Unexpected
Penny Tai

For The Loved
Rene Liu

Despite the title, Malaysian singer-songwriter Penny Tai’s latest album is not as unexpected as, say, her last disc On The Way Home (2011). For something even more radically different, check out the eponymous rock record she put out under the monicker of the band Buddha Jump.
Still, Unexpected is a solid effort that adds to Tai’s body of winning, melodic work with some surprises.
The Right Side Of The Face and Uncuttable are sparer than your average pop ballad and better off for it. On the latter, she sings: “The panic that can’t be cut away/Is the gazing afar in the dream/The him that can’t be cut away/Is in the unknown distance.”
Sing It Out and Strawberry Love offer more upbeat takes on love. Over jangly guitars and a jaunty violin riff, she paints a tasty, if surrealistic, picture of love: “Give me bread spread with love, the taste of strawberry jam, bits of fruit hopping about in bliss.”
Taiwanese singer Rene Liu’s For The Loved does not venture too far off the beaten track either. The title of an earlier album, Love And The City (2002), is a pithy summary of the territory she explores.
Her soothing, relatable voice dwells on the poignancy of love lost on the title track here: “Then, only knew who loved whom most/Forgot who knew how to love me most.”
Cue up I Fell Asleep Thinking Of You for something a little different. The track offers electric guitars in the mix, while Liu muses: “While thinking of you, I fell asleep/While thinking of you, I missed you.” It is as rock as Liu gets, and it will not send you off to dreamland anytime soon.
(ST)