Concepts behind Lay Zhang’s 4th album LIT
Album: LIT
Language: Mandarin
Release date: 2020 06 01
Type: Studio record
Genre: POP
First step to music, fourth step to LIT (lotus)
Lay’s 4th solo album — LIT (lotus)
Enjoy M-POP that fuses East & West
Explore the past and current life in the musical world
Lay Zhang, who took the first step of his solo career with Lose Control, declared his personality with SHEEP, and explored his own styles through NAMANANA, is now taking his fourth musical step with LIT in the summer of 2020. In his 4th album, Lay Zhang uses the concept of “Reincarnation” to create two musical chapters of “past and current life”.
At the same time he returns to his Chinese cultural roots, Lay continues to explore mixing different genres of music and bringing the concept of M-POP, which he has been committed to promoting, to a new chapter.
He broke through the barrier of ancient and modern music, merging different times together. The album LIT uses “past life and current life” as a metaphor to divide the album into first and second halves. The first half is an experimental mixing of music with an ancient Chinese background; the second half is a continuation into modern urban life with trendy musical genres.
The first released part, the chapter “Past Life”, includes 6 tracks with uniform “totem-like” titles. Through these tracks, Lay seeks and defines a musical soul from a past life: proud, confident, faithful, and fierce. Those 6 tracks feature styles both ancient and modern. Their lyrics are self-reflections using metaphors from the past. Lay explores more possibilities in modern pop music by merging different times together.
This album is the product of experimenting with collisions of eastern & western music genres and exploring that fusion in music. The inspirations and narratives of the six tracks in the “Past Life” chapter were based on Chinese traditions. However, they were actually produced following the structure of modern western pop music, and seek a clever balance between the two. As the chief producer of the album, Lay invested a lot of effort and creativity throughout the process. From music production and arrangement to album concepts for marketing, he delivered this musical work that fuses the East & West. The seemingly distant Chinese stories shine brightly in the world of Trap, Hip-Hop, and R&B; sounds from the Cucurbit Flute, Erhu, Dizi and Peking opera battle with those generated from synthesizers. Lay’s music gradually reveals the imagery of “Past Life”. The King or the concubine? Buddha or Devil? Lotus or Jade? Fly or Soul? Everything is destined to blend together in this boundary-breaking musical work.
“Lit” — The King
If the pre-release track “Jade” is a reinterpretation of the story “Farewell My Concubine” from the perspective of the concubine Consort Yu, then the title track “LIT” approaches it from Xiang Yu’s perspective to interpret and shape this King’s story. Almost no one has ever connected Xiang Yu with the imagery of a lotus, but this great hero’s pride and confidence, his determination to die on the battlefield with pride rather than live a shameful life, is the perfect illustration of the spirit of the lotus: Remaining untainted amidst filth and dirt.
“LIT” uses an ominous Pipa sound to hint at the heavy burden one must carry if they aspire to the throne. Facing the choice of giving up or holding on, Lay uses determined lines to express himself: “Too many people want to trip me (they can’t)/too many people are meddling/too many people are waiting in line/Look closely cause I am indeed untainted by filth”
“Jade” — Illuminating the Essence
A pair with “LIT”, “Jade” is a pre-release track that aims to shine a light on the essence of the album. The track took iconic traditional Chinese imagery and made an intriguing wordplay with it: Jade signifies both female beauty as well as faithful love. What’s more is that this track adopts Consort Yu’s perspective (Yu is similar to Jade’s Chinese pronunciation) to paint a picture of this beautiful, romantic tragedy and its spirit of “Better to be a shard of jade than a whole tile”. In other words, dying for a noble cause rather than living a shameful life.
Collaboration with the internationally famous producer Murda Beatz makes this track resonate more with the modern audience. The collision and fusion of equal East and West elements is the latest example of Lay’s M-POP.
“Eagle”– Power
The eagle, proud dominator of the sky, is considered to be the king of the skies in Chinese culture. This track is the continuation of “LIT”’s spirit of portraying a proud, lone hero. At first, “Eagle” might sound like a standard hip-hop track. However, all the typical bass sounds in the beat are replaced by samplings of traditional string instrument plucking sounds, highlighting the faith that people have with the imagery of the eagle in Chinese culture. The lyric “Thousand feet above, there’s only me and the sun” further illustrates the pride of the eagle. A creature in the sky, a flower in the water; the eagle and lotus portray the shared spirit belonging to kings: Remaining untainted amidst filth and dirt.
“H2O” — Compatibility
Compatibility is the most significant attribute of water, which benefits all creatures in the world without being aggressive. This track captures that essence and uses water as a metaphor for love: “I’m like water: I will embrace and support you no matter what.” “Like H2O, I go to you”. The ingenious lyrics flow smoothly within the contemporary R&B beat, together with Lay’s frequent and smooth transitions between head voice and falsetto, large amount of vibrato, and various colors of vocals, shaping the most difficult to perform piece in the whole album.
“Fly”– State of Mind
Breaking through thorns and passing through rainforests, only those who have conquered trials and tribulations can get to the top. Which eagle can soar freely without flying through wind and storms? The light leading to your destination shines stronger with your perserverance. “I’m still soaring without wings”. The track “Fly” uses the modern trap genre to express Lay’s determination and persistence. Those who are brave enough to fly do not shy away from difficulty and hard-work.
“Soul” — A Guide to Next Life
As the ending track of this album’s first half, “Soul” encapsulates all concepts of the previous five songs with unique totem imagery in Chinese culture. The pride of the lotus (“LIT”), the faithfulness of “Jade”, the power of the “Eagle”, the compatibility of water (“H2O”), and the perseverance in “Fly” were all brought together by “Soul”, touching your spirit and forming a complete picture of the first half of Lay’s album: the past life.
Underneath the totem imagery, the ethereal arrangement leaves space for the audience’s imagination. Looking back at this King’s past life from a detached perspective, his aspirations, his bravery, his love and hate, his regrets, and his legends… The king has reached his end in this life, but his spirit lives on. Looking back at the doorway to reincarnation, “Soul” is an end but also a new beginning.
Welcoming a bright start, looking clearly at the “best new soul”. The lyrics of “Soul” give a more obvious clue, guiding the audience to Lay’s upcoming second half of LIT — “Current Life”. He sang “The soul after thousands of years still remains vibrant”. The second soul after reincarnation is waiting to be explored.
Source: LIT album description via TME QQ Music
Translation by XTweetTRANS. Feel free to share.
