Less than a month ago, LaLa 徐佳瑩 released her new album, 心裡學 Inner Me after three years since her last one. In the past three years, she has explored new activities and traveled around, building experiences. After listening to just a few songs from the album, I can say each day of those three years was worth the wait of every word in each song. She proves the saying, that the good things in life come when you wait (for a certain time). Each song in this album represents her thoughts and conclusions from her three year hiatus.
I’ve been following her loosely since her competition days at 星光大道 Avenue of Stars. It’s been a great pleasure to see her uphold her songwriting talent and evolve it. If I were to describe this music with one word, it would be genuine.
Inner Me opens with the song, The Prayer 言不由衷, a song for parting love. I think it was for this music video that she left the country to film an MV for the first time. The song is a goodbye to a fleeting love and a prayer for the person leaving to be well, grow, love, and be happy and a prayer for herself to be strong, and kind, and if she loves again, to take her time and be in no rush. And lastly for that fleeting love to forgive them.
For those who have ever loved in a relationship that you knew had to end, this song really hits close to home. There’s a helplessness that is all too relatable if you’ve walked through this kind of love.
As mentioned before, LaLa is a master of words. Many stars like to aim for catchy tunes that loop around your head, LaLa opts for more soothing but strong melodies that allow the listener to immerse themselves into the lyrics to ultimately hear a story. The term ‘less is more’ couldn’t be more real here.
‘The Grey灰色’ is simple and genuine love in the form of words, colors, and melodies. She compares her loved one to the sweet dreams that you can’t bare to part with in the cracks of dawn, the gentle sweet marshmallows, the gardenias that pass blessings along, the lazy clouds that float by, and the color white. She herself is the color black.
My favorite line:
如果我們可以 用顏色比喻
那是愛過你才能成為的灰色自己
if we can use colors to describe our lives, this is the grey that can only be created after loving you.
My translations don’t really do these songs justice. One of the things I’ve realized about why Chinese music falls short internationally compared to Jpop/rock and Kpop is because if you can’t understand the language, you might not be able to appreciate the full value of the song. And then shit translators like me don’t help the cause either ahaha.
Inner Me which is also the name of her album is actually placed towards the end of her album. It’s another thoughtful song with simple guitar, bass, and piano but with more flare due to the dynamic tempo.
Enjoy!
MISOE MUSIC HOUSE 