Jean Tan Releases Pop-R&B Single ‘The Morning After’

Luciana Jury | Jean Tan Releases Pop-R&B Single ‘The Morning After’ | The last in a trilogy of EPs, ‘The Morning After’ is available from 5 May 2023, Friday on all major digital streaming platforms via Believe Music and LEEWAY. The five-track extended play is singer-songwriter Jean Tan’s most collaborative yet, featuring production by Evanturetime (Evan Low), Josh Wei, Leo Goh and songwriting and vocal arrangement collabs with renown artists linying and Joanna Dong respectively. 

At first listen, the EP is rife with the singer-songwriter’s familiar R&B-inspired instrumentation, from the saxophone solo in ‘dance’ to the smooth e-guitar licks of ‘when it’s time’ and dreamy synths of ‘something forever’. Rounding those out are a couple of catchy bops which includes Jean Tan’s most recent single, ‘hatin’ on ok’ and the EP’s focus single ‘ always summertime’. The EP also features her best and most diverse vocal work, with melodies reminiscent of beadadoobee, Lyn Lapid, and Lianne La Havas. 

Yet, there’s more than meets the eye behind these pop-R&B earworms. While previous body of works ‘Hideaway’ (2017), and ‘Blooms’ (2020) were about grieving and healing, Jean Tan’s

freshest EP ‘The Morning After’ ruminates on the joy of the aftermath, intertwined with a fear of losing her hard-won stability. Though Jean finally experiences contentment after going through recovery , there is also a deep desire for permanence in a turbulent world: 

“So darlin’, darlin, please don’t go 

I wanna stay here in this place I know 

Won’t you charm a little 

Dance a while with me?” 

– ‘always summertime’ 

By the time we get to the soulful Daniel Caesar-esque outro of ‘something forever’, the yearning for consistency is even more profound. ‘Could we stay the same, just you and I?’ That is not to say that there is no hope. At the end of it all, while nothing can truly be evergreen, ’The Morning After’ is a reminder to enjoy beauty while it lasts and ride the waves till the next high. Daytime will soon pass into night, an eternal dance between sun and moon. So we wait, apprehensive yet sanguine about what the future holds.

Photo Credits: The Projective