Gawd, Have Mercy!

Standard Disclaimer: I didn't jump into the Meteor Garden bandwagon. FYI, I first saw the anime Hana Yori Dango last year, became an instant F4 fan (its animated lead characters, not the actors), and cringed in fear that our local TV stations would discover this beautiful anime, or at least its live-action version that is now known as Meteor Garden. Now, my greatest fear came alive and it did find its way into the clutches of the Philippines' biggest network. Heh.

The only good thing that came at the wake of Meteor Garden's phenomenal success in the Philippines is that I was able to get hold of all MG/F4-related albums. At least, I thought it was a good thing…Until I bought this particular CD and subjected my ears to unbelievable torture.

I swear, I wanted to jump up and down on the package and flush it down the toilet. The experience was that excruciating. The entire feel of the record is bleh. Like locking yourself into a room full of Jolina Magdangal paraphernalia. Que horror! The men of live-action F4 look so sinfully yummy that it's a shame they weren't blessed with Josh Groban's or, at the very very least, Backstreet Boys' talent. And I'm saying that to be polite. If that's not bad enough, the accompanying instrumentals are equally as bleh. The carrier single, Meteor Rain, for instance, sounds like something you'd hear from a cheap karaoke bar.

Heaven save us all from the aspiring soloists in this Taiwanese boy band! As if they weren't content with making our ears bleed with their group singing, they had to take this blasphemous display to greater heights. Each member has two solo performances to his name: I Truly Love You and Got To Have You for Jerry Yen; Here We Are and Show Me Your Love for Ken Zhu; Persistence For You and The Most Special Existence for Vic Zhou; the obviously Boyz II Men inspired Who Made You Cry? and Everywhere for Vaness Wu. The only saving grace with actual singing ability is Vaness, who, unfortunately had to destroy what little blessing there is by rapping a la Carlos Agassi in Everywhere. Talk about slow and painful death for us who truly love good music.

My advice to future F4 fans: When you watch their videos, particularly Jerry's I Truly Love You, save yourself a lot of grief. Mute the darned thing to fully enjoy the eye candy.