What is your Shiina Ringo/Tokyo Jihen fav album??
 

I don't know whether this poll has been done before or not, but I would like to know what is your fav album by SR/TJ *_*.

Please, vote!

Mine is KSK, of course :wub:.

KZK is my favorite aswell

KZK! Followed by Muzai Moratorium.

Here! It was my first post!
http://www.electricmole.net/showthread.php?t=186

But of course you can neglect it, coz now we have Variety.

As much I love all her other albums (Variety never existed), I still hold a special place in my heart for Shouso Strip, it was the album that turned me on Shiina, and i just go into a trance everytime I hear Gibs, Tsumi, Yamini, and Identity back to back. Feel like i'm back on that damn NY subway again.

Oh sorry :o!! I didn't see your post :(.

Oh, yesterday I was thinking about my order of preference...
KSK > MM > SS > HF > Adult > Kyoiku > Variety > Utaite Myouri xD

KZK > SS > ZCS > MM > Kyouiku > Adult > HF > Variety > Utaite Myouri
XD
I think

I didn't include ZCS because it's often considered a single or a mini album :whacko:.

I know, you're right about that, I just wanted to place it inbetween there because I really like it, forgive me! :P

Hahaha, I don't have anything to forgive :P, no problem!

MM > SS > Kyouiku > KSK > Adult > HF > Utaite > Variety

1. HF
2. KSK
3. Kyouiku
4. SS
5. MM
6. Variety
7. Adult
8. Utaite Myouri

Adult >
KZK = Variety = SS >
MM = Kyouiku = HF = Utaite Myouri

Three tiers (roughly).

Shouso Strip is my favorite album.....first (out of two) shiina albums I own. Next is Adult (which I also own)....:)
Shouso just makes better everything from Muzai without being drastically different like KZK.....Adult is just awesomeness but it would've better if shiina had done it solo....I mean this album was obviously purposely written for a band but if shiina had decided to do this solo (a la HF, shiina's solo material isn't very concept-y like TJ or HF material) you can bet it would've been more awesome (so many more instruments could've been used)......

MM is my favorite. In my opinion, it just has the most personality and a raw feeling that doesn't get lost in anything. I'm a sucker for the whole small-time girl in a big city deal, and from start to finish it's just full throttle. It's got my favorite Shiina song (Marunouchi Sadistic), and just feels solid all the way through.

SS/KSK/Adult/HF > Kyouiku > MM > Variety

Yeah, that feels about right.

KSK > Adult > Koyuku > Variety > HF > SS > MM > UM

ADULT>KZK>Heisei Fuzoku=Kyouiku>Variety>SS>MM

I think that is about it. The first poll of this I had voted KZK but soon after ADULT became tops for me. I really like SS and MM but I just don't listen to them to much since when I found out about Ringo I also found out about TJ and I liked their music more.

After all the Uki vs. Hirama debates, I am sort of surprised that no one has put Kyouiku as their favorite.

KSK > MM > SS > Adult > Variety > UM > Kyoiku > HF

"Kyouiku was written as a live album."

Yea the live album, bad recording thing. This issue would be more appearant if there is a "favorite live performance poll", between DO and JCHI

As before, KSK takes it home for being one of the densest masses of creativity I've heard.

I kind of don't get all these greater-than and less-than signs comparing albums that are so different. It's like saying Artur Rubinstein > Arturo Sandoval... it totally depends on the criterion being used. If the albums were similar in philosophy, style, and production I could understand it, but they're not.

Yeah, well there would never be any chatter and comparisons between albums if we limited it because they are so different from each other. So... we're stuck :D

It's really pretty simple. Is KZK better than the rest? Yes. :P

Muzai Moratorium! To me, her music is more....I don't really know. I just think It stands out more to me. KSK is her most original album, it's great but too overated. SS is also good and almost a bit too underated. So, this one is just my fav.

The criterion is simply based on personal preference, which is sort of a constant in the formula, its more about what you like to hear than artistical merits me thinks

Not at all... it's quite possible to say what you like and dislike about any given album, and what style suits your listening tastes best, and what parts of what songs really deliver the goods. And then to compare that against another album, and say what are its strengths and weaknesses.

