i think my musical taste has changed, especially during the past year. I've found sources of music so i can hear and judge more music than i ever could in my life, and i learned to support those i admire effectively by promoting them and buying the products i enjoyed (i don't just go crazy and buy whatever the artist comes out with). Before Dawn, i was promoting Leon like crazy, telling everyone how hard he's working and how he's going to push the hk industry forward once again. He did do that, but much more slightly than i expected. Simply put, i was a bit disappointed in Dawn.

As some may know already, i was happy with the melodies; except maybe the korean remake since i'm not very fond of remakes. However, the arrangements and production this time around did not impress me... at all. Homework surprised me with high quality, yet simple background music. Hey was closer to the 'modern' Asian music the rest of Asia was up to. Having heard so much from Korea, Taiwan, Mainland, and the rest of Hong Kong however, Dawn seemed quite typical in this aspect. The ballads did nothing new at all; most of the other HK albums had ballads of the same quality and feel. The fast songs lacked the polish and the... i guess, "fitting together" that i now look for in upbeat songs. 'What' was good during the first lesson, but as time went on the use of bass, the snare sounds, etc. were obviously just computer samples repeated over and over again, and that degraded the experience greatly. My favorite upbeat song would probably be that one with spanish toward the end; it was one who did the bass in a more professoinal way in my opinion

track01 What: i already gave my opinion above

track02 Can't for a Lifetime: Again, this has a nice melody, but the arrangements fail to bring it apart from the rest of the Cantonese slow songs, unfortunately.

track03 Don't lick your wound: Hmmm this is probably the one slow song that stood out to me after numerous listens. The intro was different from what i typically hear, and the melody had a different pattern. Mark's compositions usually follow that pattern i'm sick of, so i like this song

track04 One:One : Well i'm sure those who heard me before the album came out know that i'm not very fond of this song... The singing is a bit too squeaky, the music a bit too repetitive for my tastes. I still don't understand why this was the first plug though...

track05 Will laugh will cry: This song is very soothing to the ears, and the melody matched my mood quite often. The arrangements weren't so special but the pacing of the song made this more memorable for me.

track06: [i forgot the english name] : This song kind of annoys me... maybe because it reminds me of the Twins songs i dislike so much. I can just imagine those two standing up on stage singing this so this gave me a horrible impression :X

track07: simply put, i like the Mandarin version better; it sounds deeper to me. Leon did a pretty good job on this one though, so no complaints; i don't know how Charles would've osunded doing this Canto version. The lyrics could have easily been on a more exciting subject though. Love lyrics are getting repetitive for me, partly because i heard such a larger variety of lyrics in the past year, including society, respect for the elderly, etc. Being the charity person Leon is, i hop ehe can do more of these types of songs. The girl fans would hate me though

track08: [what is this? Love you change? sorry]: I really liked this on the first listen, but as i heard it agian and again i felt the sounds were used in too much of an organized fashion; if there was more variety and less repetitiveness i would've loved this song. for some reason i felt this song would be really easy to produce

track09: [water something, fire hot]: This was the song that balanced bass well, that i stated above. I liked the feel of it, and the added guy in the background saying something i don't understand at all just makes it more unique. Nothing groundbreaking though...

track10: popularity chart[?]: This song is very different, and i applaud people who do different things. Leon's singing seemed a bit more nasal in this song, but it's all good. Again, nothing that i think i will remember ten years from now. Lately i've been thinking "will you come tonight" and "deep love words not yet spoken" when i think "leon", rather than his new stuff. odd eh?

track11: slow motion: I am a very proud chinese... and i don't like covers. It just irks me. Unless it's an oldies song, i just don't like them. Sorry...i do like the "you are so beautiful... to meeeeee" part though =)



listening back to "Oh! yeah", and those other two old songs i listed above, i think the arrangements, rather than the compositions like some people say, are degrading in quality. this is all just my opinion though... i hope i didn't offend you. just because i don't like the songs doesn't mean it's bad. i hope i am allowed to post a non-positive review at this forum too...

-lawrence

i haven't buy Dawn yet....but i don't like "HOMEWORK" cd....

