Album Review: Easy

“Easy”, the fifth album of RubberBand, was released in August 2012. Started from their third album, “Connected”, each album of RubberBand had a main theme. “Connected” is about the connection or relationship between different people. ”Dedicated to…” is praising the song that inspiring them. This album “Easy” is decided to talk about the society. They first point out some problems that people in Hong Kong are facing, then the people who helped the society at last they encourage the Hong Kong people to get over those challenges with a positive attitude. This idea is shown in every details of the album, from the cover to the leaflet inside and the song.

From the cover, you can see the old area of Hong Kong is flooding, many animals trapped by the water, and four people tried to save them. The flooding represented the problem that human cannot solve by themselves, and it is the problem formed by humans, global warming. The technology advancement of humans is benefit to themselves but it is destroying the innocence, such as the old Hong Kong building and different kinds of animals. Although the city is in danger, people can still focus on what they do, work together and save the animals, as remedy. The leaflet inside not only shows the lyrics, it also gives the main idea or the background of each song.

RubberBand tried to care the society through music. From the album, you can hear various social issue that bothering Hong Kong people.  “睜開眼” as the first song of the album, suggesting people should care the things surrounding us, it had mentioned several social problem, such as Sub-divided units, disparity of wealth, demolition of old valuable urban areas.

斷了的山脊線 鍍了金摩天背面

舊老區給拆建 自在遊客買下千噸客船

誰在劏開房中幾晚吃不夠吧 誰在 K房通宵倒了幾多菜渣

The song urged people to open their eyes and ears to aware the problem, do not try to escape or adopt the ostrich policy, closing their eyes and hide in a bush or hole in the ground when facing danger.

沒意識 學會了 矇住兩眼 迷信煙花未散

沒記憶 學會了 矇住耳朵 派對裡任意高歌

Besides, it showed some values that Hong Kong people preserved, such as searching for justice and continuing the Memorials for the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

尚懂得公正 尚靠每雙手拼命

做假的不買帳 尚在夏季那夜燭光照樣

The first song gave a general picture to the audiences and urge them to look at the social issues happened in Hong Kong. Then they talk about the issue specifically. “豬籠墟事變” and “快樂鐳射舖” are about the local shop was fading out because of the boosting economy, the raise of developer hegemony and the dramatic rise of rents. They use 「吞噬著城市」to describe the economic activities was killing the local store and changing them into standardized chain store. “生於1月17” is about the life of grassroots family. The parents worked very hard but they can only afford a subdivided unit. Besides, the low income of the family hindering their children to change the situation, the family cannot afford a computer for them to learn and the children are expected to be the white-collar workers to change the situation rather than chasing for their dreams. “進化論” is talking about the evolution of human, the technological advancement truly benefit human’s life but it gave irreversible damage to the environment. The advancement also make people become lazier, they are actually degenerate rather than evolve further.

Apart from showing the social issue, the album also praising the people who contribute the society. “無名英雄進行曲” is praising the one who quietly contributed the society and everyone is able to be this nameless hero when he/she helps the others without requesting rewards. “M.A.M.A.” is about the contribution from mother. She always support us although we treated her badly.

RubberBand pointed out many harsh things that Hong Kong people are facing, they are then suggest how we should face them with the song “Easy” and “倒行詩”. From the song “Easy”, as the song shared the same name with the album, this song firstly point out many little things that fury people in daily life and then suggested each “curse” may be a hidden blessing. The song spreading the message that although there are many harsh things happened in the society, the audiences can twist their attitudes toward those things. They can either grumble at the situation or take it easy to face it. “倒行詩” is to remind people to treasure what we have now and enjoy it.

RubberBand is very close to the society. Their care to the society was not only shown in their music but also their promotion. They promoted this album by having a live music video shooting of all songs in different places in Hong Kong. The collection of the live music video called Easy session and put on YouTube  From the videos, you can see the place they sang, such as wet market, printing factory, CD store, roof on the old district, countryside, and kindergarten. The places chosen suited the song and the live band show showing their flexibility in handling different kinds of music. There is the reason why RubberBand is my favorite local band.

Done by O Chin Pang, Enzo (10459073)