Revisiting - Virtuous Lady

Long before Jacky Cheung ‘declared war’ on rampant cover versions with "餓狼傳說", Anita Mui had already come up with an excellent original-material-only album "淑女" back in 1989. Unlike Jacky’s effort which I thought was long on ideas but short on execution, Mui-jeh had a team of five top songwriters/producers (倫永亮﹐黎小田﹐鮑比達﹐徐日勤﹐郭小霖) to work on hers.

I still remember I had the shock of my life when I heard the album for the very first time! Side A, track 1, "淑女" starts off with a sinister, loud cackling laughter which would make its appearance now and then in the song! Also could be heard was a rather creepy voiceover '我係淑女唔好惦我'...OMG, think I was pretty scared of listening to that song then...(maybe too young?) hahaha...

A few years ago, when I bought the CD, the scary sound effects no longer terrified me and I realised that I had nearly missed out on a good album. Sinister laughs apart, "淑女" is actually a likeable, guitar-driven song written by Chris Babida. He also wrote the closing track "今夜只因你", a rather heart-warming melody with optimistic lyrics. Most of the lyrics in this album are quite melancholic, but the ones I like best are the more positive ones like "今夜只因你" and "一舞傾情".

Versatility was one of Mui-jeh’s strengths. So there is rock in the form of the title track and "戀愛Part-Time", both demonstrating some j-pop-rock influence. There is the up-tempo "黑夜的豹", a style she simply excelled in. She also dabbles in classical Chinese-type songs which she handled in a genteel manner with ease. And her image this time was definitely distinctive (but not very ‘virtuous’ actually.) Who can beat the original Cover Girl, the undisputed Queen of a Hundred Images?