Shiina Ringo + PUFFY collaboration!

[MBF]

Hmm... well, I think, it's pretty nice... nothing special, but not mentionably bad either.

I'm really curious to hear a SR/TJ-live version of it, though.

[Oiran]

It seems like Shiina made a puzzle with pieces of her works. It reminds me a lot of SR/TJ songs, but I like it anyway. It reminds me old Shiina Ringo a lot
And the PV is really cool!

[ShinjiPG]

Originally Posted by a_grumble_cake

that's hilarious because 1:50-2:30 sounded familiar to me also and my own bath revelation got me Byoushou Public around 1:45 to 2:20.

EDIT: ShinjiPG- you probably meant Shoujo Robot and yeah, they're definitely similar!

Thanks for the correction a_grumble_cake, it was in fact Shoujo Robot that I was trying to say. I'm so freaked out today, bah...
And yeah, definitely Byoushou Public as well, altough Shoujo Robot has the same kind of vocals. Geez, no wonder it was so difficult for me to specify the exact song. When I first heard that part I was like "Hey, I heard this somewhere before" and then was trying to sort out which song it was... and Shoujo Robot came to mind, as well as Superstar and also some solo-Ringo song I just couldn't get the name. So it was Byoushou.

EDIT: Actually, listening to the song more times... It definitely has the Shoujo Robot structure mixed with Blackout drums and keys. I even made a scheme of the structure in notepad just to be sure lol The only difference is that Shoujo Robot repeats the chorus more often.

[digdad]

I can't tell if it's formulaic or if it is intentionally put together to reference these older songs (sort of like a puzzle like Oiran suggested). Either way, while I wouldn't call it A-grade material, I wouldn't call it C-grade either. It definitely has a good hook that stays in your head. It's not jumping into my Puffy top 5 list, but not a bad song overall.

[Tokyo Jihad]

See, here's the problem with this song: Puffy got lost in the mix. Shiina wrote the song, and apparently it was produced as if it was still Shiina singing, but Puffy just gets plugged into the song instead and thus they don't play to their strengths. They sing so "restrained" theres none of that Puffy ebullience, and there is room for it. But the delivery is undercooked like Shiina would do it (in the good old days and now thats just her style.) As a Puffy song, its far from a single.

On the positive side, it does sound like Shiina tried to write a Puffy song. There's some nice Puffy signatures in there. However, the "breakdown" just before 2:00 just has to be Shiina making fun of herself at this point.

I think the song works until the second half where Puffy should go into their "chaos mode" and just explode the song like they do. Instead they still kinda half-ass sing it like they want to go all out but their producer's shaking his head.

Even the video looks like Puffy making a Shiina video, which is far and away more successful.

[fluffiethesock]

Is that Tokyo Jihen playing?

[Glathannus]

It's not a great song, but it's a good song. I prefer it over most of Variety, but here's my problem with it.

It stands right alongside Shuraba (single version) and Senkou Shoujo, as sounding like more tragically trendy (for this decade in Japan) than everything else Shiina Ringo or Tokyo Jihen have ever done. For a front group that lists out Blankey Jet City as one of very few inspirations, with a song written by a woman who lists out Blankey Jet City as one of many favorites - this song has absolutely zero Blankey Jet City qualities whatsoever. It's not even trying to be a hybrid of Blankey Jet City or any of the groups that spawned from their disbanded members. When Ringo Catalogue paid homage to Shiina Ringo songs that came before it, Ringo Catalogue didn't use JPop as the glue to hold all of the pieces together. It was the kind of song where even if you stripped all of the references from it, you still couldn't imagine it being promoted to death, yet it was still a great song in its own right even without all of the references.

I suppose that's how this song ends up as an anime intro. It has to be trendy for its time, and throw away at least 65% of what made the involved artists different from the scene* before they got involved.

*: Not to be confused with warez/mp3 distributors. I'm talking about tried-&-true formulas of music all of the big record labels already know will appeal to the average young person at the time.

[ShinjiPG]

Let's be honest tho, it sounds like something out of Variety-era Jihen (and also that TOKIO single), so I don't thing it being an anime-intro restrained anything. Even more, I don't associate any of it with a Tale of Genji anime/series/film/whatever. Much less with this (better quality here). Those Tamatebako songs would suit so much better.

Jihad's description of PUFFY's sound made me (again) want to grab one of their albums and listen (besides all the Tesla efforts lol). Dunno when I'll actually do it tho.

[NCORE]

maybe Shiina doesn't like blankey solely for the music itself Glath

[TeslaGuy]

I like it. There is nothing exceptionally good about it, but I certainly would not categorize it as a disappointment. Despite my best efforts to remain objective, I currently view this song/video from an old Puffy fan's perspective, and it is undeniably more substantial than most of their recent post-Okuda/Sturmer output. Good enough for me.