Ringo News 2015

[hedgehog]

Originally Posted by Ultra Blue

Her vocals on tsumi to batsu were a bit horrendous there :/

Really? I thought she sounded pretty great. I was pretty put off by the slow Kabuki no Joou. Shiina is a great performer but those other musicians are just going through the motions. They have the same enthusiasm as people waiting in line at the DMV. Also kudos to Shiina for getting Johnny Depp to play the accordion

[tsukigimehime]

Originally Posted by hedgehog

Really? I thought she sounded pretty great. I was pretty put off by the slow Kabuki no Joou. Shiina is a great performer but those other musicians are just going through the motions. They have the same enthusiasm as people waiting in line at the DMV. Also kudos to Shiina for getting Johnny Depp to play the accordion

Wow, thanks for giving me clarity into who Satou reminds me of! I kept thinking "squarer Uki...?" but he definitely looks very Johnny Depp.

The arrangements for songs in the RIJ Fes videos are more or less the ones she used in Taiwan, if I'm recalling correctly. Something about that verison of Kamisama, Hotokesama with Mukai actually there overloaded my brain. So cool...

[zeroryouko]

I wouldn't say it was the definitive performance, but I thought Tsumi to Batsu sounded great. Nothing about her vocals sounded to me to be wrong, though she is definitely pushing the boundaries by inflecting quite a bit, as is her fashion. It certainly didn't sound like her voice was doing anything that was unintentional.

[deadgrandma]

Yeah I didn't really find much wrong with her voice, though I don't think I was really focusing too hard on the vocal aspect either (that's not the problem I'm having, Hedgehog pretty much nails what the main concern is :-p). I'll have to revisit it now.

[K__]

It's definitely not her best performance of TTB. She's not 21 any more though so it's to be expected. Kamisama is the only highlight IMO, and that's at least 50% because Mukai Shutoku brought his own chair.

[zeroryouko]

IMO the gold standard is Electric Mole. But at risk of being controversial, I'll say that in some ways I actually like her performance here better than the much-touted Expo 08 version, which seemed a bit thin and for me marked the turning point in her vocal career. Her voice seems richer here, and the performance seems more casual and thus more engaging on a personal level. I'd love to see her take the inflected vocals even further, maybe into the territory of full-on scat.

[FadedSun]

Originally Posted by Ultra Blue

Her vocals on tsumi to batsu were a bit horrendous there :/

Did we watch the same concert? She did a pretty damn good job there. I know it's her song, but it's hard to sing.

Noticing your username, I'm assuming you're an Utada fan? There's a video floating around of Utada doing a short, impromptu cover of the beginning of Tsumi to Batsu during one of her concerts and she could barely hit the notes. I know Utada isn't a strong singer in general, but it opened my eyes to how difficult it probably is to sing that song.

[zeroryouko]

Originally Posted by FadedSun

There's a video floating around of Utada doing a short, impromptu cover of the beginning of Tsumi to Batsu during one of her concerts and she could barely hit the notes. I know Utada isn't a strong singer in general, but it opened my eyes to how difficult it probably is to sing that song.

IIRC Utada was talking to the audience and offered to do an impression of someone who the audience suggested. The first suggestion was "your mom." (I'm inexplicably pleased to know they have this in Japan too.) The second suggestion was Ringo. Unfortunately, her impression of Ringo mostly consisted of "let's see how nasal I can make my voice."

ETA: Here's the video in question:

Utada Does Ringo

[deadgrandma]

The "your mom" thing is a legit request though...

Oh god don't post this video haha

It's nightmare fuel, but it is good for trolling people.

[FadedSun]

Originally Posted by deadgrandma

The "your mom" thing is a legit request though...

Was a legit request. It might be a bit callous to make a request like that to her now.