Anthony Wong 2011 Album Review: Beyond Words

Anthony Wong Yiu Ming's first album in three years is titled 拂一身還滿 (inadequately rendered into English as "Also Brush a Full" by translate.google.com). Aimed squarely at the Mandarin market (primarily the Mainland), it features 13 compositions: four in Cantonese and nine in Mandarin. Let me say at the outset, I do not understand much Cantonese (especially the tricky lyrics of most Anthony Wong songs) and no Mandarin. On-line translation programs do not produce any workable translations of the lyrics, and generally yield total gibberish. So I was faced with a conundrum: how to review an album whose lyrics I cannot understand? Using Google's translation program, I have been able to glean enough from Chinese reviews of the album posted on-line to see that the lyrics are important--in fact very important--with Chinese reviewers focused almost exclusively on the album's lyrics. But it is precisely the lyrics of the songs that are totally beyond my grasp. Noting this obvious limitation, I am going to discuss the physical object of the CD package (a work of art in its own right) and the music contained inside. Even with my experience of this release limited to the purely musical and visual, it was a rich and rewarding one. Anthony Wong has a 25 year proven track record of producing music of the highest quality and of presenting this music in releases and stage shows that consistently challenge those who engage with his work. This latest studio work is no exception.It should be said at the outset that 拂一身還滿 is a proper album, and not simply a collection of individual MP3s ready for download. A great deal of thought has gone into the sequencing of the songs and various musical bridges between numbers. The suite of studio photographs on the the front and back cover and booklet of lyrics are high concept and beautifully executed. These images are created by combining fragments of Anthony Wong shot from different vantage points to produce images that contain multiple view points within a single frame. They are Cubist in concept, certainly, but also share a fundamental characteristic of Chinese landscape painting in that there is no single perspective point and the viewer is invited to delve into different features of the landscape (or, in this instance photograph) independent of the composition as a whole. This deconstruction of the whole into fragments is also characteristic of the music on this album and one has the impression that the artwork was created to be a visual metaphor for what is contained on the CD. Continuing the analogies between the album and Chinese visual aesthetics, in many ways the musical organization of the album is akin to a Chinese garden, where the visitor moves along a path and scenes unfold in a progression of space and time. Just as no cul-de-sac or dead-end is permitted in any garden space, and pathways always seem to continue in forward motion, so too the album has a noticeable flow from one song to the next. Similar to the experience of a visitor to a Chinese garden who is never allowed to see the panoramic whole of the garden at the outset but only experiences it in a carefully designed sequence of the hidden, the peeking and the revealed, the album presents various "vistas," charming glimpses, and distinctive sensual experiences for the listener. Musically, the album can be divided into three distinct sections. It begins with an opening sequence of three slow to mid-tempo songs with minimal electronic effects. These songs (two in Mandarin and one in Cantonese) hark back to some of the gentler, more lyrical strains of Wong's earlier work. Video: http://youtu.be/rP1gh9xFtqwTagged onto the end of the third number (汕尾以南  South of Shanwei) is an eerie electronic ending that functions as a bridge between the first section and the second section, which has danceable, up-tempo numbers that make much greater use of electronic instrumentation and effects, giving these songs a decidedly "club" feel. First single

Video: http://video.sina.com.cn/v/b/61056994-1733976784.htmlThe songs in this section exhibit a variety of different approaches in the use of electronic instrumentation and all have a distinct "electronica" feel. The seventh cut, (四大發明 Four Great Inventions), has a decidedly Brazilian flavor, with a samba beat in the drum line. This number has a particularly interesting arrangement; as if to challenge the Chinese fixation on lyrics at the expense of the music, 四大發明 has a single short verse that is repeated over and over again. Wong's voice is heavily processed at times and, unlike traditional pop music where the voice typically dominates the mix, here the voice has the same weight as any other instrument and could really be said to be just one more instrument. Sometimes the voice is even so distorted it has musical but no lyric significance.Video: http://youtu.be/2GLIJSB-rQIThe third distinct group of songs on the album features three numbers composed for "The Forbidden City," a production presented by Zuni Icosahedron for the 2009 Architecture is Art Festival . Musically, these numbers are the real standouts of the album. "The Forbidden City" focused on the architectural and dynastic history of the Forbidden City in Beijing. Wong portrayed a raven figure who is an observer of this history. The fact that these songs are the work of a single composer and were performed by one character in a stage production gives them a coherent, unified style, even though they are written in a variety of musical idioms. Perhaps, because this stage production also featured a Kun opera singer performing in that musical idiom, the three songs composed for Wong have a more classical (both Western and Chinese) feel, though they are still clearly pop music in the way they are performed. In these compositions, the emphasis is on Wong's singing and these songs beautifully showcase his clear, almost angelic upper register and precise delivery style. That a man of almost 50 should still possess such a beautiful, delicate and pure upper register is truly amazing. In these gorgeous songs Wong takes the listener from the earth to the heavens and back again, riding on his amazingly expressive and crystalline tone. His precise enunciation and exact placement of pitch also are important elements that are fundamental in producing of these gorgeous vocal tracks.Video: http://youtu.be/6-4HbZjTRHkPromo for Zuni Forbidden City show

