What is your Shiina Ringo/Tokyo Jihen fav album??

[Maou]

Originally Posted by deadgrandma

People weren't including the bsides (WH) album in their listings? I'd count it as an album- 2 discs of some of her best best work (*cough* Aozora *cough*) or do bsides collections not count? (Seems weird seeing as a covers album DOES count). It also almost makes ZCS kinda redundant, with the last 2 discs being present on WH

I had to quote this for truth. I... I think we can be friends again.

I rate the albums as such:

MM > SS = WtH > Kyouiku > KSK > SG > Adult > Dai Hakken > Sports >>>>>>>> Variety

[karateexplosion]

Originally Posted by deadgrandma

People weren't including the bsides (WH) album in their listings? I'd count it as an album- 2 discs of some of her best best work (*cough* Aozora *cough*) or do bsides collections not count? (Seems weird seeing as a covers album DOES count). It also almost makes ZCS kinda redundant, with the last 2 discs being present on WH

WtH isn't original content though, with the exception of the re-recording of Mellow. I also wouldn't consider a single collection to be applicable either, were she ever to release one, like every other artist/label looking for a quick buck (or yen, I guess) in Japan. I doubt she would though, which is a good thing. Unless it was chock full of entirely new arrangements/remixes. That would be most glorious. Like a studio recording of the JCHI arrangement of Honnou.

Wait, was Mellow re-recorded? Or am I just making that up because of the music video?

[deadgrandma]

Originally Posted by Maou

I had to quote this for truth. I... I think we can be friends again.

I rate the albums as such:

MM > SS = WtH > Kyouiku > KSK > SG > Adult > Dai Hakken > Sports >>>>>>>> Variety

You forgot UM But friends is a better idea, even if we're bound to disagree 90% of the time.

Also, about this thread- you CANT put Daihakken in here unless you reset the values and give everyone a chance to vote for it again... pfft. Not that it really stands a chance, but you never know. Also, people may have changed their minds too- Sports might actually get a vote :-p AND put WtH for chrissakes!

Wow, that reads bitchier than I actually meant it.

EDIT:

Also, yeah a greatest hits might be a cash in, but it's not like she doesn't deserve one (WITH A VINYL PRESSING ). WtH I don't think I'd count as a cash in- sure if you already had all the singles you might be a little peeved (even though WtH doesn't represent everything from the bsides) but for those that haven't bought every single it's actually a great money/time saver. Though now I'm just buying up the remaining singles I don't have anyway lol

[karateexplosion]

Originally Posted by deadgrandma

Also, yeah a greatest hits might be a cash in, but it's not like she doesn't deserve one (WITH A VINYL PRESSING ). WtH I don't think I'd count as a cash in- sure if you already had all the singles you might be a little peeved (even though WtH doesn't represent everything from the bsides) but for those that haven't bought every single it's actually a great money/time saver. Though now I'm just buying up the remaining singles I don't have anyway lol

I approve of this so hard.

I wasn't insinuating WtH was a cash-in (even though it kind of was), but it was still a perfectly good idea. The big issue I have with A-side compilations is that the songs are on previous albums anyway. Buy a few albums from an artist and bam! you have the entirety of their BEST-OF and more. To get everything on WtH, you'd have to buy about a dozen different releases, most of which are out-of-print. So I'm totally cool with it.

Oddly enough, Watashi to Houden is the only Ringo or Jihen release I don't even have a rip of. Redundancy and all.

[mr. Pillow]

KZK > HF > SS > MM > Kyoiku > WtH > Adult > SG > UM > ZCS > Sports > Daihakken > Variety.

green tier = very good (7.5-7)
blue tier = good (6.9-6)
orange tier = average (5.9-5.5)

So I gave all the albums a detailed rating starting from the last week.

- I feel sorry for ZCS, if it wasn't for the third disc (which got a 5.0) it would have placed before Adult.

- Sports got a slightly better rating than Daihakken, just as predicted.

- Watashi to Houden does host some of her best songs ever - but it wouldn't place before any solo studio album (I didn't even count the three bonus tracks).

- Heisei Fuuzoku and Shouso Strip both got a 7.1 (with HF having a 7.14 and Shouso Strip a 7.13), but they're so different, I would never think of comparing them...

- Individual songs from Variety got better ratings than some songs on, just to name two, Sports or Daihakken. But songs 8, 9 and 13 inevitably compromised the whole album rating. These three are the only songs by TJ that I firmly dislike.

Also, keep in mind that my ratings are only based on how much I like the songs, and are not influenced by how much the albums are "generic", "uninspired", and so on - I used very one-sided criteria to "judge".

To be more specific, some could say it is unfair to place HF before SS, because HF has recycled ideas (Baishou Ecstasy arrangements, anyone?), and generally feels more like a compilation with two or three new songs, while SS is a more solid and "honest" release (from this point of view). The point is, HF collects some of SR best songs ever - in a different guise, of course - and at least four of them come from KZK. KZK scored the highest rating out of every album she's released, so it shouldn't be surprising if I say I like KZK's compositional vein more than SS'. Add to the mix that I have a serious thing for nu-Shiina and there you go...

Lastly: as you may notice, I hardly dislike the albums - sure, it's impossibile to like everything (f.e., in Kyoiku I gave Bokoku Joucho a 5.2, which is average/mediocre - I just never listen to it), but I have no particular complaints for SR nor TJ discography. I'm ok with Phase 2 Jihen, even though I'm hardly enthusiastic about their current releases - at least, not as much you would have seen me here if I were around three or four years ago.

[karateexplosion]

^Your methods seem highly scientific. I'm curious as to how your rating system was applied to come up with those numbers.

[mr. Pillow]

^ Hehe, nothing exceptional 'bout it...I started giving approximate ratings to individual songs (I started with TJ discography, just like this: Kyoiku has Ringo no Uta - 7, Gunjou Biyori - 7, Jusui Negai - 7, and so on...), then I went on a full-immersion listen of the albums, one after another...just to apply slight changes to the individual ratings I had given before.

In the end, I simply came to apply arithmetic mean (I don't know if this is the right way to say this - sorry, I'm not a native speaker) to calculate album ratings. I used to do this with Bjork albums too, when I had some spare time. (ok, this is so not an excuse to cover that I'm a pro at wasting time haha).

[TurtleFu]

Wait, so is it like, 7 out of 10? Or is it x out of 7? (or x out of 8 now that I think about it)

Because if it's 7 out of 10, then that is really surprising because to most people that is merely "average" and most of us don't think of Shiina's work (especially her early work) as "average".

Anyways, the reason why I don't like WH is because it is not a cohesive piece of work, just a collection of really good songs that are not related. The change between the songs makes it too difficult to listen to at once. And yes, before you ask, I DO consider HF a cohesive piece of work.

[mr. Pillow]

^ Yes, it is 7 out of 10. I am very strict when it comes to ratings, this being not influenced by prejudices (like, "pop music doesn't deserve more than 7 out of 10", I would be very dumb to say that) or whatever, it's just that I would never say that something is amazing, if it doesn't strike me to the point of having a profound influence in my life. Sounds pretty extreme, but it happens.

For example, I would easily give Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians" a perfect score, because it actually changed my views and perspective on music, making me appreciate a wider spectrum of musical genres and paving my way to classical and contemporary classical music, the genre I enjoy the most out of all.

I have to agree about WtH not being cohesive at all. The transition from ZCS disc 2 to Mayonaka b-sides feels so awkward...

[W3iHong]

Watashi to houden and SPLOOGING WANKER-ESQUE TROLLS is probably all that you need for pre-SG solo Ringo.