F.I.R. 《飞行部落》-- 乐评

很多人评论F.I.R. 的专辑一张不如一张，创作能力似乎遇到了瓶颈。继第一张《F.I.R. 同名专辑》的发行叱咤中文乐团后，人们都对F.I.R.的创作表示赞赏，并对他们的下一张专辑有很高的期待。然而，F.I.R.无法满足广大听众的问题根源，并不在于其乐团的创作实力处在一个疲惫的状态，而是因为大众所给予乐团的期望太高，还有大众无法接受歌手或乐团尝试新曲风的“顽固”心态。

人们常说：“期望越高，失望越大”。听众对F.I.R.的高期望并非是件坏事，因为这代表了听众肯定F.I.R.的创作实力，and know what F.I.R. is capable of achieving. 可是过高的期许也意味着听众在寻求“F.I.R.的新专辑有没有比上一张来得好，有没有比第一张专辑来得好？”这问题的答案时，常常会忽略了乐团在新专辑里所付出的心血与努力和所作的新尝试。

焦点都放错了位置，哪我们又怎能发现F.I.R.每张新专辑的优点呢？

再者，中文乐坛的听众对于歌手做出大胆的新尝试，接受度往往极低。就拿孙燕姿来说。她在《完美的一天》的专辑里尝试了演绎和以往不同的曲风的歌曲，如《完美的一天》、《Honey Honey》等。结果该唱片的销售成绩却是燕姿9张专辑里最差的一张。撇开盗版活动的猖獗不谈，听一听周围的朋友，绝大部分都不喜欢《完美的一天》这张专辑，各大报章和杂志的乐评都嫌该专辑的制作有欠理想。由此可见，市场对于新尝试的接纳度还是很低。

可是，音乐人尝试新曲风是一种进步啊！若只为了要迎合大众的口味而保持一贯的曲风，原地踏步，那就是一种惰性，可见那音乐人对音乐毫无热忱，只顾着也只懂得从消费者的口袋里大捞一笔。

让我们来看看F.I.R. 专辑的曲风从第一张到第三张的变化。第一张专辑《F.I.R. 同名专辑》里的曲风较为“励志”、动感，例如：《Fly Away》、《Lydia》、《我们的爱》、《光芒》、《Revolution》。专辑里的歌曲朗朗上口，感染力强，很适合到卡拉OK痛K，也很适合通过iPod收听。听着听着然后就不由自主地大声合唱，身子跟着旋律大肆摇摆起来，头也左右甩，非常适合抒发压抑或埋藏在心中已久的情感如。

F.I.R.的第二张专辑《无限》曲风与第一张有稍微的不同，其曲风则较为悲伤，重点强调其“悲”字，如：《千年之恋》、《应许之地》、《把爱放开》、《刺鸟》、《死心的理由》。但是这张专辑里的哀伤还是有参杂了些许第一张专辑“感染力强”的成分，让人在唱歌时感伤完毕后，又能抒发其感伤。与整张专辑形成吊诡的就是《Love^3》这首歌。其曲风为“王心凌式”，“很不F.I.R.”，也是乐团在这张专辑里的另一个尝试。

整体而言，F.I.R.的第三张专辑《飞行部落》和之前的两张专辑曲风截然不同。首先我们在专辑里则听到了世界风。F.I.R.尝试将世界各地不同的曲风融入他们的摇滚音乐里，如：《Get High》里的美国黑人文化里的饶舌嘻哈风、《雨樱花》里的浓浓东瀛风、《飞行部落》里中美洲印加部落的音乐元素和《1234567》里的百老汇歌剧和爵士音乐的曲风。F.I.R.的尝试可说是中文乐坛里前所未有的，或许也因为这样，所以市场的接纳度才不高。

此外，这张专辑也着重情歌的部分。10首完整的歌曲，含有浓浓爱情韵味的歌曲就占了5首，而且这些歌曲也没有第二张专辑里来得悲伤，只有淡淡的一层忧伤。这类歌曲也不像以往F.I.R.的歌曲那么引人“开唱”，而是会感染听者去独自一人听这些歌曲，细细地去体验歌中的淡淡忧伤，在自己的内心世界里用自己的方式去消化这份情感。

舍弃了以往会让人们跟着大声合唱来抒发情感的感染力，转而要让听众不要只光着发泄，要他们去细细咀嚼哀伤，要听众多用点心，这种转变或许让许多已经习惯了旧式的情感抒发方的听众一时难以接受。

说穿了，就是我们听众固执。我们不愿音乐人跳脱窠臼，摆脱框框，只要他们千篇一律地制作一些我们习惯了的曲风就行了。只因为我们的习惯，我们就抹杀掉音乐人的用心、努力和进步，这种做法还真够自私啊！

在此推荐几首F.I.R.新专辑《飞行部落》里的歌曲，希望能借此改变你们的习惯：

《Get High》
《雨樱花》
《天天夜夜》
《飞行部落》
《你很爱他》
《1234567》
《I Don’t Care》

Backstab

If you are a fellow councillor from the 33rd Hwa Chong Students’ Council, thisentry is meant for you.

