Some people just have no taste in music... or they just on't understand it, lol..
Progress is an amazing song and I hope she does more like it.
Although the PV was horrible! (it was a tie-in! include some footage of the game! lol)

Well, many popular American singers have "top staff" but their music is garbage. I wouldn't take it too seriously.

Yeah, and of course they're not going to say it's a steaming pile of **** haha

Omg, I love your sig! *saves*

lol it will be true for some people, just like usually >D

When I read the titels I was like http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/...4/facepalm.jpg

But ayu never fails to deliver so I'll keep my hopes up. :)

THIS

I don't care much about the titles but overall they just make the album look tacky/cheap

but the titles do fit to the theme of "party hard"
even Ayu hair do fit this theme now, lolz

OMG, I love this... xD:roflmao

yeah, im not going to say that sound engineers and stuff dont have an important job, cause they do, but Im more concerned with her composers, who imo havent been doing that great, but its not necessarily their fault. Ayu chooses the songs in the end.

And progress, I wish I could remember it enough to give an opinion...I must be getting old.

I don't remember Progress at all, other than I was pretty into it JUST when it got out.
2011 in terms of Ayu is like last weekend to me. A haze of "Moderately fun, but I don't remember it at all." I wish Progress "stuck" more :/

^^ do we have a release on who compose what yet?

I dont think so, but I know people took note of who was working with her in London.

Imo progress was many things (awesome was one of them :P), but forgetful. If you were talking about beloved I'd understand ^^

The end of March marks the end of fiscal 2011, it's normal avex wants their stats to look their best.

Love Songs is by far her most interesting album on the compositional level for me, the tracks have rather unique melodies and interesting blends of genres I don't think I heard in mainstream pop before and if she produces another similar one I'll be in fanboy heaven. And there is a reason Leslie Kee is at the top in a completely oversaturated business: he's a damn good photographer, if his photos make you cringe doesn't really matter...at all. Some people hate Shakespeare as well and his work is without a doubt great no matter what some individuals think. The top fashion magazines, models and musicians will continue to use Leslie because he simply does a great job in his field of work. :innocent

Wow it seems people really like Love songs... :O

Btw, I am kinda disappointed about Leslie Kee. I mean, Secret covers are really nice. But his recent work of Ayu (like 2012 calendar and FIVE/beloved stuff) are not as good imo.

Can't wait to see the covers! Even though i'm not really expecting something great, i don't know why.
Still haven't listened to party queen and how beautiful you are and won't till i receive this ******* album (which means on april since i took the slowest shipping method t_t). I can't waiiiiiit.

^of course yes, love songs is such a great album!

This post, I love it.

I'm fully aware that he's a widely renowned photographer. I was born over 30 years ago, not 30 minutes ago. My husband does photography on the side and I've taken photography classes and photography history classes while attending college years ago. I'm fully knowledgeable on past and current famous photographers and I've even had the opportunity to meet a few in my lifetime. ;)

The last part of that statement was rude and unnecessary. I wasn't insulting the man or deeming his entire portfolio of works as 2nd rate or abhorrent. I was just expressing that I'm not an avid admirer of his works with Ayumi in particular. Is that a crime? If it is please don't hesitate to cast the first stone. And for the record, MY opinion obviously matters to me. :rolleyes

And once again I was not insulting the man or taking away any merit from him or his work. He is a talented photographer but not my favorite by a long shot but I do fancy some of his works. It is what it is.

No offense but that's just stating the damned obvious. :PThere are always going to be individuals who don't fully appreciate or favor a certain figure who's considered to be at the apex of a certain phenomena, occupation, movement, field, etc. And there will always be a myriad of ardent supporters who will invariably find gratification in what that individual stands for or does. Opinions by nature are multifarious and universal. Once again, just stating the obvious. ;)

And let the fighting Begin...

Man.. anyways... So i was thinking about the title song party queen and am I the only one that thinks this is going to be huge in drag queen circles... lol :lech

I'm still looking forward to this releases and the whole glory of the pre ordered hasn't worn off yet... Usually when I preorder one of her albums I'm like, cool... now its going to come in a few months, but this one.. I jsut want it now!
I think it's because last year was pretty try for new material and i am ready for a new album!

