Wang Yihao's mini album ‘To U’ is officially online, hear me and see you too.
Letters don't have meaning only when they are sent; they reach the heart the moment they are written.
This is a letter from Wang Yihao, not a whimsical outpouring, but a response that has been precipitated over the years.
Over the past fifteen years since his debut, the frozen moments on the stage, the flickering lights and shadows on the screen, and the tacit response in the interactions have pieced together the trajectory that we have travelled together. Accompaniment is never a one-way payment, but the temperature of each other's response.
To U" is a journey in retrospect and a dialogue with the future.
It records ‘desire’ and ‘determination’, but also includes “struggle” and ‘release’;
It records ‘desire’ and ‘firmness’, as well as “struggle” and ‘release’; it has insistence on ideals, as well as rhetorical questions about reality; it has unrestrained thoughts about life, as well as hidden cracks in emotions.
The six songs are slices of six memories and six ways to share them with you.
This mini-album is not for shouting or confessing.
It is more like a page of diary that you open, or a yellowed but still warm letterhead lying in the depths of a drawer.
Without words, it has already reached the softest place in your heart.
To U, written to you.
Hear me and see you.
1. How I long for you to feel my love for you!
Repeatedly circling ‘disappointment’ and “regret” are gently deconstructed by the leaping saxophone, just like your eyes looking at me when you are down, ‘like the spring breeze over the green grass’, bathed in the warm spring sun. The warmth of the spring sun.
The light drums in the vintage City Pop rhythm hide countless late nights that have been warmed up and turned into eternal star tracks in the galaxy of synths.
Repeatedly crooning ‘How I long for you to feel my love for you...’ over the beat. ", layered in beats, each note says: this two-way adventure, I wish to continue with a lifetime of melody; in the softest part of your heart, I will always be there.
2. Commercial Songs
When musicians collectively suffer from "data PTSD", when chart figures become the music industry's "exam education", when "better than him, her and it" becomes an obsession... The seemingly compromised creative formula is in fact a bitter satire on standardisation.
The electronic sound effect pierces the information cocoon, and the light drum beat breaks the KPI anxiety. Wang Yihao, in a playful and helpless tone, composes the unspoken rules of the music market into a black humour: refusing to be a puppet on the strings of the algorithms, but not to be a Don Quixote who enjoys himself alone either.
Let Commercial Songs become an outlet to release pressure, and find the purest love for music in the swaying rhythm.
3. Let the clock go slowly
Time won't stop, but you can press the pause button.
Let the clock go slowly‘ is not a song of “memories”, nor is it a ’declaration of growth".
It's just a song about those details that have not been taken away by time - the white Nike Air gently stepping over a puddle, the melody of a certain summer playing in the headphones, the short-lived silhouettes in the underground car, the chat box that's still lit up at three in the morning.
There are some emotions that don't need to be turned over in a hurry; there are some stories that don't need to be rushed to the end.
So slow down, listen to a song and let time take its own way.
4. Only for the one who embraces you
Are you able to tell the difference between a mask and the truth?
‘Who takes off with the geese, or with the flies’ is a heartfelt interrogation.
Just for the One Who Hugs You is a masquerade of feigned composure, with everyone playing their own made-up gods.
As the magnificent drums intertwine and climb with the vocals, the flood of emotion is instantaneous, and the panic under the mask brings out the struggle and wildness of the mortals.
It is a mirror to the inner entanglements, and a confession - even if you are bruised, you have to tear down your disguise just to embrace you.
From the ‘envy of the saints’ in the illusion of breaking out, the real redemption, began to run to.
5. Love - the way
What is love? It is a jumper in the cold season, a cool breeze in the summer, a text message late at night, and a tacit understanding without words.
The piano is as pure as running water, and Wang Yihao's voice is gentle and affectionate, narrating the warmth and happiness brought by various ways of love.
From the ordinary romance of ‘one house, two people, three meals and four seasons’ to the fearless vow of ‘I'll be with you even if you're the enemy’, the purity of love is shown in a minimalist way.
May you find your own way of love, and love yourself passionately before the right person comes along.
Become a better version of yourself, and then, meet with love.
6. Smoke Ring
In the midst of the hustle and bustle, there is a cloud of smoke hidden in everyone's heart, drifting in and out.
Circle of Smoke" is like an inner monologue, a song written for the unwilling and confused.
Those ‘wasted time’ and ‘the taste of futile sadness’ follow us around, we try to break free, but we are always pulled by the weight of reality.
The melody is like a fog that lingers on and on. Wang Yihao's voice is low and gentle, carrying patience, sighs and reluctance, slowly unfolding between the seemingly and the unseen.
‘Cigarette’ is not only a symbol of escape and reflection, but also an intertwining of hope and confusion. Each puff of smoke devours fatigue and brings a whirlpool of emotions, like a dialogue between Wang Yihao and himself, and also a game between him and the world.
May you become the Wang Youwei not written in the book, without having to follow the established trajectory. If everything is still not as you wish, find a trace of solace in The Smoke Circle, and let the bitterness become joy.