Nguyen Hong Nhung – Duong Nhu
Nguyen Hong Nhung’s latest release, Duong Nhu, displays her maturity in handling classic ballads. From Cung Tien’s “Hoai Cam” to Pham Duy’s “Nghin Trung Xa Cach” to Trinh Cong Son’s “Ru Em Tung Ngon Xuan Nong,” she delivers each song with soulfulness and tastefulness, but still lacking the uniqueness. Because these timeless tunes have been sung to death from generation to generation, they need to be reinvigorated. Singing them straight on the melody just won’t cut it.
The strength of the album isn’t from the classic covers, but from Mai Thanh Son’s compositions. “Duong Nhu” and “Nghiet Nga” blend surprisingly well with the rest of the tracks on the album despite they are written by a young musician. “Duong Nhu” is captivating thanks to the little bluesy keyboard licks in the arrangement. Mai Thanh Son has not only done a wonderful job of producing it, he has also done an excellent of penning the lyrics. “Nghiet Nga” is also well written. The lyrics and the melody are far better than today’s trendy pop tunes.
When Mai Thanh Son appeared on Asia’s stage singing well-known English tunes, I couldn’t figure out why Asia took him under its wing. His weak, virgin voice doesn’t stand out, but now I can see where his real talent is. He is a fantastic arranger, which I had noticed when he produced some tracks for Nguyen Khang’s show. Now his tunes on Nguyen Hong Nhung’s album make me interested in his work behind the scene more than in front of the camera and on the mic. The good thing is that he lets Nguyen Hong Nhung sings his songs. Listening to both of his and her version of “Nghiet Nga,” one can clearly tell that Nguyen Hong Nhung kicked the tune up a notch.
I totally agree! I have heaps respect for MTS now…. Couldn’t stop listening to Nghiet Nga and Duong Nhu…. I never cared for MTS’s Nghiet Nga but NHN made me pay attention. This has got to be one of best CDs produced in a while.
Thanks for your critique I re-listened and agreed. I didn’t like MTS’s rendition of Nghiet Nga either but do like NHN. Probably it did not captivates me the first time is because there was nothing special about the old songs like you said. Talk about arrangements, I am listening to Bang Kieu’s Lai Gan Hon Em (I can see you roll your eyes LOL). I am not a big fan of BK but I do have to admit the arrangements are quite awesome. The title song is sung to death by so many artists and therefore has never been my favorite, even when sung by Ngoc Lan. But the arrangement made me listen to it several times. The only one I didn’t like on the album is Aline, both singing and the music are ok. I think I like the arrangements by Dong Son the best, but overall I like it, probably more than BK’s singing… Thuy Nga’s arrangements have not been that great since Tung Chau and Tim Heinz left. It has been a long time since Vietnamese music caught my attention and that’s sad because I used to buy CD every week almost.
good review donny. i’m impressed w/ nguyen hong nhung’s captivating voice. even though the songs are very slow for me, but overall this album turns out better than i anticipated.
Duong Nhu and Nghiet Nga are definitely the highlights of this album. Her covers are nothing outstanding but at least they are not offensive and the acoustic TCS tracks are quite nice too. The only disappointing song is Pham Duy’s Nuoc Mat Mua Thu.
This is her best album so far…. I enjoy it!