Shiina Ringo Appreciation Post
time to scream like a cat
My favorite Japanese singer is by Shiina Ringo, whom I’ve discussed on here before. She is an absolute genius and musical prodigy, writing and performing some of the best Japanese punk in the late ‘90s when she was just nineteen years old, and then going on to experiment with her musical style, mixing her diverse pop, rock, jazz, and traditional inspirations. As a quarantine gift to me specifically, both her YouTube channel and the channel for her band Tokyo Jihen have been suddenly filled with footage from numerous tours over the years, and I am THRIVING. Here are my favorites uploaded so far*.
(*This is important because so far nothing has been officially uploaded from her 2008 10th Anniversary tour, Ringo Expo ‘08, which has some of my all-time favorite renditions of her biggest hits, including a really beautiful and moody version of “Tsumi to Batsu” set to an entire orchestral accompaniment. Her hair falls over her eyes, she holds the microphone loosely, and then she just sort of wanders off stage when she’s done singing, it’s great.)
“Ikiru” is one of my favorite songs to see performed live. The album recording has a human voice drone as its instrumentation for most of it, but when she does it live, she often chooses something less distraction so that nothing pulls away from her vocal performance. A lot of people have a hard time getting past her very nasally, wailing style, but it’s here that you can see exactly how much control and power she has.
I always forget about “Kenka Joutou” because it’s stylistically very different from her more recent work, and it’s not often performed live, so I was delighted to see it here! The whole thing shifts gears like three times, complete with a heavy guitar solo in the middle, and has a repeating kabuki-style call-and-response throughout it. (The studio recording has a “sample” of something that feels very samurai movie-y, while the English lyrics are about a more domestic sort of fight. (The English title she gave it is “Active Fighting” but it literally means “bring on the fight.”)
“Onna no Ko wa Dare Demo” is one of my favorite karaoke songs because it’s so jazzy and upbeat, and it’s a fun song for tours because it’s so different from her more intense go-tos.
“Blackout” is not one of my favorite Tokyo Jihen songs, but I’ve come to appreciate it because it’s one of the few songs that’s in a lower register. Shiina Ringo has a wide range but she’s an alto, so it’s nice to hear her belt out in a more comfortable register, where her voice is fuller and smoother.
Okay, so it’s “Ikiru” again, but I love this version too much not to include it. Whereas the one before just has a piano accompanying it, so you can really think about Shiina’s big voice, this one has an orchestra, and it’s so cinematic and BIG.
Shiina Ringo did the music for Japan’s segment during the Rio Olympics closing ceremonies — the first video that they showed was set to her song “Chichinpuipui” and featured the lesbian dancing couple AyaBambi, who were her backup dancers for a while. The Olympics have been postponed until next year, but I’ve been looking forward to seeing what they put together for the opening and closing ceremonies, especially if Shiina continues on the team. Regardless, her song “Jinsei wa Yume Darake” (human life is riddled with dreams) was written for a Japan Post life insurance campaign a few years ago, and even when it’s sung by Shiina herself, it’s very stylish and commercial. I guess you could say that that’s her selling out, but if this is the aesthetic she’s putting out into the mainstream world, then I can’t complain.
This last one was not official but I had to include it because 1. her collaboration with Soil & “Pimp” Sessions is a banger, and 2. she was a then-37-year-old woman dressed like a boy detective with a gun.