It's those synthesized strings, ffffu. (It kind of sounds like they used both real strings -and- synth ones though...)

This song is so sweeeet!

this.
I keep listening to beloved but eh :shrug it sounds like a random ayuish ballad to me.
Although I'm really impressed by her vocals O_O woah she's great.

She sounds absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately, the song itself doesn't do much for me. It's wayyyy too J-pop.

Beloved is quite nice yet is it unoriginal and those cheap arrangements... argh. I really don't understand her. One day "she uses" beautiful strings and real instruments, the other there is just some terrible fake sounds. How can she be happy with this...
Yet I think I'm fine with the song. Well I just heard it once. I hated meaning of Love, but this one is fine IMO. Her voice is really gentle. But I don't really see any improvement from crossroad for example.
Unfortunately, this mini is shaping to be very uninspired, forgettable. Somewhere I don't understand why she is not trying to go further.

By the way, when did ayu take the vocal training? Before PoM? Did she speak about it on tweeter or TA? I want to read something about it as I missed it...

Not listening to anything til the album leaks in full in HQ but I like the "cheap" sound everyone seems to be complaining about. I heard untitled ~for her~ thrown out there and I loved that little instrumental in the background. Who... has that "cheap" sound too.

^ I am not sure if I would call it "cheap" more like plain sounding? It's simpler and toned down. Along the lines of untitled, Sweet Season, meaning of Love etc. it's not half bad ;) Not really a PV/single material imo. The song isn't bad though.

It should be a while before the tour, though I think she kept taking lessons during the tour as well. It's her TA posts if I remember well.

I'm totally agree with every single word! She should evolve.

And about the vocal training, yes, in one TA entry she said that during a rehearsal of PoM tour, her voice just stopped, she couldn't sing, so she called a vocal trainer (the one who teached her to sing for the first time so much years ago, I think) to take some lessons. Apparently, she started taking lessons from the most basic things.

After that, she could sing correctly.

I used to find these boring as well but lately I have been loving these type of songs from Ayu more than my favorites! Yes it's that "relaxing" feeling and I like that feeling. However, I hate meaning of Love so hopefully it's nothing like that hot steaming pile of garbage!!

It's weird how her tracks can really vary in quality. I mean progress is a standout in her discography and effing amazing in every single way but then we get songs like beloved that are extremely average and not even half as good.

The arrangement is nothing like meaning of Love, but I think the overall feel of the song is really similar.

This is one of the things that really turned me off to her music from NEXT LEVEL to Rock'n'Roll Circus. On those two albums, there's such a huge variation in song quality. There's one or two standout tracks on each album, and that's it. >_< (For me, at least.)

Up until maybe GUILTY, I seriously loved almost every single song she put out and thought that there was sooo little variation in the quality of the songs on each album.

I don't hear the cheapness in beloved. Honestly my first thought was if it may have been another arrangement by that American guy. If the strings are "fake" not all of them are because some make sounds uncommon from midi-strings - and they are background instruments in this song so I don't care, especially as we're getting an orchestra version.
IMO some of Ayu's best vocals, a really pretty arrangement(but not her best) and an average melody. Together creating a song that stands out for the technical aspects moreso than for the creative ones. However I'd call it different from what she released the last years, Who... may be closest.

meaning of Love was at least "Ayu-ish", beloved sounds more like a Yuna Ito b-side.

i love these type of ballads from ayu. sweet & simple. :heart "beloved" is so nice! i really do love it.

I think it's just very special in a subtle way, which is usually interpreted as boring or plain. It happens with a large handful of songs in Ayu's discography.

Am I the only one that loves Meaning of Love? Meaning of love is one of my favorite ballad on Rock n Roll Circus, so, if it has that mellow/bittersweet sound, I may like it. I wasn't a big fan of Sweet Season though. I'd prefer the 'climatic' songs like You were... Together when and Moon.

waiting for a translation of beloved.

I guess the same could be said about Secret (the song) which I absolutely loathe. The most boring song ever. Hope it's not like that.

I also LOVE Meaning of love, it is just so beautiful and one of my most played songs on the album

As a professional violinist, I give a wag of my finger to the beloved arrangement. Seriously, Ayu, I'll work for free. ;)

OH SHE DIDN'T!!!!

It's funny because I love Secret, although its arrangement is quite plain and simple.

