S.H.E Broadcast from the Future

REVIEW: I'm dipping into Mando-pop for this review, checking out the 11th and newest album from Taiwanese smash hit S.H.E, FM S.H.E - The album is different from S.H.E songs I have heard in the past, their newest venture taking on a futuristic space electro-pop style with radio broadcasts dispersed throughout the album.

早安您好 / Hello Morning

The first track sees the girls take on the persona of radio hosts, broadcasting about their newest project FM S.H.E – Their isn’t too much to say; The track opens with a nice intro theme but it is mostly just chatter which I can’t understand.

我愛煩惱 / I Love Adversity

Here is where the real action starts and you immediately get the sense of that electro-pop style. This track really utilizes a great synth opening/back track and a rock styled chorus which are the high points of this song for me. It’s pretty standard in its arrangement and doesn’t offer many surprises but the basis for a good electro-pop song is there and it’s a nice opening song for the album. I really enjoyed this one.

宇宙小姐 / Miss Universe

Miss Universe, the promotional song for the album, is a cover of Sweetbox’s Crush. The song opens with a sampling of Edvard Greig’s In the Hall of the Mountain King which I have to say is really effective. This along with the chorus, are the standouts in Miss Universe and make the whole thing very catchy. It’s definitely a step up for Sweetbox’s version imo and a great track to show off the unique sound of FM S.H.E.

沿海公路的出口 / Coastal Highway Exit

Coastal Highway Exit is the first of the ballads of FM S.H.E (there are quite a few). It is a decent ballad, sung very well, though it does breaks up the momentum of the album thus far built up in the previous two tracks. The song does pick up the beat in the second half but still, the whole thing sounds very ‘end of album’ type stuff.

天亮了 / The Day's Breaking

Now this is more like it! This track is sort of a mid-tempo ballad with almost (but not quite) rap verses and it is one of my favourites on the album, especially apart from the more electro-pop tracks. The verses are sung well and the pick-up of the chorus is really nice and catchy. This song really showcase S.H.E’s vocal abilities, all three of the girls are great singers, with voices that are set apart from each other.

比你賤 / Worse than You

This track seems to be inspired by Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean, sampling the song as well as mentioning Billie Jean in the chorus. The song features Judy Zhou Ding Wei (who is a dude) on rap vocals and they suit the track well, a nice addition. I really love this song and think it is a great rework of the Jackson classic, though it is WAY too short, being just over 3 minutes long. It doesn’t have a second verse, I’m not sure why.

喜碧夫人時間 / Madam Hebe's Time

Onto the second radio broadcast track which is titled Madam Hebe’s Time featuring Hebe chattering for a bit and then chattering with someone else. I can’t understand it, it’s probably meant to be amusing, I really don’t have a clue.

女孩當自強 / Independent Girls

The best way I can describe this track is tranquility meets hostility; A calming East Asian inspired instrumental/vocals invaded by forceful rap. The song is produced very well which makes this clash a really interesting and an enjoyable listen. The chorus in particular takes advantage of this and I love the contrasting rap vocals. It ventures from the electro sound of the album but manages to stay enough akin to the style to make it not sound out of place.

安靜了 / Silenced

This is the album’s second ballad and to be honest it doesn’t really stand out to me much. The song picks up towards the end but it’s a typical Mando-pop ballad that you’ve heard plenty of times before. I'm sure if I could understand the lyrics, the song would have more of an effect on me. I can't, thus it's meh.

我是火星人 / I'm A Martian

lol this song is all sorts of crazy. The UFO sounds at the beginning leading onto the extremely unusual instrumental with alien, synth vocals which accompany the girls throughout the track. The whole song is a bit of a surprise and it’s really quite good. I enjoy the offbeat’ness of it, it doesn’t take itself too seriously and it’s a lot of fun. One of the better tracks on the album.

612星球 / Planet 612

This is where the album takes a dive into the world of ballads. We’ve had two already and the next three songs are all ballads.
The instrumental on Planet 612 is nice, I always enjoy orchestral arrangements, and I couldn’t fault the girl’s vocals if I tried but the song still does little for me. It’s a nice, pretty song, yeah... that’s about it.

店小二 / Waiter

Waiter is another ballad, but it includes a more mid-tempo style track with some catchier vocals. I have to give some credit to this song, it does try to incorporate some of those future/space sounds in its instrumental and it is probably the strongest ballad on the album from a thematic perspective.

熬夜DJ / Overnight DJ

Ah, the final radio track. I think I said it all in my reviews of the previous two tracks, I have no idea what is being said ^_^ …

月光手札 / Moonlight Holograph

Moonlight Holograph is another ballad with a very traditional Asian inspired instrumental with an incorporated orchestral sound which is very nice. I’m not sure how much this song fits in with the rest of the album but it’s a nice mid-tempo ballad, really helped along by the beautiful instrumental.

酸甜 / Sweet and Sour

The final track of the album, Sweet and Sour, features S.H.E’s male equivalent Fahrenheit who they always seem to work with. It’s a happy, upbeat track and works well as the closing song of the album, it does feel like the ending of something. Fahrenheit’s vocals aren’t bad and the girls have a strange singing style in this song, giving it an overall fun feel.

ROUND UP

Reading S.H.E fan’s views of this new album around the web, I originally didn’t expect too much. It is a much different style than the fans are used to and wasn’t really greeted with open arms by a large portion of them. For me though, a very casual fan of S.H.E, I did love this new style and FM S.H.E contains some of my favourite tracks from the girls. It offers a lot in terms of style, from crazy, fun tracks to dance tracks and then the ballads.

I do feel that the ballads let the album down a bit. While individually they aren’t bad songs, they don’t fully incorporate the futuristic theme that the album seems to be going for. It would have been better to take this style full force and for the producers to be slightly more daring in their ballad arrangements.
I really enjoyed the idea of the radio broadcasts, despite not understanding them. I’m relatively certain that had I understood those 3 tracks, my enjoyment of the album would have increased.

FM S.H.E is a great album with a unique and daring new sound for the girls though slightly let down by the large amount of uninventive ballads.

Rating: 8/10