The old saying goes ‘do not judge a book by its cover.’ For this release I need to change it to do not judge an album by its first track. The first track on Chris Yang’s third album is untitled and sounds like traditional Asian music combined with experimental electronica. It wasn’t highly refined but had feeling and made me want to hear more. With the second track things changed towards a singer-songwriter style and stayed that way for the rest of the disc.
Unfortunately for me I liked the first track better than the rest of the album, which reminded me of Hayden. Yang’s singing style never engaged me enough to make me want to delve into what he was singing about. The recording and his skills as a musician are very lo-fi which has never been a big draw for me either. I like layers and I don’t hear them here.
That doesn’t mean there are not some good songs contained on this release just that there are not that many for a sixty-minute disc. I hate to write a bad review but May All Yr Children Be Dragons doesn’t leave me wanting to tell you to buy this CD. Although, if you were going to judge this CD by its cover you would be tempted to buy it because the folks at Burnt Oak always package their releases with care and love.

By Rob Pingle
Sep 15, 2007