Tang Duy Tan is not yet capable.

Tang Duy Tan showed many positive changes in "The Garden of Love," however, releasing an album with 10 songs was somewhat beyond the singer's capabilities.

Tang Duy Tan has developed his own unique style and achieved considerable commercial success in recent years. With simple, concise compositions, combined with the vinahouse style often performed by Drum7, the male singer delivers products that are both familiar and fresh, captivating audiences and earning numerous prestigious awards.

However, when working as a songwriter, Tang Duy Tan also received mixed reviews because his compositions had a very distinct personal touch, leading to a lack of freshness and overshadowing the style of the singers who performed them. Earlier this year, Bich Phuong released a song. Raise a glass to drown your sorrows. Composed by Tang Duy Tan, the song did not receive much positive feedback and quickly lost its appeal in the market.

Returning to his familiar role as a singer-songwriter, Tang Duy Tan marked his comeback with a full album comprising 10 songs. Along with that, he brought about changes and differences from the singles that made his name. However, these changes weren't particularly dramatic.

New bottle, old wine.

In the album In his debut album , Tang Duy Tan has moved beyond just producer Drum7. His first album also features 2pillz, a rising hitmaker currently enjoying considerable popularity. This follows the hugely successful album in 2023. Ai , 2pillz is currently the choice of many singers. This year he has participated in the production of a series of hit songs such as Dream Yu, Searching for Love, Hop on Da Show , and most recently the theme song. A star in the middle of the galaxy in the program The beautiful lady rides the wind .

When collaborating with Tang Duy Tan, 2pillz successfully gave his compositions a new look. Instead of the verse-chorus-drop structure of EDM that Tang Duy Tan and Drum7 used in most of their hits, 2pillz built the singer's songs in a more pop-oriented direction. Ikigai Perhaps one of the most distinctive products in Tang Duy Tan's career is that it no longer uses concise lyrics to quickly deliver the drop to the listener's ear. Instead, 2pillz and Tan fill in the musical gaps of the song with Bich Phuong's vocals, as well as using a rather slow and deliberate tempo.

Ikigai is an innovation by Tang Duy Tan, but it's not truly new to the market.

However, in order to create a melancholic atmosphere, Bich Phuong's appearance did not create a breakthrough or significant change for the song; instead, the female singer's vocal tone blended in with Tang Duy Tan's. Not to mention, the synth sound used by 2pillz in Ikigai It's also somewhat similar to the sound he used in his hit song. If at that time last year. It could be said that, Ikigai It's quite "new" to Tang Duy Tan, but not necessarily compared to the market.

To compensate for the familiarity that 2pillz brings to Tang Duy Tan in Ikigai Hoping to replicate their past success, 2pillz also incorporated newer and fresher elements into their other songs. I dreamt of you again tonight. and In Prison of the Soul , he brings a touch of disco influence to the arrangement, in Go to bed It's slow R&B – which is also a rather unusual genre compared to Tang Duy Tan's music.

In the second half of the album, Tang Duy Tan uses his familiar and trusted producer, Drum7. Lonely Paradise and He has been looping in this pain. These two songs best exemplify the "style" that audiences usually associate with Tang Duy Tan, as he uses the formula of short songs + EDM drops in the vinahouse style. Key It's a slow-tempo track that uses lo-fi elements reminiscent of his debut hit. First love by Tan. Where does the night take the memories? This song has the simplest arrangement with only piano, and it's where Tang Duy Tan tries his hand at ballad, a genre he rarely performs.

The inner strength of Tang Duy Tan

Using diverse musical elements is a commendable strength of Tang Duy Tan, following a series of hits with structures and development that could be said to be almost identical. Night Rain, Upstairs arrive "Cutting the Sorrow in Half ." However, Tang Duy Tan's innovation isn't entirely thorough, as he still dedicates half of the album's duration to his "favorite" producer Drum7 with his all-too-familiar sounds.

The innovations that 2pillz brought to Tang Duy Tan were not entirely unfamiliar to the market, and the ballad song was also a good fit. "Where Does the Night Take the Memories? " is almost a common "formula" needed in albums from mainstream artists of the past (like...). Link Hoang Thuy Linh said, " No song can express my feelings right now ." Curved Toc Tien's If you were me .

The series of albums released by Gen Z artists in 2023 seems to have had no significant impact on Tang Duy Tan. He didn't participate in the trend of using interludes to connect songs in the album, and the connection between the songs isn't particularly strong, aside from the fact that it's a collection of love songs. Tang Duy Tan's songwriting also doesn't show any difference; although the producers tried to change the musical genre for each song, Tang Duy Tan maintained a fairly similar structure across the tracks.

However, Tang Duy Tan's changes in the album "The Garden of Love" are not thorough enough.

In particular, the songs were probably composed by Tang Duy Tan specifically for his voice, so none of them have sections that go beyond his vocal range. It's safe to perform, but as a result, the songs are monotonous, similar to each other, and don't fully exploit the innovation in terms of sound. Most notably, in In "Where Does the Night Take the Memories ," where the arrangement is simplified to highlight the songwriting and vocals, Tang Duy Tan failed to capitalize on this to create a breakthrough. He performed the two parts of the song identically, without building up to a powerful climax or complex harmonies; the whole song flowed blandly, lacking any highlights.

In a context where Vietnamese music no longer lacks quality albums like it did 4-5 years ago, the emergence of... The Garden of Love There's nothing particularly special about the album, neither in terms of musical quality nor Tang Duy Tan's creativity. The album shows him standing at a crossroads between innovation and sticking to old styles, so neither direction is pursued thoroughly. Tang Duy Tan's efforts are commendable, but perhaps he needs more time to create a truly good album.

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