Lovers & Strangers

Like Wong's previous album, Sing and Play, Lovers & Strangers was also produced by Alvin Leong. Other core members of the production group included C.Y. Kong, Adrian Chan, Albert Leung, and Zhang Yadong. The cover of the album is based on a pink background, with Wong wearing a rock-styled, tight-fitting black leather jacket, acting some semblance of welcoming her lover but in reality having the intention to reject. This is also the most sexually attractive of Wong's album covers.

Albert Leung, one of Wong's lyricists for Lovers & Strangers

Lovers & Strangers included 12 tracks in total, with nine written by Albert Leung. The only track written by Wong was "Spectacular," on which she collaborated with Zhang Yadong to compose. Additionally, Zhang composed and arranged both "Only Love Strangers" and "After the Beep," where the former, eponymous with the album, is covered from the original version in Zhang's 1998 album "Ya Tung." In Wong's version of this song, her daughter Leah Dou made a cameo appearance, singing the line "Come on baby." Two Mandarin songs in the album, "Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Butterfly," have the same melody but different lyrics as their respective Cantonese versions, "Keeping Guard over the Field" and "Postman." Albert Leung first composed the Mandarin versions, then based the Cantonese lyrics on them. "Hundred Years of Solitude" and its Cantonese version, "Keeping Guard Over the Field," were composed by C.Y. Kong and Adrian Chan; "Butterfly" and its Cantonese Version, "Postman," however, were composed and arranged solely by Adrian Chan. Furthermore, C.Y. Kong set to music Wong's rock song "The Last Blossom," whose title originated from Leung's quoting of a novel by Yi Shu. This song also marked Wong's first use of the distortion technique.

This album is the first collaboration between Wong and the composer Diane Chen—the two composed "Overthrown" together, with Chiu Li-Kwan writing the lyrics. This is also the second collaboration between Chiu and Wong after "Wake Up" (or "Wakeless", "Not Awake" and "Not Waking Up") in Sing and Play. Yuan Wei-jen, after "No Regrets/Stubborn and Regretless," which was released seven years ago, composed another piece for Wong—"An Ephemeral Cloud." Moreover, two composers from Mainland China, Li Bing and Guo Liang, composed "The Moon at That Moment"/ "Once in a Blue Moon" and "Hypnosis," respectively.

The overall style of this album continues Wong's steady performance during recent years, but the opening song, "The Last Blossom," was one of Wong's significant breakthroughs. Her distortion technique in this track portrays a fear of love and a depressed state of mind. Wong's handling of the middle notes transformed her usual impeccable timbre.

Beginning from the captivating title, Lovers & Strangers, Albert Leung provided a plethora of profound lyrics. For instance, "Only Love Strangers" (although the more grammatically correct placement of "Only" should be after "Love") used surprisingly imaginative and wide-spanning combinations of characters to convey a postmodern aura mixed with a touch of romance. Wong also played a large role in boosting the appeal of "Only Love Strangers" by reimagining Zhang Yadong's version—besides maintaining the original tonality, both the structure and the timbre hearken strongly to the 1998 song. The piece uses bossa nova as its skeleton, while the electronic rhythm coupled with the trumpet sounds characteristic of jazz, demonstrates both Zhang's technical dexterity in musical arrangement and his talent for improvisation. In terms of vocals, although Wong paralleled Zhang's seemingly-casual attitude, she added the mindset of handling complicated matters easily, naturally, and unrestrainedly. She made the "stranger" perspective stick out by acting indifferently and independently.

The leading song of the album, "The Moon at That Moment"/ "Once in a Blue Moon," carries a refreshing school spirit and is as pure as silverware. Albert Leung's superb craftsmanship, combined with Wong's slightly reserved narration, makes this song pleasant to the ear. Upon a comprehensive inspection of Wong's works over the past years, there is no other example of such a masterpiece. Guo Liang's "Hypnosis," on the other hand, is an English waltz possessing both a fluid and unbridled beat as well as an exquisite tune.

C. Y. Kong, a veteran in Wong's production team, incorporated Middle-Eastern features into "Hundred Years of Solitude," along with a tribute to the first song of the album, "The Last Blossom." Adrian Chan's "Butterfly" is another leisurely piece and at times prompts listeners to overlook the buried rhythm and blues elements. Yuan Wei-jen held the reins once more in the production of "An Ephemeral Cloud," an elegant Neoclassicist work. Zhang Yadong's "After the Beep" exceeded expectations—the separated and luring impression becomes so paradoxical under Wong's performance, both real and fantastical. The audience cannot hold themselves from striking the table and shouting in awe. "Spectacular," a track listed near the end of the album, is especially praiseworthy, with its emphasis on a strong rhythm underscoring the rock style of this album.

In 1999, Wong won a China Times Award for Top 10 Albums of the Year, a Metro Radio Hits Music Awards for Hit Album, a Singaporean Golden Melody Award for Best Album, and a Chinese Musicians Exchange Award for Top 10 Albums of the Year for the album Lovers & Strangers. Similarly, the song "Hundred Years of Solitude" also won a Chinese Musicians Exchange Award, but for the Top 10 Songs of the Year. In 2000, Wong was nominated for the 11th Taiwanese Golden Melody Award for Best Female Mandarin Singer. In 1999, the song "Postman" won the Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation for the Ultimate Top 10 Recommended Songs of the Year, as well as the 32nd Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Award for Best Mandarin Pop Song of the Year. In 1999, the song "The Moon at That Moment"/ "Once in a Blue Moon" made into the leaderboard of the 6th Chinese Music Awards's Top 20 Songs. The same song also won the 1st Malaysian Asia Mandarin Golden Melody Award for Top 15 songs.

Tracks 11 and 12 are Cantonese versions of tracks 5 and 6 respectively. Only track 12 has a different musical arrangement.

The title of track 5 is the Chinese name of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Track 10, the rock song "Spectacular", featured in a Pepsi commercial. A VCD showing the filming of the commercial was released with some versions of the album.

The title track, "Only Love Strangers", was featured in the Sylvester Stallone film Get Carter.[10]

Track 5 was used by Taiwan's STAR Chinese Channel as the ending theme song of the Chinese television series The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The original ending theme song was sung by Mao Amin.

• Lovers & Strangers at Discogs, Hong Kong version