Original Article: https://www.weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404487142507151684#_0
Original Author: 花非花2218
“Everyone’s impression of me is that I am polite and I sing love songs, but I actually still have a different soul.”
In the whole of “Our Song”, the 2 episodes that Xiao Zhan collaborated with Angela Zhang were the most surprising for me. “Faded” showed me his star quality. This article will talk about “Shout Out”《呐喊》.
For me to pick this song for an entire article, besides giving my salute to Angela Zhang (the original singer), the focus is on these two points – character and strength.
I really like this brand new Xiao Zhan – his singing conveyed the passion in his heart, his obstinacy, his confusion and his desire to breakthrough and metamorphosis. This is also my first time hearing his vocals being explosive, his gaze steady and sharp, and his body movements so wild.
This is just like what he said before he went on stage – “Everyone’s impression of me is that I am polite and I sing love songs, but I actually still have a different soul”. He sang with such passion that I was filled with an adrenaline rush, and after the performance was over, I was still excited for quite a while.
I have an old friend who is watching this variety show with me, and she used to be one of our top 10 singers from our school. After watching this episode, she said “The one thing about this child that I really admire this child – he is brave enough to always seek for breakthroughs, to leave his comfort zone and try all kinds of music, and he never hides his weaknesses”. To Xiao Zhan, the “Our Song” is the platform that gave him the opportunity to try different styles of music.
A few days ago, while writing notes on “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”《心流》, the author suggested using “analytical listening” to appreciate music, which I will try so today.
There are a lot of creativity in this version, both on the song composition and the stage performance.
Firstly, this version changed the sequence of the verses, and brought the second verse to the front. The first verse was originally a description of the scene – “I was standing alone looking at the endless wilderness…”, and the emotions were quite calm. After the change, the song started from “I still remember initially how we used to walk to this place…” – the emotions became clearer and the rhythm of the song became much more impactful.
Secondly, although the competition in the show is team based, because this song was performed as a duet, there were slight changes to the entire aura of the song. The original version of the song was about a lonely girl facing the world alone, whereas in this version, it seemed like it was a couple standing off a strange new world together – they stayed together and supported each other.
In the 4 minutes of the song, the melody was repeated thrice without significant changes, but step by step, the vocals brought out the progression of the emotions, stronger each time. At the last part, the song reached the climax, and I really loved the last 4 phrases – “The cold wind blows and wrinkles the water surface, awaken the slumbering moments, I could almost see your face, only the gaze has changed”. There is a strong visual linked to it, almost akin to a movie.
The stage design is simple and solemn, the choice of color tones deliberately dark. This contrasted sharply with the passionate emotions in the song. His shout out comes from within and resonates with us – I felt that this feeling extended all the way to his performance of “Perfect Life” in the last episode, except that the emotions were more inward.
Although I liked this song very much, I felt that there was still a bit lacking. In my first viewing, I felt that he was perpetually on the high notes region from start till end. Perhaps, the composer had certain considerations when he made this arrangement – like what Angela said in the behind-the-scenes, this song is difficult because it needed to be resounding and strong. But for me, the whole song felt a bit tense, a bit too full, and therefore slightly bland; while it showcased the strength, it lacked the gentle touch to details.
After the episode, I went to listen to Angela’s original version. This song was released in 2004, almost 15 years ago, but the music still sounded very current and very outstanding.
The original version had two outstanding qualities.
First is on the vocals – the singer took on two roles in the song and I loved that the middle portion of the song sounded like a conversation between the emotional self and the rational self. The highlight is on the last part of the song, where they overlapped the second and third verses, which made the song exceptionally palatable.
Second is on the background music, the prelude melodious and gives off the sense of wilderness, the added exotic instruments into the interlude made the song seemed like it was about a faraway place. All in all, the composition was detailed, rich and full of changes, and the whole song was spot on and the rhythm harmonious.
After comparing these two versions, I could clearly hear the changes to Angela’s vocals. 15 years ago, her voice was that of a young girl, bright and clear. In this duet, her voice became more deep and full, and that youthful irrational passion has been moved to Xiao Zhan’s voice instead.
Her original version was an additional surprise for me – it was totally different from the version in “Our Song” and I highly recommend that.
Songs are indicative of our era. In “Our Song, I do not know half of the songs chosen by Team Nazhan, especially those chosen by Xiao Zhan. This is my first time listening to “Shout Out”, and I do not know a lot of those singers that he likes as well. By watching “Our Song”, I have an extra reward – a lesson in 90s and 00s Chinese pop music with Xiao Zhan.