Still, Quad, I just thought "lost interest" was a little "heavy" since it was a Leon album that u didn't like. I mean, we like Leon cos he's always changing right, u're bound to dislike 1 album, so I don't think it's fair lor. And, I think I'm usually quite fair with ppl's opinions, u're allowed to dislike and even say it, but I just don't like ppl insulting. But it just makes me wonder why u were all normal abt it at LL forums but then saying negative stuff at non-LL forums...

Anyway, did Leon redeem himself with Love & Promises?

Sure you're allowed to be non-positive here Quad, if there's anything I hate about people giving opinions, it's when they don't justify them.

Well, obviously we all look at music in different ways, the things you say about production quality, arrangements, etc. I'm not that bothered about. Sorry if this sounds shallow but as an everyday music listener, all I want are songs that touch me and/or are catchy. I think there are plenty of songs with just a guitar/piano that you like, how can you measure production levels on that? This won't sound good coming from a Leon fan, especially as the mod of this forum but I'll admit I wasn't exactly over the moon about Dawn at first (possibly due to a 2 year gap since the last album and all this news about the number of songs and level of work put into it) but I can say that this album is incomparable to Leon's other albums and there are good songs on it. I still continue to support him though, you can't expect a ground-breaking album every time from him. But I listened to it again for this past week after a month break and it seemed to sound so much better. Then again, I might've spoiled the mood by listening to many of the album's songs over and over again before I actually got it.

Oh, and you've mentioned the thing about computer samples quite often now, I'm not sure how they can improve on that, it seems to fit into the song. And many artists have made a very successful career from singing these type of songs.

And this comparing with the old songs, take a look at all the singers of the 90s who are still singing now, how many still produce songs with the same effect as back then?

i don't think it's Leon's fault really... I've watched Mark's production and arrangement quality degrade every year. I'm not sure if he did the work on Miriam's "small city large matters" but it could have been so much more powerful and memorable if they had been a bit more creative.

M, that's a good point about 90's singers all having lower quality now. See, all my life i've always relied on Leon to be the one to push the industry forward (i believe i posted that on the hk-mtv thread someone mysteriously posted at LeOnline). He has always been the only artist who makes nearly every song a memorable one (exception from sony: red shoes), and still be able to do it with high quality. Indeed, up until Dawn he's always been the only Hk pop musician who's music quality seemed to match that of Korea, Taiwan, etc. Yet with Dawn i'm seeing him (or maybe Mark... or maybe he is part of it since supposedly he chose these 11 songs out of plenty of others) being much more generic. Maybe, because most of the older singers were being generic with the exception of Leon, i started becoming more interested in the newcomers (like Louis Cheung, Pixeltoy, etc.) who seemed like a breath of fresh air. When the last veteran i had plenty of hope in disappointed me, i hope you understand how i felt.

I agree on that i shouldn't give up just because of this (i wasn't particularly impressed by L&P either). If i gave up on Leon i wouldn't keep posting on these sites. I'm a loyal person though; i've liked him for most of my life and i doubt i'll switch just like that. Plus, i still highly admire his personality (the way he handles reporters, does charity, etc.) Yet, the one aspect i was most obsessed with several years ago seems to be fading away with the release of recent products. Maybe this is because the company has to make some money first before they have the financial power to start experimenting fully; i don't know for sure, of course. I do have high hopes for Charles Ying though... i hope he 'pushes' so that the company will let him do music that fits his taste (hip hop, from what i see).

I was opposite of you, M, on Dawn. I quite liked the album until i started listening to the details. I can't help it; I do it on everything now that I am much more familiar with this type of music. And after numerous listens, i got the impression from the first post.

I don't think i'm insulting him, here or other forums. The most i post that's negative was my opinion that the only truly memorable song on L&P was "YYWD". I honestly did promote Dawn as much as i could on as many forums as I could... it does kind of hurt to hear LL fans say what i did was negative...

