#songoftheday = LAURE SHANGE: “EXTREMOLOGY”

I love it when artists and producers I love team up and this song is one such blessed union.  It’s the latest track by Laure Shang, who’s famous in the Mando and Canto pop worlds but sings in English as much as Chinese, and it’s produced by Guy Sigsworth, whose work with Madonna and Björk is immaculate in my opinion.  (He co-wrote and produced most of Madonna’s American Life album — my favorite, criminally under-rated — and Björk’s “Hidden Place” and “Unravel,” among others.)  Guy is known for doing fabulous work with strings, as he did on his version of Björk’s “All is Full of Love,” and Shang’s “Extremology” is strings galore.  Aside from Laure’s vocals, a brilliantly produced string section is basically all there is to this one.  There are tiny bits of percussion, too, but mostly it’s strings and they’re gorgeous.  Meanwhile, Laure’s lyrics remain perfectly dark and her vocals are powerful as ever.  I can’t wait for her new album, which was also produced by David Kosten, Daniel Merlot and Kid Kong.  It’s going to be an album of the year contender for sure.