[justriiingo]

JR's review.

Good. Nice. Meh. Sucks. Note the lack of the "Excellent" and "Orgasmic" categories.
Ramp - Optimistic opening.

Mirrorball - I guess I like this slightly more than the JCHI version, but it's still a bad song.

Goldfish (mostly good, partly sucks)- This should be the opening track. It's so inviting. I like the verses in this one, it's got a good rhythm to it. The chorus is a throwback to DO's Toumei Ningen, but it works here. I like the exuberant feel of this song. Only bad thing? The guitar solo. Terrible.

Private life - I think this song has so much potential to be so excellent, I'm disappointed that it isn't. The verse has a nice melody, but the chorus is "meh".

OSCA (this means that it's 25% nice and 75% meh) - In comparison, I think this track is actually one of the better ones on this album. Since you all know I don't like OSCA, I guess that says so much about the other tracks on this album.

Kuronekodow - What is this. The arrangement is not working for this melody. I would rather it be a straight-forward, piano-based jazzy ballad. I think that would work much better.

Fuukushu - On it's own, it's not too bad. But it doesn't belong on this album.

Botomin (meh & sucks at the same time)- Those guys shouldn't be singing. SR is the only one who sounds like she's actually singing. This song doesn't do anything for me. What's the kabuki reference all about anyway?

SSAW - The chorus is rather nice, but it sounds like one of those pop songs that stars sing on charity shows. The verse needs to be rewritten.

Princess mensuelle - Whatever. I hate this.

Sake to Geko - Nice. I like this. I love it when they switched to that lush piano part in 3/4. Such a lovely melody. Not crazy about the verse but I guess it still works in this context.

Killer Tune - Enjoyable song.

Metro - Not crazy about the 80s effects and references, but I have to say I really like the general feel of this song, and I love what happens in the chorus. I've been playing it in my head quite a bit these few days, so I guess this is the best song in Variety.

Save for a few tracks, I would say this is a largely unremarkable album. Maybe even terrible.

The Shiina Ringo (and possibly Tokyo Jihen) school of music (to me), is about pushing the boundaries of pop music, bending and fusing genres, giving the old a fresh new twist, and most important of all, originality. And because it's pop music, it's got to be catchy and listenable. What is it in Variety that adheres to this philosophy? If I thought Adult was somewhat "placating", then Variety is paying lip-service to fans who requested more songwriting involvement from the other band members. Variety doesn't even come close to Adult in terms of quality, it's got zero visceral impact compared to Kyouiku, and when it comes to being soul-stirring (something I've come to expect from SR songs) - absolutely NOT at all.

Frankly speaking, if Variety was released after Kyouiku, I would have stopped being a Tokyo Jihen fan immediately. But I guess SR gave me enough time to expect the worst (and the queerest) from Tokyo Jihen (and Ukigumo) so I was a lot more open-minded and lenient when listening to this album. None of the tracks on the album got me to a level of excitement like Kyouiku and Adult. But I've gotten past the disappointment stage. Unless SR goes back to songwriting, I will channel all my listening energies to other artists.