Love it. Never expected the song to be like this. But it's really fresh.

Grandma-ish? Seriously? [2]

Sometimes I think that people just doesn't have anything more to complain about.

....What? VERBAL has kinda been the rapper in m-flo since the late 90's. soooo.... yeah. Am I misunderstanding your post?

Oh, I wasn't really talking about VERBAL specifically, just Ayu's execution of the song. I KNOW VERBAL has been rapping forever, haha, so I wasn't comparing him and Macklemore by any means.

The way I was thinking of it was...

"Why listen to this amateurish Ayumi Hamasaki song featuring rap (done by VERBAL) when you can listen to Macklemore who produces much more professional sounding rap songs/whatever?" -> "Ayu doesn't really do this much, so it doesn't really seem right to compare the two..."

I figure that a lot of the production decisions for this were made by her anyway, so even though m-flo was producing, Ayu probably still had to approve everything and write the rap and so on.

lol it's Ayu we have here, with here there's always something to complain about! It's just how it is.:innocent

It's better than feel the love. But overall, this EDM style for get I don't like. Every other song of hers that has had electronic influences or was predominantly electronic is better than these, except maybe Party Queen. Wake me up was the perfect culmination of Ayus style and electro. Same for Sparkle. This, well if it weren't by ayu id never bother to listen to it.

I was with it until the rap part, I didn't really like Ayu's part after either. I like it 100% more than Feel the love though.

And yay to the English translation being there too!

It's a very generic use of "EDM" but I think they're doing it on purpose to be accessible.

I find Ayu has never really placed her electro-infused tracks in the forefront on a single so this is probably what she/the label want to put out as the 'main' attraction compared to say, her previous ones that were always album tracks or second A-sides.

I like marry go round. It´s nice and Ayu´s vocal is very good. But I didn´t like the rapper part too. I think it was unnecessary, because the song is good just Ayu singing it.

I understand what you mean and I kinda agree.
Still I really don't understand how she can release something like this when other people have been releasing far more professional sounding songs (as regards Macklemore, is career is pretty young, Ryan Lewis is just 25 YO, and everything is produced by the 2 of them with not so great conditions so... It is not as if Ayu's career was this young and she couldn't work with the bests).
And I'm not talking about the rap part only. Apart from some segments (the intro for example), the arrangements during the dance parts are really generic and uninspired. That is just my opinion once again I don't mean to offend people.
I just don't understand her level of demand sometimes and I don't understand how the professional around her can approve this kind of product and don't want to go further.
Yet if the great majority loves it, that was the point. It is just sad from an artistic point of view.

For now, I think this single is intended to be 'safe' and 'fun'.

We will get more experimental tracks on the album. Ayu doesn't seem to like to collaborate much with people who are 'the best in the business' but would rather take friends and colleagues over someone who has been at the top of their game in the world of -insert genre here-. That's just how Ayu is. She's probably not going to work with photographers who do work for Italian Vogue or somehow work with the best up-and-coming electro music producer, but the final products that she comes up with tend to be rather good at least in my opinion, and that's all that matters to me personally.

It depends on their aim, I suppose, when it comes to approving these tracks. This is probably her most accessible and radio-friendly set of songs in a LONG while. I really hope this single does well in other mediums even though Hey!Say!JUMP is going to definitely get the #1 spot on Oricon.

For me, I think of Ayu's career as one that you need to be very open with. She isn't very predictable and often makes strange decisions when it comes to people to work with (Timmy for the most part imo here) but in the end, if you are open to the changes and aren't looking at things like "But she could have done this! Or that? Why didn't she do this?", it's a lot easier to digest and enjoy what she's got going on. I'm just grateful that new music is coming out and that I'm able to enjoy it. I know at least for me, I don't go into her releases expecting anything in particular. I'm not thinking... "Are we finally going to get a rock track? Is this going to be a track that displays her artistry as she did X years ago?" but I'm just thinking... "Oh my god, yes! New Ayu!".

