You are "attacked" because the tone you present your opinion reduces the taste of those who enjoy ayu's releases that you don't to worse compared to yours. And that's not nice to feel that way. As much as I understand what you mean by "it" that ayu lacked, how am I supposed to understand to which period you refer to, 5 years? 10 years back? She only said that she is awaken and is about to return to ayumi hamasaki properly. She isn't describing any of her releases as bad, that's such a loose interpretation of some users.

Ayu's post is wonderful and so insightful. I love when she does that. The way she is referring to Yumi is also admirable and so full of respect. I am super excited what she is concocting for us and what might become of her awakening. I enjoyed her Trouble material and her recent adventures with Ohia and Dreamed a Dream gave me fantastic vibes and for a good reason as I can see :D I'm so looking forward to everything now :D

You summed up my feelings perfectly

^^no, I'm attacked because you like drama and like to come at me whenever possible. I NEVER refer to posts of people who like something, I NEVER criticise people for liking something. My criticism is only ever directed at the work itself. If you can't stand someone criticising something you like and then start making this about their "tone", even though nothing they said was directed at you, maybe you should learn how to deal with opposing views in a more constructive way.

^We are the toxic part of the fandom apparently lol People need to stop taking things so seriously~

I think we all have a different understanding of what this "ayumi hamasaki" is, as well as Ayu herself. And i think it's always going to be that way. For her to feel fresh would be reinventing herself. But i don't think that's what anyone needs, her included.
What "hamasaki ayumi" is for me, it's how much thought seemed to be put into her earlier stuff. It had meaning, a soul a story...? I don't know, but it felt more wholesome. And while she had an odd ball here and there that felt this way, they were far and few between for me..

Exactly.

I can speak for myself that I don't like drama. I ignore the vast majority of your negative comments. Only today I am very happy with the reveal so your post triggered me. But that's not gonna happen again easily any time soon.

Thank you for the translation!

It's not much a traditional song... More of a mid 90's jpop track. It's Matsutoya Yumi most iconic track, even if it was released in the 4th decade of her career. Yuming is a pop icon in Japan and a strong influence on her career both as a musician and as a performer.

Here it's a live performance from Yuming herself. It totally feels like something Ayu would do.

And as it seens like you are not aware, Ayu actually covered this track during A Ballads promotion. It's probably one of her best live performances of all time. I dare say it's even better than Yuming's rendition of it.

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On a side note, I think people are thaking the whole "being Hamasaki Ayumi again" a lot more deeper than she meant.

Thing is, Ayu's last full album was released almost 5 years ago. She is probably talking about her lack of new music, instead of shitting on her more recent projects.

Also, people get offended when the same people 3 or 4 people complain about the newer stuff because they never come as "I don't like this release", or even "this is crap", instead coming as "why is this lazy bitch releasing this shit? Why can't she just retire and stop destroying her legacy like that?" and this obviously doesn't come very nice to everybody else. And I say that as someone who is following Ayu since the peak of her relevance among the western fandom, and who actually thinks her best stuff was released during the 2010's.

Perfect gif :laugh

I think her "returning to Ayumi Hamasaki form" is directed to her lack of releasing songs. Guess she was not inspired to do that and now it's time to start over. It's a totally different thing about saying she was "lost" or making things she didn't like. I mean, she made several concerts, with very different purposes and concepts in a short period of time, during a pandemic while pregnant. If she was kinda lost and not wanting to dedicate herself to the career, she could use pregnancies and pandemic situation as excuses to avoid everything. It's nonsense people using her words to shit over her work like that.

Lovely blog post from her. Let's see.

^^it's what she said, this has nothing to do with "shitting over her work". She specifically refers to her entire work, like covers, music videos and songs. This has nothing to do with not releasing as much. She talks about how Shimoko said on social media how she (Ayu) was putting her everything into this work (Haru yo, koi) and that she felt the same way. Then she goes on about how she was putting her everything into her covers, her songs, her videos and how this time, when recreating Haru yo, koi, it wasn't important if she had fun doing what she was doing but that she felt she was putting her soul into it. She then asks, and this is important, "after finishing this work, I immediately wondered how many years it has been that I was that focused, exhausted, concentrated and possessed by something". Then she continues, saying that she sadly had forgotten that feeling, but that frankly speaking, she really woke up. She finishes that paragraph with "私は ね。" (this is me, right?), which touched me the most about that entry. Also, she says no matter how Haru yo, koi will turn out, she has to return to this Hamasaki Ayumi.
So yes, she talks about how she was not putting her everything into her work during the last few years. And honestly, I respect her a lot for saying this. She is not perfect and her work neither. If she had some years when her priorities shifted and she felt "having fun" was more important, that's fine. She indirectly says that having fun with her work was more important to her for some time than the dedication for the entire outcome of a project like she used to have in the past. But working on a song that important brought back for her how it felt to dedicate herself to her work and that this is Hamasaki Ayumi and she needs to return to that Ayu and won't stop. It's a very brave thing to admit that and if anything, I love her even more for this.

Thank you for the translation! I’m so excited that she’s trying a return to the ayu we knew. The Ayu that put her heart and soul into everything. Even though I liked most of her recent releases, there was a feeling of a lack of energy, kind of like she was only doing it because she felt like she had to, not because she was truly excited about what she was doing. I’m so excited to see that she’s excited again and has her sense of creativity back.

Trying to force creativity is very draining, emotionally speaking. Trying to put into words or song or music your inner feeling when the creativity just isn’t flowing is so frustrating and exhausting. It’s a hard thing for an artist to feel as though they’ve “lost it” but still trying to create. I really loved オヒアの木 because it felt like she had some of her old inspiration back with her son, and she crafted a song for him that you can really feel her love.

I thought we were stopping posting TA blogs on here to non TA members?

Thank you so much.

I feel this. Thank you for sharing. I feel like there is a lot of nuance with ayu (her life and career), but it can be a lot to articulate at times. I'm glad she shared this, as it's not often we get her honest thoughts in this way. I'm looking forward to seeing where she goes.

Personally, I think her essentially taking things on all by herself for the past decade could have really done a lot for her mental health.

When Max was involved with her releases, I truly believe he had a huge influence on what she did and didn’t do. That and the team that he would have brought to the table.

I do think that when his finesse of her releases was pulled back is when her release pattern and quality really started to get... iffy.

That’s not to say that she -can’t- do it by herself, but it’s certainly more mentally draining. Plus, failure (whether perceived or real) reflects directly back at you, so then it all becomes very personal.

In any case, I do hope she feels inspired again. If anything, I want her to know who she is. She’s a legend, no matter what.