Power Station 20th
Power Station

Flow
Winnie Hsin

In their earlier days, Taiwanese duo Power Station were known for rock ballads filled with angst and soaring vocals in hits such as Heartless Love Letters, which is found on this new two-disc album. Two decades on, the pair have matured and their most memorable new songs are the more measured mid-tempo tracks.
The opener Mi Tang (Potion) possesses a tenderness in lines such as “She uses warmth to heat up a bowl of potion for me, how fragrant”.
Despite its title, Zha Yao (Dynamite) starts gently and even the chorus is unhurried: “You are the dynamite deep in my heart/Why are these memories so overbearing/Don’t know when they will explode/ And blow everything apart.”
That said, Power Station have not lost their explosiveness and edge. They still have plenty of energy, judging from songs such as the Minnan-Mandarin track Next Station. They remain a relevant music force and that is no mean feat after 20 years.
Taiwanese singer Winnie Hsin has been around even longer and yet the 54-year-old’s crystalline soprano pipes have not diminished since her debut album, Lonely Winter, was released in 1986.
The album’s Mandarin title, Ming Bai (Understand), seems to hark back to her best-known work Ling Wu (Epiphany, 1994), but she has no intention of resting on her laurels.
If her awakening in Epiphany was a bitter one (“Ah painful realisation that you were my everything”), the parting shot in the title track here is a more empowering manifesto: “I can afford to love/I can let it go.”
First single My Dear You, which has been scaling radio charts, mixes lush strings with her deftly modulating voice: “My dear you, missing you/I wish you were here with me/You have to walk part of the way to realise that being safe and sound is the greatest happiness.”
It feels as though one is hearing from a good friend after a long absence.
(ST)