More Faye

The 1st Complete Collection From Faye Wong (3CD+Karaoke DVD) (2005) - Faye Wong

情．菲．得意 (3CD+卡拉OK DVD) (2005) - 王菲

Another year has passed, another greatest hit set for Faye. This seemingly endless tradition of releasing greatest hits for one of my favourite female vocalists, usually doesn't even make me flinch. However, with this particular release, with the claim of it being "the first complete Faye Wong collection", I just had to look into it a little more.

I don't know what every body elses's definition of "complete" but from my understanding, it's supposed to be everything, from beginning to end. Fair enough, this collection does have a healthy amount of Faye material stretching almost her entire career span, bar the one album release "To Love" from Sony in 2003. I for one, would think some material would have to be plucked from that album in order to be able to declare the collection to be "complete". Now, I do understand there are copy right issues, and profit distributions and things of that nature, but we really can't pretend that album never happened.

This is a cantonese orientated release, with a few collaborations and duets thrown in here and there. Faye's collaborations are few and far in between, so it's good to see a few included here, with the highlight being "Fashion Show" with the late Anita Mui. Naturally, there was always bound to be a few mandarin tracks since Faye haven't release a proper cantonese album for almost a decade. Note worthy mentions go to "Wish We Last Forever" the Teresa Teng cover, "Mortal World" from "Faye Wong '97" & "Chanel" from Faye's 200 release "Fable".

The compulsories are also here, namely "Easily Hurt Woman", "Like Wind", "No Regrets", "Willing", "Chess Piece", "Brink Of Love & Pain", "Scandalous", "Dated", "Repayment" & "Love Letter To Myself". With most of Faye's commercially successful tracks being ballads, this album naturally is ballad heavy. I am disappointed that there was not any further inclusion of Faye's later releases with EMI, with the only "rockier" inclusion being "Chanel". If the publisher is to call this a complete release, are we pretending that Faye's other rockier mandarin tracks aren't hits and never existed? I mean, where was "Bored", "Spectacular", "The Last Blossom", "New Tenant", "Wing Of Light", "Lonely Red Shoe", just to name a few. And even a few finer ballads were overlooked, and I'm referring to "I Don't Want To Be Like This Either", "The Moon At The Time" & "Passing Years"?

I guess the point I'm trying to point out is that, true this collection does have a substantial amount of Faye materials spread over 3 cds, but clearly it's not a "complete" collection by my definition. Many of Faye's later releases are largely ignored or overlooked and definitely doesn't do Faye justice as an ever-evolving artist.

I highly recommend this release to anybody who's new to Faye, or to those Fayenatics who are just trying to complete their Faye collection, but this release has quite some territory yet to cover in order for it to be considered a complete collection. If anything, dare I say, the title is somewhat misleading because if anyone was to think this release would sum up who Faye Wong is as an artist and if this release was to supply them the bare essentials, they'll definitely be underequiped.

Personally, I would have liked to see a 4th cd covering Faye's later releases, painting a fuller picture of Faye's career, and maybe seeing a separate vcd/dvd equivalent as the tracklist to this "bonus" dvd is rather half-heartedly compiled and doesn't really serve a purpose as such.

Tracklisting:
CD1
01. 無奈那天
02. 藉口
03. Everything
04. 巴黎塔尖
05. 又繼續等
06. 多得他
07. 靜夜的單簧管
08. 請勿客氣 -軟硬天師合唱
09. Miss You Night & Day
10. 容易受傷的女人
11. Kisses In The Wind
12. 季候風
13. Summer Of Love
14. 不再兒嬉
15. 執迷不悔
16. 流非飛

CD 2
01. 如風
02. 冷戰
03. 忘掉你像忘掉我
04. Do We Really Care?
05. 我願意
06. 知己知彼
07. 胡思亂想
08. 誓言
09. 夢中人
10. 愛與痛的邊緣
11. 棋子
12. 出路
13. 天空
14. 非常夏日 - 張學友合唱
15. 但願人長久
16. 流星

CD 3
01. Di-Dar
02. 曖昧
03. 浮躁
04. 暗湧
05. 約定
06. 你快樂(所以我快樂) (國)
07. 人間
08. 原諒自己
09. 情誡
10. 償還
11. 郵差
12. Eyes on me
13. 給自己的情書
14. 香奈兒
15. 色盲
16. 花生騷 -梅艷芳合唱

KARAOKE DVD 珍藏版
01. 如風
02. 我願意
03. 棋子
04. 夢遊 (LIVE)
05. 明天我要嫁給你 (國) (LIVE)
06. 天與地 (粵)/用心良苦 (國) (LIVE)
07. 千言萬語 (LIVE)
08. Di-Dar
09. 曖昧
10. 暗湧
11. 你快樂(所以我快樂) (國)
12. 人間 (國)
13. 只愛陌生人
14. 迷路 (LIVE)
15. 當時的月亮