''November's Chopin'' () is the sixth studio album by Taiwanese recording artist

Jay Chou Jay Chou Chieh-lun ( zh, s=周杰伦, t=周杰倫, first=t, p=Zhōu Jiélún; born 18 January 1979) is a Taiwanese singer-songwriter, actor, director, and businessman. Regarded as one of the most influential artists in the Chinese-speaking worl ...

. It was released on 1 November 2005, by Alfa Music and Sony BMG. The album's production was handled entirely by Chou himself, while the lyrical content was handled by frequent collaborator Vincent Fang along with songwriters Devon Song, Alang Huang, and Michael Lin. ''November's Chopin,'' like its predecessors, is primary a R&B and pop record that also utilizes

soft rock Soft rock (also known as light rock or mellow rock) is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in the United States and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, mel ...

. The title of the album pays homage to Polish composer and pianist

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period who wrote primarily for Piano solo, solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown ...

, whom Chou was inspired by since his childhood. The album was met with positive reviews from music critics upon its release. In Taiwan, it peaked at number one on the

G-Music G-Music Limited is a company built in 2002 by Rose Records and Tachung Records, both are the largest local music retails and wholesale chains in Taiwan. The physical retail arms have been kept separate, for different customer bases and brand iden ...

album chart for multiple weeks and was best-selling album of the year, with sales of over 280,000 copies. It became the singer's fifth consecutive yearly number-one album in Taiwan since his second studio album, ''Fantasy'', in 2001. ''November's Chopin'' was later certified platinum in Singapore in 2019. Multiple singles were promoted for ''November's Chopin''—"Nocturne", "Hair Like Snow", "Maple Leaf", "Coral Sea", and "All the Way North". The album received several accolades and regional award ceremonies, including Best Original Album at the Metro Radio Music Awards as well as Song of the Year and Best Music Video for "Nocturne" at the China Music Awards. The Chinese Musicians Exchange Association named the record one of the top 10 albums of 2005.

Composition and songs

"Nocturne" is an R&B track with a light classical-themed background music played by piano and acoustic guitar, and was the first piece to be completed for the record in November 2004. The lyrics describe the death of a lover, using metaphors involving black crows and wells to express emotion. The production of "Blue Storm" utilizes distorted

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

and turntable scratching, while its lyrics deal with religious themes. The track "Hair Like Snow" incorporates traditional Chinese instruments including the

pipa The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets rangi ...

and

yangqin The trapezoidal yangqin () is a Chinese hammered dulcimer, likely derived from the Iranian santur or the European dulcimer. It used to be written with the characters 洋琴 (lit. "foreign zither"), but over time the first character changed to ...

, while the vocals are sung softly. Towards the end, a false voice is used. "Black Sweater" is an R&B piece with a slow tempo, and incorporates acoustic guitar on top of soft vocals. The lyrics expresses one's longing for their beloved. "Surrounded" utilizes

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

and

synthesizers A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

, while its lyrics express his resentment towards the

paparazzi Paparazzi (singular form paparazzo) are independent photographers who take pictures of high-profile people, such as actors, musicians, athletes, politicians, and other celebrities who go about their daily life routines. Paparazzi are known f ...

. Chou openly calls them "dogs" who "bite an apple in their mouths and hold a camera in their hands". Toward the end of the track, Chou raps a few lines in Korean. "Maple Leaf" incorporates piano, violin and cello over a soft R&B beat. The lyrics describe the sorrow behind a lost love. "Romantic Cellphone" is a R&B piece that features an electric guitar, whereas "Reverse Scale" is a hip-hop number. "Malt Candy" uses violin and electric guitar with lyrics focusing on romance themes. "Coral Sea" is a duet between Jay Chou and Lara Veronin and utilizes instrumentations from piano, violin, acoustic and electric guitars.

Title and artwork

Chou, who had learned

classical piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

since childhood, admitted that

had always been his idol, with him also accustomed to designing his images after the name of the composer. He felt very excited that he and the record company agreed to use ''November's Chopin'' as the album title.

Release and promotion

The pre-sale for the album began in various regions on 19 October 2005. The lead single "Nocturne" premiered on

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

Hit FM on 17 October 2005, which was the anniversary of Chopin's death. The

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for "Nocturne" premiered in Asia on 21 October 2005.

