A Fervent Plea to Renew an Old Idea
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14 書香人生 B O O K S & R E V I E W S SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 2010 • TAIPEI TIMES Hardcover: US CD Reviews: Taiwan A fervent plea to renew an old idea Leading historian and thinker Tony Judt explains how returning to social democracy can counter today’s social ills BY DWIGht Garner NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, NEW YORK he British historian Tony Judt is dying, slowly and painfully, PUBLICATION NOTES T from a variant of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), better known The Peppermints (薄荷葉) Windmill (風籟坊) Rainie Yang (楊丞琳) Various artists (合輯) as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He has written matter-of-factly about his Banished (流放地) Demo II (Demo 乙) Rainie & Love (雨愛) Monga Original Sound Track (艋舺原聲帶) condition — he is now, essentially, myspace.com/twpeppermints White Wabbit Records Sony Music Sony Music a quadriplegic — in The New York Review of Books. At some point he will be able to communicate only aving been together for more paper, Windmill (風籟坊) sounds ainie Yang (楊丞琳) has come a he blockbuster movie of the year by blinking an eye. For now he is than a decade — practically an ON like the typical Taiwanese indie long way, evolving from her girl- also comes with an envelope- dictating his words to assistants. H eternity for a Taiwanese indie band. Its sound is full of references to R next-door role in the landmark T pushing original sound track, Best known for his book Postwar: band — the Peppermints (薄荷葉) are Brit-pop, post-punk, post-rock and Neil idol soap opera The Meteor Garden (流 an extravagant double CD plus a A History of Europe Since 1945 showing their age, and in a good way. Young, among a laundry list of alternative 星花園) into the majestic Queen of Cute, DVD with behind-the-scenes footage (2005), Judt has long been an engaged Their third and latest release, Banished rock subgenres. one of the most intriguing up-and- that assembles the hippest names in and unpredictable intellectual of the (流放地), is a solid album of guitar- But what sets this trio apart is how it coming stars in the Mando-pop industry. Mando-pop. left, one who is sometimes given to driven rock that dwells on a brooding puts these elements together. Windmill’s Granted, Yang has never been Golden-Melody winning producer/ controversial opinions. Judt, who fascination with mental illness. latest release, Demo II (Demo 乙), is considered a top-flight singer or singer-songwriter Sandee Chan (陳珊 is Jewish, has argued, for example, Lead singer Shine Lin (林倩) says she a five-song EP that is unabashedly thespian. And Rainie & Love lacks the 妮) guided this ambitious project with that Israel is an “anachronism” that drew from a personal crisis in writing Western rock delivered with a uniquely haunting heartache or the raw emotions superb aplomb. The box set’s tracks are should convert “from a Jewish state to the lyrics for Banished. She spent time Taiwanese soul. Yang displayed in the theme song mostly original compositions interpreted a binational one” including Jews and in a psychiatric hospital last year to A running joke within the band is Little Jasmine (小茉莉) for the movie as theme songs with vocals on the first Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians. His receive treatment for severe depression, that lead singer and guitarist Chris Spider Lilies (刺青). But on this, her CD and then again in instrumental prose tends to be as biting as his ideas. and says “80 percent” of the experience Lin (林育詳) started writing the band’s fifth studio album, Yang nevertheless renditions on the second CD. Judt’s new book, Ill Fares the Land, ILL FARES THE LAND informs the album’s 10 tracks. lyrics in Hoklo (commonly known as demonstrates the tenacity of a well- Staying true to her aesthetics, Chan’s is a slim and penetrating work, a dying BY TONY JUDT Don’t let the heavy-handed song Taiwanese) because his voice tended to rounded entertainer in the mold of Jolin sound track is artsy, romantic and man’s sense of a dying idea: the notion titles turn you off. Someone in My stray off key when singing in Mandarin. Tsai (蔡依林). atmospheric without being bombastic. that the state can play a significant role 256 PAGES Brain (腦海裡的小人) has a sedate, You get that sense from the EP’s Though the album is in part a blatant It’s a revisionist musical take on a 1980s in its citizens’ lives without imperiling PENGUIN PRESS dreamy groove and is convincing for only non-Hoklo track, Zhu Feng Lan advertising tie-in (it contains three gangster fable heavily drenched in their liberties. It makes sense that this Lin’s detached vocal delivery and the Yu (竹風蘭雨). It’s not that Lin doesn’t theme songs from her current idol nostalgia and retro chic. book arrives now, not merely during mellow harmonies. sing well in Mandarin — he offers a fine soap drama Hi My Sweetheart (海派甜 The CD with the theme songs boasts the hideous endgame of the national On Claustrophobia, which is about performance on this number — rather 心), Rainie & Love also displays Yang’s a to-die-for roster of the hottest names health-care debate but during mud authorities that has been “elevated a suffocating train ride on the Taipei he sounds more at home and thus more growing range by tackling an array of in Taiwan’s entertainment industry. season; this book’s bleak assessment to a cult by Know Nothings, States’ MRT, the band’s catchy, electric guitar- convincing in Hoklo. musical styles including ballads, rock, Indie singer-songwriter Deserts Chang of the selfishness and materialism that Rightists, anti-tax campaigners and drenched hooks bring to mind Sonic The music and lyrics, included with hip-hop and trance. (張懸) delivers the poignant I Think You have taken root in Western societies — most recently — the radio talk Youth and The Breeders. The track ends Mandarin translations in the liner notes, The 25-year-old is capable of Have To (我想你要走了), an understated, will stick to your feet and muddy show demagogues of the Republican with some playful sound effects by artist play like a sound track to an indie movie conveying more nuanced and mature mournful ode to a lover who’s about to your floors. Right.” About the absurdities of and musician Yalin Wu (吳亞林). for 20- and 30-somethings in Taiwan. emotions than her girlish image suggests. leave. Sandee Chan’s hypnotic vocals But Ill Fares the Land is also anti-tax campaigners, he observes Lin’s whispery sweet voice sounds On 1982 (民國ཁ一), which has a catchy The irrefutable highlight is Yang’s drive the atmospheric Once, a jazzy optimistic, raw and patriotic in its that the notion that taxes might “be both vulnerable and disaffected on For vocal refrain and nicely textured guitar duet In Your Eyes with Mando-pop string-led gem with background vocals sense of what countries like the a contribution to the provision of the Dead, a hidden track on the CD tones, Lin waxes nostalgic about the heartthrob Alan Luo (羅志祥). In this provided by the movie’s star Ethan Ruan US and UK have meant — and can collective goods that individuals and one of the album’s better songs. innocence of childhood and growing up up-tempo, light-hearted ode to the bliss (阮經天). The undisputed highlight is continue to mean — to their people could never afford in isolation (roads, She sings with pitch-perfect execution, on the east coast. Summer’s End touches of love, Yang and Luo display a wink- the Brit-rock infused Tonight Tonight, and to the world. firemen, policemen, schools, lamp and the band benefited from having the upon youthful rebellion and coming of and-smile chemistry that makes this performed by the movie’s two leading Ill Fares the Land gets off to posts, post offices, not to mention vocals mixed by indie-folk musician and age, driven by a rousing guitar and bass delightful track a strong contender as a men, Mark Chao (趙又廷) and Ruan. a distressing start. Judt tells us, soldiers, warships and weapons) is producer Ze Hwang (黃小楨). groove that borrows from Joy Division. future KTV hit. The actors, who aren’t trained singers, right off the bat, that his book was rarely considered.” Although it doesn’t appear obvious, Though Windmill is probably best The Battle of Youth (青春鬥), a dance deliver assured and firm vocals for a “written for young people.” Which is Oddly enough, Judt writes, the the band says Banished is also known for being the rare indie band that number that echoes the catchiness of surprisingly effective theme song that’s something you never want to hear, left and right have swapped political dedicated to “society’s disadvantaged.” sings mostly in Hoklo, this is only half Tsai’s Love’s 36 Tricks (愛情36計), is an riveting enough to be the centerpiece really. It suggests that we may be in modes. The right has become Lin and drummer Zheng Gae-tan (鄭凱同) of the equation when it comes to the energetic rabble-rouser that celebrates of the CD. Mando-pop songstress Tanya for a graduation speech. And Judt radicalized, abandoning the “social served as activists in the controversial band’s appeal. Its three members have how love keeps a person young. Chua (蔡健雅) contributes her new does occasionally serve microwavable moderation which served it so well campaign to preserve the Losheng established a strong rapport for having The second half of the album targets composition You Come to My Head, a brunch-time banalities.