You might’ve already heard that the Taiwanese “King of Pop”, singer-songwriter and composer extraordinaire Jay Chou has released his twelfth album. As the sequence will have it, it’s called, “Opus 12” and it contains 12 songs. Perhaps his most impressive talents are being able to write music that pulls at his fans’ heartstrings and mastering the art of being a multi-instrumentalist.
Let’s not forget that he takes it into his hands to direct his own music videos. It’s no surprise that Jay Chou has won 350 singer, singer-songwriter, and producer awards in Asia.
The first song off “Opus 12” that caught our attention was “Dream”. True blue fans of Jay Chou can now rejoice because it sounds like he decided to take his style “back to the old school” with this song. It reminds us of a time when he used to produce songs just like this one circa early 2000s – catchy, fast, with a little bit of rap thrown in the mix alongside his singing:
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Next up, “Smile”. We love this collaboration between Jay Chou and Cindy Yen! It’s not the first time the duo is working together, of course. But with this song, both guy and girl are telling the same story but from two different perspectives. Although her voice largely differs from Jay Chou’s usual style of singing (she’s a bit high pitched), when layered over each other, it actually doesn’t sound half as bad.
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The words to the song are a little poignant but one can easily think that it’s a happy tune judging from how upbeat it is. Just one of Jay Chou’s many charms. Also, trust Jay Chou to tell a complete movie-worthy story with just a short music video. Works for us!
Last but not least, we also loved “A Larger Cello”, which features a very beautiful Lara Veronin aka Lara Liang in not only the song but also the music video:
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This has got to be one of Jay Chou’s fastest song in the entire album. Don’t expect to be able to sing along to it immediately but also don’t expect to be able to hold yourself back from bopping your head along to the song. We love the concept of the musical theatre plus old cheesy Western styled music video – that completely sold the song to us. Coupled with some dancing/moves and moments of hilarity!
It’s true when they say that Jay Chou isn’t afraid to explore his musical style even after so many albums. Props to Jay.
Jay Chou’s “Opus 12” is out in a music store near you so go on and grab yourself a copy!
Also, the Taiwanese “King of Pop” will be returning to Malaysia in August 2013 as part of his “Opus Jay 2013 World Tour”. Click for deets!
