X’Ho No Ordinary Country

The title is X’ Ho’s ode to Singapore’s former prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew’s quote published in the ST on Apr 23, 2007 – “The biggest mistake any Singaporean can make is believe that Singapore is an ordinary country and can behave like an ordinary country, like Malaysia, like Indonesia, like Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark”.

The symbols on the album cover were suggested by X’, which we expanded upon into the entire album packaging. Bring a protest-folk album, the idea of using hand-drawn elements brings an initimacy to the design; the entire typography for the packaging was hand-drawn. Aesthecially, the design brings across a raw DIY photocopied zine vibe, that echoes the power of the music.

Featuring guest artistes such as the actress Yeo Ann-Ann (of Ilo Ilo) singing duet in the song Fan Of Lotus Flower and others such as Vivian Wang (The Observatory) and Rahman (The Bushmen) in the title-song, the album was released in 2009 in a limited edition of only a few hundred copies and has now become a collector’s item.