By Keith Walsh
Since her first album, 2005’s The TV Is On, Singaporean electro crooner The Analog Girl has grown from a distinctive singer songwriter with a completely unique sound with mostly minimalist beats, which then gave way to more reflective, moody tunes and lusher layers. On her new album Equinox there’s a return of sorts to her early sound, with fewer dense layers of pads, and the vocals more prominent.
The Analog Girl is Mei Wong, who started out on the business side with MTV Asia, before launching the career that led her to sponsorship by numerous corporate entities including Samsung, Apple, and brands like Nike and Versace.
The opening track on Equinox is “Sundial,” a slight instrumental that leads into the church-like ballad “Phases” with an innocently phrased quest for love. The next tune “Zodiac” is a bizarre slow tempo piece with Mei’s 1970s pop influence apparent in the 5th tuned lead lines and electric piano sounds. This instrumental song reflects Mei’s journey to tranquility.
“How can I hold you tonight
And pretend you are mine
When she’s just by your side”
“How Deep Is The Night” by The Analog Girl
“How Deep Is The Night” is a vocal piece about jealousy with slightly dark subtext, and Mei finding a different approach to her voice, something stronger and less childlike. “Equatorial Influence” is a quirky little novelty tune that’s somewhere between 8 bit and future synthpop. The spoken word lyrics are from an unknown performer. “Reverie”is a minimal downtempo tune with strange electronic percussion and echoing vocals about the murky uncertainty of falling in love.
“Fall in love in the daylight
Get lost in the moonlight
Are we ever gonna make this ours”
“Reverie” by The Analog Girl
“Sand Dunes” is minimal instrumental, from the early 8os style analog percussion to the dominant lead synth somewhere between brass and a bell. “Tides” is a stunningly beautiful depiction of someone lost in all the questions and contradictions of love. Love is a theme that comes up frequently in The Analog Girl’s music, and as an inspired poet of love, her songs idealize the topic rather than overanalyze it into philosophical categories, the same way the 1970s balladeers that inspire her did.
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