TRACY HUANG'S MANDARIN WORKS: MERITS AND FLAWS
BY Reynard Cheok
As a Chinese singer who sings in Mandarin, Tracy Huang, more than any other Chinese singer I have heard, is an enigma, a symbol of many possibilities. What strikes me most, after having listened to a large number of her Mandarin works, is the volatility and elasticity of her singing styles and musical directions. Therefore, it is difficult to define her music, for her work has always been in a constant state of flux, always taking on new shapes and dimensions.
The rapidity of her changes can be seen even in the initial years of her singing career. Although in CLOUD RIVER and DEEP IN MY HEART she appears to be merely singing in a voice that is rich but does not carry much emotional depth, her vocals suddenly softened and became mellow in WANG BU DIAO. The sharp intensity and clarity with which she interpreted the number CLOUD RIVER, melted into gentleness and subtlety as she sang RECOLLECTING OLD DREAMS.
Her next musical breakthrough was to come, again suddenly, in TWITTERING. In this album she discarded the Chinese classical influences and singing styles of her previous albums and opted for an elegant and minimalist approach to her music and singing. While her voice in CLOUD RIVER is fiery and passionate, TWITTERING is filled with gentle crooning. While the music of LOVE'S TEARDROPS and I ONLY WANT YOUR LOVE is lush and heavy, that of TWITTERING is largely pared down to bare simplicity. In TWITTERING, we hear for the very first time a more naturalistic and versatile Tracy Huang, rather than a singer who is bound by conventional and rigid methods of expression.
When Tracy Huang moved on to Polygram in the 80s, the uncluttered beauty of TWITTERING was decisively cast aside. Although I have not heard very much of her music from this period, from the compilations of her songs, I sense an almost metallic and artificial sound to her music and voice. It is as though in trying to keep up with the trends of the 80s she has embraced a type of music that is perhaps modern, but nonetheless excessively commercialised, to the extent that elegance and simplicity is largely destroyed. Her voice too, sounds as though it has been subject to electronic treatment and artificial layering, to the extent that the brightness and robustness in her vocals do not sound entirely natural. I can think of several examples where these rather disturbing characteristics are revealed: BEWILDERMENT, WALKING IN THE DESERT.
One of her best voices emerged in MESSAGE FROM THE HEART, her first Mandarin album released in 1986, after she joined UFO. In this album her voice is more textured than before and her singing more nuanced and sophisticated. Where previously she would simply have belted out a song in melodramatic fashion (ONLY TO PART), now she sings with greater restraint and control. In TEARS, MASK, MAYBE YOU ONCE and I DON'T CARE, one can hear the mellowness and emotional range which her voice contains. Indeed, this hauntingly mysterious, yet rich and robust aura of her voice was subsequently revealed in several songs in the English albums, TRUE DEVOTION and THE LOVE INSIDE.
By the time she released GOODDAY MY LOVE in 1989, this luminosity of her voice in MESSAGE has disappeared. Her singing in GOODDAY is similar to her present singing, one that is filled with breathy sighs and gentle murmuring. Examples of these new facets of her voice can be found in BEING IN LOVE, CAN'T DREAM OF YOU, NIGHT AND DAY. The next album, SET LOVE FREE is an exciting breakthrough for her, with its myriad musical and singing styles.
Her first Mandarin effort when she joined ROCK, LOVE FROM THE HEART, disappoints because the material chosen and Tracy Huang's singing are generally colourless and lacking in character and force. However, a surprise is in store. In WILLING TO BELIEVE, released about a year after LOVE FROM THE HEART, a gutsy, almost ruggedly masculine Tracy Huang emerges, as she takes decisive control of the rock influenced and rustic, folksy numbers written for her by Wu Bai and Chen Sheng.
This streak of experimentation grew increasingly stronger as she consecutively released three Mandarin albums with EMI in the 90s: SPRING GLOW, SWEET NOTHINGS and WE AH WE. SPRING GLOW brings us back to the unspoiled and minimalist beauty of TWITTERING, in the acoustic music used in several of the songs in the album. In SWEET NOTHINGS, Tracy Huang exudes much ebullience in her breezy singing and the more upbeat rhythms of the various numbers. It is, however, in WE AH WE that she articulates her most serious and profound thoughts about the essential meaningless nature of modern life. An existential despair and desolation pervade the entire album, making it her best effort to date.
