City beats up a tempo

By Chen Nan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-26 10:33

Just eight months after her previous album comes Zhang Xuan's latest release City, a project she described as "10 different faces portrayed in one city".

"It is a folk music record, with a little pop-rock fused through it," she said at a promotional concert in Beijing.

"It is more up-tempo than my last two albums. I am pretty happy with it."

Beautiful Woman is an upbeat rock tune Zhang created with her band, Algae. The title song, City, presents a picture of the colorful and confused Taipei where Zhang lives. Her lyrics are in the same humorous and sensitive style of her last two albums.

For the first time, she was no longer alone on stage and was accompanied by her four band members from Taiwan who recorded the album with her and the post-production.

Zhang is most proud of the album's rock elements. Compared with light-hearted songs like Baby and Bewildered, the album has stronger tones and heavier drums in songs such as Selling. "That is why I came to Beijing first," she says of the capital's long rock tradition. "I met some rock masters here like Zhang Yadong and Wang Feng. I learned a lot from their music."

Zhang, who learned how to play the guitar when she was very young and began composing songs at 13, says that she could not live without music, even though it's brought her tough times down the years.

Her nationwide tour runs through June and July.