只爱陌生人 (1999)

Lovers & Strangers, also translated as Only Love Strangers, (Chinese: 只愛陌生人; pinyin: zhǐ ài mòshēngrén) is the seventh Mandarin-language studio album (sixteenth overall) by Chinese singer Faye Wong. It was released on September 10, 1999, by EMI. The album contains a total of 12 songs (10 tracks in Mandarin with 2 bonus Cantonese adaptations of two of the songs) and was produced by Alvin Leong.

The album sold more than 800,000 copies and reached number one in the album charts of Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. After the release of Lovers & Strangers, Guinness World Records declared Faye Wong the best-selling female Cantopop artist of all time.

Background and development

Like Wong's previous album, Sing and Play, Lovers & Strangers was produced by Alvin Leong. Other core members of the production group included C.Y. Kong, Adrian Chan, Albert Leung, and Zhang Yadong.

Lovers & Strangers included 12 tracks in total, with nine written by Albert Leung. The only track written by Wong was "Spectacular," on which she collaborated with Zhang Yadong to compose. Additionally, Zhang composed and arranged both "Only Love Strangers" and "After the Beep," where the former, eponymous with the album, is covered from the original version in Zhang's 1998 album Ya Tung. In Wong's version of this song, her daughter Leah Dou made a cameo appearance, singing the line "Come on baby." Two Mandarin songs in the album, "Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Butterfly," have the same melody but different lyrics as their respective Cantonese versions, "Keeping Guard over the Field" and "Postman." Albert Leung first composed the Mandarin versions, then based the Cantonese lyrics on them. "Hundred Years of Solitude" and its Cantonese version, "Keeping Guard Over the Field," were composed by C.Y. Kong and Adrian Chan; "Butterfly" and its Cantonese Version, "Postman," however, were composed and arranged solely by Adrian Chan. Furthermore, C.Y. Kong tailor-made the music of Wong's rock song "The Last Blossom," whose title originated from Leung's quoting of a novel by Yi Shu. This song also marked Wong's first use of the distortion technique.

This album is the first collaboration between Wong and the composer Dian Chen—the two composed "Overthrown" together, with Chiu Li-Kwan writing the lyrics. This is also the second collaboration between Chiu and Wong after the song "Wake Up" on the album Sing and Play. Yuan Wei-jen, after "No Regrets/Stubborn and Regretless," which was released seven years ago, composed another piece for Wong—"An Ephemeral Cloud." Moreover, two composers from Mainland China, Li Bing and Guo Liang, composed "The Moon at That Moment" and "Hypnosis," respectively.

Writing and production

The overall style of this album continues Wong's steady performance during recent years, but the opening song, "The Last Blossom," was one of Wong's significant breakthroughs. Her distortion technique in this track portrays a fear of love and a depressed state of mind. Wong's handling of the middle notes transformed her usual impeccable timbre.