After teasing her fans with new music over the past month, Amber Liu has finally released her latest solo album, Y?.
Liu’s music career took off after she debuted in 2009 with the widely loved second-generation K-pop group, f(x), and started releasing solo music in 2015. After leaving SM Entertainment and signing with Steel Wool Entertainment, Liu went on two successful national tours and released her previous EP, X, in 2020.
Following X came the creation of her latest album, Y?, which the singer describes as “honest, vulnerable, and complicated.” Liu wrote every track off the album, revealing her most authentic and vulnerable self.
The album has 6 original tracks and 3 additional Mandarin versions of the tracks with features from Blow Fever, Peniel of BtoB, MaSiWei of Higher Brothers, and Korean-American rapper, Junoflo. When asked the reason behind creating her tracks in both Mandarin and English, the songwriter mentions that she keeps her mother during the album process.
“When I actually choose songs that are going to have a Mandarin version,” Liu begins, “I primarily focus on what songs my mom would want to hear because my mom loves it when I sing in Mandarin.”
In addition to her new songs, Liu has made a music video to accompany each track to give listeners a visual component for her songs. If you pay close attention to the music videos, you can see that Liu has tied each of the tracks together to create a storyline that Liu hopes listeners can relate to and view life from her perspective.
To get her fans hyped up for the release of Y?, Liu released the music videos for “Blue,” “Neon,” and “Vegas” to give fans a taste of what to expect for the album. On album release day, Liu dropped the music video for the single, “Complicated,” and despite the track title, the singer wanted the music video for the track to be the exact opposite.
“I felt with ‘Complicated,’ the music video should not be complex,” Liu explains, “The song should speak for itself and the visuals should speak for itself.”
The music video features Liu walking solo on the beach holding a singular rose that symbolized all the memories, love, and hurt that she held onto. As the song progresses, Liu lets go more and runs into the water, feeling more carefree and liberated. Towards the end, the rose slowly disappears, representing Liu letting go of the memories that were once holding her back.
Included in her incredible tracklist is “Make It Better,” a catchy pop song that is undoubtedly made to get you on your feet, and it also happens to be one of Liu’s most memorable songs on the album.
“It was actually the song that showed me how insecure I was about myself,” Liu reveals, “This whole album was a very self-reflective album and with “Make It Better,” I think that song really kind of set the domino effect for every other song.”
Liu virtually sits down with Celeb Secrets to talk more about creating Y? and what artists inspired her to become the singer/songwriter she is today. You can watch the full interview below and don’t forget to let us know what you thin of Y? by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sending us a tweet at @celebsecrets.
You can connect with Amber by giving her a follow on Instagram at @ajol_llama.
LISTEN TO “Y?” NOW:
