#3 Nihon no Ringo

Feature: Shiina Ringo



















If there's one musician who I will never get enough of, it's Shiina Ringo. It's a shame that she has such a small following in the US, and most of it is among fans of typical J-pop. It's rare to find an artist who can successfully reinvent themselves every album, and even harder to find one who can morph between songs like a chameleon. Aside from providing both, she creates song arrangements that are endlessly beautiful if not brilliant as well. Never have I heard violins sound so right with an electronic beat, only to be drowned out by an organ. In the course of an album there is usually an underlying jazz or radio pop, often blended with anything from funk to techno, to metal to avant garde pop or math rock, Shiina Ringo is a master of all genres and sounds. While most Japanese pop stars only sing songs written for them, Ringo has always been the driving force in songwriting when not fully responsible.
Though her sound is much different (usually) Shiina Ringo's fame in Japan can be compared to that of Bjorks in America. While she is known among her fans for her true genius and raw emotion, to the rest of the public she is just a kind of spectacle that people know but may disregard as a little strange. Where Bjork has the swan dress, Shiina has the nurse outfit that turned so many heads in Japan. The uniform was used in the video for Honnou (Instinct) where Shiina seduces a female patient while singing about "pushing deeper" and "(emotional) climax". While she has turned heads in Japan with vocals occasionally harsher than Alanis Morrisette and sexier lyrics than Madonna, she offers much more substance than either American counterpart. Though almost always in Japanese, making her music difficult to market in the US, lyric translations prove to a Western crowd that Shiina is a creative and witty and often tragic poet with real meaning behind her words. From one of the KZK's more popular (and radio friendly) songs Yattsuke Shigoto (A Half-Assed Job) Shiina sings behind the contrast of an ironic cartoony pop song in the first verse "Nothing can hold my interest/Not much upsets me/What day was today anyway?/It's not really an issue. ...Ah I just wanna be hurt." Only to contradict it in the next verse that ends "Ah I just wanna be a machine". The song ends with Ringo repeating "Tell me what it means to love, I can't remember"

Muzai Moratorium
This album was a breakthrough pop album, nothing earth shattering, but full of the solid songwriting talent that's become a trademark of Ringo. It's a feel good album with some great tunes, but nothing nearly as deep or beautiful as her later work. The album sold millions in Japan and is probably the best for a fan of typical J-pop or J-Rock.

Marunouchi Sadistic
Mayonaka wa Junketsu (b-side)

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Shouso Strip
This is where Shiina first started getting experimental with her sound. While Yokushitsu provides techno beats, a killer bass line, and dreamy vocals (see download), Identity rocks pretty hard. There are jumps between radio friendly and pleasant noise often within the same song. The album doesn't flow like KZK but makes up for it in substance and variety. The songs are still very much pop, but anything but typical. Shiina's vocals may be hard to swallow at first but what at first may pierce the senses later pierces the soul.

Yokushitsu

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Karuki Zaamen Kuri no Hana
The peak of Shiina's career, Karuki Zaamen Kuri no Hana (which translates to Chalk, Semen, Chestnut Flower) is an ultimate masterpiece that defies genre in ways you have to hear to understand. This could be the closest thing that the world will ever see to the "next Beatles" that so many people have been looking for as far as innovation, reinvention, and brilliant songwriting go. I make no exaggeration when I say that this may be one of the greatest pop album as well as the most underrated album of all time. The two aspects where Shiina outdoes almost anyone is in her beautiful emotion-filled vocal melodies and the combination of catchy and intelligent in songwriting. With much more introspective lyrics and music, the album flows perfectly, each song having a symmetrical counterpart (1 and 11 relate, 2 and 10 etc.), centered around the hauntingly bitter-sweet Kuki. Over 30 instruments were used for this album, and not once does it seem forced. While listening to Odaijini (Take care of yourself), it's easy to form a mental image of Ringo singing her heart out to no one, while the TV gently goes about it's business until she can't sing anymore. Every song on this album is great, but the closing song, Souretsu (Funeral Procession), has yet to fail at giving me goose bumps. Saying more about this album is pointless. Hear it, it's worth it.

Mesai
Odaijini
Ringo No Uta (b-side/single)

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Other Ringo

After KZK Ringo ended her solo career with the Ringo No Uta single (I consider it an EP) which features a title track (see above for link), as well as Ringo Catalogue, which is a combination of pieces from almost every single Shiina Ringo song, creating a completely new sounding song (listen to this track once you've experienced everything else). Shiina Ringo also has a GREAT collection of B-sides, a cover album, and much different versions of a few songs. She is currently fronting the jazz-rock band Tokyo Jihen. Their second album, Otona (Adult), was released January.

Shiina Ringo's (unofficial) Myspace
Shiina Ringo Fansite
Lyric Translations
Tokyo Jihen's Official Site

"I wanted to start taking [piano] lessons even earlier than that, but my mother decided that four was plenty early enough"