What is your favorite song on Variety??
 

I've thought about this for quite a while now and it is still a tough decision. I think either OSCA or Killer Tune would be it but since I heard them so many times before the album, I think that maybe I should pick another track. Then, of the album, I have heard Boutomin the most. I really like this song, but recently I've really been into Kingyo no Hako. Sooo, I'm in a bit of the dilemma. In the end, though, I just picked Killer Tune. It is the most emotional track on the album, in my opinion, and I really love Uki's solo followed by Hata's awesome drums, and I also really like how it ends with a nice instrumental.

What is YOUR favorite???

Well, I picked Shiseikatsu, I really like the emotion that ringo performs in this song.

Picked Metro.

It feels sort of like a guilty pleasure, but it's the only song on the album I feel compelled to manualy pick out of my playlist and listen to.

It still feels too soon to decide. Right now, the contenders are Killer Tune and Sake to Geko.
With time I appreciate the songs more and more, and the one I most listen to these days (Ramp, Shiseikatsu, Ssaw) are not the ones that first struck my ears as "memorable" (Tsukigime-hime, Kronekodow).

I'm not ready to choose yet, but it's between Metro and Killer Tune. The other tracks don't even come close.

makka na OSCA ALFA te hazuke souha ...

I'm going to listen to the album a couple more times before I choose too, but right now I'm thinking of "Metro." I'd also like to know what the songs are about before choosing my absolute favorite. >_<

I haven"t fully digested the album, maybe 5 listens so far. Killer Tune sounds great as far as where it is placed on the album, it is like a breath of fresh air. I am happy that it is the last song in the main setlist on this tour. But Kingyo no Hako is at the top of my list. It really sounds like the product of a fully realized band, with a great TJ/Shiina only kind of melody, I love it.

I haven"t gone on record as saying this yet, but this is a great album. I think, as an album, it is TJs best. The first one has some of the best TJ era songs, but I can never get past the production. Otona has never worked that well for me, as an album. It does not have a great flow to it, for me, although of course it has many great songs. In parts of Otona, it seems it wants to be high concept a la KSK. And then a song like TNingen comes along and throws it off. It does not feel like it is finished, as an album. But this one works organically as a whole. for me. And again, it sounds like a band that has gelled and found its way.

That's an easy one... I really love the entire album with whole my heart (...sounds kinda kitsch, huh? XD), but Boutomin is my personal definition of what music-sex would sound like =)

Hahah!! :lol: :lol: :lol:, nice description :D

Is that so?
I wholeheartedly believe that they went the wrong way ever since SR decided to not let Hirama/HZM write songs on Kyouiku. That effect is just compounded now.

Sigh.
*goes back listening to Tsumi to Batsu*

Really? Even ADULT? I don't think ADULT is right for everyone, but I think it is a very well composed album while Variety, on the other hand, is not as well composed.

But I also don't think this is the way for the band to go. I really believe that this was just to please all the fans that wrote to Ringo and the next album will be a more balanced effort between the band. If she does take complete control again, I think it will still have a more team flavor to it than any album before because it's hard to see them have a whole album and then Ringo compose another whole album on their own. I think it's time for them to strike up a new, perfected balance.

Damn those stupid fans

OK, but I don't think Hirama was going to write many songs that would become Ringo classics. Granted, I can't stand his solo work. And HZMs stuff, although I like it, is a little bit too much about him. IMO Izawa and Ringo are the best music/lyrics combination so far, with Kameda's songs a close second.

You know, I always found this whole thing about the fans letters a little weird. I mean, how many songs were written by people other than Ringo and Kameda? Like two or three? Either way, it was a very small number and I think Ringo overreacted a bit by thinking that the fans were not happy with her composition skillz because I can't imagine people sticking around with the band for such a small number of songs that were not written by her. Everyone is obviously a fan of her compositions but just wanted it to be more of a group effort.

I can see how as an artist she would be brought down by people telling her they wanted to see less of her work and more of others, but I think it would have been more of a challenge to her in her younger years than just deferring to the other members. Although, she is barely even thirty, but I wouldn't know how old you feel when you get to be that age and have a son @_@.

