It ‘s been a really long time from the previos album of Jane Zhang (The Seventh Sense, 2014), but we can say it was worth the wait ! Today the “Key Voice of China” Jane Zhang, after a private life path made of ups and downs and a career path that instead led her higher and higher in the Olympus of Chinese music and over again to the fore on the international music stage, comes out surprisingly, really without any announcement, with the long-awaited full English album. “Past Progressive” is the new Jane Zhang English album basically thought for the international music market.
As repeatedly stated by Dolphin Princess herself, the album is composed of the English songs gradually released as singles in these years.
In addition, however, many unpublished ones also appear. Six new musical pearls including two titles that we at Jane Zhang Italia had long announced (“Think Like A Man” and “Balance Me Out“) composed and produced with the Texan Jerome “J-Roc” Harmon, winner of ben 8 Grammy Awards.
The other four surprise titles are “Body First“, “Roll The Dice“, “Black Market” and “Love Story“.
A total of 16 tracks ranging between classic pop, trap, R&B, Hip-Hop and EDM.
Among the songs already known to international audiences we find:
- “Pull Me Up“, hypnotic and surreal trap song presented in Beijing in a live preview in May last year during the opening concert of the successful “Jane’s Secret World Tour“ .
- “Work For It“, anticipated by the artist at the Victoria Secret Fashion Show 2017 which, within a few hours after its publication, it entered the Top 10 of the iTunes US download chart; the track is here present in both the original version and in that remix realized with Migos
- “Battlefield“, written by King Logan and Paul “PJ” Morton (the keyboardist of Maroon 5) and arranged and produced by Timbaland as a promotional song for the release in Chinese cinemas of the US-China production blockbuster “The Great Wall”
- “808” overwhelming EDM song, here in the English version (there is a Chinese one), also entered in the Top Ten of iTunes USA
- “Fighting Shadows“, with the participation of the US rapper Big Sean, written specifically for the global OST of “Terminator Genisys” movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger
- “Dust My Shoulders Off“, produced in November 2016 by Timbaland, the “King Midas” of the US song, and known for being the first song by a Chinese artist to have entered the Top 5 of US iTunes download chart. The related music video has been around the world collecting from audiences and critics as well as prestigious international awards
- “Adam And Eve“, produced by Timbaland and Jim Beanz, a song by heavy psychedelic sound that has the strange effect of inducing a sort of dependence on it in the listener
- “Lady Killer“, written by King Logan and arranged together with Timbaland for the soundtrack of the action-horror movie “Guardians of the Tomb”
- “Angels And Harmony“, from the collaboration with the American R&B king NE-YO and chosen by 20th Century Fox for the promotion in China of the US sci-fi blockbuster “War for the Planet of the Apes”
Tracklist:
01. Body First
02. Pull Me Up
03. Work For It (Remix, feat. Migos)
04. Battlefield
05. 808
06. Work For It
07. Fighting Shadows (feat. Big Sean)
08. Think Like A Man
09. Black Market
10. Dust My Shoulders Off (with Timbaland)
11. Adam And Eve
12. Roll The Dice
13. Lady Killer
14. Angels And Harmony (with NE-YO)
15. Love Story
16. Balance Me Out
OVERALL RATING
4½ stars
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