But to reduce such discussion to a simple A > B actually reduces the amount of discussion.

Well, what you said is exactly what we do. But you are right, the A>B does reduce the discussion, but I think that just started because we already talked about all these albums so much that we are just showing others our hierarchy.

I don't think I communicated myself clearly. My problem with A > B is that it is unfair to both A and B. Every album (no matter the artist) has a unique set of strengths and weaknesses. Comparing one aspect of A to B might give you A > B, but if you compare a different aspect, you end up with B > A.

So saying A > B says basically nothing. That's my problem with it. I don't understand how you can even have a hierarchy with such diverse albums since any given SR/TJ album is better than every other SR/TJ album in at least one area.

Maybe I am alone in thinking this. Either way, I'll stop whining about it. Go on with your hierarchizing. :)

Yeah, it is unfair to the albums if you try to say which is better. I don't know about everyone else, but my hierarchy is just meant to show which I like more and in what order. Not necessarily which is better. Whenever I have discussed what is better than something else, it usually just comes down to what each party likes more so I try to never say what is better but just what I like more. Unfortunately, there is no symbol on the keyboard that represents "likes more", so we just use ">" .

Maybe it should be KZK <3 SS <3 Adult etc?

I think doing an objective comparison of the albums in its different aspects might be easy for you since you're a trained musician and all (your posts clearly show that you have superior music analytical skills compared to most of us here), but to many of us here the reasons why we like one album more than another is more fuzzy. We might not have that kind of knowledge/background to quantify/qualify why we like this particular album so much, we like it because it makes us feel good.

I any case, I think Variety is the weakest of all TJ albums, and Shousou Strip remains my favourite since it is the album that got me acquainted with her Majesty. KZK is, brilliant but depressing and heavy, not something I'll listen to most of the time. Unlike other SR releases, I prefer to listen to KZK through headphones. It's more... intimate. MM is fun, with a few tracks I'll skip here and there. Kyouiku I would skip and go straight to Dynamite Out (because sadly Kyouiku is maybe only 3% of what TJ Phase 1 could have achieved, and it's heartbreaking that that band dissolved before they could further refine their potential brilliance. hmpf.) Adult is rather cogent but a few tracks sound tired and weary (Kenshou Naoshi, Superstar, Blackout). And don't get me started on how much of a disappointment Variety is.

^ I didn't think those reasons were fuzzy. In fact, the analysis you gave is exactly what I'd prefer to a simple hierarchy. Comparing music shouldn't be linear, as though somehow everything falls on a 1-D spectrum from Good to Bad (or even Like to Dislike). It should be subjective and multi-dimensional, like the music it purports to evaluate. Stringing together albums with >'s and ='s attempts to force nonlinear music into a linear mold.

I just watched Dynamite Out again tonight and dang. They really had something magical that night.

@Kasanagi: Haha, I love it.

Yeah, I was watching DO on my way home from school and it really is awesome. Hirama is such a great performer, jumping around everywhere and waving his guitar around, it's really fun to watch.

Taking into account the nonlinear nature of music, if you would like to know why things are weighted as they are...

If memory serves me right, Shouso Strip was the first Ringo album I owned, and out of all the albums released I believe it's still got the best ratio of dramatic to frenetic. Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana's tracks were strung together quite well, not to mention the fact that it was very different and seemed like it possessed an inordinate amount of depth and creativity, all things considering (not to knock her other works, but it was more moving). Adult appeals somewhat to my predominant mellow and jazzy side and has a good tracklist order similar to KSK. Heisei Fuuzoku was a solid collection of rearranged old favorites and fun new songs, enough to give it legs as an album and not just a "best-of plus". These four make up my top tier of albums; SS gets a nod as the better of the four overall, but KSK's grandness puts it not far behind. HF is a good compilation of her talents despite being all orchestral, and Adult actually falls toward the lower end because it can be too mellow at times.

