Angel Wings
Rainie Yang
On her eighth studio album, Taiwanese singer Rainie Yang takes flight.
She has grown more confident, particularly over the course of the last three records, and sounds more alluring than the thin-voiced girl of the past.
Strangely enough, she is also sounding more and more like fellow popster Jolin Tsai. But while Tsai has been dancing up a storm, Yang has gone for ballads and mid-tempo numbers.
On the track Brave Love, there is a mix of bravura and vulnerability as she sings: “Just shout out loud, it’s good to be brave/Let me cry and let me fuss, let me understand suffering.”
Fish Gills, meanwhile, features some vivid imagery courtesy of Singaporean lyricist Xiaohan: “It’s as though my heart has grown gills, waking after oxygenation/Red blood is waiting, I just want to bid you goodbye wordlessly.”
Her musical journey seems to be reflected in the light-hearted Cleverness.
She croons: “Sometimes I’m sad, but I don’t cry/Still love roses, but not ambiguity (aimei)/Maybe this feeling is called growing up.” Aimei (My Intuition) is the title of her first solo album in 2005.
There is also a hopeful line in the lyrics, which goes: “Maybe, maybe, maybe/ It’s really wonderful now.” Given that Angel Wings has thus far spent four weeks on top of the authoritative G-Music album chart in Taiwan, this is not just wishful thinking on her part.
(ST)