That being said, I think it sets up the next album to have quite a dramatic affair around. There are people who hated Variety and it raised questions amongst even the ones that loved it, so we will see if Ringo takes the reign and delivers something even the disgruntled fans can enjoy, or if they make it more of a team effort and deliver their best album yet. Or will they go and experiment some more? or revisit an old style? Ringo had said that they were not sure where to go from here.

I have high hopes because if they revisit a past style, it will have a unique twist to it. I'd love to see uki and Izawa rock out to music like Kyouiku but with their own, more developed style. Or they can do something new, which, if led mostly by Ringo, can be something truly amazing, genre-bending stuff as she has done in the past. Variety has barely been out and I'm super excited for the next album!

Hirama's solo work contains some downright disgusting stuff and some really really cool stuff. Maybe Hirama alone can't write "Ringo classics" but Hirama and Ringo in a team sure can come up with something good. I agree Izawa/Ringo make a good songwriting team - Goldfish Box and Kaban no Nakami are probably the best songs in this era of TJ. At the same time, Izawa also wrote SSAW -.- With all due respect for Kameda, I really don't like his songwriting style. Superstar, Toumei Ningen, Private Life, Senkou Shojou... it's becoming very predictable.

But oh well... even if SR starts writing songs again, it may sound totally different now.

Sodom to Gamorrah belongs in the same category of suck as Boutomin and SSAW as some of the worst songs ever created in music history. Ao, Tensai Yo..., Rekishi, and AM 1:00 could have been Jihen classics.

We haven't even heard "Senkou Shojou" in full, and "Toumei Ningen" sounds nothing like those other two. I don't find "Superstar" or "Private Life" all that interesting (emotional ballads), but they've grown on me and I enjoy them.

And, again, "SSAW" is a great track. I almost chose it, and I almost chose "Kronekodow."

Maoui, what's your play count on Boutomin and SSAW?

Three now and I like them less every time I here them. Commercial jingles don't float my boat.

So is Senkou Shoujo gonna do a Kingyo and turn out to be great track? We'll see.

First thing that came to my mind when I heard SSAW is TJ performing at a charity show, asking people for donations (for whatever cause you may like it to be). It's that kind of song to me.

I really like SSAW, I think it is a really nice, heart-felt song.

^ What songs you don't like? :mellow:

I hope I like SSAW better than SAW IV
I really do

How long would the album be if it didn't include "Mirrorball" and "Fukushuu"?

I don't really like Shiseikatsu. I've tried, but I usually skip it. It is barely bearable to me. Its not that its annoying or anything, but I'd really like to hear the rest a lot more than this one so I usually skip it. I pretty much like all the other songs on the album, just to varying degrees.

Oh, you have not heard the album yet???

I think Chickshh meant that SAW IV is going to be bad. @_@

And, I just decided to vote for "Metro." I listened to the album twice yesterday, but it's no use trying to change my obvious favorite track. (Like Silverrime, it's the first song I want to listen to on the album.) It'll take more time than that, if I do change it in the future. I was thinking of "Kingyo no Hako" or "Sake to Geko," but they both don't come together as well as "Metro," I think.

looks like Kingyo should have been Izawa's single instead of Killer Tune.

I think it's a better song too, but it doesn't seem as radio-friendly as Killer Tune.

If Goldfish had been a single instead of KT, you'd actually see me raving about it! Yeah sure, the name sounds ridiculous, but it's got the most catchy verses in the whole album.

And can you imagine how fun the video would be? We might get crazy flying goldfishies.

On tangent, everytime I see people on the forums going on about 'Goldfish' or 'Box of Goldfish" I think of these:

Attachment 763

If it was a Ringo song, I would think it was a play on words, like she really binges on Goldfish.

Hahahhah, now I'm going to have to imagine Goldfish too when I think of this song. XD

I wonder if they have those in Japan. o_o That would be so cute if she liked them!

Frick! Now I will always think about that when I hear the song!! @_@

I think about Sakuran, like mugg, it was mugg nee?!
o.o

When I first read that, I thought it was a jab at Sake to Geko until I saw the Hirama talk. :P

Bleh, this isn't really all that surprising or groundbreaking, but the singles really did the job for me (and put too high an expectation for the album as a result, but I digress). To make up for the boring comparison, I decided to have fun with it. Apologies in advance if it doesn't make sense or is complete BS in logical terms.

