Kyōiku

Kyōiku
Studio album by Tokyo Jihen
Released	Japan November 25, 2004 (2004-11-25) Taiwan December 10, 2004 (2004-12-10)[1]
Recorded	2004 at Toshiba EMI 3rd Studio, Studio Terra, Kroneko Studio, Crescent Studio
Genre	Pop, rock, pop rock, alternative rock
Length	42:11
Label	Toshiba EMI (Distributor) Virgin Music[2] (Label)
Producer	Uni Inoue, Tokyo Jihen
Tokyo Jihen chronology
— Kyōiku (2004) Adult (2006)
Singles from Kyōiku
"Gunjō Biyori" Released: September 8, 2004 (2004-09-08) "Sōnan" Released: October 20, 2004 (2004-10-20)

Kyōiku (教育, Education) is the debut studio album by Japanese pop rock band Tokyo Jihen, released on November 25, 2004 (2004-11-25) in Japan through Toshiba EMI and Virgin Music.^[3] The album was produced by the band and Japanese recording engineer Uni Inoue. Kyōiku reached #2 on Oricon albums charts,^[4] selling over 200,000 copies in its first week and to date, approximately 390,000 copies. Kyōiku is currently the band's most commercially successful album.^[5]

Background

Tokyo Jihen was formed in 2003, fulfilling Ringo Shiina's desire to be in a band, instead of a solo artist.^{[citation needed]} All members of Tokyo Jihen had been members of Shiina's backing band for her 2003 Sugoroku Ecstasy tour.

She answered the interview of the magazine, "Kyōiku (education) is the same usage as the education used for NHK Educational TV, or educational programs of television. It seems that I have not given such an impression so far. Sad to say, my fan said to me in the letter before that his/her mother told him/her never go to such a concert. So I avoid R rating this time".^[6] She also said that the gentle sounds such as straight pianos were used for the album and it gave an impression as if children could listen to it.^[7]

Recording and production

Kyōiku is the only album to feature the band's original line-up, with pianist H Zett M (Masayuki Hiizumi) and guitarist Mikio Hirama. In their time together in the band, they contributed four tracks to Tokyo Jihen. H Zett M wrote the music for the songs "Gunjō Biyori", "Genjitsu ni Oite" and "Service", while Hirama wrote the music for "Kao" (顔, Faces), a B-side on the Gunjō Biyori single.^[8] The band also covered Hirama's song "If You Can Touch It" from his 2001 album Yume to Negoto on the Dynamite! tour, but did not record it.

Shiina regarded "Gunjō Biyori" as the sort of song she could not write and was surprised by the difference between the impression from the song and his own image.^[9] Sheena wrote "Sōnan", which is the first tune that she wrote for Tokyo Jihen, at the end of her solo tour.^[7][10] The lyrics occurred to her with music. She wrote "Sōnan" as an ordinary love song, but she composed music imaging the band members played it because she was influenced by them during her solo tour.^[9]

Most of the songs of the album are quite close to Shiina's demo version. She adopted "Ringo no Uta" which is her solo single to invite the fans of her solo era, and Seiji Kameda took the initiative arranging it.^[7] Ukigumo, who would eventually replace Hirama in the band, played the guitar in these demos, and the guitar riff at the very beginning of the introduction of "Sōnan" was created by him.

The 17 songs from the album sessions were recorded in only four days,^[11] and the album contains 12 tracks among them. Songs were also given English titles different from the literal translation in the booklet.

Release and promotion

Kyōiku was released on November 25, 2004 (2004-11-25). Two singles were released from the album. The lead single, "Gunjō Biyori", was released on September 8, 2004.^[8] It was used in commercials for cellphone provider KDDI's CDMA 1X WIN W21SA phones.^[12] The band released their second single, "Sōnan", a month and a half later.^[8] Music videos were filmed for the B-sides "Sono Onna Fushidara ni Tsuki" (その淑女ふしだらにつき) (cover of show-tune "The Lady Is a Tramp") and "Dynamite" (ダイナマイト, Dainamaito) (cover of the Brenda Lee song), and were aired back-to-back with each respective A-side.^[13]

An analogue set of their singles was released on the same day as the album.^[8]

Content and structure

The album, much like many of Sheena's solo works (such as Shōso Strip, Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana), features a symmetrical track list. Tracks are paired to another in title length, type of script and placement of grammatical particles. The official English titles given in the album's booklet also follow this theme (occasionally receiving non-direct translations to fit the theme).^[14] The English titles receive identical grammatical structure (for example, A Song of Apples/A Scar of Dreams [indefinite article, noun, preposition, pluralised noun], The Suicide/The Carnival [definite article, noun]), though . Each individual track length is also symmetrical, in that the number of minutes and the final digit of seconds are always the same number.

The album begins with Ringo no Uta, the final single Ringo Shiina released before beginning activities with Tokyo Jihen. The original was a mid-tempo bossa nova song, while the version that features on the album is an upbeat rock song, with Shiina's voice distorted through a vocoder.

Track listing

All official European language titles according to Ringo Sheena's website.^[15]

Charts and certifications

Singles

Notes & References

External links

• Tokyo Jihen Discography