Video: http://youtu.be/C2Oetu4FW0IOne of the glories of pop music sung in Cantonese--as opposed to Mandarin--is the way in which, in the hands of a skillful lyricist and composer, the sounds of the words divorced from their meaning can be incredibly rhythmic, musical and expressive.Video: http://youtu.be/BMnDouBFETMHearing songs performed in both Cantonese and Mandarin on this album, the difference in the sounds of the two languages is quite striking. Cantonese has many words that begin with hard consonants that can be arranged in highly musical, rhythmic, and even percussive sequences. Mandarin, with its many more initial soft consonants and elided double vowel combinations has a much less percussive quality, and I find it less interesting to listen to for its sounds alone. A well-written Cantonese pop song can alternate passages of rhythmic singing featuring hard-hitting consonants with legato passages that emphasize softer initial consonants and long vowels that can be a joy to listen to, even divorced from any linguistic meaning.Anthony Wong is famous in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China for songs that challenge listeners with their lyrics and musical innovation. But he deserves to be equally famous for his gorgeous music, highly inventive covers, and unique and bewitching way of singing. Singing in Cantonese and focusing on Chinese markets has limited his exposure in Europe and North America, which is a shame since he has been making some of the best music anywhere in the world for the past 25 years. This latest album is another chapter in a marvelous musical legacy that deserves to be as well-known outside of Greater China as within. Although the lyric content of his work is not readily available to those who do not understand colloquial Cantonese (and, to a lesser extent Mandarin), his work more than stands on the strength of the music alone. How much more amazing must Anthony Wong's music be when the lyrics are intelligible! But perhaps it is the strength of so much of his lyric content that has distracted listeners over the years from the vocal ability of this artist and the arresting quality of the compositions and their inventive arrangements. This latest studio release from Anthony Wong is another brilliant example of a restless artist producing highly personal work of the highest calibre. Wong is a true Hong Kong original bridging East and West, mixing Cantopop and Chinese traditional styles with Anglo-American music of various genres with a dash of Continental techno added as piquant seasoning. Anthony Wong is a man of many facets, musically and artistically, and 拂一身還滿 is a highly personal expression of Wong's current wide-ranging interests. A thinking man's singer who can bring a tear to your eye with the sheer beauty of his voice, but who can just as easily get you up on your feet dancing to one of his exuberant up tempo songs, Anthony Wong is Hong Kong's most interesting performer whose releases always exceed expectations. This latest album is no exception. Excellent and highly recommended.黃耀明 2011 國 ､粵語大碟 [ 拂一身還滿 ] 冠軍歌 : 絕色 (粵) 特別推介 : 下流(國), 小心許願 其他好歌包括 : 車路士的男孩 / 飛飛飛 (大紫禁城 II ) (國) 01. 第二次青春 (國) 02. 車路士的男孩(featuring 普普樂團) (粵) 03. 汕尾以南 (國) 04. 下流 (國) 05. 小心許願 (粵) 06. 紅眼症 (粵) 07. 四大發明 (國) 08. 拂了一身還滿 (國) 09. 最大的宮殿 (大紫禁城 I) (國) 10. 飛飛飛 (大紫禁城 II) (國) 11. 燕子飛 (大紫禁城 III) (國) 12. 絕色 (粵) 13. 切爾西的女孩 (featuring 普普樂團) (國) Anthony Wong  2011 Mandarin,  Cantonese album  [also  brush  a  full]

01  second  youth  (M)

02  Chelsea  Boys  (featuring  Pop  Orchestra) (C)

03  south of  Shanwei  (M)

04  downstream  (M)

05  carefully  Wish  (C)

06  red-eye syndrome  (C)

07  Four Great Inventions  (M)

08  had  a  brush  is also full of  (M)

09  Maximum  Palace (Forbidden City  I) (M)

10  take flight  (The Forbidden City  II) (M)

11.  Yanzi Fei  (The Forbidden City  III) (M)

12  stunning  (C)

13  Chelsea  Girl  (featuring  Pop  Orchestra) (M)