Although it seems at first very fresh pop music, radio friendly oriented – and at a certain point while listening to this album, this is exactly what they could be labeled of –, their sound does have a wider appeal, a higher ground of consistency, and an intriguing, bold and daring originality. Sometimes a little too much pop, nevertheless you will feel some kind of magic while listening to this album. With some very peculiar elements of soft urban eastern pop rock, these youngsters really have an interesting talent, that they explore exceedingly good. With calm melodies, and very serene songs that easily cool down your heart, the virtuosity of these guys tell a lot about their seriousness and compromise towards their music, regardless of their abilities. Although a lot of their songs are in English, and the influence of western music is apparent in the whole album, at a certain extent, Chairs' manages to build a sonorous identity of their own, being interchangeably lucid, incredibly solicit and astonishingly sincere, all at the same time.
With ten tracks, being them Island, Annual Ring, Kaleidoscope, Dream Silently, The Formosan Dance, Scenery, The Golden Age Blues, Finally Home, A-Hui and Cheers!, Chairs’ does have it all to be the next big thing on their native Taiwan, at least to the younger generations. With some degree of adventurous feeling in their music, maintaining a higher seal of melancholic art, and a superior sense of originality, while at the same time holding a great range of popular appeal, they easily combine together all the elements that could launch them to stardom in their country. Being melodically soft without being too exaggeratingly pop, and being peculiarly popular without renouncing a higher appeal for artistic singularity, Chairs’ really does a great work on this particular album. With what appears to be an already fully matured line of work, a polyvalent goal of artistic excellence, and a very strong view of lucid objectivity, this is a band that really knows their potential, and what they have to do in order to achieve what they deserve. An interesting album, although somewhat impossible to please anyone outside the sphere of melodic pop/ soft indie music, Cheers!Land is an interesting album, that does have it all to be a landmark of the genre, in their native Taiwan.
So, if soft pop/ indie rock/ melodic folk is your thing, you should give Cheers!Land a chance. I promise you will not regret!
Wagner