^ you're definitely not the only one!! haha

& yes I still am in love with Love Songs, though of course I'm looking forward to the new album.
I love about 90% of what Ayu does... There's always some kind of meaning behind her work, yes even RNRC.


And yes, I'm an ayu stan.

Leslie Kee did some GORGEOUS magazine shoots with Ayu. He knows how to make her look powerful and sexy for the most part though... when he takes photos of her in a natural setting, things go out of whack. It's the same for past calendars where he shot her outdoots, lol.

:lech

I love Love songs too! It's pretty amazing in my eyes! Totally agree with the last state, (about the meanings and everything) Ayumi has stated many times that she does stuff from the heart and all the jazz, so it has meaning. Maybe not to you ( when I say you... I mean the general you) but it has meaning to her and that is all that matters...
Thats why i like her so much. She can make music and its amazing, even if people dont like it and she just keeps making it, over and over and over...
Love her style!

Leslie is so funny. He has this whole powerful goddess theme for all his females.

Love Songs is such a special case for me. The music sucks, but its so conceptual...I kinda let it go. The only song that was worth anything was November. Meh.

I kinda feel like we're going to get a mix of love songs and rnrc, but instead of the love songs feeling, its going to be more exotic and worldly.

^ Man, i feel the complete opposite.. I felt like it was songs like Sweet Season and November that dragged the album done... they were so standard Ayumi.

(Don't get me wrong, I love thos songs.. although November more than Sweet Season, but I felt like she didn't really know which way she wanted to album to go.. Loveie-dovie, or happy love... which works with Love... you feel one way and then its the other... lol)

Which speaking of the release.. has anyone else looked up the other things that are being released on that day!

AAA and May'n!

I fear Ayumi is going to destory her competition... (although AAA's sales are getting better and better with every release!)

Are you serious? Musically its one of her best albums, full of interesting and fresh compositions. A blend of older and new sounds. It was amazing. It felt so fresh, which is hard for an artist to do with so many albums under their belt. Hopefully TK has some involvement with this album because anything he made turned to GOLD.

I loved the album. Its probably my favourite album of hers. It was so grown up and mature, a sound that suits Ayu to a tee. I don't have high hopes that this album is going to follow a mature-sounding route judging from those track names. But you never know, the names could be decieving.

Love Songs is so... unique. When I first heard it, I felt it suffered from many of the songs never fully "TAKING OFF" - none of them have the WOW/FIERCE factor of her greatest songs (my name's WOMEN, STEP you, is this LOVE?, etc - you know, all those POWERFUL songs). However, the album is full of really great music. It takes some time to get used to the choruses of each song, as many of them do not sound like choruses at all, but once you become familiar with the flow, it truly is a very beautiful album.

In fact I just listened to it today again on my drive home. It made me nervous for the new album, because it really does have something to live up to, imo.

Feel the exact same way. She's set the bar very high now, which is probably why I couldn't enjoy FIVE so much, because it just didn't compare to Love songs.

Yeah, at first I wasn't sure with Love Songs, but honestly, I LOVE it now. It's such a great album that had beautiful compositions on it. Some of them quite haunting actually.

I found Love Songs a bit too boring and I still do. I try to listen to it once in a while, but the love for it just isn't there /irony.

Still, there are some really good songs on that album imo. I stand by what I said when VR leaked, it's one of her best ballads ever.

^ i was that way with Next Level... i could not stand the album, but upon watching the concert, I loved all the songs... lol and now its almost on the top of my list of favorite ayumi albums!

I honestly thought LS was one of her most coherent ever xD I love Sweet Season, it instantly became one of my favourites~ On the flipside I don't think much of November! I thought that was bland in comparison too the rest of the album :)

While RnRC and NL were kind of growers for me, I fell for LS instantly! I hope PQ is coherent as well, especially with no singles to jarr the rest of the album!

Cannot agree with you more :tired some of them are seriously scary.

