Fiction
Yoga Lin
At this point, Taiwanese singer Yoga Lin’s biggest competition is himself.
Having released the adventurous Senses Around (2009) and the stellar Perfect Life (2011), the 25-year-old has set the bar very high indeed.
On his fourth album, he plays around with the conceit of fiction and storytelling, and things start off promisingly.
Opening track Si Fan (Captain S.V) takes an unusual point-of-view and is about aliens visiting earth. He ponders: “I must quickly find out the charms of this backward planet, the captain who should have long since returned, why does he refuse to leave.”
It feels, though, that much of Fiction lacks something of the surprise and urgency that the previous two records conveyed. In part due to the broad theme, the album is more like a disparate collection of songs than a tightly knit record.
Not that the songs are terrible – they just do not reach past heights.
With the inclusion of Unrequited, Fools’ Bliss and Fool, there also seems to be one too many love ballad by composer Cheng Nan, even with Lin’s emotive voice in fine form throughout.
Perhaps the lack of a breakthrough is due to the fact that Perfect Life was released little more than a year ago. It is worth bearing in mind that music, like fiction, needs time to be carefully crafted.

The Last Day Of Summer
831
Are Taiwanese rock band Mayday releasing a new album so soon after their triumphant six-statuette haul at the Golden Melody Awards?
One would be forgiven for thinking so upon hearing fellow Taiwanese band 831’s third and latest disc, given how vocalist Up Lee’s enunciation on the ballad The Best Ending makes him sound exactly like Ashin, frontman of Mayday.
There is also more than a passing similarity between the sound of quintets 831 and Mayday, as both serve up tenderly earnest ballads and blistering rock numbers. In fact, Ashin even wrote the lyrics for 831’s Lunatic here.
The Last Day Of Summer is not a bad record at all, but it does 831 no favours to be so closely associated with a bigger, more established act. If they want to be a band for all seasons, they need to think about staking out a more distinctive sound on their fourth album.
(ST)