Anyway I'm hoping for the orchestra version. Most of the times I dislike the original one but I love the orchestra version (like with Days and meaning of Love).

beloved sounds nice, I think it will grow on me more after a few more plays, kind of reminds me of 'Life' a little bit.

And I also love Secret and some of her other slower or simple songs, like fated and HANABI

Me too!!
I like both beloved and Meaning of Love!!

HANABI isn't so simple because it's epic. I guess it is simple in a way but it's simple in an EPIC sort of way. fated I never liked before but now I am always listening to the simple ballads like fated, untitled, Together When..., Sweet Season

Ohhhh, and I LOVE LIFE!

I was thinking about this earlier, and I think this started a lot earlier. Like for example, on the Duty album there's Duty & End of the World, which are really interesting/standouts in her discography then there are songs like AUDIENCE & girlish that are just huge ear sores. It happens with every album imo (except NFN & asfxx where just everything is hard on the ears). I wish it didn't though lol. I'd like to have those epic songs 24/7. But oh well. She's not perfect of course and it does happen with most other artists but with ayu the quality difference from some tracks is massive to me. Anyway, I hope BRILLANTE will wind up being more impressive.

girlish is so much fun! I love it, the chorus has the feeling where it's not so forced or boring. But, I would not take the "simple/relaxing" songs out of Ayu's discography. Yes, I want more fierce songs from her. Songs that scream "This is Ayu. This is why you love me" - I miss those a lot but we get them now and then. But songs like Sweet Season, Like A Doll, fated, untitled ~for her~... they have all become songs I love and a style by Ayu that I like, when mixed in with the fierceness. Sometimes, well a lot lately, when I'm in the car or listening to Ayu, I don't want the fierceness. It gets a little... boring if that makes sense? Even my favorites I just don't want to listen to them, but they still are my favorites (STEP you, Moments).

TOTALLY. HANABI IS SIMPLY EPIC. no other words to describe HANABI. I love the song sooo much. Its slow but so powerful and full of emotions:thud

i love beloved as well, but compared to hanabi, it will forever be my fav song from ayu.

On top of Ayu's most memorable and impressive ballads I have always considered Dearest "Acoustic Piano Version" as one of the most precious.

The live performance at Japan Golden Disc Award (I think that's what the show was called) is one of those magical Ayu moments for me that make me appreciate this girl so much.

It seems that Ayu's song takes sometimes to become "legend' or "being get used to".
Like every time when the new song came out we will complain about that or that.
but after a period of time..we may think that song is actually good...

I don't know much about the arrangement thing...but for me...
a good song doesn't necessarily come with complicated arrangement..
Days and Secret to me are two of my favorite...
And I love both of them from the very beginning..it doesn't sound boring to me..

I am good with beloved as well..not really super-impressive but at least it's not
the repetitive-chours song..i am tired with "Do it again" and "Crossroad"....

Thanks for introducing. I have never listened to the Piano Version.
Is there any youtube video of this performance?

i can't wait to see how well all of this songs will do on the chaku-uta chart...

btw are composers and mixers already confirmed? may be there is CREA song? *___*

confirmed

Yasuhiko Hoshino works
A Song for ××, Hana, Friend, Poker Face, You, For My Dear..., Present, And Then, Kanariya, End of the World, Girlish
and after few years : Moon, Blossom

^Seeing that its by hoshino gives me lots of confidence in the song. I havent heard it (because im resisting) but..he's made wonderful songs with great moving melodies :)

beloved is sweet, I like it. I prefer tragic ballads though.

btw I've just noticed... The mini-album will release about FIVE months after that disaster in Japan!

beloved is so beautiful song ♥ and progress is amazing *___* and cant wait to hear the rest of the songs!

thanks Aderianu!!

now I see why I loved beloved so immediately! :D :luv2

After the first listen I feel: Meh.

Might change but, meh.

Yes we all love life in some way :rolleyes:rolleyes.

I definitely get emotionally when I listen to Secret. How about no more words? It is another nice song.

Guys I made my piano version of Beloved

check it out



hope you like it

Thank you for the explanations! I'll look for it!

beloved is muchhhh more beautiful than I thought
The two new songs are so unique it isn't similar to any of her songs

yeah.. even though I haven't heard any of the new stuffs yet, but I believe this POWER of MUSIC really inspired her songs on FIVE, can't wait for the full release! :D

this mini-album's gonna be epic!

See, I'm different. :P Though I do agree that AUDIENCE is an ear sore.

Personally, I always felt like between each album, every song was close in quality. Like, for example, while Born To Be... is my least favorite song on Secret, I don't think it's really a bad song or very much a worse song than my favorite songs on that album, either. I just don't really like it as much.

NEXT LEVEL was the first album where I stopped thinking that the songs were all ~good~ even if I didn't love them all equally, and started thinking, "This song is good but that other song is just plain bad."

Love songs though, which I adooore, brought me back to my old thinking of "all the songs are so good whether I like them or not!" and it's sort of sticking for FIVE. Because, while I don't love beloved, I'm not going to like... go around saying it sucks because I don't think it's a bad song, just one that bores me a lot.

I love no more words. I don't cry when I listen to it, but I do feel...ah, how should I explain it? Not exactly emotional, but it touches me like her other songs don't....

Oh, now I need to hear beloved! The first thing I think of when I hear "beloved" is Yoko Shimomura's "Dearly Beloved"...which is probably why I have that theme in my head right now. :D

wow..how can i missed that performance...
somebody has a high quality version of that performance?
please upload it..please...

beloved is sad + warming at the same time. the lyric is encouraging but the melody is a lil saddening. and this song reminds me a lot of meaning of Love.

PS: i love Secret too! it is not boring at all. i love how her voice sounds in that song.

Beloved is awesome!!!!! Can't wait for the CDs!!!!

See that's the thing though, AUDIENCE and girlish are songs that I, myself, really enjoy, they cheer me up no matter what. AUDIENCE is one of my favorite in concert, it's great and gets people moving. But that's just my opinion.

Some songs others seem to think are so great, to me come off as boring. I think it's something to be expected now-a-days, not just from Ayu, but anyone and everyone else, other artists, there are bound to be songs we'll like more than others...

As someone else said, NEXT LEVEL, to me was the only album I found myself not skipping a song after listening to it none stop, even now.

And I agree ASFXX is an ear sore all around. Ugh, someone give me ear plugs!

Oh I see. Well for me, there have always been those ayu tracks where I'm like "wtf why does this exist when ____ and ____ exist on this same album and are 1000x better". But I don't feel the need to complain much since the majority of her music from album to album these past 10 years impresses me. I agree with you about Love Songs & beloved. Lately, even her worse songs aren't completely bad to me, which is good, but I'd still rather have more songs like progress. :yes

Yeah, it's all about different taste. Like for me, I LOVE Sunrise & a lot of people seem to hate it with a passion and wish it didn't exist & etc. I actually love a lot of NEXT LEVEL as well, I really can't think of it as her worst album, though a lot of people think so.

For me, it starts really good, it gave me expectation of a uplifting song a la Who... But then that fake violins make their appearance, and the melody went down hill along my hopes. It turns boring as the song continues.

Don't take me wrong, I liked it, but the only part in which I thought "amazing" while listening, was the beginning. Her vocals were great though.

is anyone has upload this pic..

http://i51.tinypic.com/2lk3dox.gif

someone messages me in youtube n confirm it as a picture for progress pv

^ so the images they used for promotion of Ayu's Pachinko are from "progress" PV ?

Cant be true, cos progress was shot recently, and pachinko is way older and has the pv for end of the world

Her vocals sounded good but instrumentation was so bland I only listened about one minute before getting bored. D: Oh well, her vocals sounded beautiful and clear which is good. Beloved as a song is nothing special, much like meaning of Love on RnRC (but for some reason I worship meaning of Love anyway o.O).

Yes, I was curious about this song because there was so many good reviews that I had to listen a small part of it. I will listen to the full thing when album comes out though. :)

THAT'S NOT TRUE

http://www.fields.biz/catalog/bphma/index.html -> demonstration

pv for end of the world??

Beloved is very pretty. Not my favorite ballad, but I think it will grow on me.

I thought I read somewhere that it was the pv for Duty not End of the World..but now I'm not sure..

the pachinko previews look really cool!

I couldn't resist, I listened to beloved and it's really beautiful. Ayu's vocals have improved a lot, it sent chills to my spine. Ayu's singing was really smooth and beautiful. Overall, I really like this song, a bittersweet ballad, in my opinion.

