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Old 2019.05.27, 09:37 PM   #111
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Originally Posted by kanzaki View Post
Also looking forward to your thoughts deadgrandma!

Please share more about the “end of contract” thing. I had no idea.

Given that in an interview she's just given she said that comments on social media give her the impression she should leave Tokyo Jihen where it is and not add anything when no one's asking for it, it would mean the end of Ringo as a recording artist.
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Old 2019.05.28, 01:05 AM   #112
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Ringo might be better at this stage taking on a protege and working with them. Channel her experience into their talent and enthusiasm and see where it takes them. We've had quite enough collaborations and more than enough commissioned tracks now for that well to be at drought level.


I don't believe she's lost any of her actual talent whatsoever, just her drive to create an actual proper album for whatever reason. She's got a way with words and a sound signature all her own that I'd be sad to see evaporate entirely from the world. It's just not being used effectively these days and thus the power it used to carry is diminished to naught.


I'd like to see her get the fire back with some kid who already has a spark of their own.




JUST NOT HER OWN CHILDREN THO!!!!
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Old 2019.05.28, 01:49 AM   #113
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But don’t you see? Commissions are where the $$$ at. How else can she fund her Gucci hobby?
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Old 2019.05.28, 03:15 AM   #114
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She probably gets the Gucci for free at this stage as a brand ambassador!
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Old 2019.05.28, 03:55 AM   #115
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https://deadgrandmablog.wordpress.co...go-sandokushi/


There. There's my no bs, no joking around review for you.
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Old 2019.05.28, 06:57 AM   #116
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Originally Posted by deadgrandma View Post
https://deadgrandmablog.wordpress.co...go-sandokushi/


There. There's my no bs, no joking around review for you.
Thanks! I enjoyed reading that. Much better than the review on Sputnikmusic, which was less of a review of the album and more of an essay on the reviewer's music taste.
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Old 2019.05.28, 06:18 PM   #117
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EDIT: I enjoyed your review too, deadgrandma!

This is just probably me in the “bargaining” stage of grief but...

I find that album is more enjoyable if you swap things around like:

Niwatori to hebi to buta
Menukidoori
Ma chérie
Isogaba maware
Donzoko made (original version!)
Kamisama, hotokesama
Tokyo
Nagaku mijikai matsuri
Shijou no jinsei
Kakeochisha
Jiyudom <— can’t save this guy
Kemono Yuku Hosomichi
Anoyo no mon



Also, Ano yo no mon loosely translates into “the gate of life”, so maybe in recent PV itself Ringo is subtly hinting “this is the beginning and the end of what I have to show so please just move on” ?
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Old 2019.05.28, 07:33 PM   #118
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Originally Posted by shirasagi View Post
"Tokyo" is a showtune as much as "Shun" and "Ima" were, only both of those were highly praised and this one was pretty much dismissed immediately, when in fact they're all companion songs.
1) Shun is a masterpiece, particularly her vocal performance - one of the few I believe she's never equalled live.
2) Ima actually received a lot of criticism at the time, IIRC. Although I personally like it quite a bit.
3) Tokyo is not a bad song...it's just not fresh. The culmination of her show tune phase was Onna no Ko wa Dare demo. I feel like everything after that is kind of redundant.

Originally Posted by shirasagi View Post
I feel like genuinely liking a new Shiina Ringo album is unacceptable in this fan community and there's never going to be a truly intriguing conversation, which actually could be had. If I went on with what I like about the album I would feel like a Holocaust denier at this point. thespidereggs mentioned the word "apologists" earlier and that's exactly right. It's crazy.
Liking a new Shiina Ringo release is not, in and of itself, unacceptable in any way, at least in my book. But look, you are one of the few people I've encountered who has been a fan as long as I have. At her peak, she was the best musician in the world. I mean that with no irony, and I believe it to this day. And I can't believe that, with a 15-year history, you can't see that she's not what she used to be - or that what she was is still inside her, somewhere.

