The Ripples

Ellen Loo

Hong Kong’s Ellen Loo makes a splash with her debut solo album. Better known as one-half of indie folk-pop duo at17, the singer-songwriter-guitarist proves she has the chops to go it alone.

There is a raw edge to her earthy tones. Right off the bat, she makes clear with the spirited The Girl Who Doesn’t Play Dumb that this is not some slick anonymous pop product.

This is followed by Freckles and Wait, two tracks that are undoubted highlights. The use of strings gives Freckles an air of doomed melancholy: “Loving you so fiercely, burying that weak shout/The wind blows and the rain departs, leaving me inundated.”

And the rhythmic repetition of words on Wait imbues it with a gently pulsating sense of yearning: “Wait wait, wait wait wait, wait wait wait/Wait for your glance/Wait wait, wait wait wait, wait wait again/Wait for you to say us.”

The record also features two Cantonese numbers: Complete, a dreamy duet with indie stalwart Anthony Wong, and Summer Of Love, probably the most mainstream track here. It also comes with a DVD which includes the music videos for The Girl Who Doesn’t Play Dumb, Freckles, Wait and Summer Of Love. Go ahead, take the plunge into her music.

Love Addict

Prudence Liew

Singer-actress Prudence Liew made her debut in 1986 with her self-titled Cantopop album. She took a break in the late 1990s, released a Mandarin record in 2000, vanished from the scene again, before making a comeback in 2009 with The Queen Of Hardships.

It has been a journey full of ups and downs for the twice-divorced Liew. And now this: an album of Mandarin covers focusing on her need for love. Too bad that the songs picked here are not a particularly revealing bunch. And too much of their arrangement falls into dreaded jazz-lite, easy-listening territory.

While her timbre has some colour, it is by no means alluring. She does a rendition of David Huang’s You Get Me Drunk, which Singapore singer Kit Chan covered as well in her Re-interpreting Kit Chan album earlier this year. Comparing both versions, I would rather go for Chan’s take as I prefer the cleaner, less dated arrangement and her more emotive vocals.

The breezy version of Chyi Chin’s The Original Me and a reworked Jungle Drums from Wong Kar Wai’s Days Of Being Wild are, at least, welcome attempts at something different. They won’t be enough to get you hooked on the album, though.

(ST)