hm... I still find (miss)understood CD only a lot worse. A SUMMER BEST CD only surely isn't great, but I still can live with that, but I simply can't accept (m)u cover, that's just beyond terrible imo. That smile is like someone told her to smile and she really didn't want to...


Have to agree with this. As much as I love Namie, I find FEEL way too generic, more than Colours.

Reminds me her Lumix photoshoots more.

very simplistic. i like it but don't love it. her free single covers are 100 times better. but i love ayu no matter what. getting the cd+blu ray! woot woot

Gosh, the meltdowns about this entire album are too much lol.

Anywho, I love the covers!
Really was expecting a continuation of the free singles so seeing these was a nice surprise.
I love the CD ver. the best. Colours doesn't seem as unreadable and I like her pose here c: .

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BgBxWgqFL.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NDFuORBqL.jpg

credits : amazon.co.jp

I love her makeup for these. So simple :)

that text just really...ruins everything.


At least the inside photos will probably be really nice. As much as I hate these for covers, I like the idea, and I am dying to see the rest of the outfit. The tiny pieces of her dress are the best part of the covers.

I just wish they had been a little more dynamic, same style, but with better poses. This album is fun. There's no reflection.



As for the random Koda and Namie discussions...you can say whatever about their music. Their production is always on point.

I actually find it hilarious that Namie's FEEL album featured very simple, classy covers, and now Ayu puts out these.

Except Namie's covers had something fun and interesting about them, so they worked. Ayu's are just boring mag shoot poses with text slapped on them to try and make them more dynamic.

http://i61.tinypic.com/4l2a6d.jpg
http://i59.tinypic.com/9h3pfl.jpg

source: TeamAyu official shop

Great photoshoot!

Good looking, but boring as an empty vodka bottle xD
Unfortunately, since like 2010 any ayu album cover has been interesting at all, maybe PQ, I don't know, just looks like an average pic from any magazine.
Nevertheless, still expecting for some cover surprise in the future.

The covers are simple and classy, but I think it'll be better without those big fonts. :)

Big fonts make the cover. Her best album covers since Love songs.

The more I see it, the more I love these covers. I don't know. The colors (colours) are just right, the font is quirky, and she looks fantasmic. From the hints of the clothes I don't know if I'm going to like them; thank God they aren't visible.

i dont like the fact i cant see her nails :C

Hm, the photos are actually alright, though I have some minor problems with these covers: the poses for CD+DVD and BluRay. Those poses don`t do her face any favour. Also that text. I mean, the photoshoot is classy and mature, but the typo is so childish. Plus that terrrible placing for some of them.
They`re definitely not bad and I like looking at them (CD only :heart).
But my heart aches a little, if you know what I mean. :laugh

O hell no!!! :O Eventhough I do agree her recent work is nothing compared to whatever she achieved 'back in the days', I love the fact she is always trying to do her own thing. Like working together with Western artists is something I really support. I think she is definetely taking her career seriously by taking surprising chances. Even if that does result in drastic changes in genre, producing team, lifestyle and look...
No I really do not think she is the last-minute kind of artist. She knows exactly what she is doing.

I agree. if anything I think ayu can be pushy rather than lackluster. When she got an idea she delivers that concept rather than having the team polish the product to the degree she used to (pre-RAINBOW era I guess) or to the extent Namie does now. Therefore, the image/product of ayumi hamasaki is flawed now, because it's more integrated and honest.

Remember ayu used to say that ayumi hamasaki and ayu are two different things? - as one is the product and the other is the person. Well I think with the increasing publicity of her private life and the simultaneous strengthening of her control over her own career, that boundary is fading away more and more,,,

Let's be honest, this release IS quite last minute. We had the songs even before the album name, the remix album is announced a day before the release, the covers 2 weeks before the album, a last-minute tracklist, an incohesive concept because of Pray and Hello new me (though I love those songs a lot).

The same happened with LOVE again: "Lol let's just release 2 mini albums and then suddenly slap them together with some old demo tracks to make a full album!"

Not to mention Ayu flies back and forth between Japan and LA every 2 days. It reminds me of American Horror Story: Coven where they were filming and writing the episodes WHILE the show was airing. Which resulted in a terrible season that made 0 sense and they just dropped storylines midway because the audience didn't respond well to them. Remember Ayu said she was working with western producers, then got a positive response to Pray and she suddenly changed her mind and decided to add more classic J-Pop to the album.

Maar niets persoonlijks tegen Ayu, ik zei het meer in het algemeen over deze release. Het is waarschijnlijk meer avex trax's schuld die een slecht marketing team geeft aan Ayu. ~_~;

lol agree, with AHS Coven too~
im curious about Tell all though, if they were thinking to put it or not. And why doesn't that happen. (cause you know, she could just leave Hello new me and Pray alone, too~)

If you remember the interviews around the release of Pray, ayu had started the new album long before Pray with a clear concept of EDM-themed album. Then Pray came up, and she decided to change the concept and blend in some old-ayu, hence NOW & 4EVA... As I said before in another thread, ayu has a lot more control over her career than in the past or compared to other successful Jpop artists, so she can be seen a little pushy and idiosyncratic because perhaps she does not rely on the team to polish her product/image any more, which results in hit-or-miss situations, but not necessarily lackluster behaviors.

Releasing the covers late does not mean the making of covers is last-minute. Who says the covers have to be out the moment it's done? Whether or not the tracklist makes sense is a highly subjective thing: to people with preconceived notion of "EDM songs should stick together and ballads should be the last tracks", the official list might be irrational. Yet for listeners who hear the album for the first time, nice surprises and connections might be a rewarding experience after all.

The slow release of information might be due to last-minute procrastination or be according to a strictly followed path of marketing (which might or might not work), but to judge it last-minute may be a little bit arbitrary and unfair.

If we see this whole release as a big picture, the marketing is really quite unusual for ayu (and perhaps the whole Jpop industry). The order of info release is:
-Name of producers
-Song previews and TA Full songs
-Concerts
-Title
-Full PVs for three of the songs
-Covers
-Digital release of new songs Nonstop mix

It's a lot easier to follow a normal path if you want to do everything last-minute (especially for someone who has released albums for more than 10 times) than to design a marketing strategy that is different, interesting, shocking. Whether or not it works depends on the audience, but as a fan I personally see ayu put some work into Colours, certainly way more than into LOVE again.