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Old 2020.04.30, 10:15 AM   #30
gekokujyo
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Originally Posted by Tokyo Jihad View Post
Tokyo Jihen - News

Tokyo Jihen resumes their legacy of creating professional-quality music that moves no needles. Do I need to elaborate any further?

To be fair, this is maybe the band's overall best output to date. I made a similar note on Shiina's latest record, but the recording sounds phenomenal. Clearly someone entered Shiina's orbit that has a real ear for production because the sound is pristine, clear, and human in a way that Tokyo Jihen has never been. It is such a strange thing to note that I pulled out the older songs just to make sure it wasn't my headphones. Each musician is so creative at what they do and this is only the first time in their catalog that they sound so. The opener, "Erabarezaru Kokumin" sounds smooth and slinky like the band often tried but failed to do. The song does left turn and while I don't dig the second half of the song quite as much, it remains interesting throughout.

The only dud is "Uru Uru Uruu" and even that is no face plant like Tokyo Jihen is accustomed. It sounds so reminiscent of "Erabarezaru" that at first I thought the band was doing some kind of variation-on-a-theme thing. Alas.

Kameda's song is good, as his songs usually are. Hata's song is good. I was dissapointed there was no left turn like "Hontou no Tokoro" off Color Bars, but the song is very nice. Even Shiina's song pretty good. All pretty good, but at the end I have not registered that the EP ended.

I wish there was more to talk about. It's all very nice. As always I'm left wanting more. The sexy songs should feel sexier, the fun songs should jump, the cool songs should chill or have sopistication. The goofy songs might as well go all in (but I'm glad there are none here.) Nothing really rises to the occasion nor soars above, "fine." Tokyo Jihen has been called a gateway to more interesting music - Shiina Ringo-proper, Petrolz, H Zett M, anything really. In the year 2020, I'm not sure what News offers the entry level listener.

Now that the dust settled on their "career" we can safely say "Gunjou Byori" was their zenith, right? Far and above their best song; ticks all the boxes. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that was their first song. "Osca" as a noble second.
Wow someone liked the Kameda song. i thought it was borderline asinine. I really liked all the other songs though especially track 1. Nice and creamy. Theres enough here for me to want to listen to a full length album but I'm not sure that's gonna happen.

Also, no one really discussed this but did anyone keep up with the news of their most recent tour? They went ahead with the first couple of dates but eventually bowed to pressure and cancelled the rest. Some people were really pissed that they were gonna go ahead with the tour at first.

Sounan is still my favourite song of them all but GB comes close.
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