Trace Of Time In Love
Rainie Yang
On her 10th album, Rainie Yang is confident enough to stick to ballads and mid-tempo numbers throughout, without the need to mix things up just for the sake of it.
The best song is Audience, a ballad she interprets sensitively as she contemplates a distant lover: “Some people love like an audience/Don’t understand the simplest emotional scene.”
It was penned for her by China’s Li Ronghao, one of the hottest singer-songwriters of the moment. The 31-year-old has a way with both words and music, effectively exploring emotional states through the use of sustained metaphors.
The song benefits from their romance – they are dating and he is able to tailor a song to her exact strengths as a singer.
At this point, Yang, 32, is firmly into her second phase as a crooner of sophisticated grown-up tracks about love and life, leaving behind her cutesy and grating pop.
On the title track, she ponders the passage of time and the changes it has wrought. The changing of the seasons can be cruel and relentless, but time has been good to her as a singer.
(ST)