[Linoa62]

Originally Posted by orbitalaspect

In the last four years, aMEI released three albums: one in 2014, another in 2015, and STORY THIEF in December 2017... all of them are critically acclaimed records. And trust me, I desperately wanted aMEI to do a release in 2016 too.
But my point is that Jolin and Elva are maybe trying too hard. To be honest, I didn't hear anything on Jolin's Pei or Elva's Shut Up & Kiss Me that was at all a significant change from the album prior to it.
If Jolin decides to release a classical piano album of original compositions or go Country then I totally understand taking four years.
But there just isn't anything so tremendously career-changing that's happened since Pei or Shut Up & Kiss Me.
TBH, my favorite Elva records are Diamond Candy, Ms. Elva, I'm Ready, and Shut Up & Kiss Me. And really, if I had to say which albums were the best, it would be Diamond Candy then Ms. Elva then I'm Ready. So I think when Elva isn't trying to take the reigns of everything, she actually puts out her best work. And I think that's also true of her earlier albums.

About Shut Up & Kiss Me, I agree about it being safe in Elva's discography.
But I disagree a bit about PLAY. I agree that it was some kind of a MUSE 2.0, there was obviously some continuity music-wise, but there were no typical C-Pop ballads, except for The Third Person and I maybe. She performed opera on Miss Trouble. PLAY was quite agressive and very fast. I can't think of anything like Lip Reading in her discography as well. Only Phony Queen sounded a bit like Dr Jolin. I always think of Phony Queen as Dr Jolin 2.0.
But I agree that the significant change came from elsewhere. Jolin was introducing more meaningful lyrics in her discography, she was trying to change her image, make people forget the dancer and see her like a singer, an artist. She took singing classes, performance classes and opera classes (it can clearly be heard in the album and live). Her MVs tried to convey more "social messages".

Elva changed labels between I'm Ready and Shut Up & Kiss Me, that may be the reason of the delay between the release of the two albums. I can't tell about Elva "taking the reigns of everything", I don't know her career enough for that.

Elva may be "trying too hard" nowadays because she realizes that this upcoming album will decide of her career's future since Shut Up & Kiss Me was not really a big success. Plus she had some problems finding a new label and only signed this year. 4 years without releasing an album when the latest one did not make a big impact and did not even have a Tour to promote it... :/ Will she have a comeback or be totally forgotten ? That's why she fell this ill, the stress. All articles are talking about it.

About Jolin, I can't deny that it can be annoying to me sometimes as well that the new album is getting delayed. IIRC she only started working on it less than two years ago, she didn't do shit except touring during the first 1-2 years following PLAY's release. She's also taking her time and doesn't care anymore about delays since she's producing herself... She stated it several times. She's enjoying life as well now (she has lots of side events which keeps her career very interesting to me).
She said she was open to any style of music, that we'll be surprised, so who knows, maybe we'll hear country . But it's also her personality, she's a perfectionist. I am one as well, I think that's why I'm more tolerant about all these delays. I can change things one time, two times, ten times, almost every time I look at my work. I always want to put out the best work I can. Being really satisfied can be quite hard. So I can understand why she's taking this long and why she's always changing stuff.

Originally Posted by orbitalaspect

MUSE was a game-changer for me with Jolin. I did not like her until The Great Artist came out and then she blew me away. But that album was literally made in only a little more time than Myself or Dancing Diva. Pei didn't land with the same impact, but it landed well. I just don't see how taking twice as long to release a record is really at all correlated with higher quality and memorability.
My first love in Mandopop is Angela Chang. But I strongly believe her music has only gotten worse since Ang 5.0 and Di Wu Ji. With the exception of her self-titled album in 2014, I honestly couldn't stomach Visible Wings and Head Over Heels. Just really not, not what Angela is good at - not creative, not interesting, not refreshing as her past albums were. In the last 8 years, she's done three albums. None of them really connect to me as effectively as Di Wu Ji or Ang 5.0 or Flower In The Wonderland.
So, I get it, I'd rather have 1 good album than 2 bad albums, but I don't think there's any guarantee that we will get a good album after 4 years of work when we know that most of these people put out their most memorable material after like 6 months of work.

IMO it's not possible to compare Dancing Diva and Myself production to MUSE's since back then Jolin didn't have the huge involvement she had while producing MUSE.
I agree that it was a big flaw in my post though, indeed time does not guarantee a masterpiece or a "good album". I guess I said this because I have faith in her because she did not disappoint me with MUSE and PLAY, the two albums which marked the start of her huge involvement in her music (PLAY even more since she produced it).

I can't tell about Elva, but I don't think Jolin could put an album (and a good one) in 6 months, but that's just my opinion.

I don't think comparing Elva and Jolin to aMEI is relevant though, since everyone is different. aMEI is aMEI, she's able to release awesome albums in 1 year, that's great (I love Faces of Paranoia, AMIT 1, AMIT 2 and Story Thief as well). Others take more time, or want to take more time. That won't mean of course that these albums will be better. But that's just the way it is.

@CeReSu I hope that you'll recover soon !!!