After taking OSCA v. Killer Tune (or as lawyers now refer to it, the Cloud-Leaf case) to the U.S. Supreme Court, the judges ruled 5-4 in favor of OSCA.

Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, David Souter, and Stephen Breyer held the majority opinion. Wrote Souter, "OSCA hearkens back to a time of radical awesomeness in musical history, and it is that foundation upon which much of the world operates today. The ideals of Killer Tune, while by no means invalid, are surely outdated in modern practice and must therefore be relegated to use only in appropriate context in accordance with Ringo protocol." [551 U.S. 27 (2007)]

In favor of Killer Tune were Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, and John Paul Stevens, who wrote the dissenting opinion. "Killer Tune respects all historical precedents set by the natural evolution of music and thus should be treated with higher significance than the relatively experimental OSCA. By virtue of its dynamic nature and stirring mix of instrumentals and vocals, it exemplifies the broad universal appeal that Variety strived so hard to achieve." [551 U.S. 31 (2007)]

It should be noted that the Court also gave props to Kingyo no Hako, Tsukigime-hime, and Metro, while it was unanimously acknowledged that Boutomin made The Drifters and George Benson cry.

Added Scalia in a supplemental opinion, "Hey, Souter, I come from the referenced era of Killer Tune and I'm pretty sure your ex-fiancée didn't find these nuts outdated in modern practice," at which point he high-fived Kennedy.

haha good one positron! :D

Hahah, nice. Very creative. :-B


Listen to Boutomin twenty more times!

No matter how much I listen to Boutomin, there's no escaping how much that 'refrain' ("I don't know you, you don't know me"-style part) seems to derail that song... it comes so very close to being my favorite off of Variety otherwise. ;_;

Wow, Ramp, Mirrorball, and Kronekodow don't have any votes. Not surprised at the first two, but I thought someone would've voted the way of the black cat just because it's a weird Stoicism/Service-style song.

I almost voted for it.

I am still surprised Killer Tune only has two votes!! @_@ ! I really like Kronekodow, but I'm not really surprised that it has not gotten any votes yet. I think a lot of the tracks are pretty close to each other for most people, maybe because the album tried to go for several kinds of sounds so you have something good for each sort of sound or just some tracks that don't live up to the specific sound they were going for and therefore cannot be "favorites".

And fluffy still has not voted??

What was the official English translation of "黒猫道" (kuronekodow)? Was it "My Way" or something? *suddenly recalls that Usher song from the 90s*

fluffy can't choose...

Isn't that "black cat's way" or sumthing? OK I'm translating this from Chinese but it can't be that big of a difference to Kanji...

black cat way... its like tae kwo do...

hehe. This was easy for me... Kingyo No Hako... Was the bestamest!
That chorus is sooo fun. the verses are good.. the guitar solo.. did through me off a lil bit... and I would have liked at least.. ONE more chorus.. buttt. ya

---
I love Boutomin alot tooo... the ending got to me

Boutomin is mind boogling... on paper I should dislike this song coz Uki is making some sort of sound that isn't coming from his guitar, but the song is getting into my head, the rhythm, the singing just gets to me....

Yeah, I think it is really catchy. I remember when I first heard it, I was pretty taken aback by it since it was weird to hear Izawa singing for the first time, and also just the fact that his part of the singing really changes the song a bit. I think it is a pretty drastic change from Uki's yelling to Izawa. However, I enjoyed the pacing of the music and so when I heard it more, I began to really love it. I think it is easy to dismiss this song as bad because of the two guys awkward singing.

It would have sounded pimp-smooth if Ringo invited Verbal from m-flo to do Uki's part.

It's a shame m-flo didn't ♥ Shiina Ringo/Tokyo Jihen while they had the chance, but could you imagine what it might sound like?

[commentary on the top 4 voted songs]
Kingyo no Hako aside, it's nce to see Sake to Geko tied for second with Metro and OSCA so far. Goldfish are awesome and everything, but sometimes you just need a drink.

Yeah, but I think Verbal brings all his hip-hop slang that isn't necessary here. :)

unexplanable affection for Killer Tune.