^same here! \(^.^)/

i've downloaded Beloved, but before I could play it...I deleted it~~ I have to resist before the actual release~~ Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?!!!! ;)

When I first listened to it I thought beloved sounds soo boring, but already listening to it for the first time made me like the song=)
It's very soft and Ayu'S voice is lovely!

For progress: I think it's a mix of Green and some other song...but great=)

After listening to beloved for a few days, I realize that the song had a really strong "growing power" on me! The song might be disregarded because it's not composed in a minor key for an epic ballad, or have a mind-blowing arrangement but I feel that Ayu's voice itself really brings out the melody. I can't wait to read a complete and proper translation of the lyrics.

I love Beloved, but when I listen to it, I ALWAYS remember this song.

http://youtu.be/OOJ0OP0viVM

The begining is as if Ayu had "Copied and Pasted" the song! XD. Both songs are really good, and both singers are impressive!

濱崎歩: Ok,u guys wanna c some pics of brand-new music video of mine from FIVE??? http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...anu/hs_org.gif
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...anu/hs_org.gif http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...anu/hs_org.gif

濱崎歩: Here we go♪ ayu&Timmy(^_-)
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...k0uh94hxfj.jpg

濱崎歩: Me&my lil bro http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...itter/love.gif
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1.../369420045.jpg

濱崎歩: N my dancers:))) SHU-YA,ZIN,SUBARU,2-YAN,KAZUMA,MARO!!!!!!
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1.../369421379.jpg

^ O-M-G :luv2

wow seem so cool!
and the dancers look like micheal jackson on that pose haha~~

The first pic is from BRILLANTE PV, and the rest from ANother song PV, right ?
Love the climax of ANother song PV ♥ It would be cool it has a tone similar of the In The Corner performance of AT 09, because i really liked it !

Soooo Michael Jackson!!!

the first pic looks inappropriate somehow, not going to like the PV...

^ haha we gonna see how it's gonna turn out..
i kinda like it..
it looks interesting... it'll be like Lady Dynamite part 2? haha ~~

Looking so good!!!!!!!!!!!!

BRILLIANTE looks veeery promising!!!!

BRILLANTE looks exciting! I hope the dance is catchy.

oh wow, what amazing pictures!! both PVs are gonna be great! :D

Awesome pics!
Timmy in drag is pretty hot LOL

Her outfit for ANother song is GREAT !
Well,for BRILLANTE... Dunno yet what to think xD But for me it forecasts an EPIC song !

subaru is back?!

i hope we will get more than 1 outfit per pv, like Mirrorcle World

new to forum but i wanted to say how excited i am for this release! progress sounds amazing!

XD and I hope none of the PVs will turn out as bad as MW.

so nothing new about PVs? I wonder when they will broadcast them ...

^
:laugh. After some time I start to appreciate MW PV a little more, but it's not one of her best neither though lol.

Anyway ANother song and BRILLANTE PVs pics looks.. woah D: can't wait to see them both!

The beginning of 'beloved' resembles me too much Mika Nakashima's 'ALWAYS' xD
Both wonderful songs, though.

I really expected for all of news PV's! Ayu look so beautiful and very sexy in "ANother song" and "BRILLANTE" PV's!!! :thud

still no word on progress PV??? thats the one im looking forward to most...

Wow, I really like the pics for "ANother song"! Now I'm even more excited to see how the pv turns out!! I love the vibes that are coming from those pics as well!

Wowww.....BRILLANTE looks so effin sexy....*sigh*

What else has Masashi Muto directed for Ayu?

ALL OF THE PV PICS LOOK GORGEOUS.
so. excited. for BRILLIANTE and ANother song pvs(but mostly BRILLIANTE... it looks mysterious.. I love her "Cleopatra"-like wig!!). Also really excited for beloved and progress pvs..

Everything looks so artistic. My favorite!!

The PV pics look awesome~ so excited for this =)

BRILLANTE!!! I cant wait to hear the full album!!!

the waiting is killing me

Brillante pic reminds me of the cover of (miss)understood arena tour DVD!

Masashi Muto has done a lot~

Depend on you, Ladies Night, Microphone, Sexy little things, Love song, do it again, and Last angel.... oh, is this LOVE? too.

welcome to Ahs-drama is all-
lol..

Is it weird that of this list, Depend on you is the PV I like the most? lol....

Didn't Wataru Takeishi did Depend on you? at least it says so in the COMPLETE CLIP BOX :P