Music That Paints: Linying

"The girl I am, the galaxy you are."

Within the hyperbole, contrast, and Linying’s ethereal voice, lies imagery so vivid that visualising it is an otherworldly experience. Her poetic writing, coupled by her wistful, melancholic tone transports you into a pocket in time. She makes urban landscape sound picturesque.

Paris 12 paints a busy yet isolated street, capturing the essence of feeling alienated and dissociated in a fast-moving world. In a way, I’m reminded of Imtiaz Dharker’s poem, ‘Call’. Nonetheless, Linying’s voice gently guides you down the path, slowing your surroundings down in a way that envelopes you in the warmth of solitude. It’s a major understatement, but the only way I can describe it is, ‘pretty’. A beauty that’s delicate, yet precise.

Listening to Paris 12 paints black silhouettes of skylines against a navy-purple sky, dotted with amber city lights in just the right contrasting hue. It’s wandering alone in a street surrounded by crowds but stuck in your own head, and feeling like you’re floating –– a product of rumination rather than happiness.

It’s feeling lost in a place and moment in time, though in the bigger picture, knowing exactly where you belong.

Watching Linying perform live at Apple @ Orchard before the pandemic started was probably one of the best decisions I made that year. There was nothing fancy about the show. Graphics projected behind her were minimalistic, but effectively reinforced the imagery and atmosphere evoked by the music. The lights in the store remained on, and for most of the show, it was just her voice and an accompanying piano and guitar. Nonetheless, it was a breathtaking.

I believe Linying is the perfect, rare blend of lyrical and musical genius. Most songwriters use fairly straightforward narratives to establish a song’s emotion. But Linying’s cleverly crafted metaphors manage to hammer specific feelings home without explicit mention. Thus, her music can be universally appreciated regardless of the emotion’s origin.

Few Singaporean artists manage to breakout of the local scene into the international market. Nonetheless, if anyone, Linying definitely has the potential to. While listening to previously unreleased demos on 1800-LINYING-SINGS, I made the appalling discovery that even gems like “A Gift, A Tragedy” were unworthy of making the final record.

Being a Linying fan is an arduous journey –– she takes forever to release new music. But with her new album in the works, I have faith it’s a fulfilling one.