Uldred wrote:I don't know if Tomo is trying to make herself sound "cute" or something, but at the Yoyogi live I cringed a couple of times when she was singing. I normally love her voice too. Like the Girls Factory 12, her voice was amazing there.

Yeah, I've noticed recently that her singing style has changed. She sounds more squeaky now. I think she is (or their producers are...) trying to differentiate her voice from Haruna's, which is deeper and huskier. With their recent performances of old songs at Budokan and the free Shiroten live, you can compare her voice from then and now.

Well voices change and maybe to accustom to the songs they sing, she just naturally sings more "squeakier". I have nothing against it.

GeoFreak wrote:

Uldred wrote:I don't know if Tomo is trying to make herself sound "cute" or something, but at the Yoyogi live I cringed a couple of times when she was singing. I normally love her voice too. Like the Girls Factory 12, her voice was amazing there.

Yeah, I've noticed recently that her singing style has changed. She sounds more squeaky now. I think she is (or their producers are...) trying to differentiate her voice from Haruna's, which is deeper and huskier. With their recent performances of old songs at Budokan and the free Shiroten live, you can compare her voice from then and now.

My personal opinion Tomomi is team player, she's trying to adapt, cover up, and back up Haruna new singing styles, sometimes in long live performance their have to down tune or pitch down to save power perhaps to lower down than usual standard is hard to do for natural higher voice like Tomomi. Then again it's just my personal opinion.

Perfect girls be perfect .love.

I didn't like the the Best Scandal Photobook. They looked like they were on drugs or drunk there. Especially when Tomomi was massaging or grabbing Mami's breasts. .tsk.

@Sugarcube

I just saw that on google. For me, the "problem" of this photoshoot is that's pretty dark. I think it's just some kind of joke or something like that (or it was to have a Scandal in that book )

darksider59 wrote:@Sugarcube

I just saw that on google. For me, the "problem" of this photoshoot is that's pretty dark. I think it's just some kind of joke or something like that (or it was to have a Scandal in that book )

I don't know. They looked like they were on drugs or something to me. Plus they should've thought of their minor-aged fans before including that boob-grabbing-photo...

I think they were trying to promote the "scandalous" facet of the band back then, before they found their niche in the music scene. They weren't as polished musically as they are now, so they had a harder time finding an identity to present. Fortunately, they started finding their groove in catchy pop rock and could focus on the music and not strange photoshoots like that.

Yeah it was an image but serious come on they're having fun... urgh... all the taboo about no boob touching >_> stupid...

If I were a parent, I would worry about my kid looking at those photos. But then again, we have different opinions. Hahaha

But yeah, I'm glad that they didn't do something like that again and just focused on their music.

People are missing the point with the Best Scandal Photobook !
The girls took the pictures and were in charge, nobody made them do it.
They were taking the pee out of the Japanese idol photobooks like AKB ( sigh ! )
where the girls always get wet and always grope each other to get the fans all excited !

It just made me laugh and them as well.

@tonymiller
great information, thank you ! That makes all sense now.

milena98 wrote:Hi it's me Milena again.By the way wou can call me Kim.I just like the name xD.
So we all know that Scandal are adorable but there must be something that you don't like about them.What is it?
For example i don't like that they are with different hair colour.Well everyone of them is great with the new hair colour but i just miss the old Scandal , the school days when they all were with black hairs.They were amazing. :/

Hahaha thats exactly what i came here to say

Well, I know that this is obviously up to SCANDAL how they do things, but I don't like that in live performances, they take out Mami's vocals. It just bothers me because she doesn't sing a lot anyways, but they take out the little contribution to vocals she makes sometimes. It isn't all the time, but a lot of the time. I also don't like that they add Tomo's vocals in songs where she doesn't sing a lot. For example, in Koi no Kajitsu, in the chorus, Mami sings lead with Haruna so long as there is backing vocals(Tomo). You can tell because Mami and Haruna's voices together have a really nice sound. But they changed it so that Tomo sings most of Mami's part and Mami does backup. My final thing(I think) is that they changed the performance of their theme. All four of them used to sing, and it was really cool, but now it's...well you've watched the performance, I'm assuming.( Rina sang in the chorus and her own little solo, but that's gone. So is Tomo's solo part). I'm sorry for this long post about freaking vocals, but it just bothers me. .please.

Edit: I remembered a few things,

1: I don't like when they use headsets. I love the fact that they can move around, but I dislike the fact that they let go of the instrument while playing. Especially Tomomi (Budokan, Osaka Jo Hall, but more Budokan). It makes me think that they're not playing, although I know they are. It makes it worse that you can still hear the bass when Tomomi lets go. .mad.

2:I don't like the fact that they don't play a lot of their songs live. They have so many great B-sides that aren't played live at all. And album songs.