I think it's too early for me to chose, and I have a bit of a bias towards "Killer Tune" and "OSCA" because they've been around longer.
Besides the two singles I really love "Sake to Geko," "Fukushuu," and "Kingyo no Hako." I also don't understand why people are hating on "Boutomin" it's a fun and cool song, I can see it as a really fun song for lives.
I'd also like to say that I am impressed with the improved "Mirrorball." I was not a fan of the live version but it's cleaned up well in the studio.

Alright, I've finally chosen, and I went with OSCA. At first I still viewed it as just a single from the album, but now I can hear it and think of it as a piece of Variety rather than a separate effort. It's one song that I never get tired of. Very original song.

I'm also a big fan of Boutomin and SSAW. And actually, most of the rest of the album. :)

This is something I realized a couple of weeks ago too. In the first couple of weeks after the album's release, I skipped OSCA and Killer Tune most of the time because I felt like I heard them enough and just wanted to get to the music I was not so familiar with. But then, I stopped skipping them and began enjoying them as part of the whole album as well. This is why I was debating whether to choose Kingyo no Hako and Boutomin instead of Killer Tune because I almost felt like separating them since Killer Tune was a single. Nice way to put it, ^_~

Although I don't really think Ramp was a favorite it's pretty catchy. Mirrorball was different, and made me think of metal things covered in glass and Apple adverts. Strange connection, I know.
Fukushuu was good, even if it did sound a bit like they were trying to channel Linkin Park.
I LOVED Boutomin. Somewhere around the lyric 'meiwaku' I start feeling all bossa-nova-y, and the call and repeat was great. I liked having so many different voices.
Kingyo no Hako was also the big winner. I wonder if they'll use a differently arrange version for the film. I hope so. It would be like a two-fer.

M-Flo <3 Shiina Ringo? Gosh, if that really had happened I'd probably have taken and listen and died of musical ecstasy.

I'm going for Killer Tune on this one...

Killer Tune! <3 goraaaaaaaaaan

Killer Tune, the rest of the album didn't have anything really .... memorable that stood out to me like the previous two.

Whoa, tie between Kingyo no Hako and Kiraa Tyune!

Looks like Izawa is the champion of this album!

[
Looks like Izawa is the champion of this album!
][/quote]

though u've got shocked then fluffie??
I prefer to choose Metro and Boutomin..It's catchy and have a hard-to-forget sounds. According to whole albums,,i think Uki still the champs (at least for the enormous quotas album composer,,he got from it)

I do think Uki's songs are amazing, but based on the poll Izawa seems to be the master. My favorite songs are now probably OSCA, Boutomin, Metro, Killer Tune, Kingyo no Hako, and Sake to Geko.

Boutomin!!! Finally you mentioned it :D

To be sincere, I hesitated between kingyo no hako and kronekodow

eventually, I have choosen kingyo no hako, but for me, kronekodow is really great, (what's more, Kronekodow is so easy to play on guitar). I put its at egality to kingyo.

I would dare say I regret, at least, this song would have had a vote moreover. But what is made, is made.

I really like Kronekodow also but, unfortunately, it's just not the best song on the album. It is a bit odd that it recieved such few votes but so this other songs. I think this really shows the concept of Variety because there really is something for everyone and the votes reflect this. Unfortunately, it also means that some people might just like one or two songs on the album and then not the rest.

killer tune

I know it is kind of weak to pick a single but killer tune just has this undeniable melody. I wasn't sure when I first heard it how I felt about it, I was expecting big band since they said it would be swing...but then my body kind of caught the movement and ever since it has been *the song* to belt out in my car at the top of my lungs.

SSAW comes in very close. It is just so sweet without being sappy, it gets me all warm without the eye-rolling factor.

I choose Metro over Killer Tune just because it's an album-only song.

^ I was going to make a choice based on that also, trying not to choose a single, but then I figured if it's on the album then why not choose it.

Why did you think that was the best thing for you to do?

finally managed to get the album

OSCA is my favourite, though Kronekodow comes very, very close

How did you survive that long of a wait??? @_@

I know! I was abroad for months, I just had to satisfy myself with OSCA and Killer Tune videos on youtube until I finally get my album...:whacko:

OSCA.

Runner-ups Kronekodow, SSAW, Kingyo no Hako and Killer Tune.

brazilian omg

seconded

O_O


and I loved your signature F999

Hehe, cool. Thanks.