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A-fu
From the title of her third solo album, it is clear that Taiwanese singer-songwriter A-fu does not want to be pigeonholed. Instead of offering sappy sweetness, she is happy to mix in plenty of kook with her cute.
On Teng Da-fu Is A Cat, she imagines herself as a tom cat, gender change included (A-fu’s surname is Teng).
Against a lightly jazzy accompaniment, she sings: “Da-fu’s greatest love/Is to narrow his eyes and accompany girls.”
In the electro-pop number Black Sheep, she turns the title on its head by urging in English: “You can fly, you can fight, you can be the light of the dark side/There’s no one can hurt you anymore.”
There are some radio-friendly numbers here, such as Stop At The Crossing Ahead, the above-average R&B duet with Hsiao Yu that has already climbed to the top of the UFO Mandarin Pop Chart in Taiwan.
But, sometimes, the quirkiness veers off-course. On the light-hearted Super Pig Head, she gets tangled in a love-hate relationship.
While the lyric booklet coyly prints it as “x.o”, it clearly sounds like “a**hole”. And it just sounds wrong when she chirps: “You are my super a**hole.”
Well, at least no one can accuse A-fu of being predictable.
(ST)