From this brief description of Tracy Huang's musical history it can be seen that her greatest strength lies in her ability to change and her need to experiment with new musical forms and trends. This courage to change and attempt new things is unusual since the Chinese pop industry is still very conservative and many record companies would prefer to release formulaic albums that will guarantee good sales rather than experimental albums which may flop. Since this is the mentality of the industry it is of little surprise that many Chinese singers choose to rehash the styles that they are familiar with and which will be popular with the crowds, rather than attempt to create music with integrity and originality. The result is a boring, uniform sound that floods the airwaves, that bombards listeners with weepy and melodramatic love songs or childish cartoon tunes. Against this backdrop of conservatism and reluctance towards change, it is easy to understand why many established singers like Michelle Pan, Su Rei, Sarah Chen, Cai Xing Juan, Stella Chang Qing Fang and Anita Mui have found it increasingly difficult to break out of their old moulds, even as listeners get bored with the same sort of music that they dish out over and over again.
Against this very dismal atmosphere of mediocrity and predictability, Tracy Huang's music reminds listeners that the commercialised music of Chang Huei Mei, Valen Hsu, Mavis Hee and Sammi Cheng, is not everything. From the exotic sound of SPRING GLOW to the ruggedness of WILLING TO BELIEVE to the drum n' bass influenced and heavy guitar music of CRAZY FOR LOVE, Tracy Huang has shown us how delightful change can be. There is no doubt that change is risky, but it is change that has ensured that as Tracy Huang releases one album, listeners are immediately curious as to what she would do for her next. It is change that has marked her albums with the distinction of being extremely progressive and ahead of their time. Change ensures that with each album Tracy Huang scales new heights, and that she deliberately chooses to work with new producers and musicians, so as to bring her music to the next level of creativity and dynamism.
Just as her music has many dimensions, she is also a singer of many voices. While the voices of most singers deepen and mature with age, but remain essentially the same, Tracy Huang's voice has changed dramatically in texture and style over the years. From the full bodied and lush voice with which she sang standard Mandarin oldies like LOVE'S TEARDROPS and I ONLY WANT YOUR LOVE, Tracy Huang abandoned her bright falsetto by singing in a more natural lower voice in TWITTERING. This soothing and gentle way of singing quickly evaporated as she demonstrated her powerhouse vocals once again in albums like DAYS OF WIND AND RAIN and SNOW IS BURNING. However, by he 80s, the power and strength of her vocals have become more nuanced and layered with greater emotional depth and conviction. The lower range of her voice became more mellow and mature and began to exude a mysterious and sultry perfume as she sang MESSAGE FROM THE HEART and GOODDAY MY LOVE (BEING IN LOVE). In SET LOVE FREE she departed from the familiar ballads and attempted breezier and jazzier numbers, her voice now sounding sparkling and light. Then even as her voice began to reveal more breathiness and wispiness in LOVE FROM MY HEART, she displayed the steely masculine textures of her vocals as she attempted rustic folk and rock pieces in WILLING TO BELIEVE. Then, from the acoustic charm and exotic romance of SPRING GLOW she went back to a pure and simple voice in SWEET NOTHINGS.
From the many twists and turns in her vocal qualities I often wonder whether it is the same singer that I am listening to. The changes in Tracy Huang's voice must be attributed in part to her growing maturity and experience as a singer. While her younger voice was rich in flavour, her voice upon maturity has become distinctly quieter and peaceful, and has taken on a more gentle and even tenor, as if some of her understanding towards life has seeped into her way of singing. There is a calm clearness and gentleness in her best voice as she sings YI SHI DE MI TI, BEING IN LOVE and WILLING TO LOCK UP, where the callowness of youth has melted into the deep fertility and fragrance of maturity. But, more importantly, one thinks that the many changes in her voice is due to her desire to always change and reveal new facets of herself. Therefore, even as her music becomes more experimental and creative, she understands that her voice also has to become more varied in tone and texture, so as to be able to keep up with her ambitious musical experiments.
