G.E.M. – 18…
| G.E.M. – 18… October 30, 2009 |
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1. All About U 2. Game Over 3. Seung Gong Nei Ji (想講你知) 4. A.I.N.Y (Ai Ni) (A.I.N.Y. (愛你)) 5. Mascara (Yan Xun Zhuang) (Mascara (煙燻妝)) 6. Wo Bu Dong Ai (我不懂愛) 7. Sai Na He (塞納河) 8. Yi Sik Luen Oi (意式戀愛) 9. G.E.M. (Get Everybody Moving) 10. 18 11. Where Did You Go 2.0 (Sam Vahdat Remix) (Bonus Track) 12. Mascara (Glossy Version) (Bonus Track) |
I’ve been a fan of G.E.M. (real name: Gem Tang) ever since she debuted with the song “Where Did U Go” last year. This track had become one of the most popular songs in the Hong Kong industry and rightfully so for its addictive but laid-back melody. A year later, G.E.M. comes back with her first full debut album.
The album starts off with All About U, which is a mid-tempo R&B track, similar in feel to “Where Did U Go”. The track opens with Gem singing in low, warm tones over the somewhat generic but enjoyable beats in the background of the track. The chorus goes for a slightly higher melody and has a more emotional tone to it as she sings “It’s all about / I’m in love with you”. The track is earnest while being rather addictive at the same time.
Following is the very addictive Game Over, which begins with the ever-so amusing “Ah Oh Ah Oh” phrases. The track is held together with a rather simple, but effect low electronic beat that plays on syncopation to keep the track going. Despite the arrangement being a bit barebones (other than that, there’s drums and a little but of staccatto strings. Gem sings this track well and convincingly. My personal favourite part of the track is the one part where she starts a lot of phrases with “Continue…”.
Gem continues the upbeat tracks with 想講你知, which seems to have gone a bit of a cheap production with the electronic sounds. Seriously. Otherwise, I enjoy the melody and performance of this track. This has a darker, more intense sound than “Game Over” had with the constant beat from the low-budget synth. Replace it with something a bit less low-budget sounding and it would have been a bit better. I do like the amount of intensity Gem puts into her singing throughout this whole track. This track also constantly reminds how bad my Cantonese listening skills are sometimes, but I won’t get into that.
Haha. I remember looking at the title for the first time for A.I.N.Y. (愛你) and I went: OICWUTYOUDIDDER. For those who can’t read Chinese, 愛你 is pronounced Ai Ni in Mandarin. Of course, she had to make one of her crazy acronyms afterwards, because A.I.N.Y. also means “Although I Need You”. Oh Gem and your acronyms. But yeah, my ramble about my amusement with the song title aside, AINY is the first Mandarin song off this album and it carries a rather minimalistic arrangement centering around the sounds of ticking clocks and any sound that can sound like ringing clocks (…including the echoey guitar which is kind of interesting). The melody is simple and Gem sings is a semi-whispering manner without sacrificing her pitch. The tone of the track is a bit haunting and creepy, and I like it. Gem’s soft voice works well with the atmospheric quality of this track, and I really like the second chorus where she sings the main melody and overtop she layers a few English phrases over. The song builds up slightly to the ending where she finally starts to belt out and adlib before going into the chorus once again. After that short emotional burst of energy, it calms down immediately for a soft haunting ending, her speaking softly in English and the ticking of the clock.
… can you tell I really like this track? ;D.
Seriously, though, I really enjoy the quiet artistry of this track from the haunting tones, the slight crescendo and addition of layers in the track and the subtle ending.
With that said, on with the program with Mascara (煙燻妝) (I still haven’t figured out the purpose of the Chinese next to the title, but that’s because my reading and Mandarin is basically non-existent). Gem continues with a more traditional piano ballad, and I immediately love it from the beautiful piano playing and Gem’s emotional, soft singing. She has interpretation of the melody throughout this song and it’s personally one of my favourite vocal recordings from her so far. It’s an intense, emotional melody which Gem performs with a lot of musicality and attention to details. Even her usual little note trills don’t bug me as much this time around. The strings and drums are roaming around in the background, but I barely notice them with the piano and Gem’s vocals. Seriously, I adore the piano phrase that ends this track. If there’s a piano line that can display such honest sorrow, it’s that one. Beautiful.
