Being Lonely Is The Thing I Do
Jeff Chang
His pristine high-pitched vocals are so familiar by now, it is easy to take them for granted.
But with an above-average batch of songs on his new record – his 31st, counting some permutations released by record companies of his albums – Taiwanese singer Jeff Chang sounds more moving than he has in a while.
The follow-up to Genesis (2010) opens with the title track. It sounds like a classic emotive Jeff Chang ballad, except that it takes on urban alienation instead of a broken heart: “The time that’s freed up is just right for loneliness/Don’t think of deciding for me what I want/Too lazy to communicate with everyone, they won’t understand anyway.”
Even if Chang is now 45, the confessional Thirty Something sounds heartfelt: “Thirty something, hard not to sigh at this age/I’m used to myself, used to the breathing of the long night.”
And just in time for Chinese New Year, Switch, the up-tempo duet with Ricky Hsiao, wants to help you springclean your relationships: “Women fear the dark, men fear tiredness/If you want different situations/Why not switch rooms.”
Chang also takes a stab at doing the boogie on Mr. No but, really, it was not necessary. Dance numbers are not the thing that he does.
(ST)