[TJ] 2010.02.24 - Sports (CD) [Album]

[Osiris12345]

Originally Posted by kuro_neko

regarding the chorus of denpa tsuuhin, its a mix of words ending with the same parts which are repeated in pairs. interactive hyperactive, super sonic hyper sonic, multi-access, direct access, local calling, direct calling, etc, and the entire song uses technology as an expression for relationships with people. the album as a whole has a lot of lyrical content concerning the modern state of technology in Japan (I'm looking at you Noriki), and on a whole I think this is a really awesome subject for her to writing about as its something she hasn't done yet. We've had women's issues, now its time for Ringo to teach the japanese high school girls to shut off their keitai and actually go live a bit. In the age of Twitter, I find this a really potent message, so good for Ringo.

As good a message as it may be, I find it rather odd that Ringo chooses to present this message on an album called Sports. Maybe I'm just interpreting the album title as being too literal about its actual contents. But shouldn't something called Sports be about sports in some way or at least use sports as some form of social commentary? I remember hearing that they purposely structured the music on the album to have a lot of tension and be really active because of the sports theme. Are any of the lyrics like that?

[gekokujyo]

EDIT - managed to procure the show, somehow. Thoughts pending!

[s3r3nity]

Originally Posted by Osiris12345

As good a message as it may be, I find it rather odd that Ringo chooses to present this message on an album called Sports. Maybe I'm just interpreting the album title as being too literal about its actual contents. But shouldn't something called Sports be about sports in some way or at least use sports as some form of social commentary? I remember hearing that they purposely structured the music on the album to have a lot of tension and be really active because of the sports theme. Are any of the lyrics like that?

Maybe she's suggesting that they put down their phones and go play sports!

[Scribble R]

I think the Sports motif is linked to Ringo's obsession with matters of the body, health, life/death. And as far as the Tokyo Jihen channel thing goes, 'Sports' channel makes more sense than 'Health' channel.

...I'm guessing.

She gave Sports-related English titles to about half of the tracks on Sanmon Gossip, too. If Ringo's commentary is as overt as kuro makes it sound, then the communication and consumerism thing can tie into mental health/wellbeing/lifestyle, I suppose.

You can tie 3min and Kachi Ikusa into that. Dunno bout sweet spot.

[Yahiko]

what happened to her teeth?

[obama917]

Originally Posted by Scribble R

I think the Sports motif is linked to Ringo's obsession with matters of the body, health, life/death.

I agree with you. In a couple of recent interviews, Ringo said they took the concept of 'sports' in a broad sense. Judging from the lyrics and her comments, I think the underlying motives for the album are 'feel it by your five senses' and 'body over mind', though the two are closely related to each other.

'Feel it by your five senses' (as opposed to virtual interaction) is most apparent in Senko Shojo. I guess that is why this song is included in Sports, or maybe they chose the Sports theme because it fits Senko Shojo. Of course this motif is not new to her, recently seen in Amagasa, and I think we can go back to her solo works.

The 'body over mind' motif seems to me very clear in Ikiru, Foul and Noriki, as well as the two songs you mentioned.

[gekokujyo]

Thoughts on the MJ performance - HOW AWESOME! Obviously, they picked the one new song from the album that was the easiest to translate live (Season sayonara), which was great in itself, but I also want to see Denpa tsuushin and Zettai zetsumei done live!

The figure skating bit was really quite great, if just a wee bit cheesy.

I liked this rendition of Superstar a lot but I thought the tambourine was a bit distracting, and I really wish she would belt it out at the end like she did in the DO tour. Guess this song would have really fit quite nicely on this album eh?

[kuro_neko]

Originally Posted by Scribble R

I think the Sports motif is linked to Ringo's obsession with matters of the body, health, life/death. And as far as the Tokyo Jihen channel thing goes, 'Sports' channel makes more sense than 'Health' channel.

...I'm guessing.

She gave Sports-related English titles to about half of the tracks on Sanmon Gossip, too. If Ringo's commentary is as overt as kuro makes it sound, then the communication and consumerism thing can tie into mental health/wellbeing/lifestyle, I suppose.

You can tie 3min and Kachi Ikusa into that. Dunno bout sweet spot.

you guys already said everything better than I could at this point, but that is exactly it. that really long interview on yahoo they talk about it and ringo says that the album was really everyone's own version of sports, and for her it had a lot to do with how she was utilizing her voice during recording and concept wise it was relating to the body/mind/spirit connection. I mean you have to think about their previous albums and why they ended up with their titles. Kyouiku was an attempt to educate the modern music scene, Adult was a more mature and grown-up fusion of jazz elements into the mix, Variety was really that, a Variety of songs that had no common thread other than that they weren't written by Ringo, and Sports main theme was summarized as "自分なりのスポーツ” which means "everyone's own idea of sports" more or less. As an entire band the approached this by making the work as a whole active, tense, and innovative. Thematically, Ringo is shouldering the lyrical burden for the most part, and a good part of her lyrics have to do with issues of the mind/body/health, specifically the correlation between body and mind, she talks about it a lot throughout the album, especially on Ikiru and Noriki. Even on SG you had Tsugou no ii Karada, which a rumination on wanting the perfect body. This seems to be a recent topic of concern for her, the correlation between your spirit and your body. I mean when you think of it your body is the physical manifestation of your spirit, your vessel, so you can consider the album even as the physical (sonic) manifestation of these ruminations on spirit, mind versus body etc. I have to wonder sometimes if these issues are coming up due to her aging and the pressure and changes that come with being in the public spotlight for all that.

about the lyrics, I do think the way Ringo approached writing them did fall into this pattern. There is a lot of repetition on the album and reoccurring patterns which emphasis slight changes in structure to emphasize certain parts through the contrast. I don't know how this would relate specifically to the theme of the album, but I think this was a conscious choice of theirs through the album making process. This might annoy casual listeners, as it sounds too repetitive, but I found once I read them out with the kanji it really made me like them a lot more, so I guess once we have romaji ready you guys can go to town! Denpa Tsuushin was previously mentioned, Zettai Zetsumei's chorus is another word swap "amari nimo blah blah" where she repeats these same words in long strings over and over with slight swaps of adjectives/nouns in the blah blah part. then you have ikiru which is essentially the same song placed twice, acapella first, then again with the band, and you have symmetry between FOUL and FAKE and Season Sayonara and Sweet Spot in the lyrics. Considering some songs weren't just Ringo on lyrics, I think the amount of layering and symmetry in this album easily outdoes any previous Jihen release.

edit: Noriki actually has a fair bit of repetition in the verse as well where she repeats similar strings of kanji compounds with the first or second character being the same/similar but with different meanings etc. it seems the more I look for it the more this technique of her's is all over Sports.

[ShadyNook]

Being pushed to be healthy by a lady who smoked Hi-Lites for over 12 years and has smokers teeth and the gravely voice.

Thats funnee!

edit: just read kuro's post. thats really cool the symmetry goes beyond just the track list. thats a different league of analysis beyond my understanding. i'm looking forward to the unofficial english translation of the Japanese lyrics.

my interest in the album hasnt died down. I gave Variety a spin just to see if it would click better with me after not hearing it for a year, but it didnt. something about the production of Sports was done right thats making me want to hear it 2-3 times a day, maybe the pacing? Its got to be that.

[clakaz]

About the repetition thing:

I remember in one of the interviews, Ukigumo saying something like sports (everyone take on sports) no to be just about adrenaline and excitement, but about stoicism, discipline and repetition too. (Like an athlete have to do the same movement over and over to win some competition or perfect some technique <-- my adlib)