Sandy Lam (album)

Infobox Album
Name = 林憶蓮同名專輯
Type = Album
Artist = Sandy Lam


Released = Start date|1985|4
Recorded =
Genre = Cantopop
Length =
Label = CBS Records
Producer =
Reviews =
This album = "林憶蓮同名專輯"
(1985)
Next album = "放縱"
(1986)

This debut album is sang by Hong Kong singer, Sandy Lam, released under CBS Records in 1985. At that stage of time, Sandy Lam was not a serious progressive singer in the Hong Kong music industry, but a DJ for Commercial Radio Hong Kong since 1982. Nevertheless, this album is a milestone and the beginning of Sandy Lam's musical journey.

Track listing

1. I Don't Know About love (愛情I Don't Know)
2. First Date (第一次約會)
3. Girlie Feelings (少女的心)
4. Summer's Umbrella (太陽傘下)
5. Please Do Not Leave (不想你走)
6. Beautiful Moment (美的片刻)
7. Love Vehicle (高速愛情車)
8. Troubled Teenagers (苦難中的少年)
9. Red Lips (搖擺口紅)
10. Quiet Date (無聲約會)

Alternate versions

I Don't Know About love-Summer Remix--Released under "Summer Remix 1985" CBS record 1985
Girlie Feelings-Vocal Dub Mix--Released under "Brand New Sandy" CBS record 1988

Conceptual Aspect

This debut album is solely produced by producer Fung Geng Fei. This includes all art direction, cover design and recording. The birth of this album was because Sandy was a DJ since 1982.

Fung attempted to manipulate Sandy's image into a typical Japanese idol. This is because of the success other singers of the same generation (Jacky Cheung, Priscilla Chan, Leslie Cheung) shared amongst themselves. Their image is created by their producers when their physical appearance and music chosen is very Japanese-based. For example, Priscilla Chan was dressed up as a cute beautiful girl, singing upbeat light disco (J-Pop) songs portraying a confused unrealistic teenage girl-next-door in love. Producers copied looks and covered songs from the likes of Akina Nakamori, Seiko Matsuda, Kondo Masahiko, etc. Surprisingly, Sandy's debut album was an absolute failure both commercially(extremely low album sales and unpleasant feedback) and musically in comparison to the above singers. Despite this, this album had attracted high attention of critics and reviews.

Commercial Aspect

This album is most definitely the worst selling album from Sandy Lam of all times, barely reaching a Gold Disc Certification(Hong Kong IFPI standards). Track 1 "I Don't Know About love" was the main single that promoted this album and Sandy herself. "Girlie feelings", "Summer's Umbrella", "Beautiful moment" and "Red Lips" also received fair airplay. This is quite strange because such a weak album will rarely have so many songs to receive airplay, but Sandy's status as a part time DJ in CRHK can explain this situation. This album is very lowly regarded by many DJs and critics. They regard this album as just another production of a Japanese idol.

Musical Aspect

Since this album was produced to imitate a Japanese idol, music was very Japanese-based. 8 out of the 10 tracks covered Japanese songs (with the exception of track 4 and 10). Lyrics were mainly written by Calvin Poon. Music composer was mainly Hong Kong Singer Kwok Siu Lum. Lyrics were very typical thoughts and expressions of a teenage girl. Music composed were very similar to those of Akina and Seiko (which is more specifically J-Pop). This means making heavy uses of guitar and drum machine to create a rock-disco genre songs. This composition is another extreme in comparison to her latter years. Sandy's image was particularly similar to Seiko's, even 2 of the songs(Track 1 and 9) covered Seiko's Matsuda.

Links

* [http://www.sandyandme.com/lamyiklin/lamyiklin.htm]