On June 13, Shangguan's new EP "WAKE" was launched online. The EP includes "Three Meals a Day, Four Seasons for Two", "White Rhinoceros", "Tao", "Shut Up and Kiss Me", of which the main song "White Rhinoceros" has achieved good views as soon as it was launched because of its public welfare theme and powerful lyrics.
The song "White Rhino" was inspired by the endangered Northern White Rhinoceros. The northern white rhinoceros is the second largest creature on land after elephants, but it has a kind personality. Because of the relentless hunting of poachers, the number is constantly decreasing. In 2018, with the death of the world's last male, the Northern White Rhino, left the last pair of mothers and daughters left in the population. From the perspective of the Northern White Rhinoceros, the song tells the story of two lonely and intimate individuals in the world, giving each other strength.
"Social issues" has always been an important theme in musical works, and there has always been no shortage of excellent works in the Chinese and foreign music scenes, inheriting this responsibility. For example, Michael Jackson, the early pop king of the European and American music scenes, discussed the ecological and green "Earth Song", and the recent newcomer Logic hot list "1-800273-8255" also uses rap to convey the power of life; there are also legendary band Beyond's "Amani" that deeply thinks about war, and Wang Lihong's "A.I. Love" focuses on artificial intelligence, discussing technology and morality... Now Shangguan likes to try to use her own musical works, expressing her thoughts on social issues, paying tribute to her predecessors, and also making people feel the degree of care of her works.
The song is motivated by the story of the "Northern White Rhinoceros", while also giving the song a deeper level of power. The words "pride", "angularity" and "heterogeneity" expressed in the lyrics contain uncompromising faith, and the song abandons the complex and dynamic arrangement form, but instead uses a classic minimalist melody with super high singing skills to hit people's hearts.
In Shangguan's favorite social platforms and interviews, it can be found that every song she releases will participate in the planning, regardless of the visual, arrangement, and content of the work, and strive for excellence. The high standards of her works have also made her works gain word of mouth. The songs contained in this new EP also reflect Shangguan's consistent high standards for music, and I recommend that you listen to them.