namie has already two songs for CHECKMATE!! 2 yay
hope Jolin will be invited in return

I listened to the whole album last night and I must say that I'm impressed :O
This album is really a success in terms of music. It's the only album by Jolin that I could listen from beginning to the end without skipping a track !
Especially the ballads, and above all I Love, I Embrace, are really good ones.
By the way, I don't like much The Third Person And I for the moment. After a couple of listen maybe...

Is there another download link for the album other than Baidu?

I want the PV :( or at least a preview...~

I think that if you google it you'll find it anywhere... Last night it was even on tumblr lol

^Thanks but I managed to download it with Baidu :D

I'm obsessed with Gentlewoman *___*
I love the ambience of the song!

This album really is perfect! I love how nice her vocals sounds now~!

Will she be shooting a MV for all the songs? *___*

The only song I'm not that fond of is Miss Trouble. I've even grown to like The Third Person and I. The lyrics really speaks out to me and the ending of the MV kinda made me teared up .

Carina said something like "I arrived a bit early. You've done a great job".

Yes *_*
8 MVs have been filmed already (I'm Not Yours is the 8th one), so still two to go!
3 of them have been filmed in the US: Lip Language, Gentlewomen and I Love, I Embrace.

By the way, do you know who Ruby Lin or Kuei Ya-Lei are? They're credited in the "special thanks" part in the booklet, at least one of them should be in one of the MVs...

Ruby Lin is a Taiwanese actress famous in Mainland China right now.
Kuei Ya-Lei is an older Taiwanese actress.

I have a question. Do Jolin has official english translations for her title songs? Because I'm really confused everytime she releases something as the songs have several translations. For example, let's take PLAY : Gentlewoman or The Second Sex? I love, I embrace or Love Yourself, Suffer With Yourself? Lip Language or Lip Reading? etc.
I know the meaning is almost the same but this thing bugs me for a while lol

Yes.
The Second Sex or Lip Language for instance were direct translations of the Chinese titles. Their official English titles are Gentlewomen and Lip Reading.

Official English titles for every song:
1. Gentlewomen 3:39
2. PLAY 3:13
3. Medusa 4:04
4. Lip Reading 3:39
5. I'm Not Yours (feat. Namie Amuro) 3:41
6. I Love, I Embrace 3:55
7. Miss Trouble 3:13
8. Phony Queen 2:58
9. The Third Person And I 4:46
10. We're All Different, Yet The Same 3:18

Thanks!!

thank you, Linoa :)
The Second Sex sounds better than Gentlewoman though :)))

YES. Listened to the first previews, and I am so excited to go home and hear it all.
Impressed at the deep beats and ambiance(?, not sure of the right word) in Medusa. wow, a great new sound. Very fresh sound!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I have a clearer view of PLAY. It's definitely more experimental than MUSE but songs like Phony Queen kinda ruin the overall mood. We can definitely see that Jolin put more effort into the ballads this time around. My favourite song from the album at the moment is definitely Miss Trouble and my least favourite is Phony Queen.

Strange question maybe but what is the "correct" tagging of Namie Amuro's name in I'm Not Yours?

Did they list her as Namie Amuro, 安室奈美恵 or did they write her name in Chinese?

It's "I'm Not Yours (feat. Namie Amuro)"!

I didn't connect with this record very well! Maybe it's just the way the last year has been. I feel that a MEI still takes it for best album of the year. It's kinda sad because I really thought that Elva and Jolin would have really good comebacks, and while both were really strong albums, they just didn't keep me coming back like a MEI's FACES OF PARANOIA.

Does Jolin ever plan on doing darker records like that? The closest I've heard is her usual cornerstone ballad since Myself. But I wonder how Jolin would sound if she did a very dark record... It would be weird. lol

Amei's album was really just WOW. I feel like she just mixed Amei and Amit in that album, so there's really not that much of a boundary between her personas.

I don't think Jolin is quite there yet with her personal creativity. It's nice to see her experimenting more, but since she's known as more of a mainstream pop artist, it might not be the time yet for her to go that personal with herself.

But this is definitely a good album for her to transition towards being a more serious artist!

^ I felt like this album was a step back in the sophistication/"seriousness" department to be honest... MUSE felt less juvenile and more like a step toward being an in-her-thirties pop star. Especially when you look at the actual visual difference between the eras. MUSE was all about fashion and elegance, and it was so iconic and mature in a way that she's never really been before. PLAY feels more like an effort from Miley Cyrus (SORRY JOLIN ily but I can't think of a better comparison right now). The comedy, the err nightgown and hair curler scenes, the really juvenile teenage-sounding lyrics in I'm Not Yours, how off the wall Miss Trouble is, how loud and a little too in-your-face PLAY is... The ballads are a major step forward, but the album's one hot song (Medusa) isn't anything new for her and the poppy/EDM songs are pretty much some of the most generic pop songs she's had yet and that makes them feel really juvenile for me.

I don't hate the album (although nothing about it grabs me at all), but I really do think it's a huge step back in terms of becoming a more "serious" artist because Myself and MUSE were much, much closer to that imo.

Linoa when can we expect a performance of Play? :)

PLAY's first signing session is on November 23rd, so on November 23rd I think ^^

I love the way she sings the 'mirror mirror on the wall' sentence at 1:52 of I'm Not Yours.

When can we expect the preview of I''m Not Yours PV? :D *impatient*

They never release previews for MVs so you'll have to wait for the end of December/early January for the full thing XD

I try to copy but I can't 555

I'm so confused that on the Taiwanese iTunes, all the song titles are in English, but on the Irish one, they're in Chinese hahaha!? :)

What's wrong with them :grumpy:headache

Why do you need short preview? It's so much better if they give us a full thing ;)

Why do people want her to get experimental and shit god, just enjoy pop music for what it is.

Cause we appreciate not just listening to a cookie-cutter artist?:shrug

Yes but you have to wait for the full thing longer ;) I need sth to satisfy my curiosity after all :D

Jolin's Fans Club and Jolin herself have stated that it would be released in January, that's why I said late December/early January...

I got my copies of PLAY today! (I ordered both pre-order versions).
Scans to come soon lol

From the booklet:
MV directors -> Jeff Chang (電話皇后 Phony Queen), Muh Chen (PLAY我呸 PLAY, I'm Not Yours feat. Namie Amuro), Fu Tienyu (The Third Person And I), Jennifer Wu (美杜莎 Medusa), Scott Beardslee & Kitty Lin (第二性 Gentlewomen), Thomas Wyatt & Edwin Eversole (唇語 Lip Reading & 自愛自受 I Love, I Embrace), Hou Chijian (不一樣又怎麼樣 We're All Different, Yet The Same).

Choreographers: Parris Goebel & Kiel Tutin (電話皇后 Phony Queen, PLAY我呸 PLAY, 美杜莎 Medusa), Danielle Polanco (I'm Not Yours feat. Namie Amuro). Sakura Inoue & Rui Akimoto are also credited for 電話皇后 Phony Queen's choreo.

EDIT:
Play With Medusa version scans:
http://www.jolinjenerationgallery.co....php?album=707
http://www.jolinjenerationgallery.co....php?album=708

Of course I'm not going to wait for it for god's sake.... I was just a bit disappointed that I'll have to watch the PV two months after listening to the song....

I'm happy about this album

0_______o wait, what? How?

Play With The Blonds pre-order version scans:
http://www.jolinjenerationgallery.co....php?album=712
http://www.jolinjenerationgallery.co....php?album=711

I tried my best for the photobook since it didn't fit in my scanner...

LOL
I read that she had to do one hour of warm-ups for this pose.

^I can imagine that 0______o omg. I knew she was flexible but this is just amazing. It kinda creeps me out as well :laugh

^hahaha that's not too hard if you practice enough, believe me :laugh

I really like her dress that "bleeds" in gems.
I find the MEDUSA edition is more artistic, whereas THIS edition is more like a magazine.

Linoa62, thank you for the scans :)

thanks a lot for the scans, loved both photoshoots ♥ esp Medusa, so artistic <3

First live for Medusa!
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v...type=2&theater

^She looks great. Love her outfit and hair!

