Review:

on 2011-05-09 CharlesMartel Said:

Now I am no expert on the Vietnamese language. I can mumble a few words, and though my wife speaks it fluently (she being born in Vietnam) she can neither read nor write it. Therefore, I can only come to this second hand as it were, being told what is being sung here. However, in terms of music, well music is music and that ought to be able to be appreciated and understood as such irrespective of whether one understands the words. After all, I cannot speak Italian, but can still appreciate Verdi or Puccini.

So, the music first.

This is undeniably the lowest from of music there is. Imagine a wedding with a hired band, the sort of band who does covers of the "Birdy Song" and can just about manage "Like a Virgin". You know what it sounds like. Heavy on the echo, in a room with poor acoustic properties, and dominated by a really tinny organ in a high octave minor key. Get the picture? Well, you now have a pretty good idea what this sounds like musically. Vietnamese music production techniques are unlikely to be what they are in the West, but even so, this sounds like it was recorded all at the same time in a public lavatory.

Now the vocals.

One of the problems with singing in a language like Vietnamese is that the language is tonal; the same syllable said in different tones means different things. When you have to sing it, there is always a tendency that, if you get the tone wrong by mangling a note, you can say something that is far from what you intended. For instance, having lived in Hong Kong for many years, where the language is another tonal one, Cantonese, I know that the Cantonese word for "yes" and the Cantonese word for "cunt" are distinguished only by a tone. Dangerous!!

So, when singing in Vietnamese, there is great emphasis placed on the tone of the word sung. This has the effect of straight-jacketing the ability of a less than competent singer to vary the pitch and emotion through the singing. And this is exactly what has happened here. At times it sounds forced. At others it sounds detached. Most of the time the songs on this album come across as mechanical and devoid of any emotional content. And anyone who has read some of my reviews will know that the ability of a track to create an emotional response in me is always going to be a highlight in my book.

Now the lyrics.

Vietnamese pop is distinguished by a very narrow lyrical; content. The days when the record studios of Hanoi would pump out the massed socialist "Red Detachment of Women" are long gone. The idea that someone could sing in Vietnamese about dwarves and elves would be baffling. And political criticism, well it's just not done. No, Vietnamese pop concentrates on matters of the heart. But there is no joy in it. Almost all of it is incredibly sad. Mostly it follows a formulaic of pattern of "I love her but she doesn't love me. She loves him instead". (Presumably he doesn't love her, but loves me. No, that doesn't fit.) But you get the picture.

So, what do we have? This is basically an album of formulaic love songs sung in a formulaic way by a barely competent vocalist over a backing of tinny, cheap sounding music.

I guess the music moguls of EMI and Polydor are not going to feel challenged by this.
Rating: 1/10