Taiwanese singer-songwriter Paige Su reflects on two decades of memories across The Best of the Worst of Times, her third solo album, balancing alternative-rock sensibilities with dream-pop, folk, and adventurous production. Co-produced in Los Angeles with American musician Benjamin Lazar Davis, the collection transforms past heartache and everyday uncertainty into a tender celebration of life’s accumulated experiences.
Opening the album impactfully, its title track moves through calming acoustic strums, textured twangs, and a yearning lead presence. “Another year passed, you’re still on my mind,” Su expresses. “Catch myself staring into the night sky.” A retrospective desire for those “good times” and when one could see the spark in the eyes of their beloved stirs, complemented in the second half with a satiating range of slight rhythmic pit-pattering and harmonious backing layers, echoing the album title with ghostly precision. Ensuing track “Repeated Stories” moves from the acoustic realm into art-rock territory, where trickling electric guitar and buzzy bass build with climactic allure into a soaring “we are living in repeated stories” hook, showing fond shades of St. Vincent in its sharply melodic precision.
Next up, “Letting Go (and Getting Let Go)” embraces a lush chamber-folk quality. Birdsong and frolicking acoustics lend a daytime sense of introspection, where Su’s delivery continues to contemplate the process of letting go, catharsis in the “you can go your own way” acknowledgment and drive to “letting go,” as plucky harps move in elegantly. Benjamin Lazar Davis’ guest presence adds to the ethereal, hypnotic quality throughout the track, which fuses blissful folk qualities with the ongoing themes of moving on. “Every Second’s A Treasure” continues the dreamy, stylish appeal. The sunlight-dancing lyrical imagery and ruminations on time bolster an expanding production, spanning from serene folk sensibilities to balmy, layered dream-pop harmonies, pining on “every second with you” in its carpe-diem thematic hold.
Another highlight, “Breathe Again” delights in its initial electronic procession, weaving glimmering electronics and wordless harmonic textures into a “love is a fire that burns so sweet” lead presence, adorned by magnetic harp work. Those harps retain a lovely quality as elongated tonal dreaminess enters the mix, as electro-minded rhythmic tones add to the infectious yet meditative soundscape. “Thank You Life” ensues, capturing Su’s poetic and descriptive lyrical talents, where accounts of nature-laden imagery move into a gratitude for life and its ordinary occurrences; the chorus here envelops in the tender acoustics, piano, and melodic work.
The excellent Chinese-language “Daily Humor” closes the album as a stylish bonus track, featuring DJ Didilong and strutting a smooth sophisti-pop sound amidst lyrical perspectives of how many beloved things have a tendency to disappear, from favorite dishes at restaurants to music they enjoy not becoming popular. From start to finish, The Best of the Worst of Times consumes in its variety of stylishness, melodic memorability, and powerful themes from Paige Su.