Cool and she looks amazing :)

she is so prettty great live:yes

1st PLAY live today during a signing session in Taipei:

^ The background image which is an alternate version of the PLAY's regular cover is better than the official cover ! *.*

T4P Linoa! Was really looking forward to this performance. Loved it! Her voice was really strong! :luv2:luv2

Wow...her voice was great and strong! I wasn't expecting this :0

Why are you so awesome Jolin?

Asians and their age racisim: This cute guy I'm talking to asked what I was listening, I said Jolins new album and asked did he knew her, his answer "Yeah, but isn't she really old?" I answered that "She's 34......." him "Yeah, that's old!"............SINCE WHEN IS 34 OLD, I CAN'T UNDERSTAND THESE PEOPLE :D

She's 34?! I keep thinking she's in her 20s lol

mte :P

It's been a while but I finally got a translation for Myself World Tour talks so here's the 1st part of DVD 2!
https://vimeo.com/112309294

Same :laugh I bet she still looks like 23 when she's 50 :laugh

Thanks a lot! :)

awesome play live loved it:luv2

Is there some site where I could see PLAY album lyrics translated to English, thank you :)

Only translations for PLAY, Phony Queen and The Third Person And I are available at the moment. You can find them on my blog.

EDIT
from a recent interview:
- about the regular version cover: Jolin chose yellow since the color is like the sun, warm and powerful. And basically she chose black because she likes the color.

- about the collaboration with Namie Amuro, Jolin is asked if there is a secret rivalry between the two of them: Jolin says that there is no secret rivalry, on the contrary for a collaboration what she's looking for is a true cooperation, solidarity and strength. Jolin likes Namie and thinks she has an amazing stage presence. Unfortunately they were not able to talk much to each other since they were talking with the help of a translator, but Namie enjoyed the MV shooting and felt welcomed by Jolin's team.

- With PLAY she wanted to create a positive, dynamic and happy album. She feels that her "mission" is to convey positive energy to everyone. Everyone is free to interpret her work and her shows the way they want to though.

- about the fact that this time she has "funny performances" (PLAY & Phony Queen MVs). Jolin says that she's a very private person and that she's not very funny actually IRL. She loves to laugh though lol

LoL, every time I hear Play I think she's saying in the chorus, "I fart, I fart". Ahahaha.

The Third Person And I subbed!
https://vimeo.com/112953703

Linoa how is the album selling? The percentage on G-Music seems really low....

G-Music is not really relevant anymore. All their stores are closing down in Taiwan, they're going bankrupt according to what I've read here and there. And the fishy thing is that they put Jolin at 40% in the first place and then a few hours later they changed the ranking at less than 20%...

5music is the most relevant nowadays though and she did better than for MUSE for her first week! She also ranked first on more than 120 Asian charts (most of them being Taiwanese ones) so I wouldn't be too worried about PLAY's sales in Taiwan. We won't know for sure before the end of the year of course.

She also has more promotion than ever for this album, and PLAY (song + album), The Third Person And I and I'm Not Yours are doing well digitally in Taiwan.

Thank you, if you will have We're All Different, Yet The Same lyrics in English, please post them also here :)

I do, I posted them today on my blog actually :yes
http://jolinjeneration.canalblog.com.../30963688.html

Thank you so much, it's a really awesome song :)

PLAY signing session today in Taichung!
PLAY

The Third Person And I

wow another play live awesome:yes

Medusa MV!

it is her great MV but cannot make me Wow about it. I admit i expect Medusa more than Play because i prefer this song, finally it is just ok for me. In my opinion, it takes a lot of idea from Beast mv, obviously graphics, also butterflies in my Stomach that make it repeative MV. Moreover, her dancing can't amaze me like while i watched "Dancing Diva", "Honey Trap" and "Butterflies in my stomach". This also happens with "Great Artist" and "Play" that i think she gives standardly dance even if Medusa's chreography is fit its song, maybe her age a reason 555

OMG that was you who left the comment on my page! I didn't know you were following :luv2

I'll copy-paste what I answered you there then lol

I admit it could be better but it's still good. The song is epic too

Who's the male model? :D

Really cool MV, the visuals and outfits for this PV are awesome ♥ fit the song very well :)

I don't know :/ Only the dancers are credited in the booklet lol

I love when fandom discuss about her work, so i attend evey media like facebook or blog555. Nice to know you all:)

I love it too to be able to discuss about her work with fans :yes Nice to know you too!