Kyouiku and Muzai Moratorium are both firsts for their respective eras, but experience helps the former slightly edge out the latter, although just barely. Kyouiku has some of my favorite stand-alone songs (Sounan, the Genjitsus, Omatsuri Sawagi, etc.) because of this, even if the album as a whole feels a little shoddy and was designed as a live or sorts. Meanwhile, MM is more solid overall, but a little bit too wistful for my taste (though Akane sasu kiro terasaredo... still kicks ass) and it was testing the waters somewhat.

((At times, Kyouiku and MM beat out Adult depending on the mood, but I love Himitsu, Tasogare Naki, and Tegami so much that neither of them can ever permanently wrench Adult out of its shaky straddle position between upper and middle tier.))

Variety... having listened to it, I can't say the album is completely horrible. It does have the songs I listen to the most - OSCA, Killer Tune - as well as the respectable Kingyo no Hako, but on a good day, with the possible exceptions of Fukushuu, Kronekodow, Boutomin, Tsukigime-Hime, and Metro, most of the songs come off as mere afterthoughts more than anything. ((I'm reluctant to put Monthly Princess on there because it reminds me of Teen Titans at times, but I'll give it a chance.))

certainly KZK, even though I listen to it less frequently than any of the others. it's for special occasions. I still get shivers when I see the cover.

the album I listen to the most, though, is probably a tie between heisei fuuzoku and muzai moratorium.

:mellow:

I'd have to choose Utaite Myouri - I totally LOVE well-made covers and this a double-album filled with those... AND I think, it's telling a lot about Shiina herself...

It was hard choosing between SS and KZK for me. SS has all the power singles (Yokushitsu, Gibbs, and Yami Ni Furu Ame being my favorite SR songs), but KZK has such a distinctive, unique flavor and showcases SR's talents to the max. Being that I can listen to either album enjoyably, I picked KZK because of its experimentalism.

Genjitsu Wo Warau and Himitsu are up there as my favorite SR/TJ songs, but I would hardly consider Kyoiku my favorite album. And even though I like Adult, SS/KZK overshadow Adult.

So my hierarchy if I had to rank them:

KZK = SS > Adult = MM > Kyoiku > HF > Variety > UM

I find KSK to be the pinnacle of her work. It is the climax of Shiina Ringo IMO. Every song is great and flows together seamlessly. There's not a weak link in it. Not to mention the production is phenomenal.

When I first heard Shuukyou, I was blown away. And Souretsu is such an emotional piece of music. I get chills every time I listen to it, especially in the ending. A truly fitting way to close the album as well as her solo career. Though if I had to pick a favorite track, I would say Yattsuke Shigoto. There is just so much going on in that song that every time I listen to it, I hear something different. The little flourishes and nuances are perfect. Amazing song, amazing album. If Shiina could make another like this, I would be amazed.

I picked HF.

To me HF is such a jazzy piece of work. I am a fan of jazz, so of all her albums, the particular genre of this album, makes it the best. In most cases, I heard HF versions of the songs, before I went and listened to the songs they were derived from. I remember getting the album direct download from batsu. It was my first shiina album. I fell so deep in love with this album. It was not until later that I found out... this is not what shiina really does. Or I should say, it is not what shiina had been doing. I found myself sway back and forth in an alternate state. I was mezmorized by the beauty of the music. I listened to the soft strings and shiina's "unique" voice, I was caught hook line and sinker. At tht particular time my favorite track was poltergiest (I prefer it to the ksk version, but the ksk version kicks arse too, but it just sounds like a demon circus chat, lol), but now it is yume no ato, I can not get enough of this song. I currently have not listened to HF in a while, because I am trying to listen to all the rest of her music. Add in the demos and I have been doing a lot of shiina lis'nin. To be honest, I prefer a lot of the demo songs to some of her released stuff.

Edit: I forgot to say that after watching sakuran, I loved the music that much more. I think the music fit well with sakuran, mostly because of anna's spunk, lol.

