Tailored for fans of Cheung
CHINESE POP
By DANNY YEO
-from Straits Times


COUNTDOWN WITH YOU
Leslie Cheung
(Universal Music)

THIS is Leslie Cheung's first full Cantonese album with Universal Music, an 11-track CD with two Mandarin songs.

Armed with superstar status and self-assurance, the singer is able to set his own pace and taste in this latest music product. After all, when asked earlier if he was pressurised by the company to produce more in a year, he had said: "They wouldn't dare."

Whether conceited or self-assured, he is definitely having a better grasp of his career direction. This album is like expensive branded clothes -- not very appealing to the masses, but more attractive to a limited group, probably the quality-conscious elite, and those who love Cheung's baritone voice.

Songs such as Four Seasons (track 3) and Normal Heartbeat And Breathing (track 5) are mesmerising when the singer uses his husky, lower range.

For his latest movie, he wrote the theme Little Star (track 6 in Cantonese)/You Are A Star (track 10 in Mandarin), which reminds me of Glenn Close's emotional build-up in a scene out of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Sunset Boulevard.

Not that Cheung is in the same position as the wailing has-been movie star Norma Desmond who reminisces on her past. He is evergreen, even resembling James Dean in a black-and-white album photo.

If you did not know Cheung during his disco-'80s "Thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks... Monica" days, re-experience the unique sexiness of a male voice in Loneliness Is Harmful (track 4).

Comrades (track 7), Don't Love Him (track 8) and the dramatically-arranged Dissipated Life (track 1) seemed tailor-made for him by Lin Xi, who wrote eight of the songs here. Singapore songwriter Jimmy Ye composed two songs here.