Music videos

Chou's music has been visual in this album, and made that every song in the new album is full of

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

and romantic, creating a poetic picture. In order to match the theme of the new album, he personally designed the look this time, expressing the romantic temperament of a "music poet" with a retro image, and even went to

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

Piazza San Marco Piazza San Marco (; ), often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal Town Square, public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as ''la Piazza'' ("the Square"). The Piazzetta ("little Piazza/Square") is an ext ...

to shoot the video for "Black Sweater" and the album cover. The "Nocturne" music video was shot in December 2004, in the middle of his Incomparable Tour in

Montville, Connecticut Montville is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region. The population was 18,387 at the 2020 census. The villages of Chesterfield, Mohegan, Oakdale, and Uncasvi ...

. He travelled to New York City to film the video, and included locations such as the

Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a cable-stayed suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River. It w ...

and a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

in the suburbs. There was a

snowstorm A winter storm (also known as snow storm) is an event in which wind coincides with varieties of precipitation that only occur at freezing temperatures, such as snow, Rain and snow mixed, mixed snow and rain, or freezing rain. In Continental cl ...

in New York the day before the shooting of the video, which Chou felt made the cemetery scene even more sentimental, but also inconvenient according to the singer.

Reception

The album was nominated for two

Golden Melody Awards The Golden Melody Awards (), commonly abbreviated as GMA, is an honor awarded by Taiwan's Ministry of Culture to recognize outstanding achievement in the Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, and Formosan-languages popular and traditional music ...

. The album won for an IFPI Hong Kong Top Sales Music Award for Top 10 Best Selling Mandarin Albums of the Year. The track, "Drifting", was nominated a Golden Horse Award for Best Original Film Song and a

Hong Kong Film Award for Best Original Film Song The Hong Kong Film Award for Best Original Film Song is an award presented annually at the Hong Kong Film Awards for a film with the best original song. As of 2016 the current winner is ''She Remembers, He Forgets'' with Day Tai composing, Savill ...

."25th Hong Kong Film Awards winner/nomination list"
''Hong Kong Film Awards''. Retrieved 25 February 2011

Awards

Track listing

, writer1 = , lyrics1 = Vincent Fang , music1 = , extra1 = , length1 = 3:48 , title2 = Blue Storm , note2 = zh, labels=no, t=藍色風暴, p=Lán sè fēngbào , writer2 = , lyrics2 = Vincent Fang , music2 = , extra2 = , length2 = 4:46 , title3 = Hair Like Snow , note3 = zh, labels=no, t=髮如雪, p=Fà rú xuě , writer3 = , lyrics3 = Vincent Fang , music3 = , extra3 = , length3 = 5:01 , title4 = Black Sweater , note4 = zh, labels=no, t=黑色毛衣, p=Hēisè máoyī , writer4 = , lyrics4 = Jay Chou , music4 = , extra4 = , length4 = 4:11 , title5 = Surrounded , note5 = zh, labels=no, t=四面楚歌, p=Sì miàn chǔ gē , writer5 = , lyrics5 = Jay Chou, Michael Lin (Rap) , music5 = , extra5 = , length5 = 4:07 , title6 = Maple Leaf , note6 = zh, labels=no, t=楓, p=Fēng , writer6 = , lyrics6 = Devon Song , music6 = , extra6 = , length6 = 4:37 , title7 = Romantic Cellphone , note7 = zh, labels=no, t=浪漫手機, p=Làngmàn shǒujī , writer7 = , lyrics7 = Vincent Fang , music7 = , extra7 = , length7 = 3:59 , title8 = Reverse Scale , note8 = zh, labels=no, t=逆鱗, p=Nìlín , writer8 = , lyrics8 = Alang Huang , music8 = , extra8 = , length8 = 3:54 , title9 = Malt Candy , note9 = zh, labels=no, t=麥芽糖, p=Mài yá táng , writer9 = , lyrics9 = Vincent Fang , music9 = , extra9 = , length9 = 4:20 , title10 = Coral Sea , note10 = zh, labels=no, t=珊瑚海, p=Shān hú hǎi; featuring Lara Liang , writer10 = , lyrics10 = Vincent Fang , music10 = , extra10 = , length10 = 4:16 , title11 = Drifting , note11 = zh, labels=no, t=飄移, p=Piāoyí , writer11 = , lyrics11 = Vincent Fang , music11 = , extra11 = , length11 = 4:04 , title12 = All the Way North , note12 = zh, labels=no, t=一路向北, p=Yī lù xiàng běi , writer12 = , lyrics12 = Vincent Fang , music12 = , extra12 = , length12 = 4:54

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Notes

References

External links

*
Jay Chou discography@JVR Music
{{Authority control 2005 albums Jay Chou albums Sony Music Taiwan albums