She hasn't met her Saito Neko equivalent yet :-p Though I hope when she does, he's more of a Koji Ueno.

And it will happen. Japanese artists just can't help themselves.

I've seen the negativity pop up and I guess I can only say that I'm happy to have been in a 10 year honeymoon(ish) phase with Ringo. ^_^ I've found that some of her work since the very beginning not to my tastes, but never would I call them "bad" (I've grown less and less able to understand what "bad" music is though, rather than music that just "isn't for me" or something that I don't "get" if that makes sense.)

I do wonder what Ringo and Neko talk about when making music together. I'm rather slow on some things, so I was surprised to find that he's been around essentially since the start of her major career, though I guess mostly in the capacity of a violinist, then conductor, then outright collaborator. :O people who are more familiar with the ringo&saito relationship, can I ask what effect you think it's had on her music?

FadedSun, I'm not sure what the overall forum thinks of sunny, but I recently did an in-order-of-release listen to Ringo's solo stuff, and at about halfway through MM I found myself unable to wait to listen to Sunny. It really is a gem, and her power not just as a musician but as an artist really flows from it ^_^ I agree that Nippon and also for me Jiyuu feel like bumps on an otherwise smooth ride though. I guess having them play parallel tracks though makes it less shocking to the system when either one plays though :P

I agree with you, zero. Her live performances often surpass the limits of what an album can give you. (One song I've found that I prefer on the album is Honnou though. The distortion is really key to why I like it I guess!¥

I was actually watching Domestic Virgin Line last night, and I believe she said "it's okay to not even buy the album. Just come to the concerts and experience it there." Which I think she still feels, and is the philosophy behind the 生 (which, among many other meanings, can mean "live") at the center of the sun on her controversial flags.

I still think she has this at the core of her philosophy as a musician which is why she tours so much. I don't follow other comparably popular solo artists or musicians, but she does 1 or 2 concerts or concert series a year, which seems very impressive as I always think that she doesn't have to, and if she wanted to take time away from work and writing and performing that she could and people would still wait patiently for her :O

(Sorry for another long "reply to everyone" reply!!)

She still puts on one hell of a show, can't take that away from her. Personally, I'm a pretty new fan. I've been familiar with her for the best part of a decade (I'm a Guilty Gear player and a SOIL&PIMP fan) but I didn't get into her music until between Sanmon and SUNNY. I'm inclined to say I like the last two albums more than MM (even in spite of NIPPON) but I haven't spent enough time with MM to feel qualified enough to say that. Actually, I only bought a physical copy the other day.

I have a soft spot for Koufukuron single version but the album version is great as well (I like to play the Expo '08 video of it from time to time). I'm fan of Suberidai, Tsuki ni makeinu, Izonshou, and mentioned earlier Yattsuke Shigoto (the ZCS version) - I was so happy this one appeared on Expo '14. Sunny actually re-awakened my adoration for Ariamaru Tomi.

Oh, I'm forgetting Akane Sasu Kiro Terasaredo - is it me or it's kinda underrated.

Hell, I'm no music purist and I do believe that the great majority of Ringo's songs is incredibly good.

*shrugs* Y'know, it comes and goes. I've been trying to pick out the good in mediocre output since Sports. Occasionally the snark comes out because it's part of my sense of humor.

I-No is pretty good in Xrd. She's been placing well in tournaments. Hope she stays in a good place when Revelator is released.

Sure is. It's one of my favorites from any of her albums, but we've had people here dismiss it for being a generic J-pop song. People have said stuff like MM comes to a screeching halt with that song. I just don't get it.

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MM is still my favorite SR album with SS right behind. It's very hard to separate MM and SS since the majority of the songs were written at the same time. You can take almost any song on one album and put it on the other without blinking. The only real difference between the two albums is that the songs on SS got more time in the recording studio. This allowed for some more complicated arrangements.

KZK would be a distant third. If we included Kyouiku and Sports since they were mostly written by SR, Kyouiku would be above KZK and Sports below it.

Lastly, Gekokujyo Ecstasy sucks. It always has and it always will if you care about musical integrity. SR, Muraishi and Kameda do a damn good job, but Yayoshi and Baldy drag it down too far. Yayoshi is an absolute travesty unless you enjoy everything good about MM/SS's guitar work being stripped out, overly simplified and sounding like shit in a can.

My avatar is giving you the death stare.

Okay, fine. As pure music, GE doesn't rank well. But SR's persona makes up for it. When else has she crawled around on the stage? And Love Is Blind is just stunning......And Izonshou. Put that persona in Electric Mole and you've got the perfect combo of image and sound.

Taiwan??? Well, that was more crawling back to her feet, but still, she was on all fours there... :P

I've seen quite a lot of I-No play at arcades in Shinjuku, and they're running Revelator now (location tests, probably?), so I'm guessing she's still viable. Whenever Europe gets a version of Xrd I'll pick her up.

Idk, after she crucified GX Ringo at the end of Zazen, you have to wonder what she thought of that era :P I do really like it though. I feel like really sitting there in front of that set listening to such great music must have been an incredible experience! :lol:

I also love Akane Sasu, and am kind of hoping she brings it back... though I'm not sure if I would like a Mangarama version as much as a regular band arrangement :s It doesn't sound much like any J-pop I've ever heard (besides Ringo's J-pop, but even then it really has something special about it to me) but the lyric writing is what really bring it together for me, like with many of her songs. Even without understanding the words, I think the emotional and lyrical progressions come across really well :hmph:

Zazen is probably my favorite concert, though. I really love her B-sides, so it was nice to see them finally get some play. I really love the kind of electronic feel a lot of the songs had going on too :lol:

GX also has that dreamlike version of Sid that always makes me stop and say "oh yeah, this exists, doesn't it?"