the Shiina Ringo thread

first listen through was pretty terrifying, this is really not a Shiina album. anyone with Jpop allergies will run away from the cheer, Shiina's not writing the songs and the drama and darkness is gone, this is all sugar rush Pop (i.e. the kind of sound that gives many US listeners auto-headaches). perhaps once frecklegirl's translations show up we'll how completely twisted her lyrics are, but more than ever before she's really just another member of the band -- her vocal lines are mixed at an equal level to the instruments & she even shares lead vocals on a few tracks. as a fan of the earlier records where her voice / direction was the whole point, it's hard not to miss her and impatiently wait for a return

in the meantime there are so many catchy, addictive pop songs on this record they are all competing to get caught in my head at once -- I probably should have started a new thread with this because it's really not a Shiina Ringo album, but I totally love it

"Princess Monthly" probably my favorite one track but that's just now

http://ringoran.wordpress.com/

ringoran has two tracks up including 'Princess Monthly'

I haven't heard it all yet, although I've been checking out bits and pieces of it. I find it disappointing that what I've heard does basically sound like other J-pop/J-rock in general, more than most other material I've heard by SR (certainly) and even by Tokyo Jihen as a group. I also don't like something I can't really put my finger on exactly, but there's a prog. rock whimsy, let's say, in TJ's playing that is starting to get to me. I love the fact that they have a lot of skill as instrumentalists, but I don't care for the ironic-show-offy vibe I'm getting. Maybe this impression is coming from the videos? I was thinking that she always seems to have liked a rigid looking, almost robotic, band. Think "Meisai." It's as if Tokyo Jihen has become the pretend band in the "Meisai" video, if that makes any sense at all. Of course, this assumes that SR has much to do with the videos. I'm not sure.

(I'm not buying CDs right now, or this is one I would buy.)

Does Perpetua still visit ilx? I'm trying to remember the Shiina Ringo song he posted on Fluxblog 2 or 3 years ago.

I don't read fluxblog but I found out about Ringo when Said The Gramophone posted the KZK version of "Stem" in mid-2004

I hear what you're saying Rockist but the weird thing is, I think this is their first album where they've actually _retired_ the ironic distance. when Shiina started Jihen there was an interview statement about how the new band would aspire to bring the audience 'the very best in Japanese Pop' -- everyone expected a hyper-commercial return to her earlier rock hits, but instead they got this somewhat bent, ironic package that was way too self-conscious to actually work with most Jpop fans: the inside packaging for the debut, 'mainstream' but tell me this isn't more than just a little sarcastic: http://shiinaringo.se/pics/Tokyo%20Jihen/jihen1.jpg

now that other members are supplying the songs, I don't get that same ironic remove at all -- the music finally is goofy carefree (sometimes sliiightly wistful) fun as advertised, they've finally hit their target of making a savvy adult version of Jpop that's clever without that menacing edge or discomfort that Shiina's songs have

i.e. the edge that made Shiina / TJ appealing for many western listeners, the synthesis -- 'Adult' works because you get her uneasy songs arranged and played with spotless, overpolished but totally dedicated precision. with 'Variety' many of the longtime english speaking fans on the Electric Mole board feel angrily underwhelmed or even betrayed, they don't like much Jpop and they feel like they've been dragged here, but this has obviously been the goal from the beginning

I don't like most Jpop, it's not just that it's emulative it's just they always clean things up too much -- but I really love this new record

a lot!

I don't know if the irony is retired so much as flattened to the point of minimal difference. The album cover is a 're-photographed' snapshot of your typical mainstream J-variety show & what is that if not a continued insistence on distance or a level of removal? Not sure if I can apply that reading to the music yet (Kronekodow = easiest giveaway?) but I'm neither convinced that it's *just* J-pop *or* that self-consciousness is TJ's saving grace. Maybe I am reading too much into some death-of-author automated-band angle but I like most of it so far.

well, you're right, actually the irony is still there, and this keeps it distinct from most Jpop, still feels like it's geared more for adults than kids. to tone down my point -- relative to their previous two records, this is a huge leap closer to what it's modelled on

but it's weird, if 90's Jpop was modelled on various Western genres, this is more like a Japanese band consolidating the idea of 90's Jpop, very self-consciously

What about all the 70's pop/rock stylings though? (At least in the songs I've heard from the album?) Doesn't that make it different too? Or is that pretty much the norm for J-pop and J-rock (I think some of the stuff I've heard from the EPs is more J-rock than J-pop)?