By the way I forgot to add that my only regret is that we didn't get a "real" story. In the end the MV is mostly about dance and visuals (even it's well made).

I agree with you. It's a nice MV but there's really no wow factor, and ironically I find it not very visually interesting despite the costumes and makeup and effects - unlike Beast, which I thought was very visually interesting and just overall more intriguing to watch despite the fact that it's just her throwing some glitter around and the whole thing is basically all the same throughout lol. I'm not sure, but it might just be the boring editing that's keeping me from liking this MV much? Because there were so many looks and shots that I liked, but the overall MV fell just dull and flat.

I tried not to be, but I'm just disappointed in this era so far. :weep
Also, since they're releasing the MVs this slowly ANYWAY, I really wish they hadn't made them all at once, so then idk maybe they could've saved up a better budget for the later ones. Because I doubt we'll get anything as magical as Fantasy or epic as The Great Artist now (not that any of the songs from this album really lend to that anyway, lulz). Or maybe I just miss the super ~fashionista~ era that was MUSE. idkidk

It's actually what I've been thinking lol
According to your previous posts I think you were expecting some kind of MUSE 2.0 visual-wise. I could be mistaken of course, I'm not in your head ;)
MUSE's concept was to mix pop and art and PLAY's concept is totally different. The concept this time doesn't seem to appeal to you at all unfortunately :(

About the MV release, it has always been like this, they release a new MV every 2-3 weeks... I guess the wait has been a bit long for you since you don't like The Third Person And I lol
But we still have 6 MVs to go. Who knows, you might be surprised and like at least one?

I agree that Medusa MV lacks the "wow" factor as well. I watched it for the second time earlier and I felt way less excited than the first time even if it was still enjoyable. The "galaxy" parts are the ones which are the more underwhelming to me. This was Jolin's first collaboration with this director (Jennifer Wu), I hope she won't use her too often XD

But see, it's not even the visuals that I have the most problem with! :( I love the PLAY MV, and I think Phony Queen is cool for what it is, and honestly some of the visuals for Medusa (the non-dance scenes) are the only thing that barely saved the MV for me. And I absolutely LOVE the iTunes cover for the album even though I'm not too fond of the other two.

The thing I really have the most problem with is the music itself. >_< I find the pop songs all really generic, I find the album's production really lacking and poor quality, and the only aspect I think she really stepped up her game for are the ballads - but I don't listen to her for ballads anyway so that's just kind of there for me lol. The songs inherently don't lend themselves much to any kind of artistic representation, even though she tried with Medusa so at least there's that. Maybe she REALLY REALLY did have a REALLY hard time finding good songs for the album, because the 2-year wait for the album doesn't feel justified considering it sounds like it was mixed and mastered by Ayu's team and the songs sound like leftovers from 2011 ouch.

Well, she used to release all her MVs at once on the DVD lol, but since that was years and labels ago that's a moot point.

What I meant by "slow" MV release is that, before the album even dropped, they had already planned an MV for every song and filmed most to all of them(?). But we didn't get the MVs with the album, so producing them all at once... didn't really serve much, since we're getting them all separately months apart in the end anyway. I may be wrong, but I got the impression that with MUSE, they picked new singles and budgeted for new MVs as they went along. And the result was that most of the MVs really LOOKED stellar and super high quality. I just worry that by budgeting all 10 MVs at once, they had to sacrifice quality for some, which they might not have had to do if they'd done them one at a time. Because, imo, producing 10 MVs all at once and then not releasing them all at once defeats the purpose of producing them all at once, if you're just going to release them months apart anyway. Unless she's just planning on going on vacation for the next two years once she finishes basic album promo, but lbr she's probably not lol.

The MV is visually interesting, but it's not her best MV.
I'm really expecting I love, I embrace MV, especially because of the directors, since I love their works.

Wow that was harsh XDDD
Actually some of the songs have been mastered & mixed by people who collaborated with Ayu such as Jaycen Joshua :P

It was not right after the album's release though!

