A song review, 六月飛霜

六月飛霜 is one of a song in Eason Chan’s Extended Play (EP) called “Stranger Under My Skin” which published in 2011 on February and the lyrics is written by林夕(Albert Leung). The name of the song “六月飛霜” is a traditional Chinese’s saying to describe an unusual phenomenon in the world, Lam used this traditional saying kind of like a metaphor to mock today’s society which flooded with unjust and irrational things.

“當 未慣靜默靜得聽到心跳竟加倍緊張,未信自在在於天生天養 難以弱勝強 殺入戰場, 最終 習慣為著獵取一身盔甲竟不怕損傷

為了夢幻日子得到保障 用惡夢結賬”

At the beginning of the song, Lam pointed out the general situation of Hong Kong, we all need to well-equipped ourselves such as a basic education certificate, other extracurricular activities like attending painting, writing, music courses etc. These kinds of abilities are just like wearing an armor to resist the others and get a good job in the future.  However, we would sacrifice a lots to achieve such “equipments”, not only our time but also our health and our whole lives, so that Lam wrote we used “nightmare” to exchange the so called “ fancy lives”.

浮在半空寄生貨櫃箱

Another line I found it is quite interesting is Lam used container in the air as an analogy of the housing style in Hong Kong. We spend our time and health to get a stable job and our ultimate goal is to buy a house or apartment which is so tiny as a container but in the air.

六月飛霜 個個笑得哀傷

誰又會鑑定誰正常 不知替哪個著想

In the first Chorus, Lam stated out there is no such normal or abnormal as we already lose our ability to judge which is normal or not, all we concern is our own future but not the others and the whole world.

當 習慣附和大家講的真理都得到獎賞

未慣十字路口挑選方向 離隊要膽量 拒絕跳牆

一輩子 血汗注入拍賣場 [誰被誰越抬越上]

一輩子 價值像泡沫上揚 誓與天較量

埋下理想栽種幻想

In the second verse, the Psychologies of herd instinct make us would just follow the same value or the others, it is hard for you to get rid of this social norm and do not dare to challenge it so that we all resist to change just like we “resist to jump through the wall”. The last line is a sigh with regret about what Hong Kong people used to abandon their dream, they think it is impossible to pursuit your dreams in Hong Kong, money always comes first!

如何憑財力去扭轉天亮 請拍掌

習慣了這異象 誰又在叫嚷

  

In third verse, the whole competition in Hong Kong is to compete how much money and power you could get, money and power solve or change everything in the world, for example “the Li’s field of force” decides whether the a typhoon could “enter” the area of Hong Kong or not. Ironically, most of people seems used to or accept this phenomenon rather to challenge it.

未曾盡興 剩下砒霜 當配方分享

誰來斗膽講仙丹會斷腸 誰有膽去相信過激立場

人人一把口一百種真相 誰說得漂亮

The last chorus is pretty inspiring that Lam used  “砒霜” which is a traditional Chinese poisonous matter as medical prescription to share with people, it revealed that there is no such good or bad, for instance weed actually is a very good anesthetic to ease the pain of paralysis while the Lactobacillus (益生菌) could cause different kinds of allergy. When there is no an absolute answer for good and bad then it all depends on how you present it.

Frankly speaking, I love this song because it is not just merely to point out the social problems in Hong Kong through the lyrics but the usage of metaphor and analogy were so prefect that you really need to read between the lines to get the meaning of the song.

By Lam Ka Hung Charlotte (10383148)