3:They didn't put the Virgin Hall Tour on DVD. The least they can do is play the songs live so that we can SEE THEM!

4: Haruna and her guitar. I love Haruna and I know she's a good guitarist and the lead singer, but she should play more. Recently, (Happy Collector) she has better parts in my opinion. I think that she shouldn't always have her guitar hanging, and she should play it more. It would make a more powerful song if you had her playing not super difficult but harder parts in her guitar. I feel she's underestimated and just seen as the singer with no other talents. .fustrated.

5: Tomomi's voice. She exaggerates it so much I just.... .rage. AHHH!! It's not necessary, and it doesn't sound good. She can't even sing Space Ranger like she used to! DOLL doesn't sound as great, there's a lot of exaggeration in Kagerou(but nothing can ruin that song), and it just..uh. But the thing is she's doing it on purpose because you can hear when she sings PRIDE (I watched the video from Jakarta, I think) it sounds fine. I don't know

And adding to the initial post: in Aitai, they add Tomomi in where she doesn't sing, in BURN(one little line), Shunkan Sentimental, and Hitotsu Dake.

I really don't like Haruna's blonde and short hair. It makes her look. Err. I dunno weird. And she's really skinny nowadays compare to their indie eras.


I also don't like the costume in pin heel surfer's PV. From school uniforms they went to office uniforms with really high heels. .balloon.

Can't believe I never posted in this thread before. This is ALL said in a spirit of love

But as long as we're nitpicking...

1. I don't like Tomomi's squeaky voice nowadays. I think she's doing it on purpose, as someone else said. She sounded great on "Future" and in that era, but I do cringe when I hear her sing nowadays. It's made me wish Haruna and Mami just sang everything. The annoying thing is that she is obviously capable of singing in a way that sounds really good, but she just doesn't anymore.

2. I didn't like how Rina came off in that BS artist documentary. She is the youngest member and I felt she showed a lack of respect to the older members of the group. She is obviously a perfectionist but she has to realize that people do things in different ways, and not everybody is going to do things exactly the way she would. Now whenever I see her during an MC, I wonder if she's sitting there judging every word coming out of Haruna's mouth. (And I wonder if Haru is thinking that too.) Stuff like that builds up and eventually breaks up bands...

3. I don't like some of the sillier "Moe" type stuff they do, like Rina's little Kyary Pamyu-Pamyu style solo thing at the Osaka show. It makes it hard for me to introduce them to new people in the US and ask them to take Scandal seriously - usually they think they're some kind of band for children, and that I'm a little weird for liking them. It was actually easier when they were just playing rock music in school uniforms. That just made them seem kind of naughty - nothing wrong with that.

4. I wish Mami would practice a little more; it's still rare to hear her play any of her solos cleanly (most of which aren't very hard) when they play live.

5. I don't like the poppier direction the band has taken as they've gotten more popular. It's probably inevitable that they would broaden their music to get more fans, but I just miss the days when they were a hard rock band, pure and simple. And I don't mind some poppier rock songs, but I just cannot listen to stuff like Pin Heel Surfer or Kill the Virgin. Those are just straight-up pop songs, they don't sound like the Scandal I know at all.

Well, I think that's it... probably sounds like a lot of complaints, but I really do love them. It's like how you can love a family member even though they make you really frustrated sometimes

spacecadet wrote:Can't believe I never posted in this thread before. This is ALL said in a spirit of love

But as long as we're nitpicking...

1. I don't like Tomomi's squeaky voice nowadays. I think she's doing it on purpose, as someone else said. She sounded great on "Future" and in that era, but I do cringe when I hear her sing nowadays. It's made me wish Haruna and Mami just sang everything. The annoying thing is that she is obviously capable of singing in a way that sounds really good, but she just doesn't anymore.

2. I didn't like how Rina came off in that BS artist documentary. She is the youngest member and I felt she showed a lack of respect to the older members of the group. She is obviously a perfectionist but she has to realize that people do things in different ways, and not everybody is going to do things exactly the way she would. Now whenever I see her during an MC, I wonder if she's sitting there judging every word coming out of Haruna's mouth. (And I wonder if Haru is thinking that too.) Stuff like that builds up and eventually breaks up bands...

3. I don't like some of the sillier "Moe" type stuff they do, like Rina's little Kyary Pamyu-Pamyu style solo thing at the Osaka show. It makes it hard for me to introduce them to new people in the US and ask them to take Scandal seriously - usually they think they're some kind of band for children, and that I'm a little weird for liking them. It was actually easier when they were just playing rock music in school uniforms. That just made them seem kind of naughty - nothing wrong with that.

4. I wish Mami would practice a little more; it's still rare to hear her play any of her solos cleanly (most of which aren't very hard) when they play live.

