Unlearn
Ling Kai
Cross Ratio Entertainment

The Greatest Journey
Ruth Kueo
Cros Music

Local female singer-songwriters Ling Kai and Ruth Kueo offer different listening experiences on their latest releases.
Ling Kai’s Unlearn EP is more intriguing. It kicks off with the pop-rock numbers Dumbfounded and Eat, Drink, Sleep, Repeat, which are propelled by her distinctive power pipes. She takes aim at the obsession with social media in Dumbfounded: “Face the camera, don’t be too frank in your emotions/What’s beneath, just guess.”
The singer turns the dial down on the title track and Eighteen, but keeps things compelling. She croons poignantly about growing pains on the latter ballad: “18/That year I thought the world/Was as old as me/ Growing up/Stabs of pain”.
Kueo’s seven-track album is a breezier affair primarily concerned with matters of the heart.
From the bop-along pop of Let It Go to the ballad Without You, the songs are a good foil for her sweet voice. On the track Fake, she shows a bit of welcome sass: “Can we not be fake/Be a little honest/Laugh if you like/If you don’t/Say out loud what you think.”
Simple Happiness is a melodic guitar-accompanied track which is unfortunately marred by lyrics which seem derivative of the well-loved home-grown number If There’re Seasons (“Come home when it’s cold, don’t linger in the wind/There’s understanding in mother’s eyes/And a glint of helplessness”).
Kueo sings on her ballad: “No matter how strong the wind and rain, remember to come home/Thinking of what mother used to say.”
Unlearning what you know might be a good idea when it comes to penning lyrics.
(ST)