Didn't she say once that KSK was "the album [she's] always wanted to make"? It wasn't really rocky at all.. though I suppose it doesn't prove that she didn't love what she did previously.

If it is true that she said that, then it does not prove that she did not love the albums before (and no one said she didn't like them) but it does prove that she is not meant to be a "rock" girl.

I think she can be whatever she wants, which for her happens to be continually subject to change. I know that whatever style(s) she uses, she will always have scads of musical ideas that most people don't have. Debating which style "suits her" best is really a debate about what style suits you best.

^zach: i.e neo-SR/TJ dissenters, stop complaining?

I don't think you understand that even though she doesn't use traditional rock band instruments for the most part on KSK, it's certainly a rock album. She was still the same Shiina Ringo she was during the first two albums underneath all those new "interesting" instruments she was using.

Hehe. Kind of. More like "all dissenters, accept that her ideas are never bad, just different from your idea of good." In the end, music is subjective, a highly personal experience.

Music criticism is a precarious task, poised between the horns of a dilemma. On one side, every person has musical ideas that you don't (using the impersonal "you" here). Even "nonmusical" people have musical ideas from which you can be enriched if you are an active listener. The problem is that the brain instinctively rejects the unfamiliar, or that which it can't easily understand. Many people consider this instinctive reaction to be "dislike." But if you really want to listen critically, you must first mentally accept the unfamiliar and give it a fair chance. Consider that your negative initial opinion may stem from the sound feeling unfamiliar (unfamiliar = uncomfortable = mental reaction of dislike). After you get past that, you can decide to dislike it. Musicians and critical listeners are generally weirdos because their brains are broken; they have broken their brains of their instinctive listening habits.

For that reason, I think the more time you spend critically listening to new music, the less music you dislike.

I see far too much musical criticism that attempts to take one person's opinion and make it prescriptive. Don't get me wrong -- musical criticism is vastly useful for every artist and appreciator of the art. But although there are many things about music which can be discussed somewhat objectively, most criticism seems to degenerate into a debate based solely on subjective opinion being presented as objective fact. Subjective opinions are useful criticism, as long as they are understood to be just that.

</nerd>

ps - really easy way to start an argument: describe KSK using typical genre terminology :)

So its ok for old SR/TJ dissenters to complain?

And I pretty much agree with everything Zach said :D

Yeah, if nu-Shiina fans want to complain about old Shiina. Then sure, if they think they're up to it.

^^^ Good point, largely agree. (Still, I'm waiting for the day when Uki goes the way of SR's infamous mole...!)

Typical: Eclectic, Fusion
Mine: SR post-natal depression virtuosic brilliance.

yeah except in another interview ringo claims she had composed around 20 songs to be used for the movie.

when it comes to HF and the stuff that got chosen I distinctly remember her saying that a lot of the KSK stuff fit very naturally and they already had orchestrated versions of most of that work so that is why she went with those.

and I think a lot of people are also forgetting Oiran was written by Ukigumo. I guess when you talk about it like that it seems like she really played it easy, but I still like the album.