KSK is my favorite.
Utaite is currently second, and more specifically the Mori Toshiyuki CD. From the first burst of noise of Kimi wo Aisu to the end of Kuroi Orufe I'm in heaven. I like the rest of the tracks as well, but the first five are what keep luring me back to this disk. Inventive, clever, complex, with a deep, rich soundscape. Even the simply arranged Won't Last A Day is augmented by the hushed thump and crackle of the inner groove of an LP used as percussion, a subtle reference to the song's original medium.
Originally I thought SS would be number two, but playing it immediately after Utaite made me realize how dynamically flat and two dimensional this album is. Undoubtedly the severe compression was intentional, but it lost just enough points to slip into third place.
HF is next. Hatsukoi Shojo is one of my favorite Ringo songs. I don't know if its noticeable on everyone else's audio systems, but during most of the song, every note that Ringo sings and each woodwind arpeggio is panned to a different point in the stereo soundfield. The result is a chorus of ethereal voices spread from left to right, combining in a shifting series of brief, beautiful chords. Woodwinds arpeggiate amongst them, as they hover above a bed of lush strings and mechanical percussion. The artful combination of the synthetic and organic is one of my main attractions to this album.
MM comes in fifth. To be truthful, I bought it and about five other CDs at the same time, and I haven't given it as much attention as it deserves.
Kyouiku just sounds awful. Its painful for me to listen to. I thought it was destined to a life as a shiny drink coaster or Munchkinland frisbee, but as a responsible member of this forum I will give it a fair listen.

Variety is out on loan. No opportunity to listen to it last night.
Adult is MIA. I lent it to a friend months ago, and when I opened the box last night it wasn't there.:(
I'll go to BookOff tomorrow and see if there is a cheap copy.

I think a lot of us agree that the recording on Kyouiku doesn't quite do its music justice. Just skip it and go watch Dynamite Out. You'll probably enjoy it more, especially since you sound like you have an awesome sound system.

Yeah, but definitely give MM more attention!

I would have said KSK, but im so attached to Shouso Strip.
I can relate alot to this 'period' i guess.
But i'd never be able to choose one over another, between thoses two ..

I choosed KSK. There is lots of special things in all the albums but in KSK.. it holds the best idea yet. The music and everything is of course great but it's not just a "song after song" -type of album (though Ringo's albums hardly ever are anyway).
KSK connects everything and it plays through like a damn great book.

i choose KSK too.. it's just the most phenomenal piece of work she's done in my eyes.. start to finish it's simply immense and even people who dislike Japanese music could not overlook the sonic marvel of it! and if they do they are lying.. my sister (younger) does not like Japanese music but even she liked the sound of Poltergeist & Souretsu.. hell she liked the whole album! it's just bloody epic no mistake about it!!!

How motherfuckin Variety has as many votes as MM is a travesty and shows you shouldnt make this kinda thread right after an album release

Variety should not even be on the list to pick from.. votes always have a margin of error so just assume all 4 votes are with the error boundaries!

Yeah, looking back through this thread seeing people put Variety above any of her main 3 solo albums was :o

MM is vastly underrated. I wonder if the people that rated Variety quite high feel the same now.

Funny thing. Albums are usually overrated in customer review sections of stores. Usually only people who love the album will bother to review an item. At HMV, Variety has by far the lowest rating of the Tokyo Jihen albums with a score of 51. Kyouiku is scored at 94 and Adult is at 97. I don't think there's a "small minority" of haters on this one.

On the subject of HMV reviews... I saw the other day that Koda Kumi's Black Cherry album had a grand total of 4.
XD

gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah~
another brazilian fan
\o\
/o/
\o/

>_< i cant decide.. MM or SS

So let's settle it with KSK shall we? :D

(but my pick between the two is SS... no questions there)

Although I believe Karuki Zamen Kuri no hana is Shiina´s masterpiece, I frankly find Shouso Strip as my favorite album. I may sound weird or incongruous, but somehow SS is the album I enjoy listening the most as a unit.

