(2009.05.27) Shiina Ringo - Ariamaru Tomi [Single]

[Osiris12345]

Well, listening to a 3-4 minute song is a lot less time-consuming for one.

[Tokyo Jihad]

For fans, it's more or less a moot point. We're going to listen to it no matter how much we slag a 10 second clip. (which I didnt do, mind you) But think of how small of an audition you give to a song you don't know of an artist you're unfamiliar with you hear passively on the radio. I bet its less time than this preview.

[Osiris12345]

I just think it's hard to tell what it's going to sound like since it was barely audible in the background of random people in the drama talking. On the radio, it at least comes out crystal clear. I'm not saying it's going to be a brilliant song, but just about anything sounds generic when a tiny portion of it is used in a preview of something. I can guarantee that if the first time you heard Ichijiku no Hana was in that same clip instead of Ariamaru Tomi, it wouldn't grab you because it would be in the background of what sounds like every other serious, boring drama preview.

I'm not pointing the finger at you, man. I just think it's funny that a lot of the posters here jumped to conclusions so quickly and said things like "Well, at least we still have the B-side!". I know you didn't do that though.

But yeah, you did make a point in saying that we are all going to listen to the whole thing eventually anyway.

[Tokyo Jihad]

I know you're not pointing the finger at me. I just felt I should clarify since most would probably assume I'd be in the trashing of the clip. =p

[bebio]

Well, here are some interesting news:

Here it's 2:02 am in Portugal, and 10:02 am in Japan.

A few minutes ago, I turned on Keyhole TV on the TBS channel, and there was a talk show program with a special feture on the Smile movie, with all the main cast present. And guess what? while they were talking with the actors, they passed almost the whole song of shiina ringo on the background, while the actors were chatting with the TV hosts. The song was clearly audible, and I think it's safe to say that people will like the song a lot more than they think!

Granted, it is no masterpiece (and I do want to make this pretty clear!), but it certainly gets better than those 15 seconds of preview would make us think.

The song has a clear vibe of something that the Beatles would write, a bit like "Real Love", or "Free As A Bird" on the Anthology compilation,. It's clearly a ballad, and the tempo doesn't change from what you can hear in the preview, but here's the few things that I could remember:

The song started with a small drum break that leads immediately to the chorus (at least that's what TBS played, don't know if it will be the final version), which then leads to the verse which does not change much from the chorus, but is a bit more melancholic, and more poignant. There's a chorus again, and after that there's a kind of a instrumental bridge, with the drums doing a small solo with little drum rolls while still keeping the pace and tempo of the song, and some distorted guitar noise in the background, very much in the vein of the final section of Free As a Bird by the beatles.Then there's a guitar solo soloing over the chords of the verse, and the distortion in that guitar does seem quite dirty (maybe to counterbalance the omnipresent acoustic guitars throughout the song).
After that, my memory is sketchy, there might have been the chorus again, and then TBS cut the song, to pass to another segment of the show.

Well, at least for me, it did give me a better impression of the song.
I think that people will enjoy/dislike this as much as Yokyou.

Maybe someone will post this TBS special in Jpopsuki, or youtube?

[ShinjiPG]

Thanks a lot for this info bebio
So there was no such kind of orchestraish vibe, is that it?

[bebio]

Nope, in the section of the song that I heard, there was no orchestra at all. Just a normal band. There might have been some piano in the background, but the only instruments that I could perfecly hear throughout the song were acoustic guitars, the bass, drums, vocals and the ocasional "dirty distortion" solo guitar.

[Tokyo Jihad]

+1 in the "Jihad's right" column (drawing comparison from the song to late Beatles)

[Maou]

Going by bebio's description, I will love the song while fluffie and JR hate it. The laws of life when it comes to ballady SR music.

[fluffiethesock]

O RLY? I don't think I'll love it, but nothing is leading me to believe that I won't like it at this point.