5. I don't like the poppier direction the band has taken as they've gotten more popular. It's probably inevitable that they would broaden their music to get more fans, but I just miss the days when they were a hard rock band, pure and simple. And I don't mind some poppier rock songs, but I just cannot listen to stuff like Pin Heel Surfer or Kill the Virgin. Those are just straight-up pop songs, they don't sound like the Scandal I know at all.

Well, I think that's it... probably sounds like a lot of complaints, but I really do love them. It's like how you can love a family member even though they make you really frustrated sometimes

I can agree with a lot of that, here are my thoughts on those points:

I feel like Tomomi has been tuning down her squeakiness a bit lately, which I find more enjoyable to listen to

I thought Rina's solo was kind of cute, but it wasn't my favourite part of the show (that would be One Piece and Hoshi no Furu Yoru ni).

I know Mami can play guitar, but I do agree that she could practice a bit more for live shows.

I really like Pin Heel Surfer and Kill the Virgin, but I would love to see some new songs that are more rock than pop. The one song I don't really like is Taiyou Scandalous (I really noticed Tomo's squeakiness around the time they released it too).

I use to not like Tomo's voice, but I think it's grown on me

@spacecadet: Wow something for every member except Haruna
Just kidding we're respect every personal opinions
I understand, no matter how great they become, they will never can please everybody.
Some likes it, some don't, some remain, some leave and some new fans come.
For me I like that's i'ts natural they become more mature which is good for many aspects, but it's also mean they become kinda less silly and a little less funny than before. And...
That's something I don't like about SCANDAL .hmmm. Nahhh that's something I don't like about nature .uhuh.

I really don't like all the backing tracks they use. Just not necessary at all.

Mami's guitar solos could be better, but Japanese musicians put massive amounts of pressure on themselves and she has a huge work load throughout each performance. I wish I could play so consistently across so many songs AND sing backing vocals as accurately as she can (and I'm a professional guitarist and teacher...) so my real complaint is that Mami should sing more LEAD VOCALS!! haha KOE was AWESOME !!! hahah

Erick M wrote:@spacecadet: Wow something for every member except Haruna

Nope, I have nothing bad to say about Haruna

Eagles84 wrote:I really don't like all the backing tracks they use. Just not necessary at all.

They usually don't if they have control over the situation, ie. at their own live shows. Rina did in her solo song at Osaka but that's because she's not really a singer, whereas the other three sing a lot both solo and in harmony. So it's understandable for Rina to have a backing track for that silly little song.

The only other times I hear it are on TV performances, and I'm guessing it's the TV show that asks for it in those cases; some shows don't let bands actually play live at all. I've seen them totally lip-sync Haruka and then play to a fade-out in the middle of the song! That was really weird. But that's not their choice, I'm sure.

oops, I should have been more specific. Yes they do use some backing vocal tracks live (swtich comes to mind straight away, plus some others) but they are never tracks of what the girls sing themselves. I was referring more to things like keyboard strings and that annoying synthesiser in Love Survive. That stuff is great on a cd but on stage if you don't have a keyboard player , I don't think you should hear keyboards from the speakers hahaha

Oh yeah, I usually don't think of those as backing tracks, but I don't like it either - mostly because I don't really like keyboards or synths in rock music. At the Osaka show, during "Scandal Baby" the keyboard part in the verses was even louder than the guitars - I'd never even noticed it was there on the album itself (in fact I had to listen just now to check, and it's the first time I heard it on the album track!). Hoping they'll at least mix that down on the disc version of that show so it's not as noticeable. Most of the time I think the songs that have extra instruments can do without them live. The best version of "Haruka" that I've ever heard was during the Budokan show, where they made it a much harder guitar rock song (although you could still hear the keyboards, but much quieter).

spacecadet wrote:Oh yeah, I usually don't think of those as backing tracks, but I don't like it either - mostly because I don't really like keyboards or synths in rock music. At the Osaka show, during "Scandal Baby" the keyboard part in the verses was even louder than the guitars - I'd never even noticed it was there on the album itself (in fact I had to listen just now to check, and it's the first time I heard it on the album track!). Hoping they'll at least mix that down on the disc version of that show so it's not as noticeable. Most of the time I think the songs that have extra instruments can do without them live. The best version of "Haruka" that I've ever heard was during the Budokan show, where they made it a much harder guitar rock song (although you could still hear the keyboards, but much quieter).

Agree with you, SCANDAL relies on synth and "fruity loops sound" thing more and more nowadays.
It's okay to use it during studio recording, but if you're playing live, it just feel "different".
I hope SCANDAL reduce additional synth when they're playing live in the future, it's just because you never know whether your sound equipment is good enough to play those kind of sound

.smile.