Anyway,i love your post,and like i've said before we're in a forum,so it's totally valid your opinion if your are not offending anyone. Of course we'll always differ if a song/ picture can be considered great or not and that's completely respectable...but at least we are not pretending our opinion is the only one that matters :laugh lol

Party Queen is a refreshing title for Ayu. I won't expect anything but I'm excited to know everything about this album.

hope Party Queen as good and refreshing as NL was :D

I don't know what to expect from ayu, i just want to know more details

I dont know how i feel about that... I had to wait years before I liked Next Level! I dont want that to happen with Party Queen, lol.

I thought that too when I saw the translation. I bet it means that the album was simply recorded in London, Timmy composed a few tracks and some non-Japanese people helped out too, lol. I mean, Kuu works with different people all over the world, and the only "wow" song that fits in that category for me is Once Again.

And since we are on the subject, I can't stand Love songs. Her worst album, imo. I quite like a few songs, and can't stand the rest.

Its funny that they push that she's using top engineers and musicians, yet her composer (Timmy) is about as novice as they come. I think both sides of the table need to know what they're doing for something like that to work.

All of her albums have top-notch production so I doubt anything else is being done differently here. They're just pushing the "London" aspect of it more.

Boxsets at HMV

http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/product/detail/4957753

http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/product/detail/4957754

Sounds like a post-divorce/break-up album. Instead of moping about, Ayu would rather party. I'd be on board, especially after Five, which was a glorified single (Progress being the only song of value in that package).

Isn't Rock and Roll Circus supposed to be a very London album? That's one of her worst, alongside A Song for XX and now Five.

Honestly, though, people really value their opinions too much. Everyone has the right to an opinion, but that does not mean every opinion is created equal. There are good opinions, there are bad opinions, there are intelligent opinions, there are worthless opinions. It's unfortunate that pointing out how someone has a poor opinion has become taboo and politically incorrect.

I blame the internet for the egocentricism, exaggerated sense of entitlement, and overall lack of humility these days.

Perhaps the concept used for Party Queen, like the cover art, won't be London inspired, like RnRC. If it is, I won't be happy. Personally. That's just my opinion, though ;)

:hi5

don't wanna complain but it always has to be 14 tracks? this is kind of weird tradition. I mean not 13 or 15 or any other number, but 14 since Secret (except R'n'RC).

anyway I hope I won't end up buying all editions 'cause of the different covers. they r so expensive this time. box better have the same cover. plz avex (>_<)

Next Level was Ayu's last decent album to me. I hope PQ can reach at that level for me (which isn't saying much). FIVE and most of LS was horrendous :/

Haha, I really hope so. That Rock and Roll Circus cover was terrible. Bad choice of colors, bad hair, bad makeup, bad facial expression, bad layout, bad graphic design, bad clothes. Cliche, twee, childish, completely inappropriate for a woman of thirty.

I hope Party Queen is just a fun, fun, fun album. No heaviness whatsover.

I actually have grown to appreciate Love Songs over time. I like how it's a throwback to the old J-pop sound of the 90s when TK was king and conceptually-speaking it was a very strong album. November seems to be a divisive song here, but I think it's a masterpiece. The use of kitsch - the obviously old-fashioned music, saccharine, artless - contrasted with Ayu's impassioned insistence on lack of irony to convey genuine emotion is brilliant.

One album that I think Ayu needs to seriously consider creating is a traditional Japanese-inspired one. I mean, Will is one of her greatest songs, why hasn't she gone back to that fusion of sounds? I guess there's also theme for a-nation. Her voice shares so many qualities with enka that it would be a missed opportunity if she didn't try to make a whole album out of it.

^^This is basically the strong point of Love Songs.

To elaborate on what I meant when I said the music sucked, was more a comment on the compositions. I have no issue with the sound or arrangements, which is the biggest factor in the conceptual feel, imo.

It IS her most coherent album, but personally, I couldnt care less about that. It made the album boring for me.


Oh well, all this stuff is rehashed now lol idk what I want for the new album. Maybe just epic songs. I hate being bored. I want her to amaze.

I believe if you like the TK sound of the nineties then you will like Love Songs, but if you don't then this album will never work for you. Most of Ayu's best albums have been strongly conceptual and coherent, though: Duty, My Story, Next Level, Love Songs. Only I Am... and (miss)understood are on the same level.

