Sing and Play
Sing and Play () is a 1998 Mandarin album by Beijing-based singer Faye Wong. It includes 10 tracks in Mandarin, with a bonus disc of 3 Cantonese tracks. It was released on October 2, 1998 in the Greater China region. On 21 October 1998 it was released in Japan. Faye Wong and Alvin Leong served as the album producers. The album title is usually translated as Sing and Play in English sources. Others refer to the album as Song Tour (遊 can mean tour), Scenic Tour which was the name of Wong's 1998–1999 concert tour,
Love Life,
or Song Play. The album's cumulative sales in Asia exceed 2.5 million copies. Creative background
Sing and Play was the first Chinese album recorded using HDCD techniques, and the creative team still used partners such as Albert Leung, Adrian Chan, Xin Weili, and Jiang Zhiren. The conceptual positioning of the album is fanciful and unrestrained. Faye Wong not only served as the producer of the album, she also once again composed four works: "Emotional Life", "Face", "Whimsical" and "Child". Among them, "Face" is Faye Wong's first work performed with a "Bel canto-like" singing method, and "Child" is the first work that Faye Wong and Dou Wei dedicated to their daughter Leah Dou. The song is arranged by Dou Wei and was also the only work on the album that Faye Wong personally wrote the lyrics for. Leah Dou, who could not speak yet, also tried to talk for the first time in the song. The three Cantonese songs in the album were all composed by Albert Leung. He re-composed the three Mandarin songs in the album into Cantonese. Lyricist Albert Leung is responsible for almost all of the lyrics in Sing and Play. He has composed a total of 8 Cantonese and Mandarin lyrics. Among them, works such as "Repayment" and "Love Commandment" use parallelism to describe love. When Leung wrote the song "Red Beans", his inspiration came from the scene where the lovelorn heroine in the Japanese drama Love Generation boiled red beans. Before the red beans are cooked, they break up. So in the song there is the lyrics: "I haven't boiled the red beans into a lingering wound for you". Jim Lau himself admires Faye Wong's voice very much. When he composed the music for "Red Beans", he imagined how Faye Wong would sing based on her voice, so the song was composed in less than a few minutes, breaking his fastest songwriting record. Pan Xieqing, the composer who collaborated with Faye Wong for the first time in the album, created two works, "Give Up Halfway" and "Fly". Among them, "Fly" commemorates Chang Yu-sheng's work. "Our Lord", written by Wyman Wong, was written by Zhang Yadong for Xu Wei when he was working on an album for Faye Wong. It was later included in the album and Xu Wei was paid more than 10,000 yuan in royalties. Background and development
Sing and Play is quite groundbreaking in recording since it was the first C-Pop album to be recorded using HDCD technology. Faye Wong's sunburned makeup look on the cover also triggered a wave of imitations. The overall style of the album is atmospheric and lively, making extensive use of techniques such as Bel canto, vibrato, vocal fry, falsehood, and breathy vocals. Faye Wong's first "Bel Canto-like" performance on the song "Face" was well received, and her producer status was recognized for the first time, and she was shortlisted for the Taiwan Golden Melody Award for Best Record Producer at the 10th Golden Melody Awards. Faye Wong's creations in this album is much more interesting. Among them, the rock-flavored "Love Life" is a wonderful beginning. Reception
The album debuted at number three, respectively, in Hong Kong on the week of 4 October and in Malaysia on the week of 13 October 1998. It peaked at number one in Malaysia on the week of 20 October 1998. It reached number two in Hong Kong on the week of 11 October 1998. Billboard Asia bureau chief, Steve McClure, placed it in number seven of his top ten list of 1999 Asian albums. The album was noted for some of its ballads, in contrast to the pop songs which had provided most of Faye Wong's hits around that time. "Red Beans", "Face" and "Love Commandments" have been popular songs of the album. As of February 1999, the album sold almost 2,500,000 copies, including imports. It was rereleased in Japan on 3 March 1999 with the bonus track, "Eyes on Me". Track listing

Notes

Certifications

References

1998 albums
EMI Records albums
Faye Wong albums
Mandopop albums