agoodday lian-lian-kan festival

Various artists

For a compilation album, this record feels remarkably coherent.

Maybe it is because it features the roster of artistes from a single label – A Good Day Records. The line-up ranges from up-and-comer Dadado Huang, who released his debut album in 2007, to stalwarts such as Ze Hwang, whose first commercial release was back in 1998.

The indie set-up started in 2003 and made its name with its first record: singer-songwriter Cheer Chen’s debut single, Sentimental Kills.

There are standouts aplenty, including Dadado Huang’s insouciant To Myself, NyLas’ distinctive brand of child-like pop on Lovely Times and Smokering’s laid-back contribution. And that’s just the first three tracks.

We then take a detour into the territory of sombre and atmospheric pop a la Mazzy Star with two English numbers, Hwang’s Soak and Ciacia’s haunting A Dialogue Between Me & My Ghost.

Natural Q’s A Good Day (Fine Weather) closes the set with a slyly breezy number on the vagaries of weather and love.

This is a snapshot of the state of indie pop in Taiwan today and it is a good day indeed.

Guardian

Y2J

Duets are often obligatory in albums and Mandorock falls into cliches. Yet, against the odds, duo Y2J have become commercially viable based on their mainstay of rock duets.

Comprising Yuming Lai and Jane Huang, both finalists from the second season of the star-making machinery One Million Star, the duo had their first album Live For You out in 2008. It earned them a nomination for Best Vocal Group at the Golden Melody Awards.

Beyond strong, powerful vocals, Y2J’s dynamic is powered by the “are-they-or-aren’t-they-a-couple” undertow. On Forgiving, he wails: “Your tears leave me helpless” and she answers: “Do you know I’ve endured humiliations for love/Striving to learn forgiveness/Can’t bear for our love to die halfway”.

The title track features a guest turn by aboriginal singer Biung Wang and has Huang urging Lai: “Please be my guardian, hold me/Help me quietly rediscover the true colour of love”.

For star-crossed lovers everywhere.

We Hold Each Other Happily

Yuki

There is a joyful innocence to the series of black-and-white photos in the lyric booklet which shows the Japanese singer-songwriter with her arms stretched out in an embrace. Except there is no one there.

Despite that slightly unsettling stance, the former member of the now-defunct punk rock band Judy And Mary has come up with a kookily optimistic album that can be hard to resist.

Present chugs along on guitar riffs as her voice swoops from the lower registers to a child-like squeal, Look Of Love gets jazzy, while “just life! all right!” has her intoning solemnly in English: “Baby corn and carrot/tomato, onion, green beans and spinach/cream cheese and LOVE”.

The disc is bookended by the tracks Morning Comes and Night Comes, lending a sense of symmetry to the musical journey.

(ST)