Marking a quarter of a century as one of Mandopop’s titans, Jay Chou remains resolutely positive about the power of music. On Children of the Sun, the artist turns his accumulated experience into songs that celebrate life with giddy delight, fond nostalgia and purposeful resolve—starting with a statement-making title track that harnesses the power of metal to resist the pull of the darkness that lies within. Sprinkled throughout the album’s cinematic narratives, earnest pop-rock and trademark R&B are allusions to Chou’s earlier work. Where the title track’s hard edge is reminiscent of hits like “Struggle” and “Nunchucks”, the ballad “The Day It Rained” is an explicit sequel to 2003’s “Sunny Day”, with lines that directly echo the earlier song. “Long-time fans are pretty familiar with my songs and can be nostalgic, so I thought it would be fun to write something that’s in dialogue with a song everyone knows,” Chou tells Apple Music. Another re-engagement is “The Girl from Hunan”, which serves as an emotional counterpoint to 2000’s “Wife”. Drawing inspiration from the legend of Ehuang and Nüying, the daughters of Emperor Yao who became deities of the Xiang River, lyricist Vincent Fang infuses the song with the poetic sensibility of the earlier track. “He’s got a flair for the Chinese style,” Chou says. “And I put a hint of opera into my vocals on this track and sang a bit of ‘Wife’, so that should tickle fans.” Close collaborators since the singer’s debut, Chou and Fang have arrived at a flexible working relationship. “There have been times when I’ve asked him to write lyrics on a theme I’ve worked out,” Chou says. “At other times, he gives me finished lyrics that I set to a tune. But those are special cases, since songwriting usually starts with a melody.” The title track was created using a visually driven approach—Chou conceived of a music video featuring 30 famous works of art and gave Fang a detailed guide to the timing and corresponding lyrical content for each. Aside from Fang, the album features contributions from other old associates—arrangements from Michael Lin and Patrick Brasca, and lyrics from Will Liu. “Previous songs I did with Will were already written when I had him add lyrics,” Chou says. “But for ‘Aegean Sea’, the music didn’t exist. He was in Greece at the time and just had to imagine the melody I’d write.” One first-time collaborator is Chou’s youngest child, Jacinda, whose vocal samples pepper the rambunctious, funky jam “My Daughter, Your Highness”. “I record my children’s growth in music,” he says. “I turned random notes my eldest daughter Hathaway hit on a keyboard as an infant into ‘Lover From Previous Life’, and I wrote ‘Pink Ocean’ for my son Romeo and put his voice on the. Jacinda would say to me, ‘My brother and sister both have songs—why don’t I?’ So I had to write one for her, and I included lots of her adorable kid’s talk. I bet my own lyrics, like the line ’Wild and crazy, stylish and composed’, will resonate with lots of parents!”