Kepler
Stefanie Sun
Stefanie Sun is, first and foremost, a pop star.
She is not a singer-songwriter who channels her life experiences into music and words such as, say, Tanya Chua. So it is probably unrealistic to expect this new album – her first in three years, and since she got married and gave birth to her first child – to reflect entirely on her new identities as a wife and a mother.
Still, given how she has dabbled in composing and writing lyrics before, it is a bit disappointing that she does not contribute any original material here.
There are hints, though, of maternal warmth – notably on lead single Kepler. “Can’t wait for you to be my brightest star/I’m still willing to lend you my light/Projecting onto you, until your brilliant light/Gently hangs upon the distant sky,” she sings on the track she has already publicly dedicated to her 16-month-old son. Is it my imagination or is there a motherly tenderness to the way she caresses the lyrics?
What one can expect, and which Sun delivers, is a reliably listenable record delivered in that singular voice of hers.
On rousing number Infinite Possibilities, she encourages the listener: “A certain dinner with only the sounds of knife and fork/Turn a certain corner and there are infinite possibilities”.
The beautiful ballads here, such as Angel’s Fingerprints and Thirst, will no doubt scale the charts.
Some of the loveliest moments on the album are quietly tucked away near the end: she shines on the gently moving Mirage and the lightly jazzy Happier, composed by Chua.
Not quite as bold as the statementmaking Stefanie (2004) or as compelling as It’s Time (2011), Kepler remains a worthy addition to Sun’s body of work.
(ST)