I was backstabbed for the second time in my life!

The first happened to me when I was in Sec 2. Do not ask me what happened then for I refuse to say. If you already know, then you know it; if you don’t, then you shall never know.

In any case, I’ve learnt from my Sec 2 lesson that those who backstabbed you are usually the ones who put on a mask in front of you and puts on another mask when you are not around.

Hypocrites, they are.

Same goes for the person who backstabbed me this year – hypocrite, coward, an asshole with no balls.

(Actually this backstabbing took place on July 19th, and it was right on the top of my blogging priority list. However, somehow procrastination and the frenzy of events that took place soon after the incident slowly drowned the hype that I had furiously created after learning that I’ve been backstabbed. And thus the plan for this entry slips behind a pile of never-ending assignments that have tight deadlines for me to meet. I only remembered this incident when I was bathing. Like, suddenly, out of the blue, out of nowhere, my backstabbed incident flashed across my mind.)

On July 19th, there were two major sporting events, namely the finals for Judo A’ Division Boys and Girls, as well as finals for Track and Field A’ Division Boys and Girls. Being a student councillor, one of our duties is to head down for as many sporting events as possible, especially for the Finals, to cheer for our athletes and give them encouragement so that they can bring glory back to the school, perhaps by hauling some medals from the competition.

As usual, being the Council’s Cheer I/C, I was in charge of assigning councilors to head for different events since both events take place simultaneously at opposite ends of this island nation (Allison is my other Cheer I/C, but she’s busy with the Asian Youth leader Summit (AYLS), so I decided not to bother her).

A new system was devised to assign councillors to the venues, that is, they get to choose which event they would like to go for and submit their preference to me before a certain deadline, based on a “first-come first-serve”-“while stocks last” basis. As all the slots for Judo Finals were filled up before the deadline, the “late-comers” have no choice but to go for Track and Field Finals.

At 7A.M.on D-Day, I gave a briefing to all councillors on the duties that they are supposed to carry out during the competition. A certain deputy Faculty Head approached me to negotiate for a change in the assigned competition venue for himself and the Faculty Head. Both the Faculty and Deputy Faculty Head were initially assigned to Track and Field Finals. However, since they have “some faculty stuff” at about 3 P.M. and they have to rush back to school. Since the Judo Finals is held at a closer location to the school and ends way earlier than Track and Field Finals, they requested to be assigned to go to Judo Finals instead.

Fair enough. That was indeed a valid reason. I granted their request. However, I did not assign anyone else to replace them to go for Track and Field because all the others already “have a place to go” and it would be unfair to assign those who signed up to go for Judo finals to go for Track Finals instead because these people have met the deadline of indicating to me their preference.

According to my “reliable source”, on the bus she overheard a phone conversation between this Faculty Head and Allison, who was in charge of cheerings at the Track and Field Finals. This Faculty Head and Allison are very close friends, and apparently, Allison is unhappy about the fact that this Faculty Head decided to “pang-seh (meaning something to the extent of breaking your promise) her and went for Judo Finals instead.

To make matter worse, due to some miscommunication with my Committee Head who gave me a list of people involved in AYLS who are supposedly free to go for these two cheering events, these people were assigned to go for Track and Field finals but they never turned up. In the end, only a pathetic number of 13 student councillors were at Choa Chu Kang Stadium cheering for the Track and Field athletes.

“XXX!!! WHY DIDN’T YOU COME FOR TRACK AND FIELD CHEERING?!?!?!? THERE ARE SO FEW COUNCILLORS HERE AND MANY OF THEM ARE NOT COOPERATIVE!!!!!”

“Don’t blame me! Not my fault, what! You want to blame, blame Terence lah! He’s the one who allowed us to change venues…”

WHAT THE FUCK?

Through this, I’ve learnt that when you are in charge, NEVER, EVER GIVE A DAMN about your peers’, colleagues’ or working partners’ welfare. It simply doesn’t pay for you to be understanding of their needs and put yourself in their shoes.

