The Top 40 Mandopop Albums of 2022

the best Mandopop of the year in albums, from GALI, Flashbabeboi, Crispy, Sandee Chan, drogas, and many more

This year’s left me with a lot of questions, but mostly the one, “is this it?”—a sort of feeling that’s come with every accomplishment and every failure. Perhaps that’s a guiding principle you can find in the albums list, and in the singles list, the question of how to move forward and of what comes next. I don’t know the answer to that. A lot of albums tackle that question and while I can’t say that any will grant you the perfect answer, many of them felt like a soft guide.

Like the singles list, the albums list attempts to capture a cross-section of Mandopop in 2022—albeit perhaps, a slightly less mainstream version of it. Anything released between December 2021 and November 2022 was eligible. And while last year, I used a rule of anything with at least two songs mostly or completely in Mandarin, I cheat once here, but I didn’t see it featured in any year-end coverage elsewhere, it fits nicely into the scene, and it’s my list, I can do whatever I like.

You can find a Spotify playlist with selections from each album here and a nice little chart with all the albums at the bottom. Also check out my list of Mandopop singles and Cantopop albums and singles. Thanks for reading! See you next year.

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40. Qi Zitan - I Don’t Belong Anywhere

Qi Zitan adds a soft vibrato wherever she can. The result is softly ethereal that her airy voice warbles as if overflowing with emotion. It can sound a bit monotonous when she sings, in a way that every line is read like some deep revelation, rather than devoid of feeling. But I Don’t Belong Anywhere is filled with a thousand great revelations: “it turns out no matter what you pursue, in the end you’ll be exhausted,” she sings, recalling a partner who gave her nothing. Or, “that’s the predicament I’m happy with,” she hums after coming to terms with the fact that where she’s from is no longer her home. More revelations follow as I Don’t Belong Anywhere resects what it understands of the past through Motown blues, neo-folk, and old-school romance.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

39. Zhao Lei - Teen on Shuqian Street

Amidst its arsenal of guitar tones, Zhao Lei retains the essence of folk music by mythologizing its characters and stories. Abdullah turns out to be a run-of-the-mill drunkard when the brassy dust settles but Zhao turns him into a fabled legend, an outlaw destined for greatness. Teen on Shuqian Street aggrandizes pieces of Zhao’s youth, leaving hints of reality in immortal heroes, like the smell of popcorn in the story of a washed-up captain.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

38. JIHU - Unknown Jihu

JIHU heads up the mountains of his hometown, fusing modern R&B with traditional Yi music. He’s met with the warm reception of the welcoming house party of “慵懒” (“Indolent”) by rappers Moseee and Hustle but in the remoteness of the mountains, he’s often left in the solitude of its vast expanse, smoothly singing about newfound secluded romance and recollections of a rebellious summer.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

37. Yo Lee - Cooling Down

Messy histrionics of its opener aside, Cooling Down is the singer-songwriter at his dreamiest. The ghostly shadow of Mandark brings synth-driven dream pop, while its guitar-led tracks plunge into romantic serenity as Yo Lee dances between surreal waltzes and affectionate lullabies.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

36. WeiBird - Good Afternoon, Good Evening and Good Night

Farewells might be made meaningful by WeiBird’s vocal performance—fondness outweighs impatience on “Long Distance” while “Suddenly” manages tragedy through how his voice is suppressed over its heavy drums—but the intricate arrangements make it the singer-songwriter’s best effort in years. The future feels less terrifying on the opener thanks to a tempo shift while the closing title track’s romanticism owes it to sweeping strings.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

35. L8ching - Dive & Give

Renewal comes from the natural world on Dive & Give, through piano keys dancing in warm winds and declarations of love amidst thunderstorms. Atop tropical rhythms, L8ching’s soulful vocals are a welcome comfort as he expresses equal parts fascination and gratitude; a breath of fresh air and a thankful acknowledgment to the company that brought him there.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

34. GALI - ATLANTIS

A loosely thrown together concept album about the exploration of Atlantis turns out to be this year’s best survey of mainstream Chinese rap. The penchant for futurism comes out in the sleek drive that propels “Color:Teriyaki” and the airy stasis of “WhenSmokeClears,” while “Birthmark” nods to the past with boom-bap. Drill, pop-punk, emo-rap—GALI cycles through it all. Though his lyrics are best when he leans away from comparison and into romanticism, the club rap of “Slaughter House” proves his posturing to be worth the hype.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

33. Jude Chiu - The Last Aquarium

Jude Chiu is the tour guide in the future for the last remaining aquarium, an experience that rivals a deluxe Disney vacation. Sweeping shimmer and luminescent orchestral grandness are apparent as he guides you through each exhibit. Soft cinematic romanticism and jazzy showiness but The Last Aquarium ends with no exit. Its paradise is an illusion, a ghastly end as its visitors become the new specimens.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

32. 1ove1etter.exe - fLiOrVsEt

1ove1etter.exe shapeshifts into something hideous under the accompanying deep house throbs of “Emotion Devouring Beast.” In its horrifying moans, he grotesquely describes chewing, gnawing, and grinding his teeth on emotions. fLiOrVsEt undercuts its brightest moments and most placid with chilling eeriness: breakbeats fail to spark change “Alien Teratosis,” while the sweetness of “Ultimate Fantasy Emersion” is a mask for horrors that disturbingly multiply. A curse by a haunted doll and ripples of decay and sacrifice, fLiOrVsEt is a horrifying yet utterly transfixing experience.

Find it on streaming here:¹ Bandcamp // Soundcloud

31. Elephant Gym - Dreams

The math-rock trio’s third album is their most playful work as siblings KT Chang and Tell Chang work piano lines and guitar melodies that skip, spin, and skitter across. It’s full of whimsy: a monologue ripped from Macbeth; a sample of Japanese labelmate toe’s “Two Moons”; the frivolity of Koahsiung City Wind Orchestra’s woodwinds, brass, and whistles; and most exciting, neo-soul singer 9m88 riffing atop their lively instrumentation and she twirls about “Shadow.”

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Bandcamp // Spotify

30. Sound Fragment - 有限身 无穷念

Two characters are named on 有限身 无穷念 (Limited Body Unlimited Mind). Their names are unimportant, as they’re, like you, limited points in infinite space. Capable of so much, yet impossible of realizing that potential. The first has a heart of freedom, a desire to be something that surpasses what you expect of her, while the second confronts the impossibility of what he desires, and so, on and on, dances alone as a means of working within his body’s limits. Thrashes of digital drums and the unrestrained synthesizer lines accompany Sound Fragment’s aimlessly rolling guitar melodies. Mixing electronic wilderness with indie rock, the band experiences anxiety, confusion and rage, empathy, and gratitude, but in the end, it comes down to those two characters, and carrying the burden of helplessness.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

29. Quanzo - RE: TYPE

RE: TYPE reimagines Quanzo as a malfunctioning prototype unable to properly assimilate with the manufactured assembly line. Aimlessness turns to purpose on glitch-pop “更新” (“Upgrade”) as the emo-rapper immerses himself in the idea of destroying a second outsider, conflict envisioned in coarse rock and harsh breakbeats. The end is mutual destruction, Quanzo fulfilling his purpose in its sci-fi drama as he drifts through the universe in propulsive synthpop.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

28. mukio - Master of Life

Emerging as Mandopop’s most candid shit-talker, mukio’s sleek and seductive synthpop is a stage for her upper-class fantasies. An act of superiority in flirtation as a mission; palpable condescension in a golden fantasy. Nothing’s held back on the darkly lit “TMTYD”: “I’m so pretty when I’m naked,” she opens in loungey comfort. “You can lick me everywhere if you want to.”

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

27. The Chairs - Shangri-La Is Calling

On Shangri-La Is Calling, The Chairs ponder whether to take up the search for beautiful utopia or remain in the easiness of complacency. Combining a soupy mix of gentle ‘60s soft pop strum and psychedelic folk, Shangri-La Is Calling blends into its own nebula. Every hard decision is left to the universe as the trio gratefully allow the misty haze to envelop them in the shrouded mountains.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

26. Flashbabeboi - 杂

The simplicity of 杂 (Miscellaneous) is a comfort: “晚风物语” (“Evening Wind Light Novel”) features pop-rock that’s muted and centred around a crystalline guitar loop, while “伪装” (“Pretend”) feels like the warm covers under a stormy night. Its emo-rap is a collection of dejected sobs and whispered dreams except for on the closer when Flashbabeboi and Lin31dy finally reject complacency, pleading with agony and hoping you’ll come back.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Youtube

25. Iruka Porisu - Bad News Punched!

No strangers to being beaten down, Bad News Punched! sees the Taiwanese indie-pop quartet grapple with malaise. “Badminton Youth” culminates in a worn-out scream after a string of bad dates while vocalist Wu Yue laments the version of herself she pictures on “Sad Fatso.” Beyond its constant stream of guitar riffs and bass licks, Iruka Porisu have fun on Bad News Punched!—stupidly fun jokes, warbled vocals, laughter bleeding out of the intro, and a lazy swamp jam on the near eleven-minute “Frogs Cry Three Small.”

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

24. Ann Bai - All About You

How close must a love be before it can be fulfilling? In All About You, no relationship is too distant as Ann Bai idealizes her objects of infatuation from afar. She treats characters as interchangeable, figures to fill with yearning ballads. Swooning melodies are carefully fitted to imaginative arrangements as Bai serenades with torch songs as a means of introspection to understand what she wants from romance.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

23. Cheng Bi - The Book of Songs

The Book of Songs—also known as Shijing or Classic of Poetry—is the oldest in Chinese classical litearture, comprised of 305 poems written between the 11th and 7th centuries BCE. On Cheng Bi’s The Book of Songs, she takes nine of those poems from its first half, Airs of the States, and sets them to simple and clean folk arrangements. Part lament of sorrow, part lullaby, these songs gently contemplate the mundane. Set to acoustic instrumentation, with hints of the natural in rolling rivers and chirping insects, Cheng Bi magnifies the innocent purity of the Book of Songs, a short excrusion in connection with all things natural.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

22. Lily Chou-Chou Lied - The Foreteller

The Foreteller makes every statement uttered sound prophetic through the use of giant harmonies, an unwavering electronic pulse, and the brightness of the xylophone and steel drums. Though Lily Chou-Chou Lied dedicate themselves to walking the prophet’s same path in their danceable indie rock, they hide warnings in their praise. The Foreteller asks you to blindly devote to its beauty.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

21. Lil Ghost - DEADLINE

Nothing more teenage than erroneously believing you know it all—that’s the feeling Lil Ghost wants you to recall as you sing along to “Ruling the Universe Before 18” so that when he confronts you with the time limit on “为明天写封信” (“Write a Letter for Tomorrow”), you’ll know exactly how hard passing time can hurt. Combining pop-punk with hip-hop, glitch, and synthwave, there’s no shortage of rebellious self-assurance. He professes to a crush by asking her to be his Harley Quinn, while scaring her mom by being an emo-boy. He rages on stage and reckons with passing time while acknowledging greater ambitions.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

20. insecteens - In a Flash

insecteens holds a burning heart in his hands as he contemplates change, wondering when his youth disappeared. There’s resistance to its circling guitar lines as they languish in the blur but life happens in instants. He laments the before in emotive instrumentals, gazing in awe at how quickly it becomes unrecognizable. Part shoegaze, part post-rock, its kick drum and cymbals kick up dust as his guitar buoys him forward. “No matter how I fly, I can only live in the present,” he sings. In a flash, everything’s changed once again.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Bandcamp // Spotify

19. GG LONG XIA - 54088

Manipulated vocals and stuttering beats guard GG LONG XIA as he loses himself on his fluorescent dancefloor. He bores easily, switching the beat on a whim and adding laughable sound effects, but it’s to soften the pain in case his sincerity doesn’t win. “boom boom babe” splices breakbeats as a musical spark then as a way of tempering the pain of rejection, while “Kitty Protects His Rich Friend” loses itself in a Britney melody but remains completely sincere in its proclamation. 54088 turns at nauseating pace but that’s just how extreme GG LONG XIA’s desire is to be close to another.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Bandcamp // Spotify

18. Crispy - Take It Slow, I Will Be There

There’s no shortage of adoration between the two newlyweds but too often, it’s overshadowed by self-doubt. A nightmare emerges in “Chase! Chase! Chase!,” the thought of having to do it all over again sounds like a terrifying thrill. When “I Will Be There” builds from placid dream pop to vibrant indie rock, though the other is patient, their reassurances can feel frightfully demanding. They break up somewhere in the middle. A promise is made in the stillness of their dream pop and when “Take It Slow” arrives, Crispy are kinder to themselves, without any love lost for one another.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

17. Voision Xi - Lost for Words

In Lost for Words’ freeform jazz, Voision Xi sings in gentle hums, melting into the harmony of background vocals yet speaks in anxious tones. Casual conversation with Taiwanese rapper ILL MO finds anxiety creeping inwards as the beat solidifies in its clutter of noise. The central triptych co-produced by jazz guitarist Xiao Jun is its most anxious. Xi learn to control those feelings in Xiao’s uneasy production: “listen to your warmth,” she instructs, “learn to breathe.” Lost for Words lets the negative feelings dissipate in its breeziness as the warmth and playfulness seep in.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Bandcamp // Spotify

16. step.jad - TIMESMITH2000

R&B singer step.jad and producer Tsunano built a time machine. They take you back to the oh-so-smooth R&B of the ‘00s on “CD_Cases,” engrossed in an innocent crush. “Signal_of_Yours” heads back further to ‘90s new jack swing, Tsunano cutting a rap verse in the middle of step.jad’s suave relay of infatuation. TIMESMITH2000 is a thrill because step.jad is the perfect lead: confident but not arrogant as he flirts with slick come-ons and delivers on devoted promises.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

15. Limi - Bad Babe

On Bad Babe, vocalist Li eschews starry-eyed romanticism for newfound confidence in her seductive lilt, while producer Mi exchanges placid arrangements for fizzy luxury. Their second album’s synthpop responds to Li’s needs: pillowy soft when she plays the seductress, rendered sharp when she seeks revenge. Mi dims the lights into a private show when she seeks to prove her sexual prowess. Bad Babe does it all with demanding opulence: expensive jewelry, plush velvet, and celebratory champagne.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

14. J-Fever, Zhou Shijue & Eddie Beatz - 去爱去哭去疑惑

Company and conversation warm the hearth on rappers J-Fever and Zhou Shijue’s second collaboration with producer Eddie Beatz. The minimalistic production brings together drunken sing-alongs and heart-to-hearts that bridge the differences between the two rappers. The back half of 去爱去哭去疑惑 (To Love, To Cry, To Doubt) welcomes friends, including the warm R&B of Shi Xinwenyue and the mumblings of Fishdoll. Each artist’s eccentricities aren’t always understood, but as they gather by the table, they’re greeted with kind understanding.

Find it on streaming here: Spotify

13. Wen Zhaojie - 爱神

Like a time capsule cracked open, an analog haze pervades爱神 (Love God) as it dances around love and death. Love isn’t restricted to one form: he sings about romantic love in the old-fashioned slow dance of the title track, tracking a couple from birth to death but declares love for an old pet over warbling electronic folk. Its atmosphere feels fashioned from the past but Wen’s airy voice has it descended from the heavens: “结婚” (“Wedding”) is a waltz frozen in time and filled with glowing adoration.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

12. Shallow Levée - Endless Playlist

“Blessing” is the graceful toast to a wedded couple, the promise that “you are born worthy of happiness” saved as a final beautiful cheer. Endless Playlist’s soft melodies are an elegant breeze; its folksy arrangements erupt into gratified celebration or still into dark introspection. Vocalist Tsai Yi-Ling pieces together happiness in quiet memories: wordlessly keeping a stranger company, toasting the happy couple, and dancing barefoot on the beach. The wedding ends bittersweetly and on “Another Long Afternoon,” Shallow Levée embrace contented quiet, abandoning the need to chase happiness and letting it come naturally.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

11. TIA RAY - ONCE UPON A MOON

TIA RAY’s head is in the clouds, where the moon is her only companion. A confidante as she howls over a break up in torrential rain, the bartender as she flirts on its space bar, the perfect pick up line in “boy, I need some harmony,” spotlighted by brass riffs. There’s liftoff as she reaches her big diva moment slathered in autotune and her voice blurs into something alien. Even its most grounded tracks are fairytale dreams: the chemistry with Nigel Tay as they dance until the deadline of sunrise conjures the image of a Cinderella romance while the warbling beat of “LITTLE TOO MUCH” is like the movement of shimmering butterfly wings. On ONCE UPON A MOON, she dreams her own fairytale, swimming into the moon’s space and soaking in its illusions.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

10. Sandee Chan - Discipline

Largely inspired by BDSM culture, Discipline focuses on dominance and submission in the context of societal scrutiny. “As much as you hate yourself / you’re nobody till somebody love you,” Sandee Chan drawls as a tough lesson to a younger generation of girls. She’ll invoke pain as pleasure in her devilishly sensual tone as a commentary on stasis, denouncing those attached to the sensation of pain as a means of feeling alive rather than seeking to change. She’s the serpent on “Beautiful Sin,” humming a critique of misogyny over a flamenco guitar line, and the militant commander, forcefully directing you to love yourself. Discipline keeps you bound with painful tension and slow-burning trip-hop but occasionally allows the pleasure of controlled electronic explosions: bursting lights; immoderately danceable rhythms; and the arpeggiating synths and drum fills that make “Boy” and “Girl” so tempting.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

9. Sweet John - In Mind

Love is this curiously fragile connection on In Mind. Vocalists Mandark and Genwie Wu often sound like they’re testing the waters with one another, despite their warm harmonies. Mandark might play an echo to Wu, then a shy conversationalist before the pair come together in delicate harmony. Love is an exploratory hypothesis tested with careful kiss, a tender secret sheltered from watchful eyes, and lives in the words unsaid. Sweet John handle it with extreme caution in their dream pop, even as they dress it up with intricate thrills: math-rock guitar riffs and bass lines, feverishly passionate drum beats and jazz flourishes.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Bandcamp // Spotify

8. Akini Jing & Chace - Endless Farewell

Akini Jing’s interdimensional odyssey crosses through universes created by Chace, like the warzone on “Blessing,” with imminent danger in drum’n’bass or the crumbling dimensions and touch-starved plane of its propulsive synthwave on “Don’t Wanna Be Alone.” But Endless Farewell isn’t worlds in isolation, stacked with references between them. Ahead of the closer, she comments an “endless farewell,” from another life in the disorienting space disco of “I’M GOOD.” “Don’t Wanna Be Alone” recalls the nightmarish “Over the Bones” in a slurry as she fights its sense of insecurity. Endless Farewell traces a cycle, opening in creation of man and desire: party, kiss, hate, escape, destroy, seduce, regret. Akini Jing fulfills those needs across her and Chace’s multiverse but it traces an ending as its reverence loops from some higher being to technology and back to the natural order, Endless Farewell finding an ending in reincarnation. “I miss that place,” she recalls in death, “there’s wind, there’s falling leaves…” It rebuilds from her memory, pure and faultless before man can be reborn and destroy it all over again.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

7. GONG - The age of sundogs

Noir aesthetics and eerie atmoshpere, The age of sundogs signals the apocalypse. Loneliness is punctuated by synth stabs, while warning sirens are used as wingmen, a signal of the last chance at human contact. GONG’s productions are labyrinthine: he and Ingrita find themselves in a winding haunted corridor as they fearfully attempt to escape the voice that follows them on the standout “Lost in a Train.” Synths fall like acid rain and textures are heavy with still air. He resigns himself to his ghosts until he stumbles on a question, “who do I exist for?” The age of sundogs’ outset would suggest he lives for the benefit of society as he volunteers up his body and mind but here, he answers with nothing, bending into nu-metal and using rapper Guibian’s demonic voice as a reflection of inner turmoil. With that, GONG starts his exit from the mental prison he’s created and out into the blinding sun, searching for a new guide to live his life: “let me live steady and uninhibited,” he sings, “leave regrets for death.”

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

6. Wu Qingfeng - Mallarme’s Tuesdays

French poet Stéphane Mallarmé was famed for salons, in which a group dubbed ‘les Mardistes’ would meet on Tuesdays to discuss poetry, art, and philosophy. Wu Qingfeng adopts a similar idea, bringing together an international cast of guests, from the French children’s choir Maîtrise Saint-Marc - Les Chorists to Japanese soloist ohashiTrio and celebrating in the art of creation. Spoken word vocals, a specialist in prehistoric percussion; his guests are the perfect compliment to his theatrics and dreamy landscapes. Beni Ninagawa’s plucked shamisen, the three-stringed traditional Japanese instrument, pairs with Wu’s whoops as he frames creation as the exploration of the subconscious, while Jasmine Sokko’s dance-pop arrangement positions creation as joy, conjured in carnival. Mallarme’s Tuesday is most like Mallarmé’s salons in that each guest seems to work in conversation with Wu. Though each experiments, none is able to temper his voice, in timbre or in lyrically rich allusions and reference—the inescapable Mobius strip, the ancient Gods, Le Petit Prince. Together, they define creation as self-confrontation, intimate union, love, and as a realization of dreams.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

5. E.SO - EARTHBOUND

Suppose you were to show an alien the music of Earth—unrestricted by time or space, where would you go? What sounds would you immerse yourself in? EARTHBOUND immerses itself in pockets across the globe, a tight capsule packed densely with global trends as it paints a history of E.SO then expands to some larger picture of society as he sees it. Afrobeats of the braggadocios “Way Up” and horny “Lucid Dream,” which pack so many ideas they have to pivot to explore new realities. “Addicted” likens cigarette dependency to toxic love in animated bossa nova, while “Mei Mei” talks consent over Latin pop. Trap, conscious hip-hop, even tropical bounce—E.SO runs through genres but two pieces find E.SO in conversation with the past through ghostly reanimation of their voices. “Married to the Game” recalls its ancestors with distorted samples of Shanghai opera, while conversation with the sample of late gay American gospel singer Raymond Miles on closer “Amazing” elevates a corny pep talk to something larger than himself, spinning it into a loving message.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

4. West by West - Hot Water Music

West by West makes bog music for the girls. Something to luxuriate in damp fog to, something to bathe in swampy waters to. It arrives as a slow boil but the blistering heat in her thicket of the woods is where she’s completely free: she dances in the cacophony and wails the hardest emotions that plague her mind. Taking apart the mundane and leaving each element only partly rendered allows her to experiment and test what heat could be pulled from its coldness. Components hang, dissonant to the rest of the arrangements and she repeats lines until they’re understood, or more commonly, lose all meaning. As she listlessly intones from the start, “it never stops, it never fades away / it’s just started, it’s starting again,” a piece of her longs for some meaning to the reason she sobs, to the metallic clangs and the acidic bubbles. Devoid of any satisfying answers, West by West continues to languish on the humid space of Hot Water Music, deconstructing and reconstructing her arrangements as she mines for her life for some meaning.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music

3. Xiao Xia - X II A O

There are things you sometimes only see clearly in the aftermath, like the rational answer you should’ve seen then or the beauty and the pain of a relationship you’ve long surrendered. Time, however, isn’t always the great healer, often distorting the past and robbing us of everything. On her second album under her birth name, Huang Qishan once again explores the passing of time and a relationship. Apart from some light funk detours, X II A O keeps things simple—light band arrangements with perhaps a jazz flourish here or a pensive electric guitar solo there. It focuses on Xiao Xia’s elegant, weathered voice, a powerful instrument as she details the blistering regret and aching unwillingness to leave a relationship. She looks on love fondly even as she feels it slipping through her fingertips, pitifully looking down upon herself as she puts another’s needs before her own; Huang’s voice colours even the most glowing parts of a relationship with sorrow. On the stunning standout “My Beauty,” a reflection of her elegance feels like a loss of everything else as she sobs alone in the playground, enduring the damage of time. It comes full circle on “Manners”—where the desperation and loneliness of “Bored” begged for a reunion that started the introspection of X II A O, “Manners” understands love to be a courteous farewell. In a bittersweet reconciliation, Xiao Xia bids mutual farewell in kindness to an old flame, ready to undo the damage of time.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

2. drogas - teardrop,saidmyname.

teardrop,saidmyname. understands the bleak fact that it’s over, that the toxic cycle of on-and-off has finally come to an end. It swings between absolute chilling despondency—“silence” finds him and Losty actively wishing for death—and the fearful prospect of having to leave the space its carved. On “trying to go out,” drogas takes one step forward and two steps back, angrily rebuffing an ex, before punishing himself. It’s a cycle of realizing he deserves more in “I can not waste any more time now” then self-flagellation as he calls “why I’m so useless / baby I don’t want to let you go.” “trying to go out” stretches into oblivion, a muted explosion of light as he opens the door.