They only filmed the 10th MV recently actually. I'm Not Yours has been filmed a couple of days before the release and it was the 8th one. They're mostly likely keeping all of them as a marketing tool for an upcoming Celebration version.

PLAY's filming plan is way different than what they used to do, you're totally right. Usually they used to film 5 MVs or so and they planned for more if the album was selling well.
Concerning MUSE we kinda got additional MVs by accident though. We were supposed to get MVs for Color Photos and Friday the 13th, but Warner refused to pay after the director said that they would cost more than expected. So Warner decided to shoot MVs for Beast and I instead. We got an MV for Color Photos but it has only been released on KTV, and they did a live MV for Friday the 13th in the end.
Jolin has been asked about the budget thing actually and just said that we should not worry and that every dollar spent was worth it... Medusa was the 7th MV to be filmed by the way.

She has lots of promotion this time. She's really fighting to stay relevant... She had a live on Chinese TV recently to promote the album, the last time she did it was for Myself. PLAY has more signings than MUSE in Taiwan as well, Jolin has a lot of radio appearances... And I just read that she might have a signing session in HK in 2 weeks.
Right now they're releasing a new MV every 2 weeks, but near the end of album promotion they will release them faster I think.
Well, PLAY World Tour will most likely start after the end of promotional activities for the album so I doubt she'll go on vacation indeed XDD

Which MVs did they film? I think I read they did one for Beyoncé or something?

...YOU'RE RIGHT LOOOL. They are releasing them every few weeks. I don't know why I thought they were months apart????? My memory is slipping lol.

And... you're right about the DVDs. idk why I have everything misremembered today! Probably because I never paid much attention to her actual release schedule back in the mid-2000s.

So I guess my complaints about the MV release schedule and budget were not justified. :)

The MV is nice. Nothing too special as some of you already pointed out. The outfits and choreography were cool though.

And of course the Pepsi product placement xD

A video I just saw on YouTube: Jolin "Just Dance", 15 years of evolution.

Medusa's MV was really lacking in the editing. It made everything feel so dragged out.

Kinda sad cause this song could have had a cool MV~
And that Medusa hair doesn't really work in motion. It looked like she was just moving around with a beehive :laugh

This makes me want to dig out the Born To Be A Star DVD lol. You Gotta Know is my favorite pre-Magic song. :heart

...and one of only like 5 I actually like lol

I don't know if Thomas Wyatt and Edwin Eversole made an MV for Beyoncé, but I watched some videos from them :

A trailer for THE COLONY, a movie they made (or plan to make, I don't know) :
http://vimeo.com/44486673

And TWENTYTWENTY, a short film :
http://vimeo.com/102983342

The vimeo channel of Edwin Eversole :
http://vimeo.com/user3951229/videos

I really like the atmosphere, and if the Jolin's MV could visually resemble that, I would be happy.

Oops my bad it's Scott Beardslee who directed Beyoncé's 1+1 not these two lol

Thank you for the links I'll check them out!

I'm surprised by the mixed reactions towards Medusa. I loved it. I prefer campy Jolin a la Phony Queen, PLAY, or Dr. Jolin, but I love this Jolin, too. She's flawless.

The mixed reactions here are mostly about the director (or the choreographer), not about Jolin herself :yes

For those waiting for I'm Not Yours MV, they will most likely release an MV for a slow song in two weeks or so (Lip Reading, I Love, I Embrace or even We're All Different, Yet The Same), and two weeks after that we'll most likely get I'm Not Yours. It fits the fact that Jolin announced the MV for January.

On another note, on almost every survey, Asian fans choose Medusa, The Third Person And I, PLAY and I'm Not Yours as their favorite songs from the album. Gentlewomen and Phony Queen are most of the time at the bottom.

oppositely, Gentlewomen is my favorite oneถถถ

Phony Queen is my least fav...

:yes me too, I think the one that lacks alot is phony queen, I don't like the mv or the song at all.

Medusa was perfect aside from play, they both are on my top list.

Medusa is probably my favourite song from the album.
But surprisingly, I really, really like Phony Queen!
I normally don't like those kind of songs that much, but this one is an exception.

I'm dying for a Medusa translation!