Jay Chou is back and tells the world what he is "the madman of the generation and the king of music". 's new album's prelude song "The Greatest Work" has exceeded 100 million views in 3 hours. This performance is not so much brought about by the new single, but rather by the high expectations brought about by Jay Chou's six years without a new song. Countless articles analyze how many famous paintings there are in the MV and how many unknown easter eggs there are in the lyrics, but when it comes to music, everyone is always vague. Criticism may not be right, but no one is even willing to criticize. It’s so lively and so lonely!
In this song "The Greatest Work", Jay Chou takes fans back to the 1920s. Almost every lyric contains a painting, a piece of prose, a poem or a story. "Walking in Samaritan/A time renovated by time", the Art Nouveau style building where Jay Chou walks is not a museum, but an old French department store. Samaritan was founded in 1870. In 2021, 16 years later Reopened, visitors can experience the "renovation time" on the banks of the Seine River.
There are many famous paintings in the lyrics , Magritte ’s apple comes from Belgian Surrealist painter Magritte’s masterpiece "The Children of Men", the human face in the painting is being covered by an inappropriate green Covered by apples, there are also Magritte's "What You See Is Not a Pipe" and "The Man in the Bowler Hat", and even the homophone Marguerite cocktail is incorporated; the beard is a Spanish surrealist painter Dali's logo, the bent spoon and the melting clock, are inspired by his masterpiece "The Eternity of Memory", and the "Lobster Telephone" is Dali's installation art.
"Nude Girl with Bent Legs"
If the lyrics just now are still playing on some obvious works, the following words begin to add the artist's more unknown anecdotes and life experiences. For example, the nude women and flowers painted by the painter Sanyu , "Sluttyness is the most free and unrestrained ink in secular paintings, and the elegant legs of Huadu are a touch of the universe." Xu Zhimo saw Sanyu's "Bent Legs" The exclamation "cosmic thighs" after "Nude Girl" was written into the lyrics, making it all laughable. Sanyu once said, I have nothing in my life, I am just a painter. "The nostalgia that travels across the ocean is kind of the tenderness of having nothing left." It reminds people of Jiang Xun who once described Sanyu's homesickness as if it were sealed wine in a silent urn. The longer the time goes by, the more intense and pure it becomes.
The work "Untitled" by the legendary black painter Basquiat
appeared on the cover of the New York Times magazine
Jay Chou found the chair in the photo and copied it from the magazine cover
Although some netizens speculated Talk about this being a modern song It is a song of art, but the lyrics do not stop at the introduction of modern art. "Only lonely branches can grow the flowers Sanyu wanted" "The shouting on the Munch Bridge comes from loneliness" "All my notes are future art" " The emerald green by the river, regrettably hidden in the pages of poems by chance, is a world into which even a smile cannot penetrate."...Both the art masters and Jay Chou himself suffered criticism while gaining fame. Not being understood is a common condition for artists. However, it is these experiences that create the supreme art in the eyes of today's people.
Since when did we have fewer and fewer songs that we can hum together? More and more pop songs seem to be using fast-paced arrangements to cover up empty and boring lyrics. "The Greatest Work" lyricist Huang Junlang said that before writing a song, he had to read dozens of books, find many movies, novels, and travel websites, and argue with himself for countless nights, so he wrote this The lyrics of "Reverse Scale", "In the Name of the Father", "Trajectory", "Chapter 7 of the Night", etc. are story-telling and full of emotions.
So for Jay Chou's fans, just seeing such a work is definitely not satisfying. When a star releases an album, it is by no means a gift to fans. When a song is released, no one talks about the music. Even if there is, everyone will comment like: "It sounds good, but there are no surprises. We don't always have to It's a surprise." So it means that this work is not that successful.
Jay Chou and his family
In the six years since he didn’t release an album, Jay Chou was enjoying family happiness, which may not be a good thing for creation. At that time, Jay Chou's destructiveness and freedom in Chinese music made him a leading figure in the hearts of a generation. Nowadays, it seems that there is not much that he wants to say in his works. 43-year-old, he no longer has the sadness and hesitation of not getting what he wants. He lives a happy life with his children around his knees and a happy wife every day, and he no longer tries to change the direction of the tide. "The excitement in this world comes from loneliness" , the Jay Chou behind the work may have been too far away from this lyric.
Xinmin Evening News·Xinmin Art Review
Author: Zhao Yue
Editor: Shi Yu