Originally Posted by shirasagi View Post
But one thing I'd genuinely like to hear is what album you all would like to hear. Musically, conceptually, track by track. Because whatever she puts out is just not up to some standard everyone has in their heads, but I'll be damned if I ever heard a real argument about that. I'm interested in constructive criticism and I'm just seeing cheap shots instead. It's been sixteen years since KZK came out and we all had plenty of time to reconcile with the fact that it's not happening again. Kate Bush's The Dreaming and Hounds of Love were once in a lifetime thing too, and I don't see anyone dumping on her for never quite reaching the same level of genius again.
Don't even tell me about Kate Bush or anyone else. KZK was life-changing. In my world, there has never been an equal, and there never will be. It was not only a great album, it elevated the concept of what music even was. Now I am willing to accept that a lot of that feeling is based on my personal experience, or maybe lack thereof, and that the experience is unique to that album and can never be duplicated, even by Ringo. But to go from *that*...to *this*....it makes me fucking cry, is what it does.

I am not musically educated, and I am sure I lack the ability to give specific, constructive criticism, especially on a track-by-track basis. But IMO there is only one musical instrument that *every* musician plays, and that is the mind and emotions of the listener. And I want to be mentally and emotionally *transported* by music. Sure, that is subjective. But that is also what unites fan communities - ultimately we love Ringo because of what we feel when we listen to her.

I don't know really how to describe it, but I'll try to do so by way of analogy. What I want from Ringo, and music in general, is like a road trip through the Southwest. The hills, the valleys, the plains - the rocks and the sands and the forests - twisting, turning, climbing toward that majestic vista, which, when finally revealed, demands contemplation before descending into that golden expanse. And musically, that translates to the melody/structure being the topography, and the singer's voice being the vehicle. When I hear the closing track of Sandokushi, I get the buildup, but not the payoff. We climb that mountain only to find it is a desert plateau. When I hear Kakeochimono, we see the geological beauty on display...followed abruptly by a city. When I hear an auto-tuned song, like Nagaku Mijikai Matsuri, we are traversing that expanse with a Prius, instead of a Mustang. When I hear Isogabamaware, we are taking the freeway through the most level route, and those mountains and vistas are off in the distance, while we follow a safe, ordinary path.
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Old 2019.05.29, 05:13 AM   #119
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zeroryouko, I'll try and keep this short so excuse me, because you obviously took time for that.

Really what I have a problem with is exactly what you address in the very last paragraph. While I understand your disappointment, why should it matter what each of us "wants" from Ringo's music? Everyone is complaining about how Ringo sold out, but having no agency of one's own and just delivering what everyone else would like is much more disingenuous to me. KZK was life-changing, but how life-changing would it be if she stayed on that level, for argument's sake? Or in reverse, do you think she would succeed if she tried to do the same thing all over again? (not saying she wouldn't, just asking)

It's also funny you tell me not to speak about Kate Bush, because frankly that is the closest comparison I can make - not stylistically, but moreso in their artistry. Ringo in her heyday had a very similar approach to music, thinking outside the box and defying predefined categories, and making music that was incredibly bold and yet still completely accessible. They both made music which was pop and yet couldn't be further from pop music at the same time. Kate Bush has literally pushed the then-available technology to its limits, and Hounds of Love and The Dreaming are still two albums that sound like nothing else, even within her catalogue, and have aged incredibly well. She's the kind of artist who's had the kind of impact so great it becomes invisible.
In short, Kate Bush was pushing the musical envelope in the 80s much like Ringo has in the early 2000s, and it's a damn shame she wasn't heard all over the world. I'm sure we'll all agree on that.

If you never did, sacrifice twenty minutes of your life and listen to the back half of Hounds of Love ("The Ninth Wave"). Maybe it will be a life-changing experience, I know it was for me, and mind you that was AFTER I heard and fell in love with KZK

And speaking of, maybe Ringo should take a cue from her and just completely disappear for twelve years. I'm pretty sure there would be more gratitude for her even making music in the first place.
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Old 2019.05.29, 10:55 AM   #120
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Scary Terry helps Rick and morty - Rick and morty


Go to 19 second.
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