Tracklisting
Out Of Clock OInly Man Love Yourself First Anotrher Me Distance Beg For More I refused to Break DFown Alchemist Dream On I’m Enough Stay Away Another Me (Acapella) Nicely written and beautifully composed, Fifi Rong’s latest LP, There Is A Funeral In My Heart, For Every Man I Loved, is a decent album with a couple of hiccups that hold it back from being great. For those unaware of who Fifi Rong is, this Chinese-born singer blends pop, ambient and alternate R&B nicely into a heady cocktail of ethereal tracks and head-bopping tunes. Most of the album takes on a pretty downtempo feel, with “Out Of Clock” and “Only Man” starting things off with good lyrics and some beautifully composed effects, including a constrained use of echo and some tight mixing for the different instruments. “Love Yourself First” keeps these compositional tricks going, this time with bent notes wavering across the bass while Fifi’s lyrics beautifully complement the backing track. One of my personal favourites on the album is “Distance”, which really shows the strength of Fifi Rong’s voice alongside downtempo guitars. This balance between guitar strums and lyrical prowess is where Fifi is at her strongest, and it really shows. I mentioned earlier about head-bopping tracks and one of the more simplistic – but undeniably effective – tracks here is that of “Alchemist”. The song uses simple hums and a basic lyrical structure but it works really well during the chorus. Another of the stronger tracks here is that of “I’m Enough”, a reflective track with some of Fifi’s strongest lyrics, reflecting back on past relationships with poignancy and intelligence. The album then concludes with an acapella version of “Another Me”, which is one of the best tracks on the LP and a great way to end things with a bang. While the album is enjoyable, there are times where Fifi’s vocals serve as a bit of a double-edged sword. She has a very distinct voice but some of these tracks tend to blur into one another. Some of this fault though can be blamed at mixing. Now, I mentioned earlier that this is beautifully composed (and it is) but sometimes the instruments overpower or drown out Fifi’s voice — especially during the middle slew of tracks. At its worst, this sometimes makes it difficult to discern exactly what she’s saying. That’s a shame because honestly, some of the lyrics are really beautiful. Having listened to this three times, once intently with headphones, another while wrapping Christmas presents and a third time while out for a walk, Fifi Rong falls squarely into the middle category to get the most out of this. There Is A Funeral In My Heart, For Every Man I Loved is an album that’s best to put on in the background to set the perfect ambiance while you’re doing other things. There’s certainly enough here to grip you but not quite enough to keep you across the space of 12 tracks. Having said that though, this is a really good effort with strong tracks and definitely worth checking out for Fifi’s gorgeous voice alone.
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