The idea & not really the sound, right? Fukushuu is the only one that sounds a bit like a calcified J-genre thing. The consolidation of what was already a kind of consolidation is an interesting idea wrt slight difference from an original model (which in turn appropriated from another model).

(Also, if part of the idea of 90's Jpop was Shiina herself, maybe she is reshuffled "Shiina" now in the band).

TJ's sleeve art trajectory - pop painting -> commodity sculpture -> rephotography - is so much more appropriation (of appropriation), so it's brilliant or it's empty sleekness (hence the polarized responses?) or maybe both.

I mean, nobody is doing deconstructive gymnastics while listening to this album but all the process stuff (arguably) makes that needed difference in terms of pleasure. That's the bigger question I guess.

I'm giving it a first listen now, and it sounds pretty good overall. (Sorry, no ideas here at the moment, just crude impressions.)

I seriously don't think I'm going to end up liking it as much as Adult, but I see more point to it than HF (not that that's saying much). "Tsukigime-Hime" reminds me a lot of Go!Go!7188, though I guess it's necessarily more fleshed out.

But I like it a little more than I had expected.

I really like "Boutomin" a lot, including the "Kabuki"-quoting at the end. Also, maybe predictably, I like "Kronekodow."

"Kronekodow," including the faux Latin jazz ending!

I think "Pinocchio" and especially "Kaban no Nakami" deserve a place on the album more than some of the tracks that made it ("Fukushuu," for example). "Kaban no Nakami" has maybe her most satisfactory English lyrics and the singing on it is okay, so if she was going to include some English language tracks, she should have included that one.

"Boutomin" real reminds me of Drums & Wire era XTC, in a way--not that it ends up really sounding anything like them. (Also reminds me of what I rememember Gino Vanelli sounding like, although I never liked him.)

(Making the usual useless comparisons here.)

Am I crazy to hear parts of "Fukushuu" as real close to "Gone Baby Gone"?

It will take a few months to know if I've just brainwashed myself into liking this, but I really do mostly like it. Even the weaker tracks don't feel like the type I must skip over.

liveblogging as always, RS

but you're not brainwashed, or if you are I am too. this music has the sound of music I usually hate, so it does prompt some gymnastics -- I'm afraid of 'empty sleekness' but this music is just way, way too clever to actually be empty, there is a point where the form becomes its own thing

I don't hear "Gone Baby Gone" but Izawa's keyboard solo in "Princess Monthly" is a bizarre transcription of the organ line in "Light My Fire" forced to fit a completely different chord sequence. jigsaw puzzle for music geeks

these CDs are so expensive I usually reburn CDRs of them for car listening, and I was never tempted to do that for Heisei Fuuzoku, not even a comp -- but Variety, already reburned, with 'OSCA' / 'Killer Tune' b-sides & all three tracks of the "Konoyo no Kagiri" single (that single by itself is better than HF as an album)

but Izawa's keyboard solo in "Princess Monthly" is a bizarre transcription of the organ line in "Light My Fire" forced to fit a completely different chord sequence. jigsaw puzzle for music geeks

I neglected to mention that (but that one I saw pointed out already on Electric Mole). Actually, I didn't catch it on my own, probably because of the peculiarity of it that you describe.

I don't agree about the "Konoyo no Kagiri" EP, except I do prefer the instrumental version of "Karisome Otome" that appears there to the album one with vocals. It's definitely hard slogging through all of HF, and I have my own edit.

I like the way parts of "Boutomin" sound like music for a kiddie TV show. (I could imagine puppets singing some of this.)

Most annoying song: "Fukushuu." I'm having trouble finding any redeeming value in that one.

"Fukushuu" is the only song on the album that throws me off the trail a bit, silly metal

Hedofloe on EM posted the composition credits

on a Saito Neko tangent, Mutant Sounds just posted the debut of his band Killing Time, their strongest / strangest. and my favorite track from the Haniwa All Stars DVD finally made it to youtube -- that's Saito on violin with the headgear

"Fukushuu" is the only song on the album that throws me off the trail a bit, silly metal

It's not really all that metal (not that I'm into metal at all--but I like some of the more metal sounding metal they've done in the past).

