I'm loving her voice in HBYA - if this is a reflection of the album's quality it'll become an instant classic. These vocals are really powerful and raw.

I'm getting chills at the higher notes - the English is heavily accented but it's still nice. Her voice sounds almost dry, if you can get what I'm saying, it just sounds so different to other ballads...

^I agree, it sounds very emotional, like she sang from the heart completely.
And just an update, #9 overall and #6 for J-Pop on the Japanese iTunes charts!!!
Does anyone know how to check rankings on mu-mo or recochoku?

^ yaaay! hope it gets number 1 at least at mu-mo or recochoku *.*

Recochoku only updates once a day and mu-mo's rankings are usually available from the mu-mo.net page.

Within an hour or so of release, how beautiful you are got #1 on the mu-mo real time ranking but that's normal, haha.

I hope Party Queen sets the tone for the rest of the album. How Beautiful You Are, I still need to see within the context of all the other songs.

Brillante is one of those songs that impress when you first listen to it, and then after a while you realize it's just like one of those bloated Hollywood epics. Self-important, unnecessarily grandiloquent, turgid. The song would have been better without that choir in the background. Right now it sounds more like a movie track for a Biblical spectacle than an actual song. The flaw is that Ayu's vocals take a backseat to the other musical elements.

Rock and Roll Circus just had too many weak songs. Microphone, Count Down, Ballad, Last Links, Meaning of Love, Lady Dynamite, Sunrise (Love is All), most have been rendered redundant by other stronger songs in her previous albums, particularly Secret and Guilty. And without a strong central concept, the album just falls apart. What is this album trying to do? It's just bits and pieces, mindlessly following the Ayu formula.

so now its number 3 on itunes charts.. not bad... wish she could of claimed the number one spot!
but a very good song and a very good lead in to the album!

brb going to listen to HBYA but I WANT COVER ARRRRT

You do know that there is cover art for the song right? :P

all this controversy over song titles. Yeah even I thought it was a joke. But at least it's not "Egg"

Wasn't that one of the main selling points of BRILLANTE though? They wanted to go for that dramatic and epic movie sound and it worked rather well, I thought. For me, I think that the song can drag for a little bit due to the rather long intro and the chanting but Ayu hardly ever takes a backseat during any other part of the song in my opinion.

For Rock'n'Roll Circus, the strength of the tracks seems to be rather debatable. Sure, there are the songs like meaning of Love that just about everyone is against having in her albums (but the Japanese loooove them) but she almost always has a song or two in her albums that listeners tend to be iffy about. Rock'n'Roll Circus for me seemed to be an album that was more personal than some of her other albums as a lot of the lyrics were not as one-size-fits-all as others which is why people loved songs like count down or Microphone (though Microphone was pretty much universally loved). The album is certainly a mixed bag but that seems to be pretty common with a lot of Ayu albums due to the addition of singles, but I think that there was a very loose theme to the entire album. That no matter what, if she sang a pop song, a ballad, or an ethnic track... that they would become 'rock' in some way when she performed them live. There's also the aspect that it's a bit like a circus with a variety of acts to see. Her albums that do this sort of thing tend to not come together for some, but I find that they tend to be her stronger albums despite the lack of flow/incoherence.

It's really weird coz the special limited box set is available at many stores...I recall Love songs,rock n roll circus and next level Limited Editions were sold out in less than a day.

I disagree with every single thing you've sad :) And I hope the rest of the album is nothing like either one of the two new songs we've heard.

R'n'RC have my fullest respect in many different areas.
First: Pretty much every song in there have veeery personal lyrics. It's hard to find an album of Ayu where she sings "watashi/atashi" instead of "boku". She's opening herself way more than in her other lyrics and she's very honest.
Second: It's edgy. Very edgy. I always figured that her "Rock" in the title had to do with the whole edge the albums songs give out. Even her same old cutesy song (that she always includes in her albums) is extremely edgy and one of the best songs she ever made. Yes I'm talking about Sexy Little Things. Don't look back have an amazing new kind of feel. I love how she wasn't afraid to try out something new with her songs with this album. Then naturally I have Sunrise + Sunset that I pretty much always skipp but that's not much.
Third: PV's. They are very very well thought-out. Don't look back gives me the chills everytime. It's genious! And Microphone is simply gooorgeous to look at. And also a bit creepy. It's a master piece. I also adore You were... cuz it really fits the lyrics sooo good. That lonely yet warm feeling.
Forth: The great flow. If you would compare with NL's flow R'n'RC's flow is amazingly good. NL is a total mess flow-vice.

Well, Ayu's lyric focused albums like RnRC (or ASFXX, I am..., My Story, etc) tend to be a mess flow-wise and genre wise, probably because she is chosing she songs and arrangments with the lyrics in mind, instead of writing lyrics to fit a theme or genre like her theme-focused albums (NL, LS, RAINBOW, etc). Even if I dislike all of her albums I believe are lyrics focused (as I don't know japanese), I don't think there's anything wrong with any ways of producing her material... to the point of both (and the other ways she also uses) having its own share of passionate fans.

About BRILLANTE... I cry everytime i hear the chorus, cause I still how dark the lyrics are. I have enough of "beauty of love songs". Life isn't about birds flowers and touching hands. Her music is lyrical-wise, but I hate when she is doing all-over the "love-love-love" scheme. I don't say they don't have meaning to me, I don't say they aren't pretty. They are, but the more she writes something like "How beautiful you are" the more lyrics just looks the same to me. I'm sorry, that's just my opinion.
BRILLANTE might be the "blockbuster" (epic at first time, and then getting flatter) but it was like one of the most unexpected songs from her at that time. It makes me cry, I can imagine within this song that nothing is perfect in this world.

About RnRC... I don't like the album in whole. I can listen to Microphone, Sexy little things and Sunrise (which I freaking love, my guilty pleasure) but when I am trying to listen it at once, I figured that I am skipping 3/4 of the album for this 3 songs. 3 songs, it's not much I guess. I have the same feeling with GUILTY. These albums just don't FLOW for me. I am not a fan of NEXT LEVEL but this album REALLY grew on me. I can see I just like... the happy vibe in it. It feels just happy right? I can see colors in this albums.. I can't see them in RnRC and GUILTY. I don't hate ANY of Ayu albums, but they are the hardest to listen imho. I truly "love" only untitled ~for her~ from GUILTY. One of the underrated ballads, I love the way it's not directed to a "beloved" one. I am not even a fan of Marionette, lol (a lot of people loves this song I guess) GUILTY just feels massive for me.

R'n'R discussion again? Even I'm tired of typing (and I'm sure everyone is sick of hearing) my opinion on this album... Lol.

Quoted for truth u_u I don't really understand that hate for RnRC, it's not her best album but it has very strong tracks imo !

I wonder if the limited ver is going to be set up like RnRC limited ver with AT09

RnRC is one of the most debatable (with NEXT LEVEL) within this forum I guess. And I hope Party Queen will be nothing like RnRC :>

I still think NL is ok, but RnRC was more exciting with everything. But ayu also said that NL was more went off in a sideways direction rather than going forwards, though i want something more like (miss)understood album sounding