Artist: Tokyo Jihen (aka Tokyo Incidents)
Title: Variety
Label: Virgin Records
Release Date: Sept. 26, 2007
Music Videos: OSCA (see jump) | Killer Tune (see jump)

OK, so I am in the land of the rising sun, and along with sweltering heat and humidity in the late summer days, I am also in the land of where Shiina Ringo lives and performs.  Shiina Ringo, if you don’t know, is probably my favorite singer of all time.  I have all of her albums.  I have her biographical manga.   So when she created Tokyo Jihen, or the Tokyo Incidents, I was super excited to see where she would take this band.

I had a chance to see the Incidents live, but not even 12 hours after tickets went on sale the concert was all sold out!  Color me fucking disappointed.  Heart broken, I head off to the CD/book/game shop Tsutaya and picked up their latest album, Variety, which came out last week.  This is the second album the Ringster has released this year, the first being a solo collaboration with Saito Neko on the music for Sakuran, starring Anna Tsuchiya of Nana fame (I keep tabs on this shit like you wouldn’t believe).  Anyway, Variety is an interesting mix of hip and catchy tunes mixed with mellow tunes, along with the surprising introduction of male vocals.

Compared to their two earlier albums, Kyouiku and Adult, Tokyo Jihen decided to go the cool, mellow route with Variety.  Taking a strain from the “cool cat” feel of her collab with Saito Neko, the album is reminiscent of rained on asphalt and lit up buildings on dark city nights.  It is obvious that the band is just having fun with their music–the energy in the music is kept light and is pulled together by the vocals provided by Shiina.

For the first time, male vocals have also made a complementary appearance on a Shiina Ringo project.  Even her double-CD cover album, Utaite Myouri, featured duets with a guest female vocalist and Shiina taking the role of the male vocalist.  Rather than detracting from the song, the male vocalists definitely make it so that Shiina herself shines.

In fact, the vocals themselves feel as just another instrument to accompany the arrangement as they vary from song to song.  Sometimes the vocals are fuzzy, sometimes crude, sometimes multiplied to give a chorus-like effect.  This is a nice change from the Adult album, where Shiina’s vocals seemed to be competing with the music for attention.

It might just be because I am a fangirl, but I definitely enjoy each and every track on the album.  (Although I am also a fangirl of Bjork, and you all saw what happened there with her Volta release.)  The opening and ending tracks in Variety, Lamp and Metro, start and finish the album with upbeat melodies that bring the album full circle.  If you were to listen to my favorite track of the CD, entitled OSCA, you can easily get an idea of how simultaneously fun and meticulously arranged the album is, with each of the band members pulling their own weight in the music.  The piano, which is skillfully/crazily played by Izawa Ichiyou, is definitely embraced in the album and his handiwork can be seen in both music videos below.

OSCA

Killer Tune

With it’s crazy hep-beat-jazz-rock-poppy sound, I am seriously getting addicted to this album.  Like whoa.

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