I agree about how a lot of work has been done regarding the concept (because it's true; the lyrics and all that's been happening to her during the album's making), but I think it's unfortunate that the execution of how 'deep' (or 'profound' or whatever, coin your own adjective :P) the album is is too subtle; it's something I suppose the general audience can't afford :(

I'm hoping she'd get more exposure on TV. Talks/interviews and performances will help, I believe.

PARTY QUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN

Don't see why people are complaining about these sales. She's very lucky. This album hardly deserves to sell as well as it is. I think this will be a good learning experience for her....so that she sits down and thinks before she spits up her next album. Time to reevaluate where her career is going and to bring it back to where it was.

I still have hope that one day she will return to form. Because she's done so many amazing things in the past. I've been disappointed by her time and time again these few years, but she'll be back eventually. It's happened before. That's all I have to say about that.......

Is there anywhere that compiles the complete list of hard copies & complete album downloads?

In regards to all of this, I don't consider this a #1 album (I dislike the vast majority of the music), but I do think the sales figures largely reflect bad marketing more than people's musical preferences, at least in terms of the most immediate sales. And by marketing I mean everything from cover art, to videos, to single releases, to tv schedule appearances, etc.

The concept of this album is great, imo, but the execution was terrible. I know some people say "look deeper" at the cover art, but there are a thousand ways to execute the same concept and this one just looks like nobody was even trying. If I saw it on the shelves and didn't know Ayu's lyrics or music, I would not glance twice. If I saw NaNaNa or Shake It on TV, I would change the channel. I love her, but those are the facts for me. Nothing about any of these visual promotions suggests there is something more than what you see with your eye... and you can say there is an art to them all you want, but art =/= good marketing.

It's like how I feel about modern art; that canvas you painted blue can have the most profound vision of the universe that we've seen in 50 years, and I might even agree with you, but that still doesn't mean I want it hanging on my wall for several thousand bucks.

Combining that with essentially no singles, or TV appearances, plus the most massive departure from the musical styles that made and maintained her status for so many years (she's been leaving them behind since Guilty/Next Level, and I think that this is also partially the reason for her overall decline in sales) - well, this pretty much explains the situation to me.

aaaaaaaargggg!!!why people who don't like the album say that it doesn't deserve a #1??????????????????????????????????????
@Polyrhythm It seems that your favorite music is AKB and SDN,isn't it?FOR ME,they don't deserve to be even on the music market,they're just so...bah NOT MY STYLE.People just have different tastes

^ thats because certain people dont like the music and they are haters... has nothing to with anything else besides that.

^Please if I don't like a sing or even a genre it doesn't mean that I'm a hater. I don't hate things. I just don't bother to listen to things that I don't enjoy. And people have different tastes and that's all. Why make this into a whole hater-thing only because someone doesn't like one thing just as much as you?

@MissElin ^+100000000000000000 You are so right! :yes
Ayu is so versatile, people tend to like different albums,songs,etc.from her. It's almost impossible to love everything she has ever released. It's not hating, it's a matter of taste. Personally, I can't stand cutesy songs, S/S,ThankU & glitter are her worst songs, imo.

It's not common for a fan to like everything (they do exist, though) but I think that there are some who obviously have not been a fan of the direction Ayu's been going in for a while. It's weird how some of them seem to stick around even after so long...

I dun have that hard feeling tho... (from 1999 as well :P). Maybe because I have already prepared for this since her "decline" in 2004 or 05? The time when her albums and singles were not on yearly top 5 anymore..? No one can stay on top forever even tho I wish my idols would have that power. Also, this is not the first time she gets no. 2 weekly. Last time I got a really hard moment when GUILTY got no. 2, so this time I dun feel that bad. If this one ends up weekly no. 2, I can hope that she'll get no. 1 again for her next album.

I agree. We are her fans, yet many of us (including myself) didn't know why she used those covers until she explained it on twitter (?). I doubt general listeners would care about the meaning. For them it's just another new Ayumi Hamasaki album with her doing sexy poses. It's not 2000 - 2003, the time when she's still in the peak, and general listeners still wondered the meaning behind her songs/covers/etc.

I'm also speculating the covers don't set the standard for particularly young high school girls... (this one is just my own mind here)

Some people here are the reason why this fandom is so off-putting at times.

:rolleyes

But I'll wait for Ayu's next move. I'm still here for her and not for the few overtly defensive, tantrum-throwing stans we have on display here...:laugh

Haha, brilliant example. glitter is the song that initially got me to pay attention to her and it still remains one of my favourites. Before it's release a friend had been spamming me with her music for a good year or so but I had paid no interest. And I really love Thank U too. and Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~ makes me tear up but I never said that :P

There is nothing wrong with people liking different eras/styles of her music but shouldn't people at least give everything a try once instead of making assumptions? Of course, because she is a versatile artist it does mean many people will have wanted to wait and see if this album is really something they would be in to before spending the money on it and this is a consequence of a lack of singles released from the album. Japanese version CDs aren't cheap (that could also be part of it - people waiting for alternate versions to be released for a cheaper price). I imagine that sales will pick up later once people have had more of a chance to sample the tracks and the option of buying overseas versions is available - ofc, this won't mean anything in the first week sales for the Oricon charts, so it won't be reflected well at present.

People who choose to take the cover art at face value (and, honestly, it's something everyone is going to do initially) are going to see the title and image and form their own opinion. Personally, it's that sort of image that appeals to me this time around - but I imagine it's just as easily off-putting to many.

So sad, this state of events...I LOVE the album, and almost love each track, except for the next LOVE and E, S, M...sigh, just don't like that style...and yeah, maybe I'm a bit biased, but this album deserves number 1 weekly...ayu worked hard, and if you ask me, this album is as "ayu" as any other, despite the use (maybe overuse) of Timmy.

Acid Black Cherry is part of avex, they could do "magic" and make the 1st spot for ayu :innocent
Anyway, i hope ayu can sell 100k in the first week

WHAT!?!?!? :thud

Okay, hang on a second... I mean, this week in the singles competition it's between Johnny's Kis-My-Ft2 and AKB48's DiVA (for the second time!), and they're both under avex...

...and now you said that ABC is part of avex!?!?!? Whoa... I may have forgotten that... After all, it's not just one skirmish that we're dealing this week between avex artists (Kisumai-DiVA) but actually TWO - with ayu and ABC in the album race!? Oops...

^ im still hopin for the next couple of days that ayumi's sales stay the constant fall that they are...
she isn't losing as many sales as ABC... so she might be able to over run them in the end.

Bah! I get it, my Kana comparison wasn't a good idea, but that was not the point of my post. Lemme fix it.

uh ya now then you know ABC's music is released by avex ? :o

Instead of ABC's music being released by avex trax , their music's released under Motorod which's a sub division label owned by avex , just like mad prey records & cutting edge

I have ABC's BLACK LIST & Q.E.D. in physical copies & in both albums , max matsuura is credited as the 1 that executively produced his/their albums :innocent

xD it's avex so anytime goes for both ayumi & ABC in the last 3 days of the weekly chart run now x)

It happened with Mirrorcle World...a Huuuuuge weekend boost that made it number one. It COULD happen, and I'd LOVE it to. But I won't hold my breath lol

Last time the difference between ayu's MW and SCS's single was not that big tho (like... a few thousand copies?).

it depends on whether ayu or max wanna do another miracle boost. If ayu/avex doesn't really care about the ranking, I dun think avex will do anything. It's a bit difficult tho to manipulate the sales tho if the difference right now is about 18K. avex not only has to boost her sales, but as well drag down ABC's sales down to like... 2000 copies per day for the rest of the week..?

Btw, I just had a weird dream last nite that ayu announced for another album in the summer...