The beginning of "Metro" keeps reminding me of "Genius of Love" even though the two songs obviously don't sound much alike overall.

I love the doo-doo-DOO-doo-doo part on "Metro."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOQvRFt2Eho

(MP, what do you think about asking a moderator to change the thread title to "the Shiina Ringo and Tokyo Jihen thread"? I don't want to ask since you are the OP. Or should we start a new Tokyo Jihen thread?--but isn't it a little late for that?)

Does Uki say something about "a tall man lady" in "Boutomin" or is that just me straining to make sense of lyrics I can't quite hear?

I gave in and ordered a copy.

"Fukushuu" is laughably bad. It's a shame it comes smack in the middle of the album, but it would be out of place anywhere else on it. I think any of the EP songs that weren't included would have been a better substitute.

It's almost like I distrust this album for being so happy, especially because I can't stop listening to it

also, unlike earlier Shiina & Jihen albums... I'm not listening to this one like an album, I'm skipping around, going for my favorite tracks. I remain mostly an album-listener as opposed to an iPod / singles listener precisely because of trust, I mainly want to listen to artists capable enough to assemble a sustained statement, when I listen to nothing but quality singles for a few hours I get numbed out, I feel promiscuous in a bad way

Though I was wrong about what I said upthread about empty -- the songs are slick and Shiina's vocals are not surface, they are deep, when she goes for it on the chorus of 'Metro' there are a couple of seconds where you realize it's not a happy song at all, and then before you can even blink, they've turned the sunlamp back on

a great record, the fear

I'm still waiting for my copy from cdjapan. I hope it didn't get lost in the mail.

I don't care that the songs aren't as perfect as songs, and aren't as melodically transcendent (sorry, I'm too tired to choose better words) as the ones Shiina Ringo writes typically are. There's a lot else to like about this album. There are great little harmonic things all over it. (At least I think that's what they are--non-musician speaking.)

And yes, attention to detail, in general.

(Still waiting for actual CD, and then I'll go comment on Electric Mole once I have that I guess. Hi guys.)

Rockist! You are all over this thing!

And maybe Sasha Frere-Jones should be listening to Tokyo Jihen instead of all those indie bands.

x-post:

I know. Apologies. I think it's partly because I keep posting these one to three sentence comments.

You should check out the new album, if you haven't.

Only just recieved the CD of this, the artwork is really great!

I have the CD now. I'm not entirely satisifed with the sound (and I mean in terms of production and SOUND, I don't me the style of the music). It seems to be a step back from Adult. It doesn't seem as full as it should be. Maybe I've spent too much time listening to it on small PC speakers and it seems to spread out on stereo speakers? I'd say the sound improves on the second half of the album. Now that I actually have the CD, I'm feeling a little less into it--so, bummer. I still like it, I just find more ambivalence creeping back.

I think they probably should have sat on this a while more, pulled it together more somehow.

Call me crazy, but this one is actually pulling me in for repeated listens more than the previous two! I don't know what I was expecting from it, but it's much much better than I thought it would be.

yeah I'm torn about this one for all the longterm fanboy reasons -- many Shiina trademarks have gone missing from the music and I miss them -- but the result is something that I think is going to pull in a lot of people. J-pop fans who can do Puffy & Pizzicato 5 sweetness overload won't be frightened off by the intense noise & drama, and yet the new album is still enough of a polished J-pop/Western pop hybrid that it won't activate any sugar allergies that keep most people away from J-pop

I still love the record, save for that total bomb right in the middle -- but maybe it is time Jihen get their own thread

their new tour has just started -- evidently they're going for all out rock, sounds good, wish she were touring here

maybe it is time Jihen get their own thread

Do it.

I was thinking about doing it after hearing the new album.

I came "this" close...

But I thought it might have been done by now.

I think someone else needs to start the 'Tokyo Jihen - Variety' thread

in the meantime, new DVD-only single 'Senkou Shoujo' (written by Kameda)

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=ylyX11ewFVU

pretty emo'd out! nice nod to Bergman's 'Persona' at the end

Good, but a little average, but it has to be given time.

Why does youtube.com think I'm in Spain now? Everything's coming up in Spanish and Spain is given as my location.

Same thing is happening with me too.