BEIJING, Mar. 9 -- Actor-turned-singer Lu Yi released his second album Tuesday, two years after he released his first one.

    According to the record company that was responsible for producing the album, Lu¡¯s second album has great improvement in singing skills and performance quality over his first one.

    Lu started spending much time on music when he began working on his first music album in 2003. ¡°The first album was well done and also very much market-oriented. But it¡¯s my first album anyway. As a singer, I didn¡¯t have sufficient professional quality then. Now, my second album has many more things from my heart. And I¡¯ve also made great progress in skills and techniques. The songs are more about my personality,¡± Lu said during the press conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

    As for his personality in the album, Lu meant the five British-style rock¡¯n¡¯roll songs and a Jazz song.

    ¡°It¡¯s two years between my two albums. I hope people can find something new in it. I also want to show to people that I can sing more than just love songs,¡± he said.

    Lu also said British rock¡¯n¡¯roll music was his favorite. To cater the songs to Lu¡¯s voice and style, the record company employed Zhang Yadong, who was good at making such songs, to be the producer of the album.

    According to the record company, when it started preparing the album, it received 500 contributed songs. It selected 100 for Lu. And Lu finally selected 10 from the 100.

    To test the market response of the album, the selling of the album began one month ago in some cities, but the record company did not want to release the sales revenue, only saying the selling volumes in Beijing and Shanghai were ¡°remarkable.¡±

    The record company showed confidence in the sales. It also said it would use the selling as an anti-piracy campaign, with words ¡°Fighting Against Piracy¡± printed on the cover of the album.

    ¡°As a singer, I feel obliged to urge my fans to buy authentic albums. The support is the best impetus for production of good music,¡± Lu said.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily)