10/15/2021 11:30:02 PM
Ben&Ben is not yet stopping from having a breakout year. After reaching universal success with their series of collaborations and its sophomore album (Pebble House, Vol. 1: Kuwaderno), the folk-pop collective aims to make their presence felt in the global scene with a new collaborative single with acclaimed and best-selling Taiwanese singer-songwriter WeiBird.
Aptly titled Cheap Love, the new track is the sonic equivalent of wandering between a dreamlike state and an awakened mind throughout the night. It’s about the journey of finding a long, lasting love after having experienced so much pain in the past.
For WeiBird—or William Wei—the title of the song is a play on words, and nothing more than just faint bliss and ecstasy.
“It’s a temporary band-aid for a big gushing wound, but it never fills the hole inside. Moreover, it increases the feeling of emptiness. What I’m trying to say is, you can’t bargain your way into love. Love is truly hard to find.”
Aware of the reality of seeking genuine love in the direst of situations, Ben&Ben has echoed the similar sentiment.
“With the chorus repeating over and over how difficult it is to find a ‘rhyme better than you and I,’ it shows how drawn and enamored we are by the idea of love but oftentimes find ourselves in a pit when trying to really make it something more.”
With its stripped-down instrumentation embracing listeners with a sense of comforting warmth, “Cheap Love” expresses the woes and triumphs of a generation caught up in romantic longing and desire. The listening experience is made more compelling by the vocal harmonies of Paolo Benjamin and Miguel Benjamin, and the earnest delivery of WeiBird, making the audience feel more hopeful than ever despite the uncertainty of the present conditions.
“We’re grateful that by just being our authentic selves musically, we were able to add to the song both in production, vocals, and instrumentation something that WeiBird seemed to be happy with,” the nine-piece group shares in a statement. “We took an active role in building on the magic that the song already had, and we’re happy with how it turned out.”
WeiBird wrote and produced Cheap Love. He was joined by frequent collaborators Aven Tsai and Sean Sinclair, who handled co-production and mixing duties. The Mandopop added that Ben&Ben joined in pitching ideas for the arrangement and music side of things. This collaboration has resulted into a more polished, sonically impressive output that showcases the best of both worlds.
“I wrote, played and produced the whole song on the album version. However, for this collab I haven’t had to do much because Ben&Ben was amazing. I remember listening to a demo of them playing along to my original track, and I could already imagine how it would come to be later. And the final results were not far from my imagination. It was awesome.”
Cheap Love is the first single off WeiBird’s first official English album. It follows the success of his fifth studio album, Sounds Of My Life, which peaked at No.1 on Taiwanese album charts in 2020, and received four nominations at the 32nd Golden Melody Awards, including Album of the Year and Best Mandarin Album. The track also serves as the second international collaboration of Ben&Ben after “Leaves,” featuring K-pop star Young K.
Author: slickmaster | © 2021 The SlickMaster's Files
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