Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer (Post 2205175)

Well, as I mentioned before, the music on tv performances most of the time is not live. The vocalists are though. So I think that might make it easier for Ayu's vocals to sound powerful and she can also hear things better. I wouldn't exactly consider her tv lives spectacular vocally though for a while now but the vocals definitely come through clearer than in the concerts.

Originally Posted by futureLOVE (Post 2205125)

None of her other songs really strike me as having such a booming, powerful chorus as You were does. it's very emotional and powerful (read: loud) haha. i think it's beautiful any way you look at it.

Originally Posted by se7entheaven (Post 2204178)

This is one of the main point that I'm trying to say. I always love her performances. I remember I started to love her even more years ago because I thought she's a great performer with all those stage antics and stuffs. Dome Tour & A museum which were classics and wow-ed me that time.

and I'm with you almost all your posts in this thread.

I know she once said MS Tour is the 1st Tour to have 'theme'. but since then she just stick to it, and you can actually predict how the setlist will turn out and how she's gonna perform. and the worse is like the stage is still the same, again and again. I was so scared she's gonna use the same stage for NEXT LEVEL tour which I was glad she didn't! and then came CDL and I'm done. Let say she love the NEXT LEVEL stage so much that she decided to use it again this year, with a lil twist. alright.

I really wish it's really produced by ayumi hamsaki though...I know she does produce...but since 2005-2009...it's dissapointing. her a-nation even seems to be cut outs from her tour now. ntg new anymore.

she definitely can do better considering how perfectionist she is. she just need to do something!

Originally Posted by cutieismylife (Post 2204923)

I think AYU suffers from dissociative identity disorder because it's like she is a completely different person when she puts on a costume and changes her hair and it's like she has another personality for each outfit she wears...

OK, in all seriousness... do i think Ayu has lost her touch with music? No, I think she's still extremely relevant and that's because she's been consistently putting out good material, putting on entertaining sell-out concerts and continues to appeal to a large group of people.

it's a matter of opinion whether or not you like her current works or what she does, and really... if you feel like you've seen it all before, why do you continue to follow her? it's a huge waste of time, in my opinion, to keep up with someone who just disappoints you in everything she does. i'm sure there's someone out there who'll satisfy your needs.

i do agree that Ayu should try to work with a different group of people and come up with something that could deviate from what she's done in the past, but by doing so she may alienate a lot of the people who have become her friends and a lot of the fans who have become attached to the people she has with her.

i agree that the blatant "cloning" of some of the performances is frustrating because it's an exact replica of what she's done before just with a different outfit even after a long amount of time, but i personally love when an artist does a tribute to their past as long as it's in moderation and doesn't just seem like they ran out of ideas. it shows the evolution of an artist and unfortunately, for many of you it seems like a de-evolution instead of improvement.

to call her state of mental health into question is extremely rude because none of you actually know her. none of you are stars either and you don't have some psychological insight into their psyche because none of you are professionals in psychology (if anyone is, i apologize in advance!) she's just a woman who, as an artist, has to be marketable and needs to present her release a way that will generate interest. she's not going to release a summer single and have it be marketed as "another version of July 1st" because who'd want to buy it then?

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer (Post 2204145)

Well, here is what we mean by that. The stage itself has not changed since 2005, many if not all of the concert effects have remained the same (for example, even though I hadn't seen the Next Level tour, I knew exactly when and where the fire works explosion would happen in Love and Hate). The basic format of the concert has remained the same - open with powerful rock song followed by one of her more classic rock or fast songs, then cutesy section for two songs always performed essentially the same way, then its the "lets kick the crap out of men section" also always performed essentially the same, then its the ballad section also performed essentially...you get the point ^_^ etc etc. Even many of the countdown lives follow a lot of the same things. The concerts are extremely predictable nowadays. So while some of the details of the concert might change, they actually really aren't very different at all.

I loved the feeling that her concerts used to have where you truly didn't know what to expect. Nowadays though that is all but gone because I can basically predict the setlist or at least what type of songs will be where and what will go with them/how they will be performed before the concert even starts.

Originally Posted by bluegie (Post 2203461)

You can count me in as well. I used to download her concerts, but after Best of CDL, I stopped watching them.

