Recently I’ve been listening
Tokyo Jihen’s new album
Adult a lot. Rather late I know as it was released quite a while ago now, but after their last offering,
Kyoiku, I was very hesitant to say the least. There was a time, mainly the whole of 2005 and the latter half of 2004 when I was utterly obsessed with the now lead singer of this band,
Shiina Ringo. I considered her the perfect women; hot as hell, quirky, able to rock out on a guitar and most importantly the writer of the most fantastic music ever created! But do I still now, I wonder? So why did I wait so long before picking up the latest CD of my all time favourite artist?
Well like I said, I’ve been listening to her new album
Adult a lot recently, but I feel like I’ve been forcing myself to do so, not like summer 04 when I received all 3 of her solo albums through the post in one go and, although neglected
KSK, would listen to
Muzai Moratorium and
Shouso Strip until I couldn’t physically listen to them anymore and still not have my thirst for those songs satisfied.
I almost thought for a second that
Adult was a return to form. Tokyo Jihen are now a much stronger unit then before, especially with the two new members; the guitarist no longer bursts in with a massively out of place distorted guitar sound, but melts perfectly into the mix, and I love the key player simply for his use of a piano all the time rather then synth. But still something’s missing from it, something I think her music lost on her third solo album
KSK. Now I don’t care if I outrage many hardcore Shiina Ringo fans, most whom consider
KSK a fulfilling of potential that she always had but never quite used to its fullest, but to me when her music progressed into this it lost the thing which made her earlier stuff so special. Without wanting to sound too much like BlueCat from
‘All about Lily Chou-Chou’, I think she lost her ether here, which had been so evident in her first two albums.
But for a moment or two I did think that
Adult was a return to this ether, but it turns out I’ve neglected her music so much recently
that I had forgotten what her old stuff inspires within me, and how good it makes me feel. And was only reminded recently when I watched a performance by her from 1999 on YouTube.com. Although only 4 tracks long this show reawakened in my all the feelings in me I have always felt for her music, well her early music. To me it just has so much soul to it, the music seems so honest and real, and although many argue much more simplistic then her later stuff composition wise, to me it contains the essence of what constitutes life firmly embedded in its roots.
Maybe her later material is more polished, musically complex and original in sound, but it is no longer the music you simply fall in love with when you hear it for the first time. I never really have the desire to listen to
KSK, but still love to hear her demo recordings, despite the ever so low production. I think the fact that her music has become so ‘stylised’ I no longer feel as if she’s telling me something about herself, but more like she’s trying to project some feelings of something else. The music excellently pulls of sounding nostalgic but fresh at the same time, though I feel it has now sacrificed the quirkiness that I always associated as Shiina’s character coming through the music, when I listen to Tokyo Jihen I no longer feel as if I know her.
For me when I think of Shiina Ringo I will still always think of her as more then perfect. But when I see the lead singer of Tokyo Jihen I do not also see Shiina Ringo standing there. Maybe that’s what she always wanted? She always said that to be part of a band had been her goal throughout her solo career, but now for me that Shiina has been lost forever… though I still have the fondest memories to hold onto.
Sam
P.S If you’re a Shiina Ringo fan, please leave your comments, there has been little discussion to find on her on the web as of late, and I’d love to hear what others have to say on her musical career so far.
