Sodagreen
Small Universe (Xiao Yu Zhou)
There are always new band appearing once in a while. Most aren’t special. Those MayDay wanna be’s, or Beyond wanna be’s. So few months ago, when someone made a post about ‘Soda Green’ in our music community, it did not catch my slightest attention. Until last month, I saw their latest MV - Little Love Song, playing on the television (you can watch the video here). I was attracted immediately. From that day onwards, their songs have been on my playlist until now.
Soda Green is not any newcomer. I was wrong. They are an indie (Independent) rock band in Taiwan, made from several university students. The band was formed in April, year 2001. A month later, with only 1 song under their belt, they participated “Golden String Award”, a prestigious band competition in Taiwan and won a “Most Popular Band” award. A year later, they participated again, won the first prize and another 3 awards. Since then (and after few band member’s changes), Soda Green has been performing live countless of time across the country.
“Small Universe” Xiao Yu Zhou (小宇宙), is their second album. Although been labeled as ‘Indie’, in my opinion, they are anything but. The album covers a wide range of style, from the slow ballad,heavy metal, to sentimental. Yes, sentimental, my favourite part. I particularly like track no.6 “The City That Was Trapped By Rain”, track no.9 “Carrying You”, and the last track, Tori-Amos style, “The Speechless Song”. What makes this band special is the vocalist’ amazingly feminist voice ( um, sounded more like a kid) , with the easy going melody and oh yeah, the “straight-from-the-heart” lyrics. Everything is so plain and simple. Listening to this album feels like taking a walk inside a park (you know..trees and flowers and fresh airs) after living in the overcrowded metropolitan city.
Totally Refreshing.
Watch their live performance of “Little Love Song” here.
Written by Steve on Dec 15, 2006
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20 Comments, Join the discussion
Alice
oo i love that song you posted the link for. i haven’t heard anything else yet tho.
Dec 15th, 2006
Christine
Hmmmmmm I really wanna get it but I need to know if it’s better than the debut album.
Dec 15th, 2006
Steve
Alice: A lot of the songs from the same album are good too.
Christine: I will try to get my hand on their debut album ;) Let you know.
Dec 15th, 2006
Delrondu
i havent heard anything from them yet but you make it sound very interesting.
Dec 15th, 2006
Delrondu
eh… this is bad. i really like little love song… i keep pressing ‘watch again’ on youtube. curse you steve (and curse youtube for that matter), i foresee money out of pocket again.
Dec 15th, 2006
Steve
*steve grins
hehe.
Dec 15th, 2006
Steve
Christine: I have got hold of their first debut album. Not too bad either compare to their latest one. Both are as good :)
Dec 16th, 2006
gENE
thanks for recommending. i’m an international student so it’s hard for me to get updates on the chinese music scene when i’m not back home. your site is really helpful! about this band, yea i like their style (big fan of mayday here) but the lead singer’s voice takes some getting used to. again, thanks and keep up the great work!
Dec 16th, 2006
Appleface
thanks for your review, i was wondering if you could post the tracklistings (both chinese characters and the pinyin if possible)
thanks a bunch ^^
Dec 16th, 2006
Christine
01. You Are, You Will
02. 小宇宙 Xiao Yuzou
03. 小情歌 Xiao Qing Ge
04. 符號 Fu Hao
05. 暫時失控 Zhan Shi Shi Kong
06. 被雨困住的城市 Bei Yu Kun Zhu De Chengshi
07. 已經 Yijing
08. 吵 Chao
09. 背著你 Bei Zhe Ni
10. 墜落 Zhui Luo
11. 無言歌 Wu Yan Ge
Can’t really vouch for the accuracy of the pinyin though.
Dec 19th, 2006
Christine
And the translations:
You Are, You Will
Little Universe
Little Love Song
Symbol
Temporarily Losing Control
City Trapped by Rain
Already
Noisy
Carrying You
Falling
Song Without Words
The song titles are like enough for me to buy this album XP
Dec 19th, 2006
celine_b
I have a hard time listening to the singer’s voice. I can’t describe the feeling, just too weird.
Dec 20th, 2006
Christine
celine: I know what you mean. I have the debut album and I still have trouble digesting it sometimes.
Dec 21st, 2006
moonda
totally addicted to it!!! ^^
Dec 22nd, 2006
jessica
i bought their two albums on a whim, and i have no regrets.
the vocalist really gives a new take on the songs.., which are written very well (kudos to the rest of the band!! esp the E guitarist…)
Aug 8th, 2007
Daaditsu
Hey.. when r u gonna review SG latest album? Come get the album from me.. ;-D
Sep 28th, 2007
chan
ah, i cannot believe you haven’t done a review on the new sodagreen album yet, i LOVE it
sodagreen is always amazing with their lyrics
my favorite songs off unparalleled beauty is the title song, tracks 2,4,7,8,
(i saw a video of a live performance, i was wondering who does the backups since qingfeng’s the only one singing, apparently the bassist does. and jiakai offered to play guitar in the nude if they sold enough tickets. they did but he didnt lol)
Nov 13th, 2007
ck
i played 小宇宙 Xiao Yuzou for almost an hour in repetition mode. this song holds a special place in my heart.
Nov 28th, 2007
crystal
Erm…………………….ok!!!!
Dec 15th, 2007
chrys
Apparently Soda Green live in Singapore is one of the best concerts I have seen. Their individual characteristics and talents make them a very unique band apart from the lyrics/ compositions of their music. Qingfeng delivered all of the tracks with his powerful voice in the most magically way. I could see the musical notes dancing all over! Ah Gong is extremely spontaneous and seem to be having the most fun. His dance moves are so fluid. His talent with the different instruments was amazingly showcased. Rhythm guitarist Ah Fu appears to be the most friendly and smiley( he spoke the most apart from Qingfeng) with lesser reservations. Maybe Xiao Wei too but he was kind of blocked by the drumset so care bear was heard more than seen. I observed how his beats were so energetic and uplift the whole ambience. Xinyi is expectedly cool just by holding or playing the bass- the bassline of most tracks could not go unnoticed or unappreciated. The strongest impression of all that I have is Jiakai. I did not notice him initially till he was singing backup for Qingfeng in Zhe Tian. He has an air of coolness and at the same time shyness in him. I couldn’t help looking at him and the way he strummed his guitar. His eyes are as electrifying as his electronic guitar I must say. The band was very tired even though Qingfeng was in a high spirit and tried to chat with the audience further. The whole concert was an awesome experience. Considering that it was maybe one of the best sound effect that we can get in Singapore,the only flaw, if there is, could be the that the sound system could be even better to do the band full justice. After all, it was a very high quality concert which can be easily be matched next to bands like Coldplay or The Verve. Interestingly and strangely, certain part of the tunes do remind me of the two bands in comparision each time I listen to their songs. It must be the Indie root of it.
Aug 4th, 2008
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