So the 2nd volume is out ... and it appears that they've been listening to pple's feedback. Now they've printed the songs list on the back of the box. But obviously the ppl in the packaging design group hasn't been talking to one another very much, as u can see in the photo, the titles are still covered by this thing that goes around the box. How smart. I bet the 3rd volume they will find some way around it. In the meantime, you can still see the listing of tracks here. :D
The new box set is white in color. Wow! Nice! Lemme guess, it will be red the next round. Or maybe gray, brown, blue ... Who wants to take a bet?? :D Ok sorry, I am a packaging nut :D I dig pretty packaging.
Now back to the beef. The collection this time seems to have addressed some requests from the customers. As the text in the enclosed booklet says "我們收到了許多“老新謠”的關心：為甚麼沒有姜鄠，黎沸揮，雅韻小組，黃宏墨，鄭展倫，玖建，蔡榮祖？ 。。。巫啟賢，黃譓禎，梁文褔，洪劭軒, 水草三重唱的歌還不夠！”. It is good to see that they've been listening. Some puzzling inclusion does bring a chuckle like 田勁. But I truly wondered if his inclusion was just to satisfy the quota that is required by the different licensees who are involved in this collection. These songs seems to be arguably non-xinyao in my opinion. Some 巫啟賢 tracks like 太傻, 紅塵來去一場夢, 愛那麼重, 傷心的人更傷心, also seems to be of the much "commercialization era" of xinyao already and didn't really feel like they belong here. "流行歌曲，我唱你來聽，。。。唱過就忘記，唱些甚麼沒人理，流行難道就是好歌曲？” The lyrics of "流行歌曲" (also in this collection) suddenly appears remarkably poignant and ironic. But they were after all written by Singaporeans, so I guess they do deserve they little place in history. (For those who are not familiar, 田勁 was a Singaporean who sang and released Thai albums and was quite a star in Thailand. In fact his 成名曲 was actually the chinese version of "Lambada" called "Send true love away". How the hell I still recall all these shit is beyond me.)
Some other notable tracks are those by 鄭展倫，黎沸揮，黃宏墨 etc. Many of these tracks were only released on cassettes and never on CD, so it is very good to see (hear) them here again. One track which is rather rarely known but is one of my all time favourite is 也許是寂寞 by 巫啟賢 - I am pleasantly surprised by the selection of this track. This was a 2nd 插曲 from the Kopi-O TV series, but the main theme song as well as 遺忘過去 became the more popular tracks instead.
Quality wise, they seemed to have taken a more stringent control and testing, and this time I didn't notice any clipping of audio tracks like I noticed in the last box set. Sound quality is on par with the previous boxset, and really, the "HDCD" remastering might really be just marketing jargon. The truth is, many of the original recordings were not very good to begin with, so not all the tracks will truly benefit from the technology. So don't expect the moon when it comes to High Fidelity.
This collection holds up pretty well, and has lots more previously unpublished songs and "rare tracks" than box set 1 - thus I think it is actually a better value than the last one. So whip out your cash, and till the next box set arrives. Can we have more 鄧妙華 and more SBC (Singapore Broadcasting Corporation) tracks? :D .... Please :D
Disc 1
不是不願意 - 姜鄠
感情好累 - 姜鄠
戀之憩 - 姜鄠
我會用真心填滿你的孤單 - 鄭展倫
如果你不小心想起我 - 鄭展倫
多情男子 - 鄭展倫
夢湖 - 巫啟賢＋黃譓禎
唇邊的笑意 - 巫啟賢
感情的水手 - 巫啟賢
讓我可以 - 地下鐵
日子 - 許南盛
夜的眩暈 - 許南盛
親親你念著誰 - 玖建
羞答答的玫瑰靜悄悄地開 - 玖建
你有珠簾一襲 - 梁文褔
Disc 2
古人的酒觴 - 地下鐵
和平的呼喚 - 雅韻小組
倦鳥不再 - 雅韻小組
風城 - 劉瑞政
悟 - 黃譓禎
鷹 - 地下鐵
時川 - 地下鐵
無言的祝福 - 水草三重唱
我們的歌在哪裡？ - 水草三重唱
17:00的心情 - 水草三重唱
門 - 許南盛
臨別衣袖 - 洪劭軒
友情故事 - 洪劭軒
莫提永遠 - 洪劭軒
彈一支涼涼的歌 - 洪劭軒
Disc 3
寫一首歌給你 - 梁文褔＋黃譓赬
追雲 - 水草三重唱
搖搖民謠 - 水草三重唱
排排坐 - 梁文褔＋黃譓赬
野人的夢 - 黃宏墨＋跳動律
笨鳥的表白 - 黃宏墨
童言故鄉 - 黃宏墨
情誼藏心底 - 巫啟賢
也許是寂寞 - 巫啟賢
千千萬萬個愛你 - 巫啟賢
讓夜輕輕落下 - 潘盈
在你眼裡看不見自己 - 潘盈
背著行囊去流浪 - 蔡榮祖
愛情電影畫面 - 蔡榮祖
久久才見到你的好 - 蔡榮祖
Disc 4
流行歌曲 - 合唱
太傻 - 巫啟賢
紅塵來去一場夢 - 巫啟賢
愛那麼重 - 巫啟賢
傷心的人更傷心 - 巫啟賢
為了你 - 巫啟賢
讓全世界起舞 - 黎沸揮
請在我心經過 - 黎沸揮
只有你能完成我的歌 - 黎沸揮
在世界放光芒 - 黎沸揮
邊緣少年 - 姜鄠
日子是一條藍色的牛仔褲 - 姜鄠
只是要愛你 - 田勁
碎花如雨隨風飛 - 田勁
最後的一首歌 - 梁素珊
