Jolin – Pleasure
Global pop icon and undisputed Queen of C-Pop JOLIN ushers in a bold new era with the release of her highly anticipated album Pleasure via WM Taiwan / East West Records.
Marking her first full-length studio album in six years, Pleasure is a spell-binding descent into JOLIN’s visceral, seductive, and radically honest dark-pop realm, exploring what it means to want, to feel, and to become. Following the record-shattering success of its lead single “Pleasure,” which logged over 100,000 digital sales in China within 12 hours and nearly half a million global Spotify streams in just 32 hours—the highest debut ever for a Mandarin-language female artist—the full album is JOLIN’s most daring and authentic work yet.
A culmination of nearly a decade of journaling, reflection, and personal evolution, Pleasure builds on the inner reckoning of JOLIN’s Ugly Beauty era, channeling influences ranging from Dante and medieval poetry to modern psychology. Through instrumentation and lyricism equally vulnerable, sensual, and powerful, JOLIN invites the world into her most intimate and empowered self – an unapologetic reclamation of emotional need and spiritual longing. “Through that lens”, JOLIN says, “every flaw becomes fertile ground. Pleasure isn’t about indulgence. It’s about truth.”
JOLIN wrote or co-wrote all 13 tracks, recorded herself in home and studio sessions, and arranged nearly every vocal layer. She spent years studying recording techniques, experimenting with production styles, and editing final takes. After years of waiting on others, she decided to stop waiting—and build the entire playground herself.
Working between Taipei and Los Angeles—and collaborating remotely with writers and producers worldwide—she took the lead in shaping each sound, mood, and movement. From melody to mix, from idea to execution, Pleasure is JOLIN’s clearest creative fingerprint yet.
Blending elements of electronic and dance music, lyrics in both Mandarin and English, and a riotous attitude all her own, JOLIN begins her exploration into the complexities of desire, repression, and self-discovery in the opening track, “Layers”. Followed by a haunting rendition of “The Divine Comedy Purgatorio”, the album continues to knock stereotypes on their feet with the sonically lush “SEVEN” and serpentine techno-house title-track, “Pleasure”, which was co-written with Ross Golan (Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande) and Richard Craker.
Steeped in emotional and sonic contrasts and striking a lighter note in the album, “Safari” guides the listener into an uninhibited trance-like state, urging them to “Stop that talking / Think with your body, baby / Don’t be sorry / Move like a safari”. “Inside Out” and “Woman’s Work” are delicious pop confections that glimmer with a diamond-like sheen, followed by “Pillow” and “DIY”, anthems that ring strong and clear about the power that comes when you trust yourself to let loose. Wildly free and instantly sexy, JOLIN gives us the secret to honest expression: “Only you can know what is true”.
The eerie “Hush Little Baby” brings a menacing undertone to its succeeding track, “Good Girl”, which finds JOLIN amidst thrumming synth lines, giving the middle finger to anyone who tries to dictate how she should act. From the slower, softer ”Fish Love” that showcases JOLIN’s light-as-air vocals, to the provocative “Bloody Mary”, the final tracks round out the album with hypnotic basslines and JOLIN’s signature reflective lyrics.
Bold and intoxicating, Pleasure is where addictive pop, raw emotion, and haunting reflection meet to create a collection of songs that is truly mesmerizing. Rather than giving in to the ways society demonizes the pleasure, rage, and jaw-dropping depth of women, JOLIN’s latest offering is a fearless celebration of truth and feminine power, harnessing the glorious might of her rich, internal world.
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