Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Summer Fever by Sodaspring Heats Up the Album Charts

This week's best-selling album in Taiwan, according to the G Music charts, is the latest release by indie band Sodagreen (苏打绿, pinyin: Sūdá lǜ). Summer Fever (夏/狂热) is the band's sixth studio album and their second release of 2009.

The album is part two in Sodagreen's ambitious plan to release four albums over the two years. Known as the Vivaldi Project, the band will record in four different cities with the four seasons providing the theme for each album. The first record in the project, Spring Daylight (春/日光), was recorded in Taiwan earlier this year. Sodapop then travelled to London to put down their second record, and critics have noted the new album's distinctive Brit-pop style as a result. And as you might expect from an album with a summery theme, the tracks tend to be bright and upbeat. The first single from the album is the title track, Fever (狂热).

The next two albums, representing autumn and winter, will be recording in Beijing and Berlin respectively. Inside reports are that they will have a correspondingly darker, more sombre tone.

Sodagreen were formed way back in 2001, and their current six-member lineup dates from 2003. However they didn't release their self-titled debut album until 2005. Definitely unique in the Taiwanese music scene, it has only been in the last few years that have started to reach a mainstream audience, culminating in successive Best Band prizes at the Golden Melody Awards in 2007 and 2008.

The band's central figure is lead singer and songwriter, Wu Qing Feng (吳青峰, or "Greeny"). He's known for his distinctive feminine-sounding vocals, and many people hearing him for the first time have mistaken him for a female singer.He also attracts attention with his out-there haircuts: to coincide with the Spring Daylight album he died his hair pink, and now it's bright green for Summer Fever.

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