Unfortunately, in recent times, I sense increasingly a rather disturbing incongruity between her voice and her music. Although her voice has become more mature over the years, it has also become distinctly feminine and delicate; no amount of change can mask the delicate porcelain purity and silky smoothness of her voice. However, her music has become increasingly progressive and passionate, for instance in CRAZY FOR LOVE. The danger that is revealed in her most recent album is that her soft voice is no longer appropriate for singing such strong and powerful numbers, and that the attempt to continue doing this, although ambitious and courageous, will only lead to the creation of songs which are sadly imperfect. For instance, in many of the songs of the album, including SO NEAR YET SO FAR AWAY, SUNSET BOLULEVARD and GRAVITY, Tracy Huang's paper-thin vocals are almost overwhelmed and suffocated by the strength of the music. Sad to say, her voice sounds very distant and muffled as compared to the music, and as she strains to keep up, her vocals falter and thin out even more. Even in the sentimental ballads like RAIN.SKY and WE WERE BOTH WRONG her trademark polished singing style has disappeared and in its place is a voice that is highly watery and which has to strain to hit the high notes.
The experiments in CRAZY FOR LOVE are undoubtedly refreshing, with much of the music arrangements and guitar playing being very exciting and passionate. However, Tracy Huang should perhaps understand by now the true strengths and weaknesses of her voice, and therefore the type of songs that she can handle well, and those that she cannot. An unbridled desire to attempt innovative musical styles, while ignoring the limitations of her voice, will only be short sighted. It may also create unnecessary damage to her career as listeners begin to wonder whether she even has the ability to hold her notes well.
Another thing that I find baffling about her voice in recent years is the many inconsistencies of it. For even while she can belt out I DON'T BELIEVE YOU in 1997with panache and spunk, her rendition of RESTRICTION in 1996 is needlessly breathy and thin. Even while she can control her voice remarkably well in the difficult pieces WE AH WE and SWEET NOTHINGS her vocals sound rather squeaky and strained in WE WERE BOTH WRONG. Arguably, one can say that Tracy Huang has decided to use different singing styles to attempt different types of songs and that therefore, all these represent the new naturalistic facets of her voice. However, as much as I agree that she has to adopt a natural way of singing so as to remain relevant and modern, I don't agree that she should let her voice sink into breathiness and wispiness so as to show that she can sing in a 'natural' way, or that she is capable of singing in many different styles. Whenever she tries to do so she only reveals a voice that is neither polished nor controlled. She must understand that this new wispiness and whispery quality in her very feminine vocals do not contribute to good singing; they instead display glaringly all the cracks and blemishes of her voice.
As I await her new album, therefore, I keep my fingers tightly crossed in the hope that it will not contain the glaring mistakes that are made in CRAZY FOR LOVE. The irony is that even as Tracy Huang moves further and further away from the original simplicity of her earlier albums in search of greater musical sophistication, all the more do listeners like myself await eagerly her return to the simple classiness of her early albums. Ironically, Tracy Huang's experimentation in her most recent albums like CRAZY FOR LOVE has alienated many listeners, and there is now a vacuum for her slick and stylish efforts like SET LOVE FREE and SPRING GLOW. In terms of her vocal performance, I hope that in her next album more concentration would be placed on improving her vocal techniques and singing styles. Great singing can transform a simple or mundane number into something magical and breathtaking; but mediocre singing will only sound worse when struggling to cope with more ambitious songs. In light of the present weaknesses of her voice one remembers with nostalgia the haunting and polished voices of her past albums. I still remember with great fondness the sure and confident manner in which Tracy Huang once delivered the songs, MASK, I DON'T CARE, BEING IN LOVE, WILLING TO LOCK UP, BEING IN LOVE, SNOW IS BURNING, THE LONELY PERFORMANCE, CAN'T DR EAM OF YOU, NIGHT AND DAY.
