Finally looking forward to Teacher Zhou's new disc, I have not looked forward to the arrival of a record for a long time, like when I was a teenager, pinching my fingers to count the days, and finally riding a bicycle across most of the city to buy tapes. Of course, now that I have improved, I only need to point my finger on the phone and wait for the courier.
But the mood of waiting is the same, isn't it?
I can't remember which record of Teacher Zhou I bought last time, so many years have passed, I have not consumed it for Teacher Zhou, this time I finally waited for the opportunity, and on the day I received the CD, I ordered the vinyl version...
Zhou Zhiping's last album was still the "Wind Flower Snow Moon Works Series Love Song Incident" in 1995, after 26 years of releasing an album, there are still worries. Worried, after the baptism of years, the feelings are still the same, his state in music is still not online, will his creation be boring and boring? After all, there are still such examples, and the number is not small, so I will not give them all.
However, listening to the entire album today and listening to it many times, this worry can be completely put aside. In general, "Middle-Aged Man" is an album with content, whether it is musical attributes or musical texts, it is not a sloppy return and realization of dreams, but really a record.
In this album, you can find the former Zhou Zhiping, his romantic and timeless melody and lyrics, still bright as yesterday, you can also hear some changes that are not deliberate and not excessive, so that you know that you are listening to a new record after all, rather than pure nostalgia and nostalgia.
After all, if it's just for nostalgia, then why release new records and listen to new records?
This album uses a puzzle cover, and the last missing corner is placed in the package, which needs to be unsealed and spelled out by yourself, which is also a very ritualistic design.
A lot of people don't quite understand why such a game-like cover is used, and I don't know, so I can only guess. My understanding is that after all, middle-aged men have gone through half of life, experienced most of the ups and downs of life, and young people draw on white paper, not yet fully outlined all the contours of the difference, middle-aged people's life puzzle is actually close to completion, so this stage is more still need to go back, with the way of disassembly and reorganization, revisit, recall and re-sort out this period of life.
Of course, this is my wild thinking and nonsense, and you don't have to take it seriously.
In this album, there is actually a very surprising innovation: "Everyone is lonely". Shi Rencheng's words, Fan Zongpei's cello, and the arrangement turned out to be dance music plus classical music. Loneliness is therefore no longer the loneliness in the wine glass, but there is a glittering dynamic, and even a kind of purple and red beauty.
"Middle-Aged Man" and "I Love Tea Pot" are humorous and funny works, and people who are familiar with Teacher Zhou Zhiping know that there is still a difference between him in real life and him in those love songs, and the difference is actually his funny humor. In the early days of the "Polygram Records" singer era, it may be because the company discipline is more strict, so we can hardly hear this side of him. The advantage of middle age is that people are financially free, and they are free to create and express, so they can fly.
Of course, the favorite is the love songs of Teacher Zhou Zhiping, as well as those serious, romantic and delicate works.
The opening of this album, "Accidentally Remembering the Incense on You That Day", is really a work that makes people cry. For those fans who have experienced the era of "Qingmei Bamboo Horse", "Su Sanqi Xie" and "Revisiting the Past", it is easy to retrieve a lot of memories in this song and return to the source of those memories. The one who was once a "green plum bamboo horse", "what kind of journey have you traveled to marry someone and what kind of life have you lived"? "After walking through a mountain and a town, a village, and walking through the red dust of right and wrong, true and false", "but please don't give me news, don't surprise me, don't arrange a date of reunion", and the boyhood said "Knowing that the past is no longer there, why should I mention the past", today it has become a sentence "All have passed the age of dreaming, and some past events should not be mentioned again".
"Only as first seen" is too Zhou Zhiping, and now few people sing such a classical love song, obviously understated but heavy. And the gathering and dispersion in "The Tree of Thoughts" is really a powerless topic for middle-aged people.
"Streamers", which is very difficult, even when Teacher Zhou Zhiping was young, does not seem to have such a wide-open interpretation. It should also be mentioned here that I have talked with several friends, and the biggest surprise in this album is actually that Teacher Zhou's voice is in a fairly good state. It seems that he is serious about reissuing the album and is well prepared...
"Middle-Aged Man" is indeed a record that returns to the golden age of records, with a plate and eye creation, just the right mood, delicate but not excessive production, and picturesque singing, which will make people get either laughter or deep resonance.
Compared with the physical record and online music, the physical record of "Middle-Aged Man" also has some more audio tracks, and you buy it, you know what is more.
The only thing that the album is a little contrary to may be the "Warner Music" Logo that appears on this record, after all, zhou Zhiping in the memory is always entangled with PolyGram, which is probably the stubbornness of memory, even if you can live in harmony with the new era, but the depths of memory are always imprinted with a lot of things.
A brand is eternal, and no time can change it. Maybe this kind of immutable thing is youth.
