SR 15th anniversary single Irohanihoheto / Kodoku no Akatsuki

[Scribble R]

You can create something meaningful and artistic without wearing your heart on your sleeve or being overly serious, or subversive. It feels treacherous for me to diss the early albums, but they hit you over the head with their so-called importance. I'd argue that Sanmon Gossip is a different kind of meaningful -- like, say, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest vs Lupin: Castle of Cagliostro and it's underestimated because it's frilly/whimsical.

(I'm sure a great deal of the classics are just as weak as the Ringo-written Jihen music, except the former is propped up by grandiose arrangements.)

[Tokyo Jihad]

Originally Posted by deadgrandma

What about bold massive statements ala KZK or Tamahime Sama? I'm still waiting to hear one of those from someone new.

If you want a more EDM KZK, check out The Knife's Shaking the Habitual.

[Superficial Fan]

It makes me happy to hear her using harpsichord (or something that sounds like it anyway) again. I'm easily pleased by unexpected harpsichord use, however.

[baruga]

Originally Posted by Tokyo Jihad

If you want a more EDM KZK, check out The Knife's Shaking the Habitual.

Funny how you'd find likeness between a masterpiece album and a 2deep4u tryhard abortion.

[Tokyo Jihad]

Dg asked for a "statement record" Shaking the Habitual, like KZK, has a humongous scope and very well researched sounds. Shaking the Habitual can be overwhelming and doesn't try to be catchy at all, but I think the sounds on the record are engaging and encourage you to listen through. Even the 20-minute atmospheric "Old Dreams Waiting to be Realized" is very well-done. It builds very slowly and gracefully, the tones are interesting; and as for the length: if you're going to do atmosphere, you might as well do it all the way. If you are not sure this kind of track is your thing, you can skip to the last 2 or 3 minutes to at least get a taste and work your way up to it.
"Without you my Life Would Be Boring" on the other hand, is mega. Everyone, all ages, can put their weight on this song.
Shaking the Habitual isn't the most accessible album, but you have to step back and realize, neither was KZK. For a "jpop" album by a popular artist, KZK might as well have had a 20 minute ambient track

[TurtleFu]

KZK is a pop album, Shiina is a pop artist.

It is comparably easy to throw away the pop framework than to create something truly inspired and creative from within the pop framework. That's what makes KZK so genius, is how melodic and catchy yet sonically dynamic it is.

Too often I see artists actively trying to create something groundbreaking, using new materials or mediums. There is nothing wrong with creating something powerful with some familiar, and I personally connect stronger with something like that instead of the so-called "avant-garde".

[deadgrandma]

Wow... so wait, "The Habitual" has as many detractrors as it does attractors... that alone makes it worthy of my attention. I've just started listening... nothing too 'weird', at least so far...

Probably helps my musical background/tastes are fucked to start with. This kinda sounds like they built upon the Fever Ray sound (which I enjoyed alot, Bjork clone or not).

Also, back on topic, as op2 pointed out- the translated song name of the new single has now changed to "Les Couleurs Chantent" instead of "Couleurs Perfum" on iTunes.

[Entry№1]

Originally Posted by TurtleFu

KZK is a pop album, Shiina is a pop artist.

It is comparably easy to throw away the pop framework than to create something truly inspired and creative from within the pop framework. That's what makes KZK so genius, is how melodic and catchy yet sonically dynamic it is.

I disagree. The pop framework - song structure, patterns of resolve/progressions, arrangement - can be very difficult to break out of, given how inundated we are of it through media. Writing pop music is habit for most professional songwriters, and while I agree with you in that I find Ringo's triumph is in how she negotiates the boundaries of genres, I differ in the belief that Ringo can actually transcend pop music as a musical genre/form. Ringo has written in a variety of rhythms, time signatures, song structures, etc. She is "pop" in that she is popular, and commonly uses pop song structures, but even with a song like "carnation" (3/4 time and near-strophic form) that are rather accessible, I'd hesitate to call it "pop" outright. The same goes for KSK - just because something is catchy, doesn't make it pop. Catchiness is highly subjective. Also, if we're going to talk lyrical content, the subject matter of KSK's lyrics are more akin to folk music and "art songs" than contemporary pop music, to me.

[matan-san]

talking about Shaking The Habitual. it's certainly the most pretentious music ever made, at least that I've heard

[deadgrandma]

Originally Posted by matan-san

talking about Shaking The Habitual. it's certainly the most pretentious music ever made, at least that I've heard

Pretentious.... sure. But a lot of the best music can be labelled that... examples I can think of are In the Aeroplane Over The Sea, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Lateralus, Funeral, If You're Feeling Sinisiter and on a more personal level, the discography of Guernica, most of Sa Dingding, Sunn O))) and as mentioned a thousand times, KZK. But these are also the albums I can respect the most, as they have had lasting appeal for quite a while.

Over-pretentious like the latest Mars Volta album are truly annoying though.

I am enjoying Shaking the Habitual a fair bit now, whether it fits in with the good kind of pretentious or not will take a matter of 3 months to decide.