Gyakuyunyuu ~Kouwankyoku~ (Self Covers album) and May/June Tour 2014

[kalmia]

I'm kind of glad these songs were written for other artists. What I am hearing now just wasn't meant to be. I like the arrangements but everything just sounds like it wasn't written for Ringo to sing -- and they weren't. 主演の女, 青春の瞬き, 望遠鏡の外の景色, and 幸先坂 are my favorites. But I don't think anything was awful. It's was sort of like listening to someone else's album that is quite good. Not Ringo good. Just regular people good.

[deadgrandma]

^ Would you say the same about Utaite Myori then?

Also, it's pretty impossible to agree with you when it comes to certain tracks on this. Leading Lady is the obvious example.

[Maou]

Originally Posted by deadgrandma

@Maou: Most of the wall of noise seems reminiscent of SS warm sounding wall of noise than that type of cold brickwalling on say, Kyouiko. Every time I listen I'm hearing new bits and bobs in it too, so that's kinda cool/a nod back to her older material. At least that's what I'm getting from it.

Yeah, I'm hoping it was just extra harsh upon first listen because I was listening to something much... lighter/soft beforehand. It'll be the first thing I listen to tomorrow.

[kalmia]

That PUFFY song is definitely one that goes against what I wrote above. In fact, I remember listening to the original PUFFY version and thinking it was written by Ringo before I even knew that it was. I think Ringo wrote some of the songs with the respective artist in mind. Other songs seem as if were written for herself and then discarded. PUFFY fits the jazzy Ringo molded song well. As mentioned above, the song would have work very well on one of her solo albums. I hadn't heard many of the other songs before and I liked that song when PUFFY did it; I was really looking forward to it and rightly so.

Good question, deadgrandma. As for Utaite Myouri, Ringo took songs that she did not write and made them her own. Hmm... I think she did a better job on those songs than these songs she did write. Perhaps one reason for this is that the tracks from UM come from a large variety of artists. The songs are so different from one another but they are brought together by Kameda and Tori with wonderful Ringo-esque arrangements. Before I found out it was a covers album, I thought a lot of the songs were original tracks -- they all shared the same sound. Most of the songs from this new album don't feel connected like that. I still loved about half of the songs. But all of the songs went through the same process: from Ringo -- to another artist -- and back to Ringo many years later. Some of the songs just experienced more damage through the transition than others.

But at the end of the day it'll just come down to a old-Ringo, new-Ringo debate. It is easy to see how the two albums will be compared. The amount of time that has passed since these songs have been written is definitely a big factor on the level of fan satisfaction. Ringo isn't the same woman she was ten years ago. She has changed and so has her music. It's like when an artist re-records their songs but butchers it. Except these are songs they've never recorded. I can only imagine if Ringo recorded these songs when she wrote them for other people.

[Nimh]

Here's a question, as I await my CD's arrival:

How about those people who aren't all that familiar with what the "other artists" have done to the songs? In other words, if the first time I'm hearing many or most (or all) of these songs is THIS ALBUM, how do you think it would come across? Obviously there would be no awareness of how Ringo either improved or butchered the other artists' versions.

[FadedSun]

Originally Posted by Nimh

Here's a question, as I await my CD's arrival:

How about those people who aren't all that familiar with what the "other artists" have done to the songs? In other words, if the first time I'm hearing many or most (or all) of these songs is THIS ALBUM, how do you think it would come across? Obviously there would be no awareness of how Ringo either improved or butchered the other artists' versions.

That would be me. This is my first time hearing...well, all of these songs. I never took the time to seek out songs Shiina had penned for other artists, because honestly, I wasn't very interested if it wasn't her singing them.

My first few listens have been positive. Many of the songs are excellent. Only one I don't care much for at the moment is 望遠鏡の外の景色. It's mostly an instrumental jazz track with some vocals at the end. A little boring. Some interesting genre choices throughout that work well with Shiina's voice(drum and bass? Awesome!). It lacks a cohesive quality that her albums tend to have, as these are a collection of random songs, but I can't fault the album as a whole for that.

A previous poster had mentioned the production quality of the album - and I have noticed it's very loud. I feel I can't get this album to sound good no matter what I touch in my equalizer settings.

[Scribble R]

Watching the live concert. The Roudousha performance made me so happy. I love Shiina Ringo.

[Maou]

Originally Posted by Scribble R

Watching the live concert. The Roudousha performance made me so happy. I love Shiina Ringo.

It is a rather underrated track.

[Glathannus]

Upon receiving my CD Japan shipment, I can confirm they really are distributing posters with the album, even if your invoice says nothing about it.

I won't have time to listen (and possibly review) until much later.

[a_grumble_cake]

Hiyori hime is a bad song, there is just no way to deny it at this point.

Originally Posted by kalmia

That PUFFY song is definitely one that goes against what I wrote above. In fact, I remember listening to the original PUFFY version and thinking it was written by Ringo before I even knew that it was. I think Ringo wrote some of the songs with the respective artist in mind. Other songs seem as if were written for herself and then discarded. PUFFY fits the jazzy Ringo molded song well. As mentioned above, the song would have work very well on one of her solo albums. I hadn't heard many of the other songs before and I liked that song when PUFFY did it; I was really looking forward to it and rightly so.

Which PUFFY song? There are 2 on this album.

TBH I always thought Ringo was bad at writing songs for others because she doesn't seem to take their vocal abilities into consideration and they end up struggling to sing the song.