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Yang Naiwen Shatters The "Silence"
Beijing needs Yang Naiwen. At least, Beijing needs someone like her. With
Luo Qi continuing her post-addiction exile in Germany, there is yet to
emerge another rock chick who can front a band and devastate all in her
path
with her vocal power (quiet, you Qianqian fans; you know she's not there
yet).
On her latest release, "Silence," Yang Naiwen shows that women from Taiwan
can do more than sing saccharine and cry on camera. Yang has rock in her
blood and a great set of lungs and vocal chords to match. There we have
it--Anatomy of a Rock Goddess 101.
Yang gets a little help from various Magic Stone Records friends, including
Overload's Gao Qi, The Flowers's Da Zhang Wei, and Taiwan singer/songwriter
Zhang Zhen Yue, not to mention fellow Taiwan female musician Chen Shanni.
The song "Silence" is such a slamming tune that the title is almost
humorous. Heads will bang, air guitars will be slung over shoulders, blood
vessels will break. Play it LOUD.
"Don't Say Goodbye" and "Motionless" are Overload and The Flowers covers,
respectively. It's definitely strange to hear a woman take on songs
written
and sung by men, but it works. Whereas Gao Qi sounds like he's holding
back, Yang's slightly reserved approach seems more appropriate.
"Monster" puts things back on the crunch track. The album's first video
single, "The Love I Give," is a nice ballad, not sappy, and a great vocal
performance for Yang.
Producer Lin Weizhe wrote four of the album's songs, including "Silence"
and
"Monster," but his greatest contribution is in the details. The kind of
production problems that recent mainland albums, including Zi Yue, Tang
Dynasty, and Thin Men have experienced would be resolved in the precise,
clean hands of Lin, who is not afraid to use effects but has no intention
of
overpowering Yang's vocals with them.
What sets this album apart most is that it's not predictable. Pick any
Chinese-language pop album off the chart, put on a blindfold, and listen to
it, and it's almost a game to listen for the soft keyboards imitating rain
signalling a sad track, the uptempo beat or English rap that denotes the
album's dance track, and every other song will sound the same. "Silence"
is
far from that. Rock fans can listen to this album and not have to put it
away when their metal friends come to the apartment. Those in search of
lighter fare (Tian Zhen fans, listen up) will find it here as well. It's
not for absolutely everyone (Yuki and Pantera listeners need not apply),
but
there's satisfaction in the Silence.
Copyright Chinabuzz 1999. All Rights Reserved. Used By Permission.
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