Listen To Jane Z Live
Jane Zhang

2020
By2

A live recording works only if one has the voice for it. And China’s Jane Zhang certainly does. She shows off her powerful pipes on this disc – recorded on April 9 in Beijing in front of an intimate audience of fans – which begins with a smoky, smouldering version of the jazzy English standard At Last.
It also helps that she has good taste in music and her covers include a delicate take on the folk-pop classic Meng Tian (Dream Field).
New Mandarin track Not So Easy is a standout. The ballad has an ease and lightness to it, even as it tackles heartbreak and sorrow. Zhang reins in her vocals as she contemplates: “How many drawers are there in the heart, are secrets which can’t be turned over” and then “My life has to go on, not so easy”.
Some of the material are too indulgent, though: I do not need to listen to her ooh-ing and ah-ing along on Concerto Pour Une Voix. Nor is it clear why the instrumental piece Por Una Cabeza is included. Maybe you had to be there at the gig for it to work.
While Zhang’s voice takes centre stage on her album, the focus of home-grown duo By2’s new EP is really the oversized photo books – one with Miko on the cover, the other with Yumi.
The nubile twins roll about on a bed, loll about on a beach and smile, or gaze blankly at the camera, in a series of sexy cutesy shots.
Their breathy vocals are used to best effect on the electropop number Touch Your Heart With Love. The song makes a decent case for bubblegum music by offering rhyming couplets and bouncy rhythms coated with a bright pop sheen.
They fare less well on the ballad You Don’t Know Me. A profession of “I’m so sad, you don’t love me” is so lightweight, the emotion barely registers.
(ST)