In a Retro Mood

Been in a bit of a retro mood recently...or maybe I'm just bored with current stuff. Dug into my collection and unearthed these:

再不小心(Nicola Cheung)
I admit, I was looking for something to make up the nos. for the 3 for $9.99@ deal at yesasia some years ago. Even though I didn't know much about Nicola's songs, I like 上帝愛我 very much and so bought this album. Chucked it aside after a few listens, being attracted to only 上帝愛我. And I didn't think her singing was very good.

But I quite enjoyed it when I listened to the album again last week. Apart from 上帝愛我 and her cover of Leslie's 風繼續吹, the rest of the songs were self-composed. Not brilliant material but at least refreshing and different in style. Some people may think that if someone else had sung 上帝愛我, it might have become a bigger hit but somehow I feel that the song is 'very her'. Even the charity version 同步過冬 by various artists didn't sound as good as Nicola's 上帝愛我.

2002 Fifa World Cup Official Album (Songs of Korea/Japan)
I bought this only cos I thought it was an interesting selection for the World Cup, and yes, surprise surprise, I was a soccer fan. It's my only CD containing Korean songs (apart from a couple of tracks found on the Seoul Raiders soundtrack) and I must say that I still don't like them very much. To me, Korean songs are either depressing ballads or annoying hip-hop/R&B dance-tracks and this album did nothing to dispel that.

As a whole, I enjoyed the 2nd half of the CD better. The Japanese tunes are more varied and likeable, esp the cheerful and encouraging songs by Mai Kuraki (the one who sang a duet with Stefanie Sun) and sunshine band Tube. Even though the heavy metal + rap of Dragon Ash was a bit hard to stomach on first listen, at least it was a decent and melodic song. Perhaps I just like J-pop.

Song For USA (Checkers)
My first idol...this album was made almost 20 years ago! I love every song here. Checkers was the perfect example of a substance + idol band. They played musical instruments, had an excellent and good-looking lead singer, two wonderful chorus singers, looked cute, and eventually wrote and produced their own songs.

Btw, Song For USA is the original version of 幹一杯, Sammi's 'contest song' in 1988, while Stay With You, a HK composition, has the same tune as Jacky Cheung's 相愛. Interesting stuff. So my 緣份 with Sammi began much earlier than I thought?!

擺脫 (Amanda Lee)
It was a time when I was at my most adventurous, buying all kinds of music. There it was, going at $5 at HMV, and I was curious to hear Amanda's songs. Like Nicola's case, I didn't know much about Amanda except that she was tall and quite pretty. Her voice isn't really my type so I didn't listen to the album much. But listening back now, it is actually quite interesting and listenable, except 2 or 3 songs. But where is she now?

Live Encounter (Shirley Kwan)
This is a 2VCD live-cum-1CD best selection released in 1999. Think it was sold at a very cheap price too, so I decided to go for it. Her voice is also not quite the kind I like, but she did have a number of very nice songs like 人生可有知己 and the little-known 當世界無玫瑰. Wonder if her recent concert was very good?