Everything In The World
Qu Wanting
Two female singers currently stand out on the airwaves: Hung Pei-yu singing Dian Qi Jiao Jian Ai (Tiptoe Love) and the other is Qu Wanting on Wo De Ge Sheng Li (You Exist In My Song). There is a rawness to their husky voices that equates with emotional honesty and I have been looking forward to their albums. No word, however, on when Taiwanese Hung is putting out a disc.
China-born Qu is the first one to release a record and she takes an unusual approach. Now based in Vancouver, her debut album comprises nine English tracks and six Mandarin numbers (not counting the demo version of You Exist In My Song).
She had signed on with Canada’s indie label Nettwerk Music which includes Sarah McLachlan on its roster of artists.
While her phrasing may sometimes sound a little stilted on the English material, the singer-songwriter always manages to be compelling. Even when the lyrics feel too prosaic – “When you kissed me on the street, I kissed you back/You held me in your arms, I held you in mine”, on Drenched – she pulls it off with the swoonsome swirling music.
Still, she seems to sound more assured and at ease in the Mandarin numbers. On You Exist In My Song, she pulls you into her reminiscences of a past lover with conversational stanzas and a plaintive refrain: “You exist, in the deepest recesses of my mind/In my dreams, in my heart, in my song”.
And she makes you feel that he is everything in the world to her.
(ST)