Men Envy Children(小男孩樂團) - The 3rd Wish(第三个愿望) Album Thoughts(C-rock)

    Men Envy Children was suggested to me automatically by Youtube's system because I listen to a lot of different music all the time. I've only seen one music video of theirs and I liked what I saw but I wasn't blown away. I did however decide to check out their album called The 3rd Wish anyway. They have had three albums so far. Plus a couple of the songs were released as singles prior to The 3rd Wish's release. I'm not sure how popular this band is in Taiwan. They seem to have a good sized fanbase for a rock band though.

01. 征服 – Conquer
02. 男孩与狮王 – The Boy and the Lion 
03. 我的骄傲 – Proud To Be Me 
04. 转身以后 – After I Turn My Back 
05. 旅行公路 – Road Trip
06. 薛丁格的猫 – Schrödinger’s Cat 
07. Goodbye My Friend
08. Never the Point
09. We Are 
10. Rise and Shine

     The 3rd Wish was a really smart rock record in my opinion. It's tracks explore different sides to the rock n roll genre. Not just one style of rock like most people would expect. Men Envy Children's sound could have evolved from a more mandopop realm. I'm not really sure since I didn't listen to their older albums. There's various elements in Men Envy Children's Rock anthems. Lyrics span across topics of love. Some being the romantic kind while others are normal friendships. I enjoyed the little sprinkle of English lyrics mixed into the Mandarin. These moments give the tracks a foreign flare just enough to stand out among the acts. Chinese bands sing in English but it's all in the way you use English to create a solid musical art form. Tracks such as Never the Point(one of my favorite tracks.) use English in a addictive way in order to uplift the song's catchy atmosphere. The track also inserts a Reggae and Country sound to an already rock inspired song. I guess hard rock fans would consider this pop or pop rock. Speaking of Hard rock listeners, a hand full of tracks on The 3rd Wish hit the ground hard in a good way. This was something I didn't expect, still the album opens with a hard rock number then bounces off the energy of that first impression. You will be able to feel the swift of slow down tracks before the tracks build up momentum again. We Are is another track that vastly super charges the album when the compilation gets on it's last legs. None of the songs are actually skippable and the tracks keep a consistent flow throughout the whole album.

 

   The lead singer is female supported by an all male band. I like their band name a lot. Got to wonder who came up with the name… Maybe it was the front woman as she seems well versed in English and Mandarin. Her vocals sound like summer on a sunny day: Lively yet composed. She has a flexible confident energy when she sings also. I loved how she tries to sing rap sometimes. That time signature change on one of the earlier tracks(我的骄傲) on the album didn't trip her up either.

   The 3rd Wish is an album I keep coming back to. I really can't get enough of the fun music Men Envy Children creates. This album probably isn't even their best body of work.