Mor Lam Sa On 8

Jintara Poonlarp
cover

*****

The first track, Ruplaw lai mia, sets the tone for the whole album: this is lam at its most light-hearted and Jintara in full faux-naif mode, all side-long glances and awkward wiggles. Her vocal performance is also shallow but attractive, using sprechgesang intonation and a rougher edge to her voice than in her other recent albums. The second song, by contrast, is a standard luk tung weepie; despite the unusual story, neither it nor the similar track 8 is of any real musical interest.

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The video for track 4, Somnam na tua-eng, reaches spectacular heights of arch bad taste.

Track 3, Mai ma sanya man, is very unusual, however. This is one of the very few fully accompanied pure lam songs (with no plaeng sections) in the Jintara canon. Track 4 returns to the mood of the first song; it has a similarly memorable tune but considerably more energy to it. This is probably the best song on the album, despite the comically awful video. Track 5, Jep ni eek nan, takes the playful mood to an extreme, especially in the accordian accompaniment. The contrast with the lyrics is interesting, to say the least. The next two songs are the emotional heart of the album: both are played relatively straight, and have a fine dramatic atmosphere.

After the dull track 8, 9 and 10 are two more good, fun songs, though nothing to get too excited about. Track 11, Namta chim kang rao pa, is most interesting as what could politely be called a homage to Sao Galasin sin tawang. It's not at all a bad version, but obviously it's rather redundant. The last song, Faen krai mai sai gunjae, is easily the worst on the record: the keyboard player takes the silliness to an extreme, sounding like a Hammond organ player at Butlin's. It's harmless though, and an interesting oddity.

Mor Lam Sa On 8 is very pleasant. Most of the songs here seek only to entertain, and they do that very successfully. The few which do have more weight to them, however, remind us that Jintara can do much more when she aims a little higher.

Track listing

Track number Song title (Thai) Song title (Romanised)
1 รูปหล่อหลายเมีย Ruplaw lai mia
2 มีเจ้าของแต่น้องรัก Mi jaokhong tae nong rak
3 ไม่มาสัญญาหมั้น Mai ma sanya man
4 สมน้ำหน้าตัวเอง Somnamna tua-eng
5 เจ็บนี้อีกนาน Jep ni ik nan
6 สายเดี่ยวสิ้นหวัง Sai diao sin wang
7 ให้บวชก่อนเบียด Hai buat gawn biat
8 ช้ำใจในงานช้าง Chamjai nai nganchang
9 หน้างอข้างหม้อก๋วยเตี๋ยว Na-ngaw khang maw guaitiao
10 ผิดไหมที่ใจเดียว Pit mai ti jaidiao
11 น้ำตาซึมข้างราวผ้า Namta suem khang rao pa
12 แฟนใครไม่ใส่กุญแจ Faen khrai mai sai gunjae


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