Decadent Sounds of Faye (Chinese: 菲靡靡之音; pinyin: fēi mí mǐ zhī yīn) is a 1995 album recorded by Chinese Cantopop singer Faye Wong when she was based in Hong Kong.
The album consists entirely of cover versions of songs originally released by her idol Teresa Teng, one of the most revered Chinese singers of the 20th century. Teng's music remains extremely popular in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and mainland China. A duet was planned for the album, but Teng died before this could be recorded; Wong considered scrapping the project out of respect.
The title of this album is a pun: during the Cultural Revolution, Teng's songs were condemned as "decadent sounds" (靡靡之音) by the Communist Party of China. The album title is literally translated as Faye's Decadent Sound (菲靡靡之音) where the character "菲" (Faye) has the same pronunciation as "非" (no/not/non). Hence the title can be reconstrued as "Non-Decadent Sounds".
Decadent Sounds sold quite well despite initial negative criticism. It has come to be recognised as a classic by her fans and is held as an example of imaginative covering by recent critics.
Read more about Decadent Sounds Of Faye: Track Listing
Famous quotes containing the words decadent and/or sounds:
“You don’t want to be an animal, you want to observe your own animal functions, so as to get a mental thrill out of them. It is all purely secondary—and more decadent than the most hide-bound intellectualism.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Denotation by means of sounds and markings is a remarkable abstraction. Three letters designate God for me; several lines a million things. How easy becomes the manipulation of the universe here, how evident the concentration of the intellectual world! Language is the dynamics of the spiritual realm. One word of command moves armies; the word liberty entire nations.”
—Novalis [Friedrich Von Hardenberg] (1772–1801)