Hm. Not so sure about this. Ringo was literally the only interesting vocalist on that. Honestly, if she wasn't featured in it, I'm not sure I'd even like the song at all.

@Hedgehog: Hey man, don't feel too bad- I'm like the only person who's said anything really positive here so far... you're not the crazy one, I AM! :-p

(But I'm quite alright with that)

Well... I inevitably love it. It's colorful and smooth as usual, and that homogeneous timbre that he builds out of so many different vocal tones is wonderful, especially on the chorus (similar to the blend Chikuzen Sato+bird on his arrangement of this FUTABA track).

But this is Tomita Lab by-the-book, I see this kind of arrangement as his safe and lazy space. Attention is surely focused on the vocals, the rest of the instruments are placed behind, which is unusual on his production (by the way, this guy always plays the keyboards/synths/piano, bass and guitars himself on studio recordings).

@hedgehog - I enthusiastically agree with you on Izawa. I really think that he's the most valuable contributor in phase 2 Jihen.

Happy to report Ringo's song (Yasashii Tetsugaku) is fantastic, the only problem is that it overpowers the rest of the album because it's so much stronger sounding than the rest- it's like an 80s-throwback pop rock/power ballad type song and the rest are more like what you've already heard.

As for the album, despite not being as strong as Yasashii, it's still pretty enjoyable throughout, though I'd only say buy it if:
A- you're a collector and NEED to get them 2 other songs featuring Ringo in your collection
B- you're a big Tomita Lab fan

Otherwise, just wait until Ukina - Yashashii Tesugaku is on that. I noticed they've chosen to put it as track 1 there too- and when you hear it you will see why, I haven't heard a more appropriate opening track in a long time.

I found this inexpressibly weird. The chorus put me on edge. Let's hire a bunch of very individual voices and see what happens if we make them sing in unison. Everyone fails to blend and yet is stripped of their individuality. I find it creepy.

Apart from that, just extremely repetitive. I'm having a hard time understanding what it's going for, or why on earth he would hire Shiina Ringo to show up for it.

I think her voice is there just well in place.

No opinions on Yasashii Tetsugaku? Would be keen to hear what others think...

Maybe no one else has heard it; I haven't.

EDIT:

Ok I have now heard the song (: I mostly like it. It's better than that huge ensemble piece whose title I have since forgotten. It sounds like it could be a Jihen song, actually, somewhere around the SPORTS era. Have since become gag-reflexively allergic to strings in her music, and so the opening made me cringe for like, 2.5 seconds. This is not an opinion that I personally hold for most of her work but it sounds like the song was almost too polished for its writing (granted she's just giving her vocals to someone else's work); would love to hear a noisier, grungier, version of this.

I think you have more chance of Ringo making a Limp Bizkit style album than that... in other words... not gonna happen :-p

As for the strings in this... completely warranted... they were quite obviously going for an over-the-top 80s sound and they delivered big time.