Mor Lam Panlai 5+1

Jop and Joy

*****

Pla Daek Laek Sataw (Mor Lam Panlai 5+1) is fantastic entertainment. Jop and Joy have everything: well-written songs with memorable tunes; voices which contrast but also blend; duets and solos; lam and tung; a fat one and a skinny one; they can dance; and they can grab you even they are singing about fish.

Or rather they have almost everything: they have no soul. Tung and lam may not be nothing if not soul food, but they are much diminished. Jop and Joy are great entertainers, but entertainment is not enough.

Even in the songs which should be packed with feeling, like Jop's Kit Hawt Ai (track 6) or Joy's Watsana Khon Khoi, they look and sound like they're having altogether too much fun. Perhaps they are too young to fill a song with heartbreak and lamentation, but Jintara's early first few albums show that it can be done. The problem more likely is in their being a double act: unless the two are playing distinct roles, this necessarily makes for an impersonal voice. The superficial tone is then carried over even into the individual numbers.

Maybe a trial separation is in order. By finding their own voices as individuals, Jop and Joy can each learn to put their talents to even better use on. They could also each focus on the material to which they are best suited: Joy, the sharper and vocally nimbler of the two, could specialise in lam, while Jop is more of a luk tung belter. Then when they come back together, singing alternately or in the occasional show-stopping duet, Jop and Joy could be something very special indeed.

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