The Crazy Ones
R.chord Hsieh
The Chinese title of the album is Don’t Have To Pretend To Be Good and that is something that Taiwanese singer-songwriter R.chord Hsieh has never done.
Indeed, his tabloid fodder exploits – from his drug-taking and feud with rapper Soft Lipa, to him accusing showbusiness veterans of cheating young women – have overshadowed his music at times.
It is a pity because there is no question that Hsieh is talented. His debut album, Nothing But A Chord (2009), was fresh and inventive and the follow-up, So After I’ve Grown Up (2011), included the touching duet with Lala Hsu, Under The Willow Tree.
After four years in the musical wilderness, he is back with a new record, The Crazy Ones, on a new label, Warner Music.
True to form, he does not shy away from his complicated history and bad-boy persona.
Girl Do You Know pours sexual desire into a poppy number: “I want to kiss you all over/From head to feet, I want to eat you up in big bites.”
The act of eating is less salacious in the bouncy duet Feel Good featuring Kimberley Chen as he professes: “I want to eat away your loneliness, your sorrows.”
Some of the posturing comes across as bravado. At other times, he seems to be unabashedly personal and painfully honest.
Album closer Embracing Failure is a naked mea culpa: “I can’t go back, can only go forward/All the regrets over my past mistakes are useless/I’ve already hurt the family and friends who love me.”
It ends poignantly in Minnan: “I want to make my dreams anew, realise from this point/Live again and learn to cherish.”
Self-knowledge is not a bad place to start.
(ST)