first cantonese punk band to ever make it to top 10 on the HMV charts...i needed to check them out lol. to my surprise, i found the cd quite enjoyable. anyway, here's my 'cd review' i posted in other forums that i'm copy/pasting here =)
haha today i got to school and my friend arrived like 5 minutes later and was like "hey! here rae the two cd's you wanted!" i intended to pay her back but she said they were my christmas and birthday gifts ^ ^ and i said to myself "don't listen to it at school because you'll get too into it. i couldn't resist...
first thing i noticed when i opened the cd case was a ticket for their concert fell out. oops...anyway, then i immediately noticed how much more professional the cd booklet seemed compared to jay chou's, jacky cheungs, leon lai's, etc. etc. That's a huge shock, since they get much less funding and stuff from a smaller company.
I listened to the cd with the booklet open to read the stuff. They spent so much time on the book...First of all there were 4 pictures telling you what each bandmember did in the band. That's only a tiny part of it. the rest was filled with lyrics, TRANSLATIONS of lyrics (if there's a chinese line, english translation next to it and when there's an english line, they also translate it into chinese). that's already something i haven't seen before. then, for each song, there was like a huge explanation that told you what the purpose of the song was and how the band felt about these problems. stuff they talked about included 'the weakness of our education system', 'the treatment of the elderly', 'racism', and 'materialism'. subjects that cantonese songs rarely touch upon.
one or two of the tracks are recordings of the 'boss' when kinglychee showed him some of their demos. here's the dialogue in one of them (translated)
dialogue:
boss: come in.
assistant: hey boss! got a new band for you to check out. they're called kinglychee.
boss: come on in.
assistant: sit down here boys.
boss: king ly chee right? got any demos?
assistant: sure. they've brought some demos. (to the guitar player...)_get it out man.
kinglychee: here.
boss: (listens for a few seconds) NEXT! (Listens to the next rack) NEXT! (Listens to the next track) NO NO NO NO NO! SKIP IT! (Listens to an acoustic song for a bit and then angrily screams) STOP IT! (looks back at the band menacingly.) Come on-first of all, it's just noise! Secondly, you guys are singing in English. This is HOng Kong man! (looking back to the assistant) Are you the one that found this sh*t band?
assitant: of course not! it was that guy...what's his name! he's the one that found them!
boss: (looking back at the band) Let me tell you something...what you have here...isn't worth sh*t in hong kong!!
another dialogue:
boss: is this your first day in hong kong? how can people sing this shit in karaoke? where do you think you are? the US?! do you idiots have any idea how the music market works in hong kong?! media, television, karaoke, mass-marketing...how can you do all that with this crap? why don't you call this "HK Hardore crap" instead?
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anyway, that was some of the stuff inserted into one or two of the tracks on the cd. it makes me angry...people like the boss are the reason why hk music is at a low point.
ANYWAY, to the music. I got used to him screaming...and the song is actually really good. I couldn't really tell any of the songs apart immediately, but the messages are so meaningful and the guitars are played very well. Sounds really good, after you accept the type of music. i'm sure lots of people are unable to accept it.
they have THE BEST LYRICS i have ever seen in cantonese music, or any asian music in that case. lemme type up the english lines and english translations of one of the songs...
Page after page,
innocent minds get tricked into believing.
that without a sculptured figure or a sculptured wardrobe...
they'll amount to nothing.
i refuse to accept this culture of vanity
focus on images
negative cyclical effects
effects of trendy terms
a model that society accepts
creates a so-called "successful" model
based on appearance
to shape
a culture of superficial judgement developed day by day
it's so hard,
o turn away,
when they say that everything is wrong with you...i do not want to accept this
i refuse
listen-don't let yourself become a slave to trends.
listen-you still don't realize, no matter how often we point it out to you.
you still don't reevaluate what you want
this society becomes incrasingly superficial day by day
materialistic-vain-but you still consider yourself above everything
this culture...doesn't make any f*cking sense.
I refuse the accept this culture of vanity.
"refuse" -kinglychee (featuring Kit from LMF)
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so, if you listen to their two songs (sickened eyes and frail hands) on their site and learn to accept their way of singing, i DEFINITELY RECOMMEND THIS CD. i am so glad i purchased this...(well got it as a gift ><)
http://www.kinglychee.comi don't think ppl here would enjoy these types of music but i'm posting anyway XP
