn’t seem to be trying very actively to work herself into the song.

9. 全世界的人都知道 (王俞勻)
I really like the keyboard part in the opening of this song. It’s very gentle and nice. The vocalist, like many of the vocalists on this album, has very little support and fairly weak vocals. She sings with a very light, airy voice, which makes her strange in the higher register, and makes her lower range sound breathy and weak. This is a good ballad musically, and keeps the cute sound this album has carried throughout.

10. 和平世界 (guitar version)
I like the Latin-flavour of this song. It has a very laidback feeling to it, and not nearly as short as the previous two instrumental tracks.

11. 後悔 (何書宇)
This song was a little overplayed in the drama itself, so I don’t like it much, plus it has the typical overdramatic C-pop sound to it too. It is better than “聼見” though not by a lot. The vocalist doesn’t have the best voice, but he’s not as unsupported as most of the other vocalists that have already sang. Even though the song is dramatic as well, I can’t help but like the choruses. The verses are pretty dull, but lead well into the emotional chorus, and I think the vocalist does a pretty job of capturing the mood.

12. 惡作劇 (王藍茵)
I really, really like this ending theme. It stays along the lines of the cute mid-tempo ballad stuff that was predominant in album, but it’s much more pleasant I find. The vocalist isn’t amazing, but she sounds like she has the most control over her voice out of all the female vocalists featured here. To make up for her lack of vocal ability, she performs with attention and presents the song. Had she worked on her singing (adding in vibrato here and there), it would have turned out really nicely. The key change seems to come out of nowhere towards the end, but it’s the highlight of the song and the vocalist tries to pour more emotion and power there.

13. Sky (葉慶龍)
I don’t really like this as the closing track of the album, because it’s too much like the rest of the album, so there’s not much to make it stand out. It is sung entirely in English though, and as a treat, it’s by the best vocalist on this album. His English is quite good too. He does a good job with this song as well, but he has too many melismas everywhere, so it kind of takes away from the song quite a bit.

Overall -
Favourite Track: 惡作劇, Sky
For an OST, this turned out to a surprisingly good pop album. A little more variety wouldn’t hurt, but it was a solid album nonetheless, considering it was just a collection of the themes and insert songs from the drama. I was impressed with the vocalists featured on this album, save for one person, but most of them got the job done at the very least, decently.