Suilen Posted March 7 Posted March 7 (edited) Sheena (Shéna, Shiina, or good old Nina) Ringo is undoubtedly one of the most important musicians of Japan. Renowned for her antiquated lyrics with hidden meanings, intentionally rude pronunciation of the 'r' sound, and skillful instrument work, Sheena is well-regarded in her own country and outside it, evident by the acclaim her music found on such websites as Rate Your Music. Despite her first two albums, Muzai Moratorium and Shouso Strip, being among the best-selling ones in Japan, Sheena did not necessarily want to be viewed as a pop star, and Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana, her third album, was made with the intent to alienate some of her audience, although both the lead single Stem and the album were big successes and became fan favorites. Fame followed Sheena even after she had started her band, Tokyo Jihen, and after her comeback as a solo artist with Salmon Gossip. Certain people, namely her former fans who are now infatuated with such fruit of Sheena's impact as Seiko Oomori, love claiming that Sheena has been on a constant decline since then, and while Sheena's approach to music has definitely changed, that does not mean that she is no longer capable of greatness. 25 years after the release of her debut album, Sheena's career is in a respectable place, where she still manages to go top 10 with her singles and has people lining up to ask her to write for them, and now we are going to celebrate her magnificent career by having a look at her extensive collection of singles that tells us a lot about her as an artist and reflects certain creative peaks and slumps she has experienced. 1. Rate each song from the list on the scale from 1 to 10. Using decimals is allowed. 2. You may give one song you particularly like a score of 11 and one song you dislike immensely a score of 0. 3. Send your scores to me using the PM-friendly list below. 4. Since it is a singles rate, I encourage you to rate the single versions of the songs as provided in the playlist below. With Sheena, it is almost paramount as her singles tend to have different arrangements from the album versions, and sometimes we may be looking at 2 different songs (an exaggeration, but still). If you are having a dilemma when you absolutely adore a song's album version, but the single version is not to your liking, yet you wish to see it succeed, then I cannot stop you from rating your preferred version, although it would be nice if you specified which version you are rating in the comment. That might give us a better picture of what we are doing. 5. As mentioned above, you are free to leave comments next to your scores, and they will be reflected in the song entries during the reveals. 6. The deadline for the rate is March 31. The section is for the people who haven't been paying attention to my pleas to negotiate the singles list and might have issues with the selected songs. I'm putting it under the spoiler: Spoiler The most difficult part while putting the rate together was selecting the songs, and allow me to explain why. Those who are familiar with how j-pop works know that the canonical singles are the physical ones, which means that Sheena has only 19 'proper' singles if we count the two double ones. But times change, and following the old system does not seem wise as Sheena has plenty of promo and digital singles as well, and focusing only on the physical ones would give us one single for both the esteemed Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana and the comeback album Salmon Gossip. Yet, if we included every promo and digital single, that would put us at about 60 songs, which might scare off some people, and we would have almost the entire Sunny and Sandokushi represented at the expense of other albums. Thus, together with Sheena's biggest fan, we culled some less significant singles that either were not important enough to deserve a video or were covers of other artists (her self-covers are present). We also included both of Stem's b-sides due to them later appearing in Heisei Fuuzoku and technically serving as its promo singles, although it also allowed us to expand KSK's representation. Our approach was not perfect, and I imagine that some could be disappointed that a song they adore is not there, but I did ask people for their input and was open to potential amendments. I believe that the singles we ended up with do a good job of telling us who Sheena is as an artist, and we have samples of just about everything: her studio albums, self-cover albums, and collaboration works. If you have questions regarding a song's inclusion or absence here, I'll try to justify it to the best of my abilities. Apple Music PM-Friendly List Spoiler 幸福論 / Koufukuron 歌舞伎町の女王 / Kabuki-cho no Joou ここでキスして。