Fanfan's Time To Give Thanks
Christine Fan
Thanksgiving might be over but giving thanks is always in season.
This is Taiwanese singer Christine Fan’s new album after three years and her first since giving birth to twins in January last year. On the track Thanksgiving, she sings: “Every time you hear this song/That’s me telling you thanks/For all that you have given/What I can’t ever return, the happiest debt.”
Presumably with her hands full with child-raising, Fan, who tied the knot with actor-host Blackie Chen in 2011, leaves the songwriting to others this time around, roping in the likes of William Wei, Lala Hsu and David Ke.
A Long Long Time From Now is a poignant imagining of what a first love might feel like years down the road. The Best Arrangement, a duet with Malaysian balladeer Fish Leong, is in the tradition of her previous paeans to female friendships such as One Is Like Summer, One Is Like Fall.
On the album closer Blow Wind Blow, darkness has its silver lining: “Who turned out the lights and dimmed the sky/Time turns into a black negative/Stars start to slowly appear.”
Fan’s gently soothing pipes imbue each song with a comforting warmth, even when the sentiment is tinged with sadness. And that is something to be thankful for.
(ST)