Million Songs Hill
Xu Jun
Apart from Guo Ding, Xu Jun is another Chinese singer-songwriter who has found favour at the prestigious Golden Melody Awards.
His debut album, Million Songs Hill, has been nominated for Album of the Year and Best Mandarin Album. The results will be announced on June 24.
He took part in the second season of the reality television contest Sing My Song in 2015, but missed out on the Best Mandarin Male Vocalist category, in which Guo is up against familiar names such as Jay Chou, Yoga Lin and Khalil Fong.
The opening track, Shot By Love’s Gun, starts with a hymn-like organ introduction before Xu’s raspy voice paints a violent picture: “I was caught off-guard and shot by love’s gun/Collapsed in a pool of blood, but I’ve never thought of resisting.”
It is as though, in the face of a maelstrom of emotions, resistance is futile. But the chorus holds out hope: “I’ve tried hard to cross over these boiling waters and this door of anger.”
There is some variety, from the light-hearted Mess Around to the sole English number, Feathers, which Xu co-wrote with Australian singer-songwriter Hayley Aitken and Swedish writer-producer Ollipop. One can almost imagine him busking on the streets of Stockholm, where the album was recorded, with a guitar as he sings: “And as we go, go along, long this road/Passing people by/Like a leaf in the wind, we will rise and we will fall again.”
On the strength of this record, I would say that this is his time to rise.
(ST)