/ ここでキスして。 本能 / Honnou ギブス / Gips 罪と罰 / Tsumi to Batsu / 虚言症 / Kyogenshou やっつけ仕事 - Live / Yattsuke Shigoto -Rush Job- (Live) メロウ / Mellow 真夜中は純潔 / Mayonaka wa Junketsu 茎 / Stem 迷彩 / Meisai 意識 / Ishiki 映日紅の花 / Ichijiku no Hana りんごのうた / Ringo no Uta カリソメ乙女 (DEATH JAZZ ver.) / Karisome Otome (Death Jazz Version) この世の限り / Kono Yo no Kagiri すべりだい / Slide 旬 / Shun -Season- 流行 / Ryuukou - Vogue ありあまる富 / Ariamaru Tomi カーネーション / Carnation Between Today and Tomorrow 熱愛発覚中 / J'ai trouvé l'amour It Was You 自由へ道連れ / Jiyuu e Michizure いろはにほへと / Irohanihoheto 孤独のあかつき / La Solitude de l'aube 青春の瞬き / Le moment ありきたりな女 / Arikitarino Onna NIPPON 至上の人生 / A Life Supreme 最果てが見たい / Saihate ga Mitai 長く短い祭 / No verão, as noites 神様、仏様 / God, nor Buddha おいしい季節 / The Creamy Season おとなの掟 / The Adult Code 鶏と蛇と豚 / Gate of Living 公然の秘密 / Open Secret 浪漫と算盤 TYO ver. / The Sun & Moon in Tokyo いとをかし / too good W●RK 2◯45 私は猫の目 / Je Suis Libre Edited April 14 by Suilen 2 5
Suilen Posted March 7 Author Posted March 7 (edited) Participants mathekr Curaga gingguu AMIT Ewan Chaos Meloetta Carey Maresia Subomie Antisocialites madonnas fauxtography Suilen Kyle-x confide in me Invisibility Results Spoiler 44. Kono Yo no Kagiri - 4,14 43. NIPPON - 5,66 42. Saihate ga Mitai - 5,85 41. It Was You - 5,86 40. too good - 5,89 39. Between Tomorrow and Today - 5,9 38. A Life Supreme - 6,53 37. The Adult Code - 6,56 36. Yattsuke Shigoto -Rush Job- (Live) - 6,63 35. Karisome Otome (Death Jazz Version) - 6,9 34. Jiyuu e Michizure - 6,91 33. Arikitarino Onna - 6,92 32. Carnation - 6,93 31. Mellow - 7 30. The Creamy Season - 7,07 29. Ichijiku no Hana - 7,14 28. 2◯45 - 7,17 27. Le moment - 7,18 26. God, nor Buddha - 7,2 25. Open Secret - 7,27 24. Je Suis Libre - 7,29 23. The Sun & Moon in Tokyo - 7,3 22. Koko de Kiss Shite - 7,38 21. Ringo no Uta - 7,53 20. W●RK - 7,57 19. No verão, as noites - 7,58 18. Ariamaru Tomi - 7,61 17. Slide - 7,66 16. Koufukuron - 7,79 15. Irohanihoheto - 7,81 14. Kabuki-cho no Joou - 7,88 13. La Solitude de l'aube - 7,9 12. Kyogenshou - 7,95 11. Gate of Living - 7,97 10. Shun -Season- - 8,08 9. Tsumi to Batsu - 8,1 8. Mayonaka wa Junketsu - 8,3 7. Ryuukou - Vogue - 8,46 6. J'ai trouvé l'amour - 8,63 5. Ishiki - 8,7 4. Meisai - 8,76 3. Gips - 9,03 2. Stem - 9,13 1. Honnou - 9,56 Edited April 15 by Suilen
Curaga Posted March 7 Posted March 7 omg it’s happening Thank you for being willing to host! I have listened to all of her studio albums at least once, but there’re several tracks here I’ve never heard before, so this will be fun! 2
Maresia Posted March 7 Posted March 7 is this the woman that copied seiko oomori's mahou ga tsukaenai nara shinitai album cover? 1 1
Pendulum Posted March 7 Posted March 7 I came here to say that Tsumiki Asobi is the best song of all time but I did not see on the list 1 1
Suilen Posted March 7 Author Posted March 7 Nice to see that there's some interest in this. I promise a fun rate if everything goes well. 2 hours ago, Maresia said: is this the woman that copied seiko oomori's mahou ga tsukaenai nara shinitai album cover? Good lord 1 hour ago, Pendulum said: I came here to say that Tsumiki Asobi is the best song of all time but I did not see on the list That is of course a TUNE but unfortunately not a single, though we love an artist who didn't even release some of her best songs as singles. 1
Curaga Posted March 7 Posted March 7 (edited) 5 hours ago, Suilen said: we love an artist who didn't even release some of her best songs as singles. Seriously, I was totally prepared to give Maruichi no Sadistic my 11 and I’m gagged that it was never a single Edit: *Marunouchi Sadistic, fake fan here ahsjfkdjhay Edited March 7 by Curaga 1
Suilen Posted March 7 Author Posted March 7 40 minutes ago, Curaga said: Seriously, I was totally prepared to give Maruichi no Sadistic my 11 and I’m gagged that it was never a single Yes, I imagine that Maruichi not being here is upsetting since it's her most-known and signature song, but the only faint claim it has to this rate is being Kabuki-cho no Joou's b-side, which is a different affair from the song people love, so let it just be what it is, a non-single that managed to achieve so much. 1
Suilen Posted March 8 Author Posted March 8 12 hours ago, madonnas said: I’m here to tank Gips! I'm afraid that other people might have the same intention, but we'll see. Curious about where the Nakata song will rank.
