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Old 2011.07.04, 07:08 PM   #161
deadgrandma
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Things I like:
- Cool album cover
- It's a new TJ album
- 10/14 songs I really really like. You try to guess which ones.
- Onna Ka Wa Daredemo pisses everybody off
- Sounds nice and chunky with the right EQ settings (I was unable to do this with Sports for some reason)
- Atarashii is a good anytime song
- Its a clusterfuck that somehow isn't too fucked
- Ringo's red shoes are pretty fap-worthy

What I don't like
- Listening to it in headphones, uggh
- Track order could be different, some of the songs that are good kinda mesh in and don't stand out as much
- The song before the Reverbaration (I'm too lazy to get the right name)
- Shoulda ended with the song before Onna Ka (Go with the wind or whatever it's called)... That woulda been superdooper, and as fucked as Souretsu.
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Old 2011.07.04, 07:12 PM   #162
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Originally Posted by deadgrandma View Post
Things I like:
- Cool album cover
- It's a new TJ album
- 10/14 songs I really really like. You try to guess which ones.
- Onna Ka Wa Daredemo pisses everybody off
- Sounds nice and chunky with the right EQ settings (I was unable to do this with Sports for some reason)
- Atarashii is a good anytime song
- Its a clusterfuck that somehow isn't too fucked
- Ringo's red shoes are pretty fap-worthy

What I don't like
- Listening to it in headphones, uggh
- Track order could be different, some of the songs that are good kinda mesh in and don't stand out as much
- The song before the Reverbaration (I'm too lazy to get the right name)
- Should ended with the song before Onna Ka... That woulda been superdopper.
I like Onna and I disagree, the album sounds better on headphones then it does on speakers and I hate having to toggle EQ to make an album sound better, it should have been produced to sound more distinct and not muddled. Kyouiku was flat, Variety was almost too overproduced, Sports hit it just right, and this takes it back towards muddy again. Maybe I just need to clean my ears.

You guys are going to kill me for this but I was listening to Kaitei and bits and pieces of it are starting to grow on me...there is a certain quality to it that reminds me of Juusui Negai. It's her voice that kills me in it...man Ringo really hit some lows during this album (I don't mean pitch wise...) I wish she would sing in her lower register more these days.
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Old 2011.07.04, 07:22 PM   #163
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Perhaps its cause you've got pretty kickass headphones or something. That or the fact that I can't bring myself to use headphones unless I have to, you know- when people don't wanna hear the house booming with Ringo's awesome screeching.

Oh yes, I have those kind of neighbours. Perhaps next time I'll crank up the Guernica.
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Old 2011.07.04, 09:34 PM   #164
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Originally Posted by das_blibber View Post
boah, i always disliked phase2 (maybe, except "adult"), but now i am in love again! this is a well crafted and artful album. i love surprises like this
Education and Adult was still Ringo calling the shots which was stifling for the old guard. But I'm glad she bravely let go of the reigns and let her fellow composers flourish. Uki and Izawa were dudes who didn't have any reputation or albums of their own. Things turned out surprisingly well all things considered. I don't want izawa to leave after hearing how diverse his songs are. He's a better musical match with Ringo, and he pushes her vocal ability to the limit.

My big gripe is that Ringo, has less of a creative presence in her own band, isn't including more of her compositions and gave the hot tracks to Chiaki where thryll be forgotten from lack of exposure.

She does know that were primarily sticking with TJ because Shiina Ringo is in the band, doesn't she?
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Old 2011.07.05, 02:41 AM   #165
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I don't think people are disappointed because we had two double a-side singles on the album.
I'm also including tracks that leaked-- not just singles.
Plus, I was talking about myself, not everyone :/
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Old 2011.07.05, 03:26 AM   #166
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I think the biggest problem with this whole thing is the track order. It's very poorly done, because it's not smooth and it is jarring and songs that sound similar are grouped far apart.

Think about it this way:
Mid-tempo crazy chanting track
High-tempo rock track
High-tempo cheer pop-rock track
Slow-tempo R&B ballad
etc.

To me, that's very jarring

And then the two jazziest tracks of the album, one is in the middle, and the other is at the end.

Maybe we should just re-order the track list.
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Old 2011.07.05, 08:54 AM   #167
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You don't want to necessarily group songs that sound too similar together. I kind of liked going from one thing to another Bunmei-kaika to Denki, Dopamint to Otona-tachi, the boring song before Sora ga followed by Sora ga. I thought those transitions were all good.

And yet -- I feel they did group songs together: High energy songs to start, the mellower tracks (plus that Uki one), the Rnb songs in the middle, the harsher guitar tracks to lead us to the finale, and then the last (two) song that doesn't make sense.

Now, about the lack of closer: For the Tube seems to make sense, but it doesn't feel right. Yes it mirrors the open, but it mirrors it too much, and it doesn't seem like the logical or satisfying place to end the album. Kaze ni, I mean I guess you could, but then it feels like "the point" of the album was to get to this rocker which doesn't make sense with the glut of Rnb tracks. I really like Denki's place on the album and am glad its not the closing track. It would have felt too easy and paint by numbers and likely cheapened the effect of the song. So my conclusion is: I don't know. Onna no Ko works as good as any other song I guess.
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Old 2011.07.05, 05:14 PM   #168
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Originally Posted by kuro_neko View Post
This album actually feels more like Kyouiku to me than any of the other albums because it has a very loosely defined theme which doesn't necessarily dictate the sound of the album. It feels like a reboot and a fresh start for the band. I hope going forward the band continues to work around loose themes and realize the importance of production and editing over writing songs to fit a certain label.
I like this way of thinking, it makes me hopeful that the band is moving in a more Kyouiku organic direction. I would love if the next album followed in this vein but was more polished and just blew us all away. No more trite themes, please.

"Kinjirareta Asobi" is a song that really encapsulates that Tokyo Jihen sound for me. I love Atarashii, Otona-tachi, and 21seiki.

I never hated Onna no Ko, but then I also never hated Futari-bocchi Jikan either. What can I say... I like musicals.
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Old 2011.07.05, 05:15 PM   #169
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I think this needs to be posted again before things get out of hand:

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Old 2011.07.05, 05:25 PM   #170
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LOL at that comic.

Originally Posted by spinnigold View Post
I think the fact that we heard the vast majority of the album before it came out-- as in, both tracks of the singles were in the album-- Tengoku, Dopamint, and so on--so it felt like...I'd heard too much of it to be excited?
For what it's worth, I had only heard "Fly Me to Heaven" before the album dropped, and only once.

(Why does nobody use the English titles, even though they're official?)
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