Riding A Bicycle

Soft Lipa & Shin-Ski

No Crying

Waa Wei

Track 6

Cheer Chen

The hard part to releasing a critically acclaimed album is following it up. And three musicians have taken on the challenge in their own ways – with varying results.

Taiwanese rapper Soft Lipa, real name Tu Chen-hsi, joined forces with Japanese jazz quintet on the revelatory Moonlight (2010). This time round, he has worked with Japanese hip-hop producer Shin-Ski to produce Riding A Bicycle.

While not as ground-breaking as Moonlight, there is much to admire and enjoy here. Soft Lipa is a master of rhythm and the chorus of Ride a bike, ride a bike is as hypnotic as watching wheels turn. Check out, too, the effortless flow of Minnan track Looking For Ong A.

There are also several collaborations, including with singer-songwriter Lala Hsu and jazz rap outfit ShinSight Trio.

Listen To One Song, which features reggae group Matzka, ponders the connection between listener and song: “It could be popular right now, or long past its prime/Or maybe it seems to exist just for you, with no one else knowing it/You can’t help but wonder, how the writer lives/So close, have you met before?”

Less successful is Taiwanese singer- songwriter Waa Wei’s offering after the elegant electronica of Graceful Porcupine (2010). Parts of No Crying feel like an indulgent exercise with her excesses on full display, from the babyish cooing on Bubble Life to the eight-minute-long Lovers, which incorporates a spoken-word narrative by the poet Hsia Yu.

Head instead for the attitude rock of Close Friends, the drama of One Stone, One Story and the tenderness of ballad Us. And Roarrrr’s lyrics made me laugh out loud: “When I don’t know what to do, I’ll shout ho-yo/When one steps in dog poo, who won’t cry ho-yo”.

Taiwan’s Cheer Chen has followed up the ruminative Immortal (2009) with a single.

It comprises the spoken word track Misty Dance as well as Ephemera, a ballad she first performed during her A Piece Of Summer II tour (2010-2011). The latter is an instant Chen-penned classic filled with hope and loss. Over ukelele and strings, she sings: “Every day, opening our eyes, we are mayflies/Living ordinary lives, vigorously chasing after one dream”.

It does a nice job in helping fans to tide over the dry spell between her albums.

(ST)