Well, technically I should be doing Cost Management practice exams right now but it seems my brain disagrees with that notion so here I am. Some of you may disagree that this album is "classic" put personally I think that, given the massive influence of the OC on popular culture today, it is an inevitable label.

I'm not sure if it was the chicken or the egg that came first, in relation to the OC and it's music. I mean, the music from the OC is currently very fashionable. I'm not sure if that's because the OC is fashionable or because of the indie music revival and its rising popularity.

So without further ado, the album. This is a classic example of fashionable indie rock, background noise and good songrwiting. Most of these songs are very well written and are good to listen to alone, or as background music.

My two favourite songs on this CD are the hit single We Used To Be Friends by The Dandy Warhols and Dice by Finley Quay and William Orbit. To be fair, I've liked the Dandy's song for a while now, ever since it was released as a single and was played on commercial radio. It's typical of the Dandys, tongue-in-cheek social commentary veiled heavily under sugar-coated pop rock. In fact many of the Dandys songs that are very negative in the content sound quite happy. Dice is just a lovely track really, and reminds me of the scenes in the show during which it was played.

I also recommend Move On by local band Jet, if only for the reference to Flinders St station (ahhhh home) and for all you Coldplay fans, check out Doves - Caught By The River. Doves are a British band similar in style to Coldplay, Oasis and Travis. Ie. power rock ballads with strong melodies, catchy guitar riffs and palatable content.

Singer-songwriter Alexi Murdoch's song Orange Sky is also a nice piece of song-writing and Turin Brakes' Rain City is a beautifully written and performed, evocative track that really does bring up images of the city (any city) under rainclouds and showers. The singer's original voice is also interesting.

All-in-all, the choice of tracks is splendid, with a great mix of ballads and rock. The songwriting is of a generally high standard and the popularity of both the show and its music is bound to score you brownie points if you play it in the car/at your ge-together/dinner party.

Alex

I'm gonna start a new music category where I can review classic albums rather than the other category where it's all new ones.

So this review is in response to a request by my friend Elmo (find his blog URL in my blogs section and check out his page!) from Taiwan, who wanted to see an opinion on Jay Chou's music from the perspective of a Westerner.

I'll start by saying that I do not understand Chinese and have no idea what Jay Chou is saying, save a few words here and there. Speaking of which, I have no idea how Common Jasmin Orange is derived from the CD's Chinese title, it appears to mean something entirely different, possibly involving the number seven. Ah well.

First of all, I'm quite a big Jay Chou fan. Of all the Chinese music I've heard, I can safely say he is the only Chinese singer I really like to listen to a lot (if anyone wants to suggest others, I'm happy to try them).

OK so basically Jay Chou's songs can be split into two main categories. The first, is rap songs, some of which have an R+B influenced sung chorus but they are predominantly him mumbling in Chinese with a cool beat. The second, are power ballads, usually about love/loss and played on his piano or some other random string section. Although I enjoy both types of songs that he releases, I must say that due to my personal musical preferences, I lean somewhat towards his rap songs.

Now I've listened to 3 of Jay's CDs. This one is his latest, but I've also heard his older CDs: Fantasy and The Eighth Dimension. Despite the fact that they are in a very similar style, I still think that Common Jasmin Orange is by far the best. The production on this CD is far superior and much more advanced, similar to the production quality of many Western pop artists. Also, for some reason, the songs are catchier and more interesting. Of course, the lyrics mean nothing to me, but the melodies and beats are a great improvement. On the other CDs I like a handful of songs whereas I can comfortably listen to this CD from beginning to end without skipping a track.

Standout tracks? The best track on this CD for me is the opening track 我的地盤, closely matched in quality by the title track, a great ballad, which appears second. I'm not sure what the singles of this CD have been but I would imagine that one of these tracks would have featured as a single release.

Honourable mentions also go to the rap tracks 將軍 (Track 5) and 亂舞春秋 (Track 7). I've also recently caught myself trying to sing along to 藉口 (Track 3), which is a sure sign of insanity given my aforementioned lack of Chinese knowledge. I also think Track 12, which seems to be in a very typical Western R+B style, almost reminiscent of 112, 止戰之殤 is a cool track.

The CD has few low points, I dont think his token rock track, 困獸之門, works very well at all and neither do I like 園游會 which is more typical of nanna-style ballads of previous CDs, ie. including random strings and probably setting teenage girls' hearts aflutter. But both these tracks are just not-as-good as the others, and not unbearable by any means.

I think this CD shows that Jay is maturing as an artist and clearly shows a lot of talent as a musician. I realise his English is terrible but he should consider working on that and attempting to collaborate with Western artists. I think there is potential for collaboration between the US and Chinese music industries, much like they have started to collaborate in films. If only to serve the massive population of Chinese living in the US, Canada, Australia and UK, they would lap it up.

But for me, this CD is definitely a classic and something I can listen to over and over and probably not get sick of for a long time. Five stars.

Alex