More mandarin with 我不懂愛, and it’s a mid-tempo little R&B track. This is probably one of the Mandarin tracks that I really, really like. It has the typical kind of beat that’s made of a chord and goes on lots of off-beats and syncopations. However, I find the most addictive part of this track is definitely the melody. Gem’s singing is solid and pulls this track together with her lovely voice and I enjoy how the melody and the beats come together. The melody takes the track by storm with an infectious tune. It’s just a fun tune with solid singing.
The next mid-tempo track, 塞納河 starts off with a rather creepy opening with the low strings and high piano notes playing repetitive notes. As usual, Gem opens strongly and just sings her heart out. The track kind of lies in a kind of dramatic mid-tempo ballad mode and something about it never really comes together very well. While I enjoy the kind of haunting string mode it has in the verses, the chorus and verse feel a bit disjointed and doesn’t completely come together well. The bridge is nice, but again, it doesn’t transition very well into everything else in the song. Probably my least favourite track in the album so far.
We’re back with the Cantonese tracks for 意式戀愛, which is the Cantonese version of 愛現在的我 from her EP. I’ve obviously more used to the Mandarin version, so the Cantonese sounds a bit strange but it fits well enough. The arrangement is exactly the same, but it’s still addictive with the heavy urban arrangement. I still love the staccato plucked notes from the strings throughout the track. Like the original version, I find her singing a bit too light for the heavy beats and feel of the track.
G.E.M. (Get Everybody Moving) would be what I call a really, really, really, really long interlude. It’s not really a real song but works as a 3 minute interlude with lots of chanting and cheering. I admit ever though this track is all kind of ridiculous, it’s really fun. I adore the brass in the track and some of the beats going on in this track. If Gem wanted to make some kind of like crazy cheerleading track, she did it. Of course, there’s some kind of strange, dreamy electronic section in the middle where it’s a lot more subdued (but it still has all the cheerleading chanting over it). I don’t even know what was on her mind when she made this, but I’m amused.
The final non-remix track off this album is the title track, 18, which is another piano ballad, and really the sole pure Cantonese ballad of this album. This song is much brighter in tone than “Mascara (煙燻妝)” was and much sweeter. I love her soft, honest performance here and the simplistic arrangement makes it more raw-sounding. The track is meant to be simple and effective, and Gem achieves this entirely with her pure emotional and beautiful tone.
I always skip Where Did You Go 2.0 (Sam Vahdat Remix) because I’m seriously biased for the original mix. For some reason, they decided to make this more filtered with a bunch of electronic sounds. Seriously yuck. Entirely destroys the honestly of the original mix. It’s know filled with electronized sounds and voice filters everywhere. The only thing I liked from the arrangement was what was in the original version: the acoustic guitar and Gem’s vocal track. Besides it breaking the original honestly of the track, musically, the arrangement is pretty much all over the place and just sounds very cut-and-paste everywhere with random sounds coming in and out at strange moments.
Mascara (Glossy Version) suffers the same fate as the “Where Did You Go” remix. The piano is mechanical at best and the highly synthesized sounds (oh god, it’s the stupid keyboard-made strings!) and similar sounds just makes it sound like it was done by a random amateur. Again. Oh, and everything tries to overpower Gem’s vocals again. At the very least, this remix sounds like it has a little more direction than the previous one. Seriously, who’s hiring these remixers?
Aside from those two awful remixes at the end, G.E.M.’s debut album is a emotional rollercoaster from the addictive, energetic upbeat tracks to those emotional, tearful ballads, Gem proves that she is a capable vocalist who is highly musical and has a strong technical foundation. Although some of her arrangements leave a lot to be desired, her music is both honest and fun to listen to. Her music is far from being groundbreaking, but it’s some enjoyable pop-R&B sung by a fantasic vocalist.
Favourites:
A.I.N.Y. (愛你)
This album is what made me interested into G.E.M’s music, I hope she does another album soon… her singing voice is nice.