Seven Days

Crowd Lu

This is one of the most eagerly anticipated releases of the year as it is the follow-up album by the worthy winner of the Best New Artiste and Best Composer accolades at this year’s Golden Melody Awards.

The good news is that Seven Days is a continuation of Crowd Lu’s previous record in terms of vibe – breezy insouciance – and a tuneful blend of folk, pop and rock.

That 100 Ways For Living was one of the best debuts in recent years is all the more impressive considering the singer-songwriter only picked up the guitar when he was hospitalised after a serious car accident in his first year at Tamkang University in 2005.

Even the song order was carefully thought out where the lyrics portray perfectly youthful confusion and indecision.

On the track 100 Ways For Living, he asks in earnest: “How is it that there are 100 ways of living that I wish to have?” The next number, Want To Splurge, has him professing: “There’s only one way of living that I want.”

After setting the bar so high, the first impression of Seven Days is that it is less immediate than its predecessor. For example, though Happy Restaurant is also a quirky ditty about food, it does not quite come close to the first album’s joyous paean to breakfast, Good Morning, Beautiful Dawn!.

But unlike many singers who are pretty much interchangeable, Lu is so strongly identified with his material that you could never mistake him for someone else. Album opener Oh Yeah!!! incorporates his favourite exuberant utterance in the title and its conversational lyrics about a burgeoning love affair will have you tapping your toes.

He has a bright, open and warm voice, and there is also something fearless about the way he sings, scaling the falsetto register and shooting for the high notes, though never showboating.

His live shows are a treat and for those who missed his performance at the Esplanade in February, look out for his upcoming gig at Dragonfly on Jan 16.

On songs such as The Loneliest Time, he shows a more vulnerable side: “This was today’s loneliest moment/Watching him hold your hand.” We get a peek into his creative process as he recycles musical motifs, or rather, develops them over time.

The sprightly bass line for Love, Exercise is the instrumental interlude PAZ from the previous album. I No, a jokey throwaway track on his College’s Blues EP (2007) turns up as the fully formed INO here. The lyrics: “So it’s decided, we want to use our smiles to face what’s ahead/Even if nightmares surround the entire earth” reflect the infectious optimism that courses through his works.

Sincere and honest are such overused words but Lu is the real deal. You feel that there is an actual person’s musings and thoughts behind the album instead of a record company’s calculated choices.

Be it Seven Days or 100 Ways, you can always count on Lu to deliver music that is heartfelt.

(ST)