Another way for Tracy Huang to bring her Mandarin works to new heights of excellence lies in selecting the material and songs for her albums more discriminatingly. So far, I sense that most of her Mandarin works are merely collections of songs with no common thread linking them. Most of the songs, too, are run-of-the-mill love songs. Given Tracy Huang's life experience and maturity it would mean much more to her listeners if she were to produce a concept album, one that revolves around thought provoking themes and issues, one that explores the human condition, and not just about romance and love. Doing a concept album would give her more room to express her thoughts and feelings about the matters that are closest to her heart and to explore her own personal philosophy about life and human existence. This would indeed be most refreshing and original as compared to yet another album filled with cliched love songs. In this regard one cannot fault her too much for not trying since Mandarin albums in general have always revolved solely around the hackneyed issues of love and heartbreak and trying to piece one's life together after love is lost. But Tracy Huang has the calibre and reputation to make a difference and she should not simply follow this tried and tested subject matter blindly.
Several good examples of Mandarin works which have deliberately moved away from matters of the heart are those from veteran singer Chyi Yu who, by the way, has almost the same amount of experience as Tracy Huang. In the 70s and early 80s Chyi Yu did several albums under the guidance of her music teacher Lee Tai Xiang, who penned music to Chinese poetry. In the late 80s she also released (together with Michelle Pan) a wonderfully intense album with haunting and evocative lyrics written by the late Taiwanese author San Mao. Songs in this album contain San Mao's life story, her inferiority complex as a student, her recollections of her first date, the death of her husband, her thoughts of life and widowhood. Such an album becomes more than just an album; it becomes an intense record of a person's life. In 1997, Chyi Yu released CAMEL.BIRD.FISH after a hiatus of 9 years. In it she penned lyrics about her personal philosophy towards life and marriage. Even in her English albums Chyi Yu has always insisted on singing not just any song but songs which really tell stories and record what she wants to say to the listener.
Chyi Yu's integrity and passion towards music, her individualism and refusal to compromise on musical standards should be emulated. In this regard Tracy Huang should not be afraid to use her songs to tell stories which stir the heart and which provoke the listeners to ponder and think deeper about life. Although it may be argued that Chyi Yu and Tracy Huang have different styles, the basic assumptions about what constitutes goods music remain fundamentally the same. Good music, like good art and literature, should not just be hackneyed expressions of cliched subject matters; it should attempt to explore life with honesty of language and originality of perspective.
A final point that I would like to raise pertains once more to Tracy Huang's singing. I have always felt that her singing lacks the emotional depth and richness that the voices of other veteran singers like Michelle Pan, Zheng Yi, Cai Qin, Su Rei and Chyi Yu have. Very often Tracy Huang's voice is too light and delicate to be stretched. It is not versatile or intense or personal enough to be able to really bring out the flavour of the songs she sings. Added to the fact that she usually does sentimental love songs which leave very little room for vocal expression anyway, the result is that her songs are polished and listenable, but rarely revealing the most personal feelings of her heart. One only has to compare Tracy's light and gentle singing to the sorrowful, dark and deeply sensuous and evocative voice of Michelle Pan to see the radical differences in their treatment of songs. It is unfair of course to expect Tracy Huang to sound like Michelle Pan since their vocal textures are fundamentally different. The point really is that Tracy Huang should begin to move from just singing songs to using her voice to bring out the flesh and blood of a song. Only then can she be considered a truly exceptional singer.
The above comments appear rather harsh and unforgiving. However, they were not written out of a malicious desire to criticise. Instead, they are the objective and truthful opinions of a person who has been listening to Tracy Huang for a fairly long time, and who sees her merits along with her weaknesses and limitations as a singer. My hope is that Tracy Huang, whose philosophy in music has always been rooted in change and creativity, should pay greater attention to the other areas of her voice and music which also need to be improved and polished. My hope also is that through these changes she can move from being a singer of just words to being a genuine artist who uses her voice to express her art. Given Tracy Huang's high standing in the music industry and her personal desire for perfection, it is only fair that a listener like myself should have the highest expectations of her. May she reach greater heights and achieve new breakthroughs in her future albums.