Aaaghgh!!! It's hard to decide between MM and SS!
They are the albums I listened the most and they are incredible...
I can't decide : D

Maybe I think SS is my favourtie, cause it was the 1st Shiina's album I listened and thanks to it now I damn love her XD

I think SS is also more rewarding on repeated listens, it's much more layered and complex than MM, which is pretty straightforward. I personally think the qualitative jump between MM and SS is immense, and while MM was a pretty good album by any standards, it's on SS where she really became brilliant.

Er, MM is so brilliant that I now own four different versions of it. MM FTW.

At first, I really liked Muzai Moritorium, with songs like Kokode Kiss Shite, but then when I started really getting into Shiina Ringo's stuff, I really got hooked on Shouso Strip. So definitely, my favourite salbum has to be Shouso Strip, all the tracks are insanely addictive!

I think it goes (in order) Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana, Shouso Strip, and then Kyoiku as my top three.

definitely Shouso Strip! for sure!

yey
welcome newbie with a great taste /o/

KSK > Variety > Adult > SS > > SG > MM > Kyoiku > HF > UM

I listen to Variety more than KSK, but whenever I listen to KSK or any part of it, I definitely enjoy it more.

Voted HF, was a tough choice between that and KZK, but love the orchestration more. KZK arranged by Saito Neko would be incredible, though guessing that's not a common opinion here lol.
HF > KZK > Adult > MM > Variety > SS > UM >>>> Kyoiku

As hard as it is, because all of Shiina's works are really good, objectively analysing things, "Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana" is her best.

It's an absolute masterpiece, a diverse, audacious and expertly conceived musical journey. Although I do think other albums have superior individual songs, as a cohesive unit, it's a no contest. It's one of my favorite albums ever!

Favorite SR: Shouso Strip.
Favorite TJ: Adult.

Hi there new member here! Douzo yoroshiku! :D

My favourite album from Shiina is KSK. It used to be that Heisei Fuuzoku comes second. However having listened to Sanmon Gossip this new album has taken over as my second fav album :wub: :wub: :wub:

Kyouiku would be my favourite Tokyo Jihen album :)

Sanmon Gossip!


(this is a joke)

I think my favorite Shiina Ringo album is SS now, with KZK coming second. Haven't really decided on a third..

I can't decide between KZK and SS. Technically, it's KZK, but Shouso Strip (And Muzai Moratorium) are better to dip into when you feel like listening to a Shiina track.

That would need a definition of "a Shiina track", which would probably vary very much throughout these forums.
SS and KZK are from entirely different worlds to me, so that makes a comparison very hard. With SS she reached the peak of where she started out, and the bulk of the songs were written by her as a teenager. So with SS she tied those loose ends for good - with KZK she went beyond that "rock persona" and created something utterly genuine.
So for me it's always almost like comparing albums from two different artists... but KZK for me, no question there.
On a side note, I'm totally sure I'm going to be the last person to hear Sanmon Gossip on these forums. :D

I'm new on these forums but here's my list:

Variety > Muzai Moratorium > Kyouiku > Shouso Strip > KZK > Adult > Utaite Myouri > Heisei Fuuzoku

I'm surprised because from a quick survey of these forums people seem to dislike Variety and to me, the whole thing is pure genious!

By the way in my above list, I really love every album except the last two. So it's not like I think many of them are bad.

edit: fixed Heisei listed at two places. I don't like that one!

Hey fluffie, another one of your best friends just showed up again!

You spooked me, I just made my first post ever here and I use another nick with FLUFF in it.

Beltshumeltz, Heisei Fuuzoku > Heisei Fuuzoku?

Edit: Oh, and welcome!

Fixed :)

Heck yes! Now, I would never place Variety at the front of my list, but I am pleased that the outside world is more appreciative of it. <3

I would like to change my vote.
I voted for Variety but I've changed my mind. MM +1

MM > KZK > SS > Kyoiku > UM > Adult > HF > SG > Variety

Umm... wow. You went from putting Variety first to DEAD LAST. XD

In a month or so we'll have a new poll to include SG (right now everyone's impressions are too new) so you can re-vote then. :)

too soon for SG.
This very thread was made about a month after Variety's release and clearly the new album smell was still hanging.

