Sorry, breh, not seeing the comparison to Phase 1 shows. This was Domestic Virgin Line or Spa and Treatment through and through. Complete with the "we're so lounge jazzy that we can't summon the energy for pop-rock" motif.

I can see why the fans who mostly care about Shiina rather than the music as a whole would dig this though. Shiina is great. The best she's been since EM. Subtle, but engaging in her stage antics. Vocally as good as she gets.

For real. I was getting a little sick of reading my posts with your name attached to them. I'm the bad guy so nobody else has to be.

Don't you worry, though, I've got more...

What really is the point of Ukigmo? He can play guitar and "sing" when needed. But why? 90% of the songs on the setlist don't require two guitars. He adds nothing to Omatsuri Sawagi and Ringo used to play rhythm guitar in Gunjou Biyori adequately. Nagoshi could have played Mayonaka wa Junketsu by himself. Then the singing. Oi. Why is this guy embarrassing himself trying to sing along with Shiina Ringo in Omatsuri Sawagi? Just hire a female backup vocalist already, Ringo.

Ahhhhhhhh....

*soaks in the negativity*

I've been waiting for this time to come.

Now all we need is Jihad back.

At least he wasn't trying to rap this time...

Just watched the Dream festival show. Don't see how it is any worse than, say, the Meet the World Beat performance in 2004 (god has it been that long?!)...

The two 林原めぐみ songs are so strange. so damn strange. (Yep, the MV uploaded by King Records on Youtube is the full version, so you can judge the song now)

Well. Buzzfeed Japan has a "best Shiina/Jihen album poll":

http://www.buzzfeed.com/keijiroabe/s...oll#.ocdZEj3OJ

Cant find the second one... where are you hearing this?

Regarding the single that's been out a while- the very fact that it's another track that makes a point out of being exactly 3:00 makes me think it's a bit older (as in was written a while ago/absolutely oozes SG vibes) than it seems.

MM 112/32%
SS 54/15%
KSK 31/9%
Sports 29/8%
HIT 27/8%
Adult 23/6%
Kyouiku 15/4%
Goraku 14/4%
SG 13/4%
Gyakuyunyuu Kouwankyoku 10/3%
Daihakken 9/2%
Utaite Myouri 7/2%
Color Bars 7/2%
HF 3/1%

Sports? Seriously? WTF?!

ETA: Regarding Usurai Shinju - it's genuinely good, let's not spoil it. :) Ringo has probably got dozens or hundreds of ideas for songs or parts of songs written down somewhere, in various stages of completion.

^Sports also happens to be my (clear) favourite of the Jihen albums.

IMO the ending (aka the "po-chi") is unnatural and sounded incomplete. :hmph: