When I mention "Shan Yichun", I always think of Ang Lee's evaluation of Zhang Ziyi's words when filming the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "She is God's appreciation of food and food".
This sentence also applies to Shan Yichun, who appeared in the Chinese music scene.
In 2020, at the age of eighteen, she came out of "The Voice of China", not only dropping a bomb for the show that has been uneventful for many years, but even making ripples throughout the music world
——Obviously a childish girl, a mouth but as if the body lives with an old soul that has gone through vicissitudes, full and mellow tone, full of storytelling interpretation, skilled but cleverly hidden behind the emotions, forming a natural and salty "listening affinity" for young and old, people are moved without burden, "Love That Never Loses", "Love Letters to Filmmakers", "Like the Wind", "Rainy Day", "Don't Care Who I Am", "Not Worth It"... All the way from "The Voice of China", "The Voice of Heaven", "Bursting Stage", Shan Yichun sang many classic golden songs to their own unique taste, the girl born in 2001, let too many people have hope: the Chinese music scene, really need to appear such a strength and audience affinity, super female newcomer.
And to be able to carry such hope, what is needed must be the singer's own original singing works, after several singles to ask for directions, Shan Yichun finally launched the first personal complete album "Brave Quota" when he turned one year old and just turned 20 years old. This is the first report card, with the significance of inheriting the past and the future: how to become a singer with his own work under the advantage of already leading the vast majority of newcomers, from a program contestant with a popular cover masterpiece, a recognized talent and a good seedling? Listening to the first four tracks to be exposed, we can find in them the path that Shan Yichun wants to take.
"Another Answer" as the opening song, as if it is a kind of accusation and escape of young people to this fast-paced era, in the name of "brave love", the bones are actually the awakening of "loving yourself", the main song dissects the reality confusion from a slightly depressing second-person angle, the chorus suddenly erupts, and the perspective changes accordingly, "I cross the turbulent sea of people, I cross the mountains in the clouds, I want to regain the unquenched expectations of these years, I don't want to wait on the shore, I swim into the sea in your eyes, I don't understand what you didn't say." As long as you look back, I have been", the pure and meticulous singing, the iconic transposition is almost everywhere in every sentence, and the frictional texture generated between the lips and teeth, with the rhythm of R&B rhythm with quite dark tension, can be described as seamless, bringing the audience a "indulge in silky" listening atmosphere, it is easy to indulge in it.
There is no doubt that Shan Yichun's over-age mature singing skills sublimate the texture and artistic conception of the song, in her singing, we can see "Another Answer" as a regret for a diseaseless crush in the campus era, and can also be regarded as a review of our innocence era, the self that does not forget the original heart, and is full of imagination for the future.
The second song, "Hello Happy", pulls the emotions to a deeper and more complex stage
As a work full of humorous temperament, if you are not careful, you will deduce the atmosphere of "sprinkling dog blood", and Shan Yichun's delicate interpretation makes us trance back to the golden age of Chinese records, and those Tianhou female singers interpret the "empathy" charm of traditional lyric songs - from the soft tone of the main song to almost speak, "Learn from you, white is black, black is gone, winning or losing, winning and losing, winning and obeying the rules", that kind of anger is helpless, words and sentences overflowing with words, and the chorus presents an outbreak of "external strength and middle work" "Hello happy, with my happiness, the rest of the misunderstood and denied by the cold-eyed, all let me swallow", in the unequal love relationship, the accusation of the hurt side is so strong, and so fragile, the arrangement in each "Hello Happy" paragraph is added to the re-beat drum and multi-level harmony, for me, it is like forming a "moth to the fire" like the sharp and broken beauty, and shan Yichun's singing highlight is excellent control, under the rendering of a large number of details in the arrangement, Her emotional flow will never break through the out-of-control boundary, just like "mourning is greater than heart death", full of a sense of hidden pity, which will make the listener have a more profound sense of substitution for the ironic theme of "Hello Happy".
The theme song of the album of the same name, "Brave Quota", whether you understand Shan Yichun's growth experience or not, it can be seen as this girl's unreserved confession to us, confessing her own bravery, and then accumulating the hard-won "brave quota" bit by bit.
——The whole song is full of classical temperament, but it also hides all kinds of small details that we need to be patient to feel, just like starting from the quiet piano prelude, the faint and messy noise that appears from time to time in the whole song, the grain of those bumps and hopes, just like people in a contradictory and tangled life, step by step and go forward, "My biggest regret, strong become a habitual offender", "time comforts the old wound, I comfort the new wound", "When we were young, we always wanted to grow up, and when we grew up, we always wanted to look back"... Shan Yichun used a more forceful sense of biting words than before, and sang word by word about the confusion and vulnerability that we all have.
Until the chorus completely removed the disguise of "I'm sorry, I'm cowardly word by word, I wear out the bravery one by one, I can't help but live from words, I'm sorry, I learn to be good at endurering, talk to myself, no dreams, I can sleep peacefully, no dreams, in order to sleep peacefully", those who embrace simple kindness and brilliant dreams, after experiencing the repeated beatings and "education" of reality, presumably will not be able to help but break their defenses in the song of Shan Yichun. What kind of sadness is it to tell yourself that "no dreams" is also a relief? Shan Yichun, who is often overaged by rap skills and precocious in emotion, seems to be mature to some heavy tone in this song "Brave Quota", but it is a complete interpretation of a deep sense of resonance in the current people's spiritual world, not to give up, but to be honest: to honestly look at their own vulnerability, to accept the inability to accept certain things, to face life "bravely", it is not easy, but such a mixed feeling, to retreat into the complex life situation, more needs us to appreciate.
"Tell Me" gives the album mood a bright sense of "seeing the sun in the clouds",
As Shan Yichun's first all-English work, the brisk electric guitar with the rhythm of the fingers, the vocals are handled more closely to the ear, so that the taste of "Soul" in the pure tone of Shan Yichun is further amplified, accompanied by the sweetness and annoyance of the girl who wants to say goodbye and guess the answer in the lover's heart, we feel the different style possibilities of Shan Yichun, as a love song sketch with a slight demo original feeling, Shan Yichun has a fresh sexy breath spreading in the "sweetness" of the girl.
We still don't know exactly what kind of complete appearance this "Brave Quota" album will eventually appear, but through the release of four songs, it can be found with joy that Shan Yichun does show a more mature "record singer" texture - in the show, often can't help but cry and overwhelmed, but in the work is always amazing twenty-year-old girl, is working together as a team to patiently sculpt a clearer and richer personal style, retain without squandering its own aura, in the choice of the theme of the work, In addition to the theme of love songs, it is natural to broaden to a deeper level, focusing on spiritual communication with music and listeners, so we listen to Shan Yichun singing, do not have to worry about her age and market constraints, because her valuable point is that she uses talent and hard work to build a music world that can resonate with too many people.
The world is very real, very beautiful, perhaps not strong enough, not perfect enough, but as the creator of Shan Yichun, is letting all the bubbles imposed on her gradually fade, leaving only a true heart that wants to sing and sing well, she is not afraid to reveal her true fragile emotions in music, nor is there any blindness to chase the market, that is, to return to the most simple and moving relationship between singing and listening. Making such a record, becoming such a singer, in such a fast-paced era, is brave in itself.