Ewan Chaos Posted March 8 Posted March 8 I know very few Sheena songs (her one album I listened to in full recently was a serve) so I'm in! 3
Invisibility Posted March 9 Posted March 9 Omg finally a Sheena rate The way the Shouso Strip singles are straight up all 10s... Will be participating. Reminder that Gips tankers have bad acne and are prone to developing gout × 3 1 1
AMIT Posted March 9 Posted March 9 On 3/7/2024 at 5:53 AM, Maresia said: is this the woman that copied seiko oomori's mahou ga tsukaenai nara shinitai album cover? I'm hoping this blatant trolling won't translate to your actual scores anyways the amount of CLASSICS especially in the top half, whew. Miss Gips will be getting her flowers and some are ready to seethe I see! 3
confide in me Posted March 9 Posted March 9 I'm gonna do this I'm not super familiar with her music so this is gonna be interesting for sure 2
Suilen Posted March 9 Author Posted March 9 3 hours ago, AMIT said: I'm hoping this blatant trolling won't translate to your actual scores anyways the amount of CLASSICS especially in the top half, whew. Miss Gips will be getting her flowers and some are ready to seethe I see! I see the biggest fan has finally graced us with his presence 1 1
Graves Posted March 10 Posted March 10 A crying shame that only the live version of Yattsuke Shigoto got a single release 1
mathekr Posted March 10 Posted March 10 About time that mother got a rate I'll definitely participate. This is a pretty solid selection of her sings. 2
Suilen Posted March 10 Author Posted March 10 48 minutes ago, Subomie said: A crying shame that only the live version of Yattsuke Shigoto got a single release I guess the people telling me that the queen can make her live recordings sound the same as the studio ones and sometimes even better were a bit biased. Though she definitely has her moments, maybe that just isn't one of them.
Invisibility Posted March 10 Posted March 10 Already wondering if this is gonna be my most questionable 10: 1
Suilen Posted March 10 Author Posted March 10 17 minutes ago, Invisibility said: Already wondering if this is gonna be my most questionable 10: I fear that she snapped a bit but then all the budget meant for the album went to the video 1
Suilen Posted March 11 Author Posted March 11 (edited) Some original versions of the self-covers if you're interested in seeing for yourself whether Sheena improved upon them etc. Unfortunately, the original of 最果てが見たい isn't on Spotify, which is a shame, because that album is arguably the best thing Sheena contributed to outside of her music, and it's ******* enka. Edited March 11 by Suilen 1 1
AMIT Posted March 11 Posted March 11 (edited) lemme do some promo for this underrated song + video - やっつけ仕事 (Yatsuke Shigoto) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpGR9nfZuq0&list=PLTU-3YXe7OjlURv0RmIOdasre65ZMHdLi&index=5 (youtube not allowing the embedding of it for reasons) I know it's a live recording which might put some people off and the video quality is obviously not good. I do wish we got an actual studio recording of this arrangement, but it still goes off live and deserves its flowers! I just love the grittier rock sound of this version which fits more with Shouso Strip era Shiina than Kalk Samen though it still does a great job of showing her transition from one to the other. Edited March 12 by AMIT 1
Suilen Posted March 12 Author Posted March 12 Well guess who just announced a new single while we're in the middle of all this. The album's theme will probably be cat-related or something. 1
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