Because of the fact that it got six whole votes? XD

But yeah, maybe more than a month then.

I've thought quite thoroughly about my opinions of these albums, and I'll say:

MM > KZK > Variety > SS > SG > Adult > Kyoiku > HF

Though I still quite like Kyoiku and HF, so there's not that much difference between them all.

I had to choose KSK.. masterpiece that provides me incredible experiences while listening to it! :D

I've added Sanmon Gossip to the poll, for what that's worth.....

My rankings:
KZK>SS>A>MM>UM>K>SG>V>HF

Heisei Fuuzoku. Would be followed by Sanmon Gossip.

Ahhh! What a difficult choice...I would have to say that Shouso Strip is my favorite. It is such a close call between that and KZK though! I think it has to do with the versatility of Shouso Strip. It contains many different sounds that follow a similar theme of ultimate sexy voice-ness. If that makes any sense! XD

It makes sense! SS is more diverse than KZK in my opinion and my favorite would probably be SS. I've got to admit it was a close call between KZK and SS though, both have really good songs. If both albums were to combine to form a mega album it would have taken over the world. HAHA!

Ahhh! Now SS and KZK are tied with Kyouiku too! Though...I think that right now, Kyouiku is beating KZK for me.

So my tie is now Shouso Strip and Kyouiku.

i think the thing with me and Ringo is the sexiness of the music. I say this all the time, and I think I am probably getting funny looks by now, but seriously, there is something in her music that just...works...for me XD Especially in SS and Kyouiku.

Favourites: The first three album era was always going to have the most longevity for me, but I finally know which is my favourite: ★ Shouso Strip. Sakana, Yokushitsu, Honnou make an idiosyncratic, exciting pop album you can get lost in. Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana is still an intricate patchwork of amazing - maybe unusually I like the feminine, jazzy tracks on the second half of the album right now, they opened up new ways for music to move me... Muzai Moritorium sweeps you away with a first-rate, addictive set of songs. Each ends in her scat singing, which is awesome. At other times I would have voted for one of those, but Shouso Strip feels right.

★ Electric Mole is my favourite DVD.

I also really like: Utaite Myori is good to own and as TeslaGuy says upthread, songs like Autumn Leaves and I Won't Last A Day Without You get very sonically pleasing pop reworkings that you can play all through with a nice vibe. Always recommended to hear artists' influences. Tokyo Jihen broke the spell somehow but most of Kyoiku grew on me as a sexy mix of jazz and rock (I think people understand you, chii!) Maybe another band will pick up Phase 1's ball and run with it.

More mixed feelings: Adult. I want to hear this wonderful SR lounge-pop album people blog about, that would be my kind of thing! Parts of Adult sound like that (Himitsu, Kabuki) but other parts (Yukiguni, Superstar) sound a little plain. I prefer the Shuraba single, it's like a perfect mini-album in itself. Sanmon Gossip has its excellent moments mixed in with a bit too much of what Kuronekodow disarmingly calls "bold orchestration", at least for my tastes. SR + orchestra can sound a little too much like theme music, but then I really enjoyed YouTubing Baishou Ecstasy, so ~ I'll go figure. Heisei Fuuzoku has a personality of its own despite being mainly rearrangements, but Hatsukoi aside it was just always at the bottom of my listening pile, or becomes "enough" after a track or two.

Not a fan of: Sports or Variety. There are one or two undeniably likeable tracks on Sports, but otherwise TJ have lost me.

KZK > MM > UM > HF > SS > SG

I love all her albums, though. Even at her "worst" I she's still miles ahead of most artists. I mean, if SG were her only album I would still listen to the shit out of it and think she's a genius. Going through her discography for the first time was thrilling, like I had strolled into El Dorado on accident.

I've only recently started getting into TJ so I don't have a good enough grasp of their albums to make a jugement, although I'm loving Adult right now.

I dunno, people. Seeing how SG doesn't seem to get all the love it deserves here, I'm itching to give it its first vote in this poll... But wait, I can explain.

