Genre: R&B/pop, Cpop
Rating: 3/5
Review by: jct
Chinese actor-singer, Vanness Wu released his 5th album entitled C’est La V in July 2011. The album title uses the French word “c’est la vie” meaning it’s life as word play, which describes the album well as it covers a wide range of love topics that one may experience. The album certainly tries to capture the attention of younger audiences using up-tempo and more mainstream music. However, the album is a good example that sometimes following too closely to mainstream may not be favorable.
Rating: 3/5
Review by: jct
Chinese actor-singer, Vanness Wu released his 5th album entitled C’est La V in July 2011. The album title uses the French word “c’est la vie” meaning it’s life as word play, which describes the album well as it covers a wide range of love topics that one may experience. The album certainly tries to capture the attention of younger audiences using up-tempo and more mainstream music. However, the album is a good example that sometimes following too closely to mainstream may not be favorable.
Going Through Motions
The album doesn’t start off too well, as he toss the listener with a bunch of up-tempo tracks loaded with computer gimmicks. The title track, “說愛就愛 (Say Love, Then Love/ Love Faith Live)” is nothing more than a cold empty attempt to stay on top of trends and reinvent himself. Sure, there are some catchy parts, but the problem is the song is completely soulless.
That said, the album slowly gets better in the latter half, specifically starting from track 5, “命定 (Destined)”. A track deserving mentioning is “只要她快樂 (As Long As She’s Happy)”, which is a mid-tempo romantic R&B track about not taking one’s love for granted, as he sings, “As long as she’s happy, happy/ it’s simpler than you think, using heart you will see, / as long as she’s happy, loving her every minute every second/ don’t leave her alone, don’t be so inconsiderate.” Also deserving mentioning is the English track, “Knockin”, which is written and produced by Bruno Mars. The song is about wanting to be more than friends, but the girl never looked his way as he sings smoothly and fluently in English, “The man that’ll treat you good/ is standing right in front of you/ tell me what you waiting for/ when my heart’s been knocking on your door.”
Some drawbacks of this album are that most of the songs sound generic, and production-wise, it seems like he tries too hard to follow the trend, which has its pros and cons. Although he got a couple of popular American producers to help him in the production of some songs, the overall production results are not exactly great. If the songs are unable to showcase his vocals, it’s as good as useless especially with the title track and “Is This All.” In terms of vocals, it’s quite mediocre but he does have a plesant natural voice which makes up for the limited vocal range. Overall, his attempt at modernism isn’t horrible, but sticks out like a sore thumb. The slow to mid-tempo love ballads are what he excels in and he should stick to his strengths.
Track list
1. Intro
2. 說愛就愛 (Say Love, Then Love/ Love Faith Live)
3. Is This All feat. Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic (theme song from TV Drama “Material Queen”)
4. Do it feat. 仔仔
5. 命定 (Destined)
6. 有你在 (Having You Near) (featured in TV Drama “Material Queen”)
7. 只要她快樂 (As Long As She’s Happy)
8. 愛的手榴彈 (Love Grenade)
9. 愛沒走 (Don’t Leave)
10. 哎呀 (Oh!)
11. 透明愛 (In The Limelight)
12. Knockin’
2. 說愛就愛 (Say Love, Then Love/ Love Faith Live)
3. Is This All feat. Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic (theme song from TV Drama “Material Queen”)
4. Do it feat. 仔仔
5. 命定 (Destined)
6. 有你在 (Having You Near) (featured in TV Drama “Material Queen”)
7. 只要她快樂 (As Long As She’s Happy)
8. 愛的手榴彈 (Love Grenade)
9. 愛沒走 (Don’t Leave)
10. 哎呀 (Oh!)
11. 透明愛 (In The Limelight)
12. Knockin’