This is exactly what I think. The thing is that the level of demand, the overall quality of her productions seem to have decreased progressively for me, as if she relied on friends and acquaintances way too much lately.
And that annoy me a lot because she can do/did a lot better than that. And I fear this is going to get worse over time.
Well I'm getting off topic I think :headache

I was excited by a new single first but now I really can't wait for those edgier, more polished album tracks you mentioned. Or singles on par with something like Sparkle (you can insert the majority of her previous dance tracks here) if she is going to take the dance music direction.

edit:
I wish I could be as cool as you ; )

I'm also looking forward to Pray which could be her first epic ballad in a while... hope that turns out well!

With Sparkle, I think they had a very specific image they were going for when it came to the arrangement/presentation (PV and performances later on), which is why it came out the way it did. (basically perfect)

I think for this release, they couldn't go that heavy since she seems to be in another bit of a love daze, so the music seems to reflect that.

Actually, as much as I love ayu, I wouldn't like a thing of her just because it's new, I would like it if I can enjoy it. Feel the love/Merry-go-round is shaping up to be a really great single for my taste.

I know where people who were talking about the vocals are coming from but I think that's because you might not like her present voice being high-pitched (like how she sounded on the beginning of her career, just that then she had the higher voice).

As for the level of production, ayu is in the industry long enough, m-flo too and the other producers of the songs worked with a lot of big names. It doesn't necessarily make them perfect or make them do perfect things all the time, but I think it's more a subjective matter if you like the song or not and if the song is good or bad, and less on how the real production is. Even if it's not what people expected or sound like (put popular american artist music here) doesn't mean the production and the producers choices were actually bad or not professional. It was made by professionals. If it's not to one's liking then it's ok, but that's basically the reason. Just not connecting to things related to the songs. I personally think that ayu did a great job experimenting with EDM and these songs still have her personality in them, so you can say she brought that style to herself, and doesn't really sound like others' music, which makes it even better in that sense. I can understand people who want her to turn her image upside down along with more american like EMD/electro pop style, but then, it's just not her and not what she is wishing to be. Unless if some people accept it, they will just keep getting bored with her and have unrealistic expectations of her.

I eventually like just about anything Ayu releases, so I'm not sure where this places me, haha.

http://i.imgur.com/8UWH0og.jpg
From dyronpac on Instagram. He was lighting the music video. Ayu really likes these high waisted shorts....

I don't mind the rap at all, maybe because I've heard verbal ln other tracks before. But come on, the rap/featurette part on this song is nothing to complain about after the whole FIVE debacle and the overuse of Timmy on Party Queen.

Lol, blocks of wood draped with a black piece of cloth? The budget of this PV may even surpass that of my name's WOMEN.

Go on a date
Stay up late
No heartbreak
So we shake shake shake !! =)

Btw Zeke, I'm actually adding up Party queen to Sparkle and Wake me up to the list of her greatest electro stuff, but Feel the love and M-g-r might join the list eventually.

Sparkle is hard to compete with, I will admit. Ftl/M-g-r just came in place.

Does anyone remember if CDTV shows PVs when they show opening themes? I don't remember... I just remember getting to see Love song when they had it on that Dokkiri show, but this is a bit of a different situation.

If so, we will probably get a preview in the first December CDTV episode.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzm...h-flying_music

It looks like they do. We should expect a PV snippet of Feel the love by then at the latest. (December 7th)

What the hell happened with the Queen of jpop? Why she suddenly decided to make this type of superficial music? Why is she using m-flop when she could be using RIP SLYME? Last night, while watching Ringo's ''Netsuai Hakkakuchuu'', I thougt: ''Man, this could've been an amazing Ayu song''. It's everything that Feel the love wanted to be but failed. It saddens me that all the important ones are evolving while Ayu decided to play NOTHING FROM NOTHING again.

Yeah, high waisted clothes hide the tattoos she has on her hips...

It's too bad that you don't see this as a form of evolution.