You see, after discovering Ringo, I sought out the only couple of music sites in my remote country that even mentioned her work -- and they all made a huge deal of how totally crazy and revolutionary KSK was, so my expectations were SO high. After hearing the album as a whole I realized it was "only" excellent art-pop/rock but not exactly mindblowing for anybody who has been listening to avantgarde noise all their life. (Even within the pop field, I find Cornelius' Point album from the previous year even more adventurous than KSK.)

SS, then, with all those übercatchy rock anthems took over as my fave Ringo album - but soon a couple of the lesser hits brought the overall level down a notch. Whereas SG has gone from strength to strength with all those totally un-rock orchestrations and other refreshing changes of pace.

To be honest, the three of them all constantly switch places at the top spot for me -- but I feel somebody has to make a sacrifice to underline just how good SG is too. ;)

Hank, I agree.

I don't think SG is the "best" SR album, but I played it a few weeks ago, after not hearing it for about a year, and it seemed much more digestible than it did originally. When it came out, it seemed pretty disjointed and jarring. But some time & space made a world of difference. It's a very good album.

I think if I had to put the albums into tiers, this is how I'd do it:

Favorites: Heisei Fuuzoku, Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana
Amazing: Sanmon Gossip and Shouso Strip
Great: Muzai Moratorium
Erm... Jihen (aka: stuff that I don't really listen to): Well, self explanatory. I'm not a huge Jihen fan, but I haven't really taken the opportunity to listen closely.

And I haven't listened to Utaite Myouri. As for my choices: I knew I could really have four favorites, so I relegated SS and SG to "just" being amazing. I really can't help it, though. Like everybody here has already said, KSK is just a masterwork of an album. There's not much else to be said that hasn't already been said. As for HF, it was my first Ringo album, and it holds a place deep in my heart. The emotion she put in Gamble, the production of Hatsukoi Shoujo, the all around amazingness of Oiran, the astounding mash-up of Yokushitsu and la salle de bain; it just all adds up to a great album, even if it only is a sort of "best" album. So I voted for HF. :D

It's kind of sad to think it'll never get better than KSK, but I am eternally grateful for this once in a lifetime gem.

Adult > SS > MM > SG > KZK = HF > Kyoiku > Utaite Myori > Sports ≥ Daihakken > Variety ≥ ZCS

I don't underestimate the genius of KZK, I just find it to be one of the less accessible albums in her discography. Sure it has some of her hands-down best work, but I gotta be in the right mood to digest it. And I'm not insinuating that HF is nearly as good as KZK in a production sense, just that I find it to be about as listenable. It's not as powerful, but it is more accessible.

Attachment 5244
Adult over KZK is one thing, but some things cross a line.

I can't remember if I had ever commented on this thread, but right now, without a doubt, I'd say that my favourite Ringo solo album is MM, and my favourite TJ album is SPORTS. If I had to do an overall ranking kinda thing, it'd probably look something like this:

MM > SS = KZK > Sports > SG > Daihakken = Adult > Kyouiku = HF> Variety = ZCS

I don't think that the allegations of KZK being inaccessible is particularly accurate (this is, of course, my opinion) - I think the hooks are still solid and catchy for the most part, and the arrangements though dense in some songs, do not go to the extent of obscuring the "listenability" of the song. I think it's a fantastically balanced album. Some people have compared it to Radiohead's "OK Computer" - I love both albums to death but I don't get the comparison; I think KZK is probably better than OK Computer.

MM as my favourite goes without saying. The emotional significance of Tadashii machi and Marusadi is still something I cannot let go of. Keikoku and Morphine are probably some of my all time favourite songs penned by her.

I am partly surprised myself at how low Kyouiku ranks on the list, because on an instinctive level, I certainly wouldn't consider it one of my "least favourite" albums. Sounan is probably my favourite TJ song, ever, and there's a lot of mindblowing stuff here. But as an entity, I can never find myself having the motivation or stamina to sit through the entirety of the album. Maybe it's something about the production, or the jarringness of songs like CRAWL which I simply cannot listen to every day.