teardrop,saidmyname. is always trying to prevent drogas from listening to the worst of himself. He sinks into his worst thoughts on the still manipulated acoustic instrumentation but it often turns up in harsh noise: “silence” shreds drogas and Losty, while “i’m a liar,i’m sorry.” breaks off into screams before pulling back into nothingness. Drowned-out melodies are submerged in emo guitar riffs and glitchy beats. The most hyperpop-leaning track, “shinigami” lands a flurry of electric guitar riffs and distorted vocal melodies that finds him at his most ready to move forward, derisively scornful of a previous lover.

drogas grows in moments like “shinigami”—moments when he sees through the broken pieces clearly instead of repeating old patterns. He dismisses advances and finds peace in a conversation with his parents on “loversong.” In between cuts of Notting Hill and Liar Liar—whether these quotes are inspired by what’s missing from a relationship or because of a pandemic, it’s not clear—drogas opens the door and gets out of his quarantine, out of his own head. Though it often threatens to return to its pain, the bleakness of teardrop,saidmyname. hints at something more hopeful, someone ready to move on from an endlessly toxic cycle.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

1. Faye - Faye詹雯婷 在雲彩上跳舞 嘰嘰喳喳

The fallout must have been hard. Faye opens her second album, Faye詹雯婷 在雲彩上跳舞 嘰嘰喳喳 (Faye Zhan Wenting Is Dancing on the Clouds Chirping) with a bitter pang: “don’t trust him,” she shouts between the strings and harsh drum beats of “融雪” (“Melting Snow”), “don’t trust the price he offers.” What else can you say after being unceremoniously dropped from the band you were part of for over a decade? Regret, pain, and confusion riddle its first half, from the free fall of “焚風” (“Foehn Wind”) as she remembers that abandonment, to the gorgeous twinkle and piano of “預言石” (“Prophecy Rock”) that returns to its crossroads, pondering whether the outcome could have been different. Its second half attempts to suffocate those feelings with indifference, losing herself in madness over a lithe drunk dance and emptily submitting to a stranger as she loses all sensation.

None of Faye詹雯婷 在雲彩上跳舞 嘰嘰喳喳 would work if it weren’t for Faye’s distinct voice—she weathers the elements but doesn’t gets swept away with them. “焚風” sets love ablaze in scorching winds and heavy drums but she dances through its path, acting as both the lone traveller and the burning wind. And there was nothing bigger this year than when she called for love, singing without regret on the coolness of “詠愛” (“Sing Love”). Harsh electronics are formed in the collision of elements: the glitchy deconstructed club of “融雪” sets sharp strings and chaotic drums that burn Faye’s cool exterior, while the blistering oasis of “煮沙” (“Boiling Sands”) is fuelled by distrust. On “山海盟” (“Mountain and Sea Union”), Chinese experimentalist Howie Lee crafts a track that starts with new age strings before delving into mechanical whirs. Despite all these pyrotechnics, Faye’s voice always seems to win out. She could turn a phrase to redirect the wind and change the course of a song.

On “焚風,” she unexpectedly finds that the days without them aren’t so hard, that the burn only eliminated the love that shouldn’t be loved. “詠愛,” makes a bittersweet stand in its grandness; “預言石” drops the final “or should I stay?” as she comes to terms with her departure. Faye詹雯婷 在雲彩上跳舞 嘰嘰喳喳 is renewal, not only in sound as she commands something new in maximalist electropop, but in spirit, dying in the flames and reborn in the sky. The hymn “Alle” might walk the funeral procession in its marching drums and ceremonious strings, but “aalleeeeeee” repeats it in something more triumphant, its opening is almost jovial and when she feels the light—it no longer feels like grasping at straws. Playing indifferent dulls the pain momentarily but “aalleeeeeee” reopens her. “I heard you, you said you love me,” she sings, finding love in faith and herself. Faye’s rebirth is glorious to uncover.

Find it on streaming here: Apple Music // Spotify

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Find a selection of highlights on Spotify.²

Find the latest Canto Wrap and Mando Gap playlists on Spotify and me on Twitter here.

1. Seems there was an error with the upload to Bandcamp—track 1 seems to have been uploaded twice in place of track 2. Soundcloud has it in full though!

2. Three albums not on Spotify: West by West’s Hot Water Music (#4), Flashbabeboi’s 杂 (#26), and 1ove1etter.exe’s fLiOrVsEt (#32) — replaced with some picks from spares from artists not on the singles list: Yisa Yu’s Dear Life, Li Runqi’s 777, and FAZI’s Folding Story, respectively.