By the time Eason Chan released rice & shine, the Hong Kong-born singer had been one of Asian pop’s biggest stars for almost 20 years—and he’d had success singing in Mandarin and Cantonese, receiving a slew of awards and accolades while selling out tours and releasing albums at a steady clip. On rice & shine, Chan plays around with his multifaceted stardom a bit, putting aside the irony that had marked his early work and lending his buttery voice to gentle, laidback pop songs. "I wanted to do an album that was very qingxin (fresh), zizai (free), and xiaosa (unfettered)," Chan told press around the time of rice & shine’s release. Chan decided to conjure those vibes by splitting the Mandarin-language album’s behind-the-boards duties between Chinese songwriting and production duo Radio Mars (which handles rice) and Singaporean composer JJ Lin (who wrote the music on shine). The duality of rice & shine allows Chan to present himself more fully as an artist. Radio Mars’ songs on rice allow Eason, who turned 40 the year rice & shine came out, to show off his more mature side; opening track “娛樂天空 (High Light High Life)” is sparkling sophistipop with a catchy chorus, while “不如承諾來的蕳單 (You)” is a tender ballad that gathers steam as it goes, with strings adding intensity to a fervent vocal performance. shine’s leadoff track, “放棄治療 (Forgot My Meds),” has a piano-bar jauntiness, allowing Chan to flaunt his showman style, while other Lin-composed cuts like the sweeping “陰天快樂 (Cloudy Day)” and the emotion-racked “你給我聽好 (Listen Up)” are ballads that split the difference between rock and Broadway, their string-heavy arrangements framing the singer’s passion in fierce beauty. The playful concept and impressive execution of rice & shine show how Chan, decades into his career, succeeds when he flips his script.