Quad, was this aimed at me? I think there's a lil misunderstanding if it is. I never said u insulted him and I never said what u did was negative. It was a negative comment afterall, but I don't think u did anything wrong by expressing that. I never doubted u as a Leon fan, really never did, if I gave u that feeling then I apologise. I think of all the true Leon fans I can prob put up with the most negative comments as long as they're not insults, I say this because my fav song on each album is never anyone elses fav (except track 3 on Dawn), instead it's usually ranked quite low by other fans. So I'm really cool with ppl saying "I don't like this song" "I don't like that song" as long as they have a reason to back themselves up and not saying it outa bias. But like I said before it just made me wonder why u posted those comments at a non-Leon forum first. Anyway, I think it's obvious we have opposite tastes (since I loved Dawn so much) and as I have mentioned before I think Leon was being quite safe with the last CDs cos there have been quite a few ballads, which aren't quite ur type. He hasn't released 6 ballads in 1 album for a long long time, and it's quite obvious he wants to be safe cos these are the songs that made him big in the first place. I don't think Leon being Leon will disappoint u. I think he just needs to build up the capital first before he starts experimenting. Hopefuly u didn't lose too much interest him, don't wanna lose a true fan, and by true I mean "honest". :cool:

yeah that's what i was expecting... being "safe" so the company can build up before the creativity kicks in more. At least, i hope that's what's oging on haha. =)

Sound that you are an expert in music?Does you have a more nicer taste than a professional musician? Much better than Mark Lui? or Leon Lai? I think different people have their own taste in all type of music, you cannot force people to listen to your taste in music. Glad that Leon nor Mark never read your opinions here!Otherwise they may be discouraging by your comments.
If you don't buy Leon's CDs. how could you judge his songs are bad ?

i'm confused about this. leonfantasy never said she was had better taste, and she's not forcing anyone to listen to anything. Leon Lai or Mark Lui does not have 'better taste' than anyone, and no one has 'better taste' than them. Additionally, professional artists general see criticism as a way to improve...

:blink:

maybe my taste of music had changed too, because i enjoy Leon's Dawn more than any other cds before "Dawn", beside Love &Promises :2thumbsup:

i mean, each song is so good, maybe 2 oe 3 songs in Dawn" i don't like. overall, i love all the tracks

I think Leon has reached another stage in his career.

What Leon always emphasizes is that he would do his best for his role ONLY. That is, he is a singer. I don't expect he would write songs or lyrics for himself or others. If he does, of course I will appreciate.

For Dawn, I guess Leon has done his best in the part of singing. Others like songs composing, lyrics writing or packaging are already another matter.

Do I aim too low for him?

Wait a minute... Leon already composed songs since 1991 and wrote the song lyric since 1992... I think u should appreciated his work since long time ago! :blink:


To Quadshock, it's not a crime if u not really prefer to like DAWN at all!! Maybe it's not a nice album from your sight. That's your opinion, never mind. As for me, I think DAWN is still got the specialities. You're right, some of the ballad songs didn't hav much change like the previous. However, I believe many Leon's fans like it alot! I'm sorry to say that I think "HOMEWORK" is the album that I'll put last choice among more than 70 Leon's CD!

For me, when talk about DAWN cd, honestly I prefer Leon's fast song at first round. But then I still can listen to the ballad songs & enjoyed it after listen the several time. "Don't Lick The Wound" is absolutely a nice song & I can't stop to keep listening it everyday! Yes, the "What" song could attracted me when first time listen it, but after replay it again & again, it's doesn't feel the same like the first round. "Change Love" heard annoying when first time listened it, but dunno why nowadays I feel like it's a very unique song... and it's must be more attractive if Mark not to put too much annoying background vocal (especially the women chorus ~ very annoying, i swear!!). This song's style a bit similar like Jamelia "Superstar" melody.

And I do like the track 9 which I noted as a latin-touch... it's a nice song! We can't find this kind of music genre in every Leon's previous CD.... this one should be the nice trial. I hope to se more latin genre music in his becoming CD. Track 10 attracted me alot at the first time I listen it... it's about Leon's performance that I never heard before... it's not the fast song, neither the ballad... it's just nice to listen!

of course everyone have different opinion so there's no wrong or right things to say..........