I LOVE THIS ALBUM!








...too bad I dl´d it :P

wow thats contradicting:P
C'mon NEXT LEVEL move to the next level!

But what I'm saying is throughout her career she has released things at the same time as her tour and the tour preparation. That's just a fact. I remember Startin' and Born to Be came out the same week her tour started. I remember because I was there for the first tour date and watched her performance on Music Fighter the night before. She did several tv lives the week before and between breaks on the tour.

And then to use your own example, I Am came out in January and the tour started in April - but what happened between that time when she would have been doing tour preparations? Daybreak and Free and Easy came out and she was all over tv for them, especially for Free and Easy in April - the month of the tour. And according to Ayu herself, back then she was actually MORE involved in the process of deciding things and doing things for the tour etc etc by herself; nowadays she said she relies more on her staff to do some things. So really, that means she should actually have more time these days to do promo types of things than she did in the past...

I'm sure you can find examples from everywhere in her career until lately where she was performing on tv while in tour preparations or on tour itself or writing a new album or recording a new album or etc etc etc. Bottom line: doing something else never stopped her from doing tv appearances before.

And btw: My Story came out December 15th. Tour Started February 1st - a month and a half later.
Memorial Addresss came out December 17th and the tour started not even 2 weeks later.

She's probably at a point in her life where she likes taking things a little slower or less hectic, though she's still a very busy woman. I mean, I got dizzy just reading your description of how much she used to do.

lol, that's true. :) I would just rather people admit that the reason she is not on tv so much anymore is that she probably simply just doesn't want to be. (for whatever the reason is.)

It is true I remember a tired Ayu because too much stress almost the end of 2001,it was too much for her...her health is first...

I thought that was obvious...@_@;

Didn't she even say she was going to do things at her own pace?

Well, the difference is that this time the album was probably completly finished 2 weeks before it came out. I'm assuming this of course, but I think those previous times she had more time to do an album. Even though the tour has been close to release dates, the album may have been finished some time before it actually came out. That's why she could do TV performances, prepare for the concert with new songs at the same time without falling too behind. The only time we know for sure the album was a last minute thing was Secret - because it was expanded at the last minute and she had said herself she was rushing to finish everything. But the tour then was a few months after release. You're pushing it a bit by saying that, after finishing an album mid-march and a concert starting 3-ish weeks later, that you can fit comprehensive TV performances and promotion in. She did as much as she can but there are limits...

I don't think she's being "lazy" by not doing TV performances (not saying that you are saying that). We can really only speculate what's going on in her life, but she would be spending all this time preparing for the concert because she wouldn't have up to 2 weeks before NEXT LEVEL was released.

I think that that's rather obvious xD I guess that Ayu has decided to really do things at her own pace this year, so this might be what she meant in her TA blog post.

C'mon guys, don't be so down about the sales....it's not like we only listen to Ayu because her albums shift in excess of 1mil copies =|

She's still selling ok with the little promotion she's done. When the USBs come and her tour starts I'm sure she'll see better sales :)

her sales are fine!! :D


im sooo looking forward the tour *-*

regardless of her sales, I don't intend to stop listening to her as long as I like her music. I don't only listen to people who sell (I mean I am a huge fan of Hitomi Shimatani and we all know that Japan generally doesn't care about her).

yeah I agree with you. maybe at this time unusual album release date make her time un-organized.
she always release album the end of the year or at new year. but not this time.
she must complete her album within very short time so she has no time to prepare for her tour.
in the past time she have much more time to finish her album. and during that time of course she has already prepared her tour,

People shouldn't be blaming her company on the poor performance of this album.

Ayumi can clearly choose who, what, when, why and how she wants to do things regarding her career since she is a veteran practically.

She managed to stay some-what relevant for her 11 years, which is am impressive feat or any person in the entertainment industry world wide.

Most people are just going to her shows for her classics and to be entertained, not for her latest CD.

Mind you her quality has been more than lacking. I find NEXT LEVEL kinda gross after listeing to her old albums like LOVEppears, I Am, Memorial Address and even MU.

No one really knows how much time she had to prepare for the old albums. Back then she didn't post much on TA and we didn't know the progress of the albums at all. I think she was much more busy before. We can use 2002 as an example:

01.01 - I am released, lots of promotions
March - Daybreak, ayu-mi-x 4
April - Free & Easy (promotions, new cms)
July - H (quite a lot of promotions for 3 songs)
Sep - Voyage
Oct to Nov - lots of new cms, magazines shots, etc.
Dec - RAINBOW, award ceremonies, etc.

And don't forget she had TWO tours in 2002: the usual AT, and the Stadium Tour. She also started doing "Ayu Ready?" in October. So to me I really think she could be rushing out the albums as well.

I dun really think what Sunshine implied is ayu is "lazy" or something like that. What he's trying to say could be "if ayu did some more promotions, the album might have better sales", and I think this is pretty logical. Of course I dun mind ayu not going to do many promotions because she should have her own life instead of doing unacceptably crazy promotions. I do wish she would attend a few more shows tho simply because I wanna see her on live. That's all.

^Not to forget the two photobooks. And ayu co-composed all of the singles and (co-)composed a few album tracks.
2002 seems to have been her busiest year. She was so thin in the "Real me" PV. Perhaps due to stress.

ayu said that she wants to do things her own pace ever since "MY STORY" era, I think. She's already an established artists, so she doesn't have to be like "Hey there, look at me". A few more performances would be nice, though. But I'm kinda glad for her that she can do things her own pace, now.

2->2->2->2->2 - Hamasaki Ayumi - 8,161 + 8,939 + 7209 + 5759 + 5280 = 35340

STUCKED! X3

^Thank you =D

No one here really blame anyone, we just discussed what made the lack for promotion.

About the album, ayu being experimental with electro songs and the correlation of sales drop is really not surprising, at least ayu's daring and evolving.
And (miss)understood is nowhere near NEXT LEVEL (imo).

Also it's funny that people go to see only classics with tours that have got new albums titles, (and this one is ~NEXT LEVEL~ and it's ayu's longest). oh well. :)

はい！

I agree!!

Oh I totally forgot about her first trip to Taiwan and HK in 2002. That was also the golden era of ayu in those places I think (like... more than 500 people waiting for her at the airport in HK, compared to about 50 people waiting for her in 2007..). I really remember the time when she shoot the photo album (ura ayu?) in HK, she generated a huge chaos there..

And yes, technically after Ma era she stopped attending award ceremonies. And also that was the time she said she didn't wanna follow fashion as hardcore as before.