I dun really know if budget is the main key for recylcing costumes and stage set up. I mean... Look at A Museum, I dun think the production budget was that high, but that concert was one of her best concerts. Her stadium tour is another example. I really prefer her focus on singing (and of course beautiful outfits) then doing dramas with Shuya and other dancers on the stages (not that I hate them). Right now her formula of AT is kinda like:

Ayu x (deja vu) glamorous outfits x big stages x dancers x band
= GLAMOROUS production

How often do we see ayu alone on stage in recent tours (except her encore part)? Almost 90% of the tour time we see a pre-film on the big screen followed by ayu + her dancers acting on the stage. Her dancers are part of Ayu, and without them ayu seems can't perform herself on stage.

Let's say in A Museum, ayu could sing and swing alone in Dearest, and she was the major focus in M (while the dancers were hidden in her white cloth). She didn't act a lot, rather she concentrated on singing. The tour was about AYU. Right now everything is the opposite. She blends with her dancers and bands. It's like she's only part of the tour. While she disappears for a few mins, the show can still carry on by the dancers acting like clowns on the stage. For about every few seconds, the camera will shift to her dancers (esp Shuya) instead of ayu. I really know she loves her team so much, but it's so unhealthy to keep on doing that. As like in order to see ayu, you must also force to see Shuya/Maro/whatever + her band + Peco & Princess.

And about the stage.... Sometimes you dun need a huge budget in order to get new creativity. I really think back then there were specialists giving more inputs on how the stages should be set (with ayu's influence). I kinda suspect the recent tours' stage set up are created by ayu heavily, as we see the set up are kinda same. Of course two years ago she added a cake, last year she added a ship, and probly next year she'll put a spaceship.

Originally Posted by cutieismylife (Post 2204972)

I was not a fan of really... anything she was doing in the Sunrise/Sunset period so I'd be called a hater and Kuu stan and hate everything Ayu was doing etc, but now that I love You were... / Sunset and i enjoyed the CDL, I'm a blind stan and can't see how generic/horrible/awful she is. It just sucks when it's one or the other.

Originally Posted by tenshi no hane (Post 2205289)

wow so many pages of replies in 2 days xD

For me she hasn't lost her touch, but she's not as consistent as before. From LOVEppears to MY STORY I love pretty everything she did. Songs, performances, PV's etc. Whereas now I will totally love some things and dislike/not care for other things she puts out.

Originally Posted by jbrat2219 (Post 2205663)

Haha, for me I've loved everything she's done since MY STORY. Although I love her older stuff as well :) But I always find myself listening to her recent albums. I like how her music has matured.

Originally Posted by Raiu-Ayu (Post 2205779)

To be honest, I would love to see the reactions of people if ayu tried to do something different. When NEXT LEVEL was released at lot of people bashed it because it wasn't ayu-ish enough and now people complain because things are too ayu-ish.

Originally Posted by jbrat2219 (Post 2205791)

I think that's a case of mixed reactions and people just not knowing what the hell they want from her. :laugh Something tells me her next album will be back to her roots though. I hope there's still a few surprises in store. :)

Originally Posted by FuNsTyLe (Post 2205792)

Don't expect it to be... If she will put Sunrise/sunset in there, along with the 3 new songs, then throw in the typical rock song she will release around March/April and then the bubbly summersong that'll come in August.
Then add a couple of interludes, of which one is by HAL in the well known LABYRINTH / KALEIDOSCOPE / and [that last song on Next Level that sounds the same, can't remember what it's called] And it will be like the other ones.

Originally Posted by identity (Post 2205794)

People can expect whatever they want. Just because you expect it's going to be some way because it has been that way in the past doesn't mean other people have to, and doesn't give you the right to tell people what they should or shouldn't expect.

Originally Posted by FuNsTyLe (Post 2205803)

I'm not expecting you to understand, how long have you been an Ayu fan? Not since her early days i.e around 2001 I assume? So you haven't really witnessed the "loss of touch" as many are talking about here, if you just discovered her a year ago or so...

Originally Posted by koshka (Post 2205816)

What? O__o
So can you only appreciate Ayu if you're fan of her since her debut?
Mh.. I don't think so :innocent
I'm fan of Ayu since 2002 but I can see that her latests songs are different from ASFXX D:

Originally Posted by FuNsTyLe (Post 2205792)

Don't expect it to be... If she will put Sunrise/sunset in there, along with the 3 new songs, then throw in the typical rock song she will release around March/April and then the bubbly summersong that'll come in August.
Then add a couple of interludes, of which one is by HAL in the well known LABYRINTH / KALEIDOSCOPE / and [that last song on Next Level that sounds the same, can't remember what it's called] And it will be like the other ones.