People are simply UNAPPRECIATIVE.

Remember: When you are in charge, NEVER, EVER GIVE A DAMN ABOUT OTHERS.

星期六的下午

很喜欢星期六的下午。

空气仿佛不再流动、时间仿佛停住了往前冲的脚步、地球也仿佛停止了公转自传，伫立在自己运行的轨道上、而外头的世界则仿佛停止了活动。

不是死气沉沉的景象，倒是一种懒洋洋的悠哉闲哉。

星期六的下午总是给我一种很亮很亮的印象，就好像午后的阳光透过白色或米色的窗帘洒在白色的大理石地板，将原本墙上漆上了白色的房间显得更加明亮。

并非亮得刺眼或是像一颗颗晶莹的钻石般亮得耀眼，而是一种很朴实、很自然、有点梦幻且会让人心平气和的亮。

若房子是坐落在海边的平房，那份星期六下午的亮，自然清新，梦幻中不失朴实，又远离都市的尘嚣，简直是迷死人了。

类似电影《穿越时空的爱情》(The Lake House) 里位于芝加哥湖边的玻璃屋，便是我度过星期六下午的最佳选择。

没有我向往的房子，星期六的下午一样也可以过的很relaxing。

来杯香浓扑鼻的咖啡，听听爵士乐、乡村乐、Bossa Nova、张悬或者范玮琪的CD，半躺在沙发上，手握着一本好书，这是一个多么悠闲的方式来度过星期六的下午啊！

这总比到乌节路新达城window shopping、看电影、打保龄球、唱K来得更朴实，更能找回你心中的那片属于自己的宁静。

星期六的下午最适合独处，过一种朴素，no-frills的生活。不奢侈，不华丽，倒是多了一份真实感，让我真真正正地觉得自己在活着，让我真真正正地觉得时间在我手指间里划过流失。

总好过在town里hang out 了，玩过头， high 过头，才发现时间流逝掉了，还不知道那是几时发生的事。

简单

累了。

大家都累了。

昨晚中文学会会庆和交接仪式结束后，和兰芳一同搭巴士回家。

一上巴士，兰芳就抱怨说：“好累啊！”（尽管中文学会会庆也不是由她负责的）

不一会儿工夫，兰芳进入了梦乡，呼呼大睡。

同样的情境，同样的台词，发生在数周前，地点也是在回家的巴士上。

有人曾问我为何最近和佳伟的感情与关系变得冷淡，失去了以往的疯狂，是否和他起争执？

他当了童军主席，我成了学生理事会的成员之一，排山倒海的作业测验考试也接踵而来，大家都开始忙了。

忙，就是心亡；亡心，就是忘。

忘了开心，忘了欢笑。也可以说是忙了，累了，懒得了，忘记了。

上半年可供我们嬉闹与游手好闲的快乐时光飞逝而去。都说是快乐了，当然来得快，去得也快。随着欢乐的结束，我们茫然地沉浸在现实里。

Reality finally sets in.

最近身边发生了太多，太多的事情了。来不及应对，另外一个问题又冲上来；来不及去思考之前的问题，却又得重新去思考新的问题。

太多事情发生了。连自己都赶不上世事的变迁，更别提将这些事件的点滴记录下来。

太多事情的发生，说好听就是生活丰富多彩，不会空洞、枯燥、乏味，至少当我们走到生命的尽头时，回头看着自己的一生，不会遗憾说自己的一生简直是白活了；但生活的丰富一旦到了饱和点，我会希望生活能返璞归真，朴实简单一点。

最近，嫌学校的学生人数太多，学校太过拥挤。每每在学校里从一个定点走到另一个定点，途中必定会遇到至少一位熟人。刚开始还会热情地打招呼，挥挥手，并给予对方一个最灿烂最阳光的笑容。但随着社交圈子日渐扩增，久了，厌倦了，也厌烦了。手也懒得挥，热情地笑容也改成“稍把嘴唇扬起”吝啬式的“微笑”（还真够“微”），足够承认对方的存在就行了。

社交圈子广固然不是件坏事，但生活却变得太过于精彩，精彩到了一点复杂的程度。

突然好渴望独处，也渐渐地特别珍惜几乎每天早上8点至9点的独处时间。

突然渴望过简简单单的生活，不花巧，不复杂。

什么都不知道，最好。Ignorance is bliss.

生活里发生了这么多事情，复杂了生活，我也厌倦了常常得处于“high”的精神状态里， 我也需要休息了。

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后记：此文章原拟于7月30日，但却延迟了1个半星期才刊载。