Taiwanese megastar Jay Chou Jie-lun first rose to prominence as a gifted producer with an ear for mixing unexpected elements and sounds into his music.
As his singing career took off, he took more risks and used quirky touches, like bouncing ping-pong balls and dial tones, with varied success. He continues this hit-or-miss trend in his 11th album, Exclamation Mark ().
Let's talk about the good first. Mine Mine is a very catchy R&B-type of ballad played on a piano. Chou's voice is mostly autotuned, which adds another element to the track. Piano Wound () is a classic Chou track: he raps and adds beats over classical piano music.
And now the bad. The album definitely had some 'what's going on?' moments. Princess Syndrome () starts off with a frantic assault of noise before settling down and evolving into a decent rock song. This can't be said for Hydrophobic Sailor (). The highly emotional track sounds like an unpleasant saloon song from a Western flick, but with beatboxing. It's a combination that does not work.
Exclamation Mark has a number of decent songs, but the weirder tracks definitely take a star away from the album. It's time for Chou to go back to basics and just focus on the music.