I agree completely, "flat" and "stacked" feel like perfect descriptions for how the song sounds (especially the chorus, it's not as much of an issue in the less busy verses). It's annoying that this is a persistent issue, I really hoped it would get better after TROUBLE. I just re-listened to MADE IN JAPAN yesterday and I really feel like it didn't have this issue (at least to the same extent, and maybe that's just because the songs weren't so busy)...

I'm not fully in love with Dreamed a Dream, but it has many great things going for it: the synth riff is mad catchy (I've had it stuck in my head and found myself tapping it over the past few days), the melody is pretty great, and Ayu sounds great, she's got attitude for DAYS. I'm really happy to hear her sounding so good even though her hearing is getting worse, I'm glad she's finding ways to make it work. I wish the production didn't sound so cheap (I don't like how the percussion and the high-pitched synth strings sound) but I also feel like the slight dated feeling might be intentional (it is a TK joint after all, and the lyrics talk about the past quite a bit). I'm torn on how I feel about the ending... the slowed-down final stanza is such a cliché for Ayu at this point... but on the other hand, this might be one of those instances where it really fits the song. :laugh

Yeah, and there was also that promo at the end of M drama final episode, if I'm not mistaken

I'm happy she was able to get #1 daily again

^Yep, they aired the commercial after the last episode aired.

Was expecting a little more sales, but yeah, seems Ohia no ki got more people interested to check it for being the comeback song.

still to get number 1 for no tie-ins, little promotion is really great. It shows how faithful her fans was

Dreamed a Dream is at #13 today. Third place sold 3,611 downloads.

A daily number one is nice but what's more important is how/if she charts weekly (= this week only).

I don't like being a hater I was so excited when I found out there was a new song. And I was even more excited when I heard the beginning and knew it was gonna be upbeat. But it just sounds a mess to me. :/ Covers are great though while it is more of the same she looks good :)

The main push was really for that first day, so hard to get longevity from just that.

I find it very rare that the songs without tie-ins or something viral attached to them have any sort of longevity, so...not expecting much.

Yea, I don't expect it to chart after it's first week. I just hope it gets a top 20 placement for this week and that's it.
That's what I meant with "weekly", I was solely referring to this week, since that's the one that counts.

Does streaming not factor into sales? They haven't integrated that yet?

Streaming is its own thing but counts weekly only. Ayu usually doesn't get on that chart because those are sort of insanely high numbers and top 10 is usually 2-3, up to 6 million streams in a week.

Well, hopefully we see an high rate for Dreamed a Dream on Spotify. It's on repeat here, so I'm glad if I could help with that.

Dreamed a Dream seems to be at around 22,000 Spotify plays atm. I wonder if most Japanese fans are using Apple Music tbh. Seems to be about the same rate that Ohia no Ki was being listened to.

It's probably worth noting that after almost a month, Ohia no Ki is at 155k+ plays.

Now that I think about it, Dreamed a Dream didn't have a TV-CM like Ohia, did it?

Ohia had a bit of a week long tease and then it got revealed during the drama when a lot of people were watching without a title about 20-30 minutes before it was actually revealed. Dreamed a Dream did pretty well considering all it had was social media as a push.

Most platforms tend to filter streams when people listen too much on loop

I'm old school so I prefer playing the audio video on Youtube. Even when I'm outside I just use my mp3 files instead of Spotify and such.
What I also love about streaming on Youtube is that after the (Ayu/other artist) song ends sometimes it leads to some live performance I've not watched before.

I agree. While I'm happy she finally released something that isn't super safe sounding, it has the same issue as many of her releases for years now - the mixing is super flat. There is just a problem with her mixing, period. How this hasn't been addressed yet is insane to me.

WOW! finally managed to listen to it and all I can say is wow! it feels like continution from Song 4 U and I really like it! not a safe way to go but this might be her best work since idk, CoLOURS-era?