Stories Untold
JJ Lin
He made his debut in 2003 with Music Voyager and a decade later, local singer-songwriter JJ Lin is a star releasing his milestone 10th album.
From a fresh-faced boy singing about being Booksmart, the still-boyish singer is now a bankable entertainer who continues to have a knack for writing strong tunes even as his range broadens.
Take lead single The Dark Knight, a canny collaboration with Mayday’s Ashin. The rousing rock number does not lazily ride on superhero popularity but thoughtfully explores that world: “Why after catching all the thieves, with no robbery witnessed in years/Yet poverty is like a flood, drowning the dignity of survival/At the peak of civilisation, mankind and bats are back living in caves”.
Another singer-songwriter making an appearance is Taiwan-based Wang Leehom, who plays the violin for the dramatic pop of lone English track One Shot.
Even Lin’s family gets in on the act as his brother Eugene duets with him on the nostalgic Fly Back In Time. Fun fact: The brothers were part of Ocean Butterflies’ Very Singers’ Training Course in 1999.
Of course, Lin gets to shine on his own as well with a classy romantic ballad Practising Love and a cheerful slice of upbeat pop Here Because Of You.
Less successful is the gimmicky Remember Me A Thousand Years Later. The point of the song seems to be to spot where snatches of melody had previously appeared in his earlier works. The title helps you with one example with its reference to 2005’s A Thousand Years Later.
Aside from the odd little homage to himself, Stories Untold is mostly a solid effort from a consistently entertaining home-grown star.
(ST)