9th:) Time Falling In Love
A-do

The lead single for the lacklustre last album, Fear No More (2010), was Crying Ox with its headscratching chorus about buying and selling an ox. After that mis-step, homegrown singer A-do is back on more familiar ground on his seventh album.
The opening tracks are romantic ballads which play to the forte of his husky voice. The more relaxed numbers such as R&B-flavoured Valentine’s Day work better, though that song’s “Ay-ah ay-ah” chorus sounds rather dated.
The title track gets too angsty, however, and the concept of falling in love as if for the first time for the ninth time is too overwrought. The cutesy emoticon does not help.
A clutch of maudlin ballads in the middle bogs the album down and raises the unpleasant question of whether this really is the extent of A-do’s range as a singer.
Thank goodness Don’t Mention picks up the pace and shows some spirit: “I won’t mention sadness, I won’t mention, won’t reminisce/I won’t mention fate, those who persevere have super abilities”.
On Valentine’s Day, he sings: “I will appear in front of you in my perfection/I want to become your most beautiful memory”.
If only he were talking about his seventh album here.

(ST)