Pure

Aska Yang

Another She

Claire Kuo

Pure is as much a Jonathan Lee album as an Aska Yang one.

Mandopop veteran Lee produces it and contributes several tracks. His style is so strong on Greed and Because I’m Single that one almost expects to hear his raspy half-sung-half-spoken vocals. Instead, one gets One Million Star alumnus Yang’s clear and emotive voice plumbing love and loss.

A lesser singer would have been overwhelmed but Yang holds his own and also has a hand in writing the tracks, including Light In The Shadow.

The compelling ballad has him fantasising: “Eyes squinting, ears listening, I’m thinking, I can/Against the light, following the illusion, slowly, walk towards you.”

There is a jazzy, loungey vibe to this record as the arrangements frequently feature keyboard and brass instruments, making this a good late-night record to wallow in.

The album, a follow-up to Yang’s 2008 debut, Dove, flounders a little towards the end.

The tacked- on extra track, the unabashedly mainstream ballad, That Man, does not quite gel with the rest of the album.

Taiwanese singer Claire Kuo (left) is nothing if not unabashedly commercial. Yet, apart from album title tracks such as 2008’s The Next Dawn or 2009’s Singing In The Trees, few other songs of hers stick.

It is not a good sign that Another She is less memorable than previous lead singles.

The Next Miracle, a duet with feted newcomer Weibird Wei, sparks some interest, though their voices do not mesh well and the arrangement sounds dated.

It is not all lacklustre. Wei’s other contribution here fares better: Soft, which he composed, gives Kuo the chance to demonstrate some bouncy liveliness. And on the Lala Hsu-penned ballad, Originally, the singer shows a glimpse of real emotion.

This is by no means an offensively bad record but it is an album that is hard to get excited about.

(ST)