Taiwan pop king Jay Chou's new album Still Fantasy will be released Tuesday throughout Asia, three days earlier than scheduled.
Since last week, some Taiwan websites had provided downloads of songs from Jay's new album. Earlier, some Taiwan sources said Jay's record label Alfa Music had thought the leak might have come from the production company.
However, Ms. Chen from Alfa Music told Shanghai Morning Post yesterday they have excluded this possibility and they would continue to investigate.
Ms. Chen said the record label brought the release date forward to minimize losses.
The new album Still Fantasy, named in sequence after Jay's most recent album Fantasy, continues in the same vein of Jay's mixed R&B and traditional Chinese music style.
Jay invited Taiwan folk veteran Fei Yuqing to perform a duet with him on the cover song Qian Li Zhi Wai (Beyond a Thousand Miles) for the album.
The song Jay wrote for Zhang Yimou's blockbuster film Curse of the Golden Flower is also included on the album.
Jay Chou's long-time partner Fang Wenshan used to be responsible for all the lyrics, but said he only contributed part of the words to the new release.
Shanghai Morning Post reports 80,000 copies of the presale versions of the new album had been sold up until Tuesday.
(CRI September 5, 2006)
