Music Reivew: "Hillwood Road"

“Hillwood Road” is the new song of Kay Tse published on 1^st of February, 2016. This song was composed by Adrian Chow, the lyrics were written by Wyman Wong, and were produced by MAYA Entertainment Limited and Ban Ban Music. “Hillwood Road” is a song especially for Kay Tse to recall her music journey in the past ten years, and at the same time as a farewell song to all her fans. Therefore, the music and the lyrics were also tended to be sensible.

“Hillwood Road”, the work place of Kay, is the individual memory of her. According to Halbwachs (1992), a sense of our identity is perpetuated through them each epoch in our lives, and these are continually reproduced. Therefore, Wyman Wong deliberately used Hillwood Road as the name of the song to increase the meaning of it. For the music part, Adrian Chow mainly used the piano solo to express the emotion. This is also the consistent singing style of Kay, so it can be the collective memory of her fans.

Except the music and the title of the song, the lyrics are more able to create the emotional touch on listeners as the wordings can totally help Kay to express her feelings about her music journey. In the first verse of the song, Wyman concluded the hard work of Kay, for example, she met her career troughs which were unmarried pregnant and the termination with Universal Music Hong Kong. Also, Wyman had mentioned the contribution of Kay on social issues, such as to participate in the social movements. The most memorable is the song “Let’s Umbrella” sang by Kay and other singers to support the “Umbrella Movement” in 2014. Therefore, the first verse of “Hillwood Road” can recall all those memories and cause resonance.

In the second verse, Wyman used the lyrics to help Kay to explain the reason of her farewell. She wants to chase her dream, to life as what she wanted, and to accompany her family. In the last sentence, Wyman wrote the impression of Kay about her ten years that she did not regret what she had done. This part not only can as a reflection of the view of Kay, but also can as a reminder to the teenagers that do not forget our dreams and do not regret what we had done.

At the same time, the song has mentioned the most important thing of life, which is our family. There are many families with the working parents in Hong Kong. The children are normally grown up with their maid. The parents though they earn as much as they can, so as to give the best substance to their kids and to show their love. However, they forget that sometimes the children only want their parents to play with them.

Kay Tse, as an idol, has tried her best to set an example for the public. She had met the difficulties, but she did not give up. She insisted on what she wanted to do until today, and finally she has done what she wanted. She has also made good use of her reputation to contribute to society. Now, she is going to follow her own planning which is to chase her dream life, to accompany with her family.

Ng Pui Yi (10555495/ 21620765)

Reference: 

Halbwachs, M. (1992). (Ed. & translated by Coser. L.A.) Chapter 1-4. On Collective Memory. (pp.41-53). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.