[fernan1234]

Originally Posted by zeroryouko

I'm not sure I agree with this theory. SG, to me, really seems more directly a successor to KZK (via HF) than part of the general TJ era.

I basically see her career path as being split in two after the listening public slapped down KSK. TJ was the extension/continuation of the more popular, accessible Ringo we saw on MM and SS and that people had come to expect. Meanwhile, the more avant-garde Ringo disappeared for a while, but eventually re-emerged. Adult was maybe the first glimpse of this; it's the one album that doesn't quite fit this paradigm and I would call it a cross-over. But then with HF, then SG, and various singles and compositions for other artists, the split became better defined.

As for a dip in quality - yes, KSK was her peak, there's no denying it. But, IMO, SG is not merely the best of the era of second-bests, it's a great album in its own right - I'd rank it higher than MM and at least as high as SS. Had Sunny been produced as a cohesive album with 6 more *new* songs, it could've been a contender too.

Ditto.

I'm still expecting a new peak for this era, for some reason.