Kyouiku will always be their freshest album. Maybe because it was a new beginning, maybe because of Hirama and HZM, and maybe because it was so simple yet so complex :). Such a funny album.

If you listen to the album with less bass it sounds just fine.
Must be the reason I never noticed it as sounding uncomfortably.

I just love this album. I really love it for Genjitsu ni Oite which I adore because I adore Impressionism and this track sounds just like Débussy :wub:

...There is musical Impressionism? @_@

Yes, there is *_*

O, just a note, but did anyone else find the bass in Genjitsu Wo Warau incredibly amazing? As someone who only recently "discovered" bass in music (I could never hear it before, now I know how to look out for it) I found it stunning. The bass throughout the album is just fantastic

i take notice of bass a lot too, my favorite bass sound from shiina has to be Okonome De, so clean but so full and thumping on the speakers

I guess since I play double bass, listening to basslines is a very natural thing for me...
Kameda does a lot of nice groovy basslines, it's great. His playing becomes even more alive when he plays live...

I'm surprised it took anybody so long to notice Kameda's playing. It's always so prominent in the mix that it's hard to miss. Kameda's one of the best even if he is a bit predictable sometimes.

I like this observation, I used to play a little Debussy. Does the beginning of this sound a bit like Genjitsu ni Oite?

It's not based on any evidence but I always guessed the verse of Gibs would be the kind of pop song a girl who liked Debussy would write (not so much the chorus), something about its dreamy chord set and reading the previous song title as a hint. And Hatsukoi Shoujo sounds very Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1 played at the piano - the verse has the same chords and if anything the melody revels even more in the Major 7th interval.

One nice thing about SR stuff is that she makes rock songs that sound good on piano despite my being a rubbish pianist. I don't know the chords to Genjitsu wo Warau for sure, but it's fun to play an approximation along with the melody (verse: F#maj7add2 Gmaj7 (repeat x times) | Dmaj7 Emaj7 D#m7 ... | Cmaj7 Dmaj7 Gmaj7 ... ). The verse to Sounan comes out really interesting that way, like a mix of 90s R&B and some unidentifiable but very strong 20s jazz sound.

Kyoiku's the album that's grown on me the most because I thought it was weird at first, particularly when I started posting here. I used to think Bokoku Jouchou sounded like a piano being shoved down the stairs by a circus elephant and wished I'd got my albums mixed up and Izawa wrote it (I picked up on his "circus" sound early). I still pretend SR didn't write Crawl... <_<

edit: Oh and Kyoiku Yume no Ato is the best Yume no Ato. Every other version gets a bit much...

I think Kyouiku contains some of the best tracks SR has ever written, and although they don't have as many cool moments, or 'Easter Eggs' as the stuff on Shouso Strip, there's a lot of small things I like about them.

For instance: I like how, in Genjitsu wo Warau's verses, the piano/guitar/vocals seem to tease each other, keeping the carrot (apple) dangling. I like the emotionally unstable Ringo against a haunted backdrop in Jusui Negai. I love the smooth, sassy way she ends jissai no kisetsu ni kitai shite/jissai no matsuri ni miryou sare in Omatsuri Sawagi after samba-ing it up (This small thing makes the song for me! And it's sorely lacking from the DO rendition of the song; they just bulldoze it there)

I think Ringo helped salvage Crawl by combining it with Sigma. She fused two average/poor songs together to create one of the best performances of DO.