I agree with Linoa a little bit more
concerning Elva, I don't consider title song Shut Up and Kiss Me anything special. It's kinda catchy, but there is absolutely nothing innovative about that song. It sounds like thousands of pop song from 2010.
I definitely expected much more of her latest album. It's not a bad album and I would say it's a little bit better than I'm Ready where I like 4 songs only (The Lost Heartbeat, I'm Ready, Can't Force Love, Song Song) but still far away from her pop masterpieces such as Miss Elva, 1987 and Diamond Candy.
I miss at least one song that immediately grabs my attention. There are many songs I like (Love Detention, Thunder of Love, Remember to Smile) but any song I really LOVE. I think there's also a problem with track order on this album. It just doesn't make sense to put most of ballads on the first part of album.
I still listen this album quite often so maybe it will grow on me later...
Concerning Jolin, I don't care about this Pepsi song at all. It gets attention of her international fans just because music video has been shot. But for me, it's still just one huge commercial campaign and you, orbitalaspect, shouldn't compare it with MUSE or Myself songs
wait for her new album and original songs
not this mandarin version of Pepsi song
A-mei's record is not a ballad collection
Actually, it's split pretty even. There are 5 up-tempo songs and 5 ballads (exactly like her previous album R U Watching?). To tell the truth, it's more up-beat than most of her albums. I wouldn't compare it with Sandy Lam's GAIA (simply because I consider this album one of the best albums from recent years!) but it's dinifitely a great album! There are many genres like a piano track (March), rock ballad (Do You Still Want To Love Me), a little bit of R&B (Faces of Paranoia), dance-pop (Heading Utopia) etc. And still it's very deep and personal album with great visual.
With Faces of Paranoia she proved she is really „Diva of Taiwan“. If you expected album full of up-tempo tracks you are probably a new fan of A-mei, that's just not how her albums works.
Generally speaking, the pop scene is okay this year. There is nothing that really blows my mind but there also aren't many disappointments. Speaking about disappointments, Angela Chang's new album was pretty boring for me but I expected it to be because I didn't like her previous album either (Visible Wings – only song I like here is That Girl). The 5th Sense was a masterpiece with very strong emotional ballads but then she is just mediocre for me (piano ballads which sound exactly the same and boring up-beat songs). I don't think I like any song from her latest album. She will definitely need a huge hit next time in Taiwan othewise no one will care about her anymore.
Other disappointments include Stefanie Sun's Kepler (such step down from amazing It's Time album), Sammi Cheng's LOVE IS LOVE or Della Ding's new album. I also expected more of Jane Zhang's new album The Seventh Sense.
But there are also many surprises this year including Lala Hsu's Missing Person (I didn't like her previous works, but this time she really did an amazing job!), Ann Bai's What's Next? album released a few days ago is a masterpiece!, Freya Lim's latest album is very good, Eman Lam's On The Go is really interesting pop/rock album, Terrence Yin's T is very emotional album, Juno Mak's Paradoxically Yours is creative piece of work (a little bit dark but that's the sound I prefer), Khalil Fong's Dangerous World is high-quality R&B, Huang Qi Wei's M&M or Chris Lee's 1987 (yeah, her album really has this „80s feeling“)
Jade Kwan's C-12 was interesting, alan's Mo Lan is fine (not that good than previous album but still good) And a lot of artists will release album later this year (Jay Chou, Jolin, Genie Zhuo, Joey Yung, Mag Lam, Kay Tse, Sherman Chung, Fiona Sit, Jeannie Hsieh ...and Wang Leehom or Karen Mok maybe)
PS: Hebe won't release a new album this year, her songs from Insignificance are still pretty popular in Taiwan, so there is no need to rush