Rainie's album is now up for preorder !
http://www.5music.com.tw/CDList-C.asp?cdno=441475679084
Tracklist
And Like A Star MV will be online on November 1st.

Like A Star MV

wow, this is such great MV mapping her career

It's by far the best MV of this era !
Directed by Muh Chen (S.H.E 17 MV, PLAY MV, The Great Artist MV, I'm not yours MV, Ugly Beauty MV - Jolin Tsai).

Rainie's album is out !
You can listen to it here:
https://music.migu.cn/v3/music/album...8137?from=migu

I uploaded it on zippyshare for those interested
http://ahsforum.com/forum/showthread...09#post3330609

video is her best ever. I cried :')

unfortunately, new album is not really good ... I was kind of excited because I really LOVED Delete Reset Grow (basically, the very first album by Rainie I truly liked), however Like a Star is clearly very rush release and it seems like the company forced her to make another album before her tour so she can sing more new songs.

I wouldn't even call it "an album", it basically has only 7 songs since THE RUTHLESS is just a useless intro, TYRE BURNOUT is a boring outro and then there is a remix of BAD LADY.
Moreover, not sure what all the fuss was about, because she didn't change her genre/style that much. BAD LADY is the only song where she is trying something really different than her previous releases, but the rest of the tracks ... cute pop songs and mid-tempo tracks and ballad, so she played it pretty much safe with this album.

Not saying it is a bad album, just a very mediocre release. Based on the list of producers for this album, I expected much much more. (but out of new songs I really like 漂流浴室 INDULGING)

I agree. The album is a mess. I was so surprised to hear BAD LADY, but I knew Delete Reset Grow was a turning point, so I expected a transition for her. What I didn't expect was an album that sounds like a YouTube "album" stans make with new singles and unreleased leaks. I'm not a long-term fan, but this is... It's not up to par with even the work I couldn't get into.

Every artist has that "bad" record, and to be fair, Rainie hasn't had a "bad record." This is it though.

The one image that popped into my head was of that clip of Rihanna covering her face while laughing at Ariana Grande's "Problem" choreography. I just see Jolin doing the same at "Bad Lady," which wasn't how I saw this album going before I finally heard it. I hope Rainie goes all-in or just reinvents her approach the way she did with DRS.

I completely agree, I didn't know how exactly to describe her new album, but "Youtube album" is the most accurate description. Just a bunch of random songs that any teen singer would be able to put together to generate some views on YouTube.
I don't even "feel" a bit of Rainie on this album. And it is a real shame since this is her 12th (!!!) album. I think she really had no control when making this record, she was just given a few currently famous producers (Karencici, Razor Chiang etc.) and was told to bring 7 songs and that's it, here is a new release.

PS: truthful confession, but I love your comments! I am not very active on this forum, basically reacting only to Canto/Mando-pop thread and few other threads (Rainie, Jolin etc.), but even if I am not commenting frequently, I am usually reading all other threads and your posts are lovely to read. It is not just a bunch of useless phrases such as "yeah", "Okay", "here is another release", but you can write long posts that make complete sense, go up to the point and freely express your opinion in a very intelligent way, and of course, without going into the useless fight with other members of the forum even if you might have different opinion. Thumbs up, man!

I have to agree on this. Rainie (because she was actually deeply involved in this album, I'll talk about this later) was not able to make the songs the producers made for her "her own". And the interludes are so bad......
I liked the album, but I couldn't feel any concept in it, it sounded more like a compilation of singles than an album.

About her involvement and control:
Rainie has her own label, Tree & Skyline Entertainment since 2017.
It's credited in every song, every album and every MV of hers. It would be weird if she had no control at all in a company she founded.

Rainie produced her LIKE A STAR Tour, she's the "head producer".
It is said that since her previous album (Delete Reset Grow), she's been producing and planning everything herself: music, visuals, MVs, Tours...
https://playmusic.tw/column_info.php?id=16040&type=news

She personally participated in everything from the arrangement of the set list to the design of the performance for her World Tour.
https://playmusic.tw/column_info.php?id=16291&type=news

Rainie is also credited as "Chief Producer" in LIKE A STAR album.
Can't find the article, but I read that SINGING IN THE RAIN was the first song Rainie chose for the album, she fell in love with it at first listen. She also did remote work with the producers.

She's also the one who wanted a female collaboration for LIKE A STAR and chose Cyndi Wang for GIRLS. In her heart, "only Cyndi Wang was suitable (for the song)".
https://www.marieclaire.com.tw/enter...nt/music/53110

Rainie was the "production coordinator" for BAD LADY. She stated that her previous upbeat songs were more for market demand, BAD LADY is the first upbeat song she's really content with.
She decided to take the "dancing singer" route for this album because in the first place she wanted to be a performer who sings and dances. She took several dance classes while preparing for this album. She was even supposed to go to LA for dance classes but she couldn't because of Covid-19.
https://playmusic.tw/column_info.php?id=16100&type=news

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Next MV will be for Indulging by the way, it seems that she premiered it during the first concerts of her Tour ?
https://playmusic.tw/column_info.php?id=16301&type=news

Thanks for your insight, Linoa. :)
I also think that she had the full power on this album.
I'm not fond of this album too. SINGING IN THE RAIN is the only song I truly like. The others are just OK song. Nothing bad but they barely succeeded to keep my attention. Just like a background music.

thanks for all the information, Linoa!
By reading all the articles, I am even more confused about how this album turned out to be, to be honest.
If she was fully involved in the production, I just can't even understand how Delete Reset Grow and Like a Star might be such different albums in terms of both concept and quality. The one (DRG) with beautiful melodies and a concept, and the other one (LaS) lacking any kind of concept with mostly mediocre tracks. Taking into account, it has been only ONE YEAR difference between those albums ... I just cannot imagine what she was really thinking and trying to achieve when making Like a Star.
Even that transition into "dancing singer" isn't really there, as she is saying. I was expecting a big change in her music after BAD LADY was released, but Like a Star simply didn't deliver even that. It is definitely not "dance" album since it is lacking upbeat tracks.

Except BAD LADY, there is no other track that is truly trying something different/new for Rainie. Girls with Cyndi Wang is pretty basic cute-pop track, she used to sing back in her first albums, Like a Star, and Singing in the Rain are ballads she used to sing a lot before (Singing in the Rain has that kind of jazzy/soul-y vibe, but that's it .. not saying it is bad track, just saying it is not that different). Perfect Match and Cuz of U are ordinary mid-tempo tracks. So I wouldn't definitely call this a dance record or that Rainie took any kind of "dancing singer" route.

Indeed... LIKE A STAR is nice as everyone said as background music or when you take the songs separately.
As a whole album though, Delete Reset Grow was way way better...
Let's hope if she keeps this style for the next album that she will improve and learn from LIKE A STAR (1st week of physical sales were quite bad on 5music, and that's a bad sign considering that it's mostly fans who are buying physical copies nowadays...).

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Love is Love Dance Practice


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Indulging MV

This song is the one produced by Starr Chen. Rainie said that usually it's not the kind of song she would choose, but since LIKE A STAR was a bold challenge to attempt a different style, she decided to take it.
Even though there are only 10 seconds of modern dance, Rainie praticed it very seriously and still had bruised knees on the day of filming.
The director asked her to imagine she was Zendaya in Euphoria for the club scene, since Rainie does not dance outside of stage.