[SR] 2009.06.24 - Sanmon Gossip (CD) [Album]

[chibijelly]

Originally Posted by frecklegirl

I finished the romaji for all the songs!

Thank you.

[HEDOfloe]

so i finally got the album a few minutes ago. i remember hearing about izawa, and uki, and hzm so i was looking through the credits for where these went and i noticed that apparently ringo and another producer gave themselves a team name. "kiraa" something is the group, and it says "(kanji) kiraa are shiina ringo and (some guy i can't read). anyone knows who this is?

also, i just thought it was interesting that a b-side would come out with the title on the album and not be on the album. hmmm.

edit.
great, they remove the live performances from youtube .

[merman]

^
It's "Bakeneko Killer" and they produced KZK under the same name. The other guy's name is Inoue Uni and he's Ringo's co-producer and engineer since the beginning, as far as I know (he's been involved with Jihen as well).

[Superficial Fan]

(I posted here before as Gringo Jihen, but I can't remember my password and had wanted to change my screen name anyway, plus "Superficial Fan" fits pretty well, at least comparing my level of obsession to many people posting here.)

Okay here's my "review" (not quite) for what it's worth:

It worries me a little that I don’t have much of an emotional response to this material, especially compared to much of what was on her first three solo albums. Maybe I just can’t relate to near unadulterated happiness? But it seems like she has intentionally moved to focus on surfaces in her more recent music. While I’m listening to the album, I find myself thinking about how well-made all the new tracks are, but it feels a little bit uninvolving emotionally.

I agree with those who ask “what happened to her brilliant melodicism”? It’s all a bit more Pizzicato Five than I would prefer. I have to admit I’m not even all that familiar with them, but I think of them as a stand-in for a certain strand of Japanese retro. The main point is that, from what I’ve heard, they tend to do songs where they establish a groove and stick to it and that’s that (which may be a reason it’s not entirely a fair comparison, since the songs on this album do tend to move through various stages). Anyway, I like rhythm too (salsa is probably my favorite genre) and appreciate the timbral adventurousness here, but one of the things that knocked me over initially was Shiina Ringo’s way with melody.

On the other hand, the sound of the new material is much better than the sound of Variety or HF. The heavily produced approach is perfectly welcome here. I’m very impressed with what she’s doing (with or without studio help) with her vocals on this album. Even when she reaches into those intentionally grating sounds that sometimes strain my tolerance, here I find they work. It’s like she goes just far out enough, without hurting my ears. Also, her English sounds much better here than it has in some recent cases, and the way she segues between Japanese and English on a few of these tracks is a model of naturally moving between two languages (but I can only comment on that as someone who only understands one of those languages).

When Kate Bush’s Aerial came out, someone (a critic, actually) over on ILM complained about it not having enough “pop moments,” those little inventive touches that keep things interesting. (I didn’t agree at all, and he later changed his mind, for the most part.) I would say this Sanmon Gossip album is also full of pop moments. That includes things like the studio sheen put on some of the vocals and also the intentionally abrupt transitions that occur between songs, the contrasts constantly thrown at the listener (which nevertheless do nothing to make the album less cohesive—if anything they somehow have the opposite effect).

At times the music reminds me of other things I haven’t especially liked, some of the retro movements from the 90s, but I do like the approach here.

Overall, I think the album is probably a B-.

01 Hayari – Amusing to hear SR’s name rapped. But somehow perfectly appropriate. Big drums. The rhythms actually work pretty well here. Great transitioning back and forth between Japanese and English (as throughout this album). One of the more Tokyo Jihen-like tracks on the album. (Not sure about this tongue-in-cheek, I hope, “woo woo” part. Or I am sure I wish it weren’t there. Fortunately, the vocal build-up right after that quickly moves things along.)

02 Roudousha – Early 70s Jackson Five, Stevie Wonder. . . That synth. especially takes me back to Stevie Wonder. Her quirky singing-with-quaking-laugh somehow works for me totally here. (She sounds like she’s having a blast too.)

03 Mittei Monogatari – Jumpy transition. Flute is a nice touch. Vibes (that’s something kind of new for SR, at least for such an extended passage). (How many pop singers can pull together such professional accompaniment these days? Or how many choose to?)

04 Chiten Kara – The most “HF”-like track so far. The timbres kind of remind me of “Oiran.” Sweet harmonies. Great studio stuff going on here.

05 Karisome Otome – At first I was thinking this was not so bad in this spot as a palate cleaner, but I’m already getting tired of hearing it. How many times am I going to have to hear that stupid “One time,” etc.?

06 Tsugou no Ii Karada – Candy sound. Show tune. (Just write and perform your musical already!) Her voice somehow adequately restrained even when she goes off.

07 Shun – This is not so bad as a break. Take a breath. To my surprise I have no desire to skip this, even though I was very put off by it when I listened to it separately before the album was out.

08 Futaribocchi Jikan – Neko swing. (I assume this is one of the ones he’s behind.) Her retro sex kitten “Boom!” at 0:56 cracks me up. I don’t love the tap dancing, but I can handle it. This is one of those tracks where I marvel at how well done everything is, without being all that emotionally engaged by it. At least it makes me tap my foot.