I totally agree! I hope it is even little bit like NEXT LEVEL, then it would already be better than RnC and FIVE for me......

I predict that Serenade in A mirror will be an instrumental track.

Umh well I don't really like RnRc, but I like Love songs so much. I hope this album will bring a new style :D
Just realized that there's a song titled "Eyes, Smoke, Magic". I remember someone in AHS had ever predicted "Magic" for ayu's new album~

blah blah blah I love Love songs, thought FIVE was pleasant but largely forgettable, etc.

I am so confused with all of these extra releases that keep trickling in (or at least were trickling in for the first 24 hours). It's strange that the photobook wasn't formally announced with the album and concert DVD/blu-ray and included in the boxset. I decided to buy the album and Blu-ray separately since I had to dismantle my last boxset anyway (+ it'd save me $70), and if they retroactively add the photobook to the boxset, I'll be so sad.

And what of the Lifestyle book we still have very little information on? Will that still be released the same day? Will that just be absorbed by the Party queen book? Will Avex wave its hand and act like it never really existed?

And there's a live album floating around somewhere? It's just something that they're planning ~sometime in the future? Why even make the public announcement now? What is Ayu's management doing?

Being able to construct an argument that is just as passionate as yours does not mean the person is a stan. Saying so is just as silly as calling you an anti-fan or something. Which you aren't. Nor is isthisLOL? a stan.

I'm really not trying to start up nonsense, because I don't mean this to be bratty or insulting. I just think it's silly to accuse someone of being a stan because it completely and unreasonably negates any argument they make.

I breathed a sigh of relief after reading the last few pages... I'm so glad I'm not the only one that feels NEXT LEVEL was her last decent album. As much as I like the "look" of RnRC and Love Songs, the albums themselves all together haven't done much for me. FIVE was even worse, I listened to it maybe twice and haven't since...

I really hope I will be happily surprise with Party Queen, something a la NEXT LEVEL but with new sounds, up beat, dance, go go go party type music! :3

I hope, if Party Queen is London inspired, it's more London inspired than Rock'n'Roll Circus.

There was no London in that album. It could have been shot in a studio anywhere in the world and turned out exactly the same. Sticking the Union Jack on your outfit and dressing up in leather and studs does not make something feel like London.

Don't even get me started on the shots of Big Ben and the Buckingham Palace gates, my 12 year old niece has taken better photos of them. RnRC was so... tacky. Only word to describe it.

I love seeing people say how much they liked NEXT LEVEL. It makes me realise just how many tastes and opinions fly around here. I thought it was the least coherent thing she's ever done lol

It's true when you look at/listen to it, there isn't really a flow or a connection between the songs, but if you listen to them seperately they're amazing! I've listened to it constantly without skipping songs. I can't say that about many of her albums. I am... possibly, MY STORY but a long time ago... GUILTY, well I skip GUILTY all the time. Lol

Is "Shake It" a rock-influenced song? Didn't somebody at the video shoot say it was or something? I hope "Eyes, Smoke, Magic" is a full song. I love mysterious titles like that.

What about BRILLANTE? And what don't you like about RnR Circus? Just curious.

GUILTY is such a lovely track...but by the time everybody here should have realized that everyone likes different albums and songs for different reasons - and that is exactly what pop music should do.

I listend to Party Queen yesterday and I hope the KAMPAI! won't be in the studi version XD

Thanks hun! At times it seem that fans tend to have a "child-like" temperament and that agitates me. No offense to anyone, I truly do enjoy sharing my thoughts and opinions with you all. ;)

You took the words right out of my mouth. The title "Party Queen" may sound very unconventional by ayu standards (according to many naysayers in this thread) but to me this album just reflects yet another chapter in Ayumi's life. Figuratively speaking, divorce for many represents freedom and that can lead to well....partying. :P So I guess she's just content now and feels liberated. Just an assumption.

And I agree with a few of you on this thread. To me "Next Level" was ayu's last decent album. I might not have accepted its presence back in '09 but now I am hoping her upcoming album will have the same caliber as "Next Level".

I find that certain individuals