Dust (Joker Xue album)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dust | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | December 27, 2019 | |||
| Recorded | 2019 | |||
| Genre | Mandopop | |||
| Length | 45:25 | |||
| Language | Mandarin | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | Joker Xue | |||
| Joker Xue chronology | ||||
| ||||
Dust (Chinese: 尘) is the tenth album by Chinese singer-songwriter Joker Xue. It was released digitally on December 27, 2019, by Huayu World Expo and later acquired by Xue's own label Chaoshi Music.[2] The physical album went on presale on May 5, 2020.[3]
Xue described the concept for the album as a journey of illusions seen through the eyes of a puppet and upon reaching its destination, the illusions scatter to dust.[4] The album cover, featuring images of horse and deer in black and red, is a reference to the Chinese idiom "calling a horse a deer (指鹿为马)" which is used to describe people who deliberately confuse one thing for another and do not distinguish between right and wrong. This is later explored further in songs like "Puppet", "Half a Beat Slower", "Morbid State", "Loop" and more specifically in "Cooperate" through the contradictory lens of criticism and hope, shuttling between reality and ideals.[3]
Of the ten tracks on the album, Xue composed music for six tracks and wrote lyrics for nine tracks. "Express Your Feelings" was created on the variety show Infinite Song Season when Xue was partnered up with Yi Yi in 2018. Xue developed the song further and invited Liu Xijun on the track.[5]
The seventh track, "Accompany You to Wander", is the song Xue worked on for the longest, starting from when he adapted "Thousands of Words" by Teresa Teng as a prelude to "Accompany You to Wander" on the show Mother Like Flowers. Over the years, he attempted to find a better prelude but could not. Finally, he acquired the rights "Thousands of Words" and completed "Accompany You to Wander".[6] When he shared the song on Weibo, he revealed that, to him, the seventh song on an album has a special function by serving as a gauge of the album's quality.[7]
Reception
Dust is #1 on Tencent Music's 2019 Year-End Chart which ranks the albums based on the sum of the five highest scored songs on each album while "Puppet" and "Half a Beat Slower" were among the Top 20 Songs of the Year and "Puppet", "Mocking", "It's Been So Long", and "Half a Beat Slower" were among the Top 20 Popular Singles of the Year.[8]
Billboard magazine included "Puppet" (木偶人) on their The Global No. 1s You (Probably) Never Heard list, describing the song as a "soaring ballad about a failing relationship."[9] "Puppet" and "Half a Beat Slower" peaked at #1 on Tencent Music UNI Chart. All songs on the album peaked within the top ten spots, with the exception of "Loop" which peaked at 19.[10]
On TME Physical Album Annual Sales Chart, launched in 2021 and two years after the album's release, Dust ranked 78th in 2022 but then rose and continued to be in the top 40 in 2023 (ranked 33th), 2024 (ranked 32nd), and 2025 (ranked 34th).[11]
