Singaporean singer Linying has been making waves with her emotive art pop tracks and big name collaborations.
Since 2016, Linying has released a slew of singles and an EP after working with some of Europe’s biggest names in house like Felix Jaehn and KRONO. Now she’s back with single “Tall Order.” “The song is about seeing yourself deteriorate,” Linying says. “It’s like being half-asleep and half-assing everything for a long time, and all of a sudden waking up — you see yourself in a different light and realise that without knowing it, you’ve become a lousy shell of a person: the kind who complains about little things and lies to themselves and evades hard questions.” The track is off Linying’s forthcoming sophomore album, so be on the lookout for more in the coming year.
To celebrate the release coinciding with Asian American Heritage Month, Linying has curated a very special mixtape of Singaporean artists. Check out the playlist below!
1. 7OVE YOU – Gentle Bones, Myrne
This song is all I’m listening to right now – something about this collab album feels so all-star, with Gentle Bones’ weirdly earwormish melodies and Myrne’s inventive production. It’s like seeing Black Panther and Iron Man on the same screen.
2. White Noise – Gentle Bones
Gentle Bones is really big in Singapore, guys. We pretty much never had ‘local mainstream music’ before him. I really like this song because it’s one of his few mopey, sentimental tracks. The production just feels so desperate and sad.
3. I Only Tell The Truth – Charlie Lim
No one throws a mopey party without Charlie Lim. Lyrics and melody aside, I think the sonic picture this song paints is what makes it so atmospheric and immersive. You feel like you’re in the air, alone, detached from everything else and therefore forced into a confrontation with your own thoughts. It’s sad in such an epic way.
4. 600D – Jasmine Sokko
Jasmine Sokko has such a knack for catchy melodies. 600D is for me the best exemplification of that in all its infectious, undeniable bopppiness.
5. Fire to the Floor – Sezairi
This is where the peak of Singaporean feel-good jams lies. Sezairi won Singapore Idol as a teenager about 10 years ago, and is now making a comeback into pop with power ballads and ’90s boyband-esque hits. His is the artist profile I visit when I’m getting ready to go out and feel really good.
6. Solid Gold – Sam Rui
Sam and I used to go to the same Catholic girls’ school, where we were both borderline girly enough to fit in, sort of, but always stuck out a little bit because of the art weirdness. I love the Korean R&B direction her music has taken – it suits her vibe and her voice is great for it.
7. Way Out – theodora
This track just dropped a couple days ago and it’s so fun. There’s something compelling about theodora’s quivery, buttery voice that works perfectly with flightsch’s production on the track. I think it’s because you’d instinctively think a voice like that should be on a Christian youth worship album but it’s over this hard trap beat instead. It’s perfect.
8. $ua – Akeem Jahat
Akeem Jahat raps mostly in Malay so I only ever understand the occasional English word he throws in. He’s seriously good though, and probably my favourite artist from Singapore. I went to a show he did a year ago, and it was packed out with fans wearing his merch and screaming every single word of every song back to him. There’s no other artist from here that’s at this level.
photo by: background: Jin Guan KOH / Flickr
