Soul Food

Somehow, ever since I got here, I've been finding myself listening much more to Chinese music. Perhaps it's to compensate from not hearing or speaking the language, but there's this sense of comfort and familiarity I draw from listening to 燕姿 (Stefanie Sun) and others that I don't get from English music. It's probably just me.

Anyway, besides listening to a lot of Stefanie (I told Adel that I've decided she's my favourite musical artiste, all languages considered), I've managed to check out two high-profile Mandopop releases of these past 2 months: Jolin's 特務J (Agent J) and local talent Tanya's Goodbye & Hello.

Jolin's album, from the MVs I've youtubed, is a big disappointment. I had thought that she made some, if not much, artistic progression in her previous album, the mega-selling 舞孃 (Dancing Diva), and was expecting that with her having reached a stage where she could pretty record her farts, package it, and still be the top-seller of the year, she would take some risks. Instead, she chooses to focus more on ever-increasing elaborate dance moves and big budget MVs, with the music serving as a mere backdrop of beats for her to display her hard work at the dance studio. The thing is that there is a limit to the level of complication or intricacy you can throw into your choreography. First, there was the ribbon-tossing of Dancing Diva, then now there's the pole-dancing in Agent J. What's next? 3 1/2 pikes with 2 somersaults and a degree of difficulty of 4.0? And as she gets older, how is she gonna keep upping the stakes in dance? By no means am I against dance-pop music, but I wish she would stop regressing to more generic Ah Lian techno pop crap and put out something less dated, more sophisticated. Think electropop along the lines of Robyn, Girls Aloud, Kylie or even Britney. Sigh, I'm disappointed in you, Jolin.

On the other side of the coin, I absolutely love the singles Tanya has put out thus far for her new album, Goodbye and Hello. This is the first time Tanya contributed lyrics to the songs (usually, she writes the music and then gets others to fill in lyrics), so she's telling a more personal story. That's the PR angle anyway. But the important thing is the melodies are as good as ever, though less obvious and more nuanced and thus more likely to grow on you. The music feels less commercial and hooky (unlike something like Beautiful Love, which is a lovely song, but definitely written and produced for KTV singalong popularity in mind), and more pared-down, organic and very intimate, as if you're sitting in the bar where she's performing just a few metres away on stage, but it remains very accessible. I'm no expert on Mandarin lyrics, but by my reckoning, she's done a pretty decent job. Her theme (a lament on a previous relationship) is nothing new, but her interpretation is different from the usual "my heart's broken when you leave"-kinda obvious sentiments, and it manages to be genuinely moving. And of course, her vocals, simple, chilled and histrionics free, complement the songs perfectly.

An aside: I don't know if it's just me, but I find that in Mandopop, Singaporean female singers have this level of maturity and depth in their vocals that you don't see in most of their Taiwanese peers. Kit Chan, Mavis Hee, Stefanie, Tanya & Kaira Gong all have this quality that I'm talking about (Ok, let's ignore Jocie Kok and Sun Ho), and it means they're able to elevate even crappy run-of-the-mill ballads to a decent level.

So here are the first two singles from Tanya's album. I think both are wonderful.

當你離開的時候 When You Leave


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Incidentally, Tanya's having the best success of her Mandopop career thus far, with the album debuting at No.1 in Taiwan, so keep up the brilliant work, Tanya!