09 Mayakashi Yasaotoko – Great beginning (what does this remind of though?). I love the (heavily modified) vocals at 1:45.

10 Togatta Teguchi – More HF-ish sound, but I like it.

11 Irokoizata – Another funny transition—step back in time with big sweeping strings.

12 Bonsai Hada – Sorry, I could have done without this one. I’m not a big fan of the bandoneon. Maybe this will grow on me with repeated listens.

13 Yokyou – I could have done without this one as well. Too much of a mood breaker. The “wooo” doesn’t seem effective or amusing, just embarrassing. Nice guitar effects though. Uki?

14 Maru no Uchi Sadistic (EXPO ver.) – This is a fun cover. Don’t quite see why an R&B take should surprise anyone. It already was pretty R&B in the original.

Note: I'm changing "tumbrel" to "timbral," which is what I originally had until I changed it after running a quick spell-check. I misread "tumbrel" as "timbrel" which seemed wrong, but I thought, okay, whatever. Safer to use a search engine as spell check, it seems.

[Migoto]

I don't feel like writting a full review, but I liked the album a lot. I wish she does put a tour/DVD for this album.
I also hope she doesn't disband TJ.

[Scribble R]

And another great review, this time by SuperficialFan. Interesting read (Especially the bit about melody). I agree that the album isn't emotionally involving, which is what I feel is missing. I'm not a particularly deep or sentimental person, but still.

[Maou]

I feel this is a decent album, but that all the pre-release comments and the packaging are false advertising. This is no return of the classic Ringo. The album lacks strong melodies and the catchy choruses that made the first three albums what they were. The songs are still mostly good (Hayari and Yokyou are my favorites), but they could have been even better. Not too impressed with the middle of the album.

I'm disappointed with the lack of rock on the album because of the booklet. Gibson SGs are meant for rock music. You better rock some tracks if you're going to name your album after it and include a picture of yourself masturbating with one in the booklet.

[golem09]

Originally Posted by Migoto

I don't feel like writting a full review, but I liked the album a lot. I wish she does put a tour/DVD for this album.
I also hope she doesn't disband TJ.

Hearing this album in comparison I do wish she would disband TJ.

I like this album more than any of the TJ albums (not speaking about single songs).

Track 1 is still my Favourite, but I didn't even listen to that one more than 3 times.
The bigger Problem is, that I haven't been in the mood for the Shiina Sound for a long time, probably because I discovered so much other music in the meantime.
And if I ever get into the mood for her again, I think I'd rather listen to her first three again.

That said, I liked the new version of my all-time favourite Marunouchi. Her vocals and the overall rythm were great, I just didn't like the overblown backgroundvocals. Reminded me more of some boyband than Shiina.

[Osiris12345]

Originally Posted by Maou

I feel this is a decent album, but that all the pre-release comments and the packaging are false advertising. This is no return of the classic Ringo. The album lacks strong melodies and the catchy choruses that made the first three albums what they were. The songs are still mostly good (Hayari and Yokyou are my favorites), but they could have been even better. Not too impressed with the middle of the album.

I'm disappointed with the lack of rock on the album because of the booklet. Gibson SGs are meant for rock music. You better rock some tracks if you're going to name your album after it and include a picture of yourself masturbating with one in the booklet.

Maou, you're back!

While I disagree with you about the album not having strong melodies or catchy hooks, I definitely agree that it makes next to no sense that she has a Gibson SG in the promotional images. Barely any of the tracks even feature guitar and I can see someone who expects a solid rock album being pretty bummed. I still thought SG was head and shoulders above anything off Variety and HF though.

[Tokyo Jihad]

Originally Posted by Maou

I feel this is a decent album, but that all the pre-release comments and the packaging are false advertising. This is no return of the classic Ringo. The album lacks strong melodies and the catchy choruses that made the first three albums what they were. The songs are still mostly good (Hayari and Yokyou are my favorites), but they could have been even better. Not too impressed with the middle of the album.

I'm disappointed with the lack of rock on the album because of the booklet. Gibson SGs are meant for rock music. You better rock some tracks if you're going to name your album after it and include a picture of yourself masturbating with one in the booklet.

Yeah! Maou and my opinions are aligned again! Snap back together like Voltron, brutha.

The middle of the album I do feel is a bit of a problem (5-9 or even 5-11 inclusive.) On my first listens it all seemed to be a bit of a wash. While I do think the album works on a whole, I don't think there are any songs that stand up completely on their own. I don't think any of the album tracks are worthy to appear on the inevitable "Best of" CD. I'm not sure any of the melodies we hear are particularly catchy. No "koko de" "Meisai" or even a more fitting but still catchy "Okonomide." I think that might be what Scribble R meant by "anchoring" this album. A song that iconifies the album (or at least sells it.)
With that said I'll say Roudoushaa and Ii Karada have been in my head since yesterday.

I don't want to rain on the parade, cuz we should be celebrating that she can still put out a good record in SG after years of middling productions with her shitty band and HF, but it's important to remember that while it is what it is -- its not a great all time record like the other three. Unless the forum decides to start overrating it like Adult was for a time, I chose to focus on what it am than what it ain't.