讨好自己 Please Myself / 菲靡靡之音 Decadent Sound of Faye / Di-Dar / 浮躁 Stressed

In distinction, Di-Dar, her second album of the 12 months—in addition to Wong’s last (and best) Cantonese album—is extra atmospheric, nearly psychedelic. The spectral dream pop of “假期” (“Trip”) pairs flickering synths with gothic guitar licks, whereas “(無題)” (“Untitled”) is a burbling trip-hop ballad that layers Wong’s gossamer falsetto over a sputtering digital beat and tabla-like percussion. Even its most radio-friendly songs, just like the radiant business success “曖昧” (“Ambiguous”), undertake orchestral preparations that give them equally vivid and opulent textures. Di-Dar coheres like an prolonged dream, but beneath its haze are vignettes that sketch a deteriorating relationship. The album’s lyrics (excluding the Mandarin nearer) had been written by shut collaborator Albert Leung, who fixates on the unease Wong introduced on 討好自己 Please Myself, suffusing the album’s romanticism with a way of tension and the burning need to vanish.

These themes characteristic closely on Wong’s final album for Cinepoly, 1996’s insular 浮躁 Fuzao—which greatest interprets to “stressed” or “impetuous.” Making no concessions to mainstream tastes, she was extra creatively concerned on this album than wherever else in her profession. For 浮躁 Fuzao, she pulled away from her frequent Hong Kong-based collaborators, as an alternative turning to Dou and one other Beijing rock musician, Zhang Yadong, for preparations. Regardless of his lack of involvement for the report, her longtime producer, Alvin Leong, facilitated a working relationship between her and the Cocteau Twins, who had turn out to be excited about collaborating after listening to her trustworthy renditions of their work. They contribute two unique tracks that land on the wispier finish of the spectrum of their work. Whereas the songs nonetheless match firmly throughout the group’s oeuvre—the resplendent spotlight “分裂” (“Divide”) floats over a mattress of light synths and dainty coos, whereas the ghostly “掃興” (“Spoilsport”) staggers atop murky guitar textures—Wong makes them her personal, her clearer enunciation lending substantive which means to a band well-known for its cryptic lyrics. Wong composed the remainder of the album’s songs, usually borrowing liberally from the Scottish group’s model. On “哪兒” (“The place”), she hums, coos, and babbles in incoherent syllables, her voice a rare instrument that imbues every be aware with pleasure amid the turmoil.

But 浮躁 Fuzao isn’t merely a pastiche of the Cocteau Twins; the album’s producers steep the music within the sounds of Beijing’s nascent rock scene. Dou condenses a decade’s value of kinds into the miniature world of its opener because the music weaves from shimmering guitar to sharp, probing downtempo synths. Zhang’s lighthearted manufacturing on the title monitor is a candy callback to Wong’s transient infatuation with jangle pop. Her voice bounds between jubilant shouts and apprehensive coos, ripping the music aside till it dissolves into digital froth. It’s not simply these exterior influences that set her aside—her reserved but playfully mischievous nature permeates the album.

Wong would by no means be afforded the chance to do one other 浮躁 Fuzao. On her later blockbuster albums, she was pressured to stability her idiosyncratic tastes along with her label’s business aims. However on these 4 information, she resists simple categorization, directly ethereal and eccentric, and refreshingly freed from the easy romanticism of her interval friends. Wong pulled the unfamiliar to the floor by highlighting sounds not often explored and anxieties often left untouched, but her elegant voice provided soothing, intimate consolation. Wong’s music of this era represents a welcome embrace of the undefined.