Li Ronghao
Li Ronghao
Thanks to a clutch of nominations at last year’s Golden Melody Awards last year, eventually winning Best New Artist, China’s Li Ronghao vaulted from obscurity into the limelight.
He has capitalised on that with a quick follow-up release.
His self-titled second album has successfully broken him into the Taiwanese market as it hit No. 1 on the authoritative G-Music album chart.
It might have been a speedy turnaround, but it is no rush job.
Like his sterling debut Model, his self-titled record is packed full of mid-tempo, classy pop.
The songwriter also had a hand in creating nine of the 10 tracks here.
Pretty much everyone sings about love in Mandopop, but Li stands out with his soothing, lightly husky pipes and unusual perspectives.
King Of Comedy adds a dark comic twist to the subject courtesy of lyrics by Hong Kong’s Wyman Wong: “Why do I get dumped for all the world’s romances/ Be a part-time actor for all tragedies/My guts are spilling out, I bawl exaggeratedly, like a made-in-Hong-Kong flick.”
The ballad Unsuited, about the failure to meet one’s romantic match, has been making its way up local radio charts.
Li ponders: “Still don’t understand, how to be most at ease/What counts as forgetting one’s manners, is it wearing the wrong laces?”
He can also rock out though, when the occasion calls for it and he cuts loose on a loose-limbed cover of iconic rocker Cui Jian’s Quick Let Me Behave A Little Badly On The Snowy Ground.
Even when he is behaving badly, Li remains a compelling class act.
(ST)