Together
Rene Liu
It is spring, the flowers are all a-bloom and Rene Liu is pensive.
Perhaps the Taiwanese singer-actress is mulling over the fact that it has been 15 years since the release of her debut album.
Nostalgia runs through the first two tracks, To The 15-Year-Old Me and We’re Not Together, and the lyrics on the former go: “Now I love to recall/Think of the you who refused to back down then.”
Even when she sings I Don’t Miss by Ashin, a clear strain of yearning mixed with regret lingers on. She also covers China folk singer Lao Lang’s You At The Same Table, which reminisces about an old acquaintance.
There is a grounded, down-to-earth quality to her voice that doles out comfort even as she sings about past relationships with a certain ruefulness.
But before you start to feel sorry for her, she has a defiant riposte ready in Don’t Send Flowers To Me: “Don’t think I’m lonely/Don’t look at me wandering by myself/And think I’m waiting for someone.” Touche.

Pisces Love
Huang Pin-yuan
Another veteran with a new release is Taiwanese singer-songwriter Huang Pinyuan, who marks the 20th anniversary of his first record.
With his profile raised from the Three Good Men series of concerts with fellow stalwarts Bobby Chen Sheng and Phil Chang Yu, Huang has struck while the iron is hot. This is his first album in four years and the lead number is written by local composer Jim Lim with lyrics by Huang, who had a hand in writing all 10 tracks.
But it is not until track five, the dance-inflected New Old Friends, that I paused. The album briefly flickers to life and it continues with the lilting Tao Hua Yuan (which refers to a utopian land).
Alas, the rest of the album does not leave much of an impression. Looks like he will still be known as the guy who sang How Can You Bear To Make Me Sad and Hsiao Wei, his best-known hits from yesteryear.

Believe In Jane
Jane Zhang
Of the various Super Girl singing contest finalists, mainlander Jane Zhang has the greatest potential for crossover success. It is no coincidence that the doe-eyed lass looks like a model on her latest record.
It is not just about looks, though. On her fourth album, she contributes to several numbers including I Believe.
Unfortunately, this offering is simply too long at 17 tracks. Even above-par songs such as the ballad Jiu Zhe Yang Hao Le (Just Let It Be Then) and the bouncy I Do get lost in the shuffle.
Zhang has a rich, expressive and versatile voice but some of the love songs are so generic, right down to the rote music videos, that it is hard to get excited about them.
If she wants to make it, she has to give us something more to believe in, and not just expect blind faith.
(ST)