好八十年代！ [80's all over!]

foster the people sounding like kenny G?

before i talked about foster the people, the latest indie sensation, let me share with you this horror story.

needing a new cd for my driving pleasure, i bought foster at friendly records, kinta city, ipoh.  friendly records has been the mainstay of ipoh music provider since my school days in the 70s. i have a lot of emotional attachment with friendly, eventho' their business is visibly affected these days.

without trying, i picked up the cd and paid. that's my habit, i don't try cds. if i think i will like it, i just buy. but when i inserted the cd into my car stereo, my oh my, guess what song greeted me? horror of horror, kenny G's "songbird"! i was scratching my head, could it be that foster the people made a cover version of "songbird"? but i am darn sure it is kenny G! so i pressed the "next" button, james blunt "you are beautiful" came next! something is very very wrong. this cd is not what it is supposed to be. so i pressed the eject button and check the artwork and cd centre label, yes, it is printed "foster the people".

so much for local pressing.

the story continues with me going to friendly records the next day to ask for an exchange. the lady boss was there, she looked apologetic and angry at the same time. she told me: "this local cd manufacturer is darn lousy, my whole batch of 30+ foster the people CDs are all encoded wrongly! can i not be furious? this is CNY and i expect good sales for this album!"   

so much for local pressing. i rest my case.

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if foster the people were to emerge in the 80s then they would have strong strong competition from erasure, yazoo, depeche mode, human league, duran duran... you get the drift.

but they are in the 21st century and today's lads and kids actually dig them in a big way~! they just came to do a concert in kl and 3,000 youth packed the venue.

foster lads must have grown up listening to their daddy's collections of LPs (and 12 remixes) of the above 80s acts just mentioned.

don't get us wrong, foster lads are good and they make good party music that is hugely danceable but to us old folks who grew up listening to the above 80s act, it is a bit like "been there, done that".

we are thankful that foster the people are famous, because to us they are way better than many many acts that are less deserving but we are doubtful they can go beyond this album. (because the formula gets tiring towards the end of the album)

but at least now we can communicate and share with our cousins, nephews and nieces about foster the people. this uncle can be young and hip too, you know.

now, why do we have this sudden urge to dig out our collections of yazoo, depeche mode and human league??!!!