Countless () is the twelfth album by Chinese singer-songwriter Joker Xue. It was released digitally on September 20. 2022, by Xue's own label Chaoshi Music. Presale for the physical version began on November 17, 2022.
Background Of the ten tracks on the album, Xue composed music for five tracks and wrote lyrics for seven tracks. The title track, "Countless", was written and composed by Xue. The arrangement builds up from low piano notes integrated with percussion, culminating in a powerful and unyielding atmosphere where one rushes forward fearlessly and uncompromisingly despite the countless obstacles in pursuit of countless possibilities.
The songs "You Are Not Alone" and "But" are collaborations with Jeff Chang and Jane Zhang, respectively. Zhang performed "But" with Xue as a special guest at Xue's Douyin Online Concert: Ke in February 2023 and at Xue's Extraterrestrial World Tour's third Beijing show in August 2023. "About You" is dedicated to Xue's mother, who died when he was 4, and released on his birthday.
"Waiting" is a cover of the song by Xue's good friend Zhao Yingjun, who died in February 2021. Zhao had expressed the wish of having an album of cover songs to hear his music through other artists' interpretation; Xue launched the project in August 2020 and the album A Song, a Story was released on September 17, 2020. "Waiting" is included on A Song, a Story, where thirteen of Zhao's songs are each covered by a different artist, and on Countless.
Reception All songs on the album peaked within the top ten spots on Tencent Music UNI chart, with the exception of "City of Luo", which peaked at 11.
Countless was number 2 on Tencent Music's 2022 Year-End Chart which ranks the albums based on the sum of the five highest scored songs on each album, and "But" was named one of the Top 10 Hits of the Year. On KuGou Music's year-end chart, Countless was among Top 10 Popular Albums and Xue was named one of Top 10 Artists of the Year and the Favorite Artist of Post-00s Generation.
On TME Physical Album Annual Sales Chart, Countless ranked 5th in 2022 and continued to appear on the list in 2023 (ranked 18th), 2024 (ranked 31st), and 2025 (ranked 35th).
Track listing
Accolades + Accolades for Countless Year Award Category Nominee Result 2021Migu Music Awards音乐盛典咪咕汇 Top 10 Hits of the Year年度十大金曲 "Turning Waste Into Treasure" NetEase Cloud Music Awards网易云年度音乐奖 Single of the Year年度单曲奖 "Turning Waste Into Treasure" 2022Asian Pop Music Awards亚洲流行音乐大奖 Top 20 Albums of the Year年度TOP20专辑 Countless Top 20 Songs of the Year年度TOP20金曲 "Countless" People's Choice Award (Chinese)大众选择奖(华语) "Countless" Male Artist of the Year (Chinese)最佳男歌手(华语) Countless Album of the Year (Chinese)年度最佳专辑 Countless Best Collaboration Single最佳合作单曲 "But" NetEase Cloud Music Awards网易云年度音乐奖 Album of the Year年度专辑 Countless Song of the Year年度单曲奖 "But" 2023Wave Music Awards浪潮音乐大赏 Song of the Year年度歌曲 "But" Album of the Year年度专辑 Countless Producer of the Year年度制作 Countless Male Artist of the Year最佳男歌手 Countless
References