On a self-titled debut album crafted over the course of five years, Zhang Li gives expression to his loves, dreams and frustrations through pop-R&B and hip-hop. A versatile musician who studied at Tokyo University of the Arts, Zhang has been accumulating professional experience since he began releasing songs in China in 2017. The ten uninhibited tracks that make up this album take advantage of his writing and production acumen to illuminate aspects of his life—from his coming-of-age experiences to his career. The trap-flavoured hip-hop track “Trainspotting” presents something of a thesis statement, taking inspiration from that film’s opening monologue about the choices we face while growing up. Elsewhere, the artist defends his individuality and passion for music on the ironically titled “Mismatch” and brings a novel spin to the familiar shape of Mandopop ballads. From the first track, “intro”, whose Chinese title refers to the days of the week in random order, the album is concerned with time—and what we do with the days we have available to us. “Time goes by”, written while Zhang was in a high school band, is an earnest ballad lamenting the passage of time. The album’s final track, “Outro Time goes back”, is an acknowledgement that while we ultimately can never stop the clock, we can at least record those precious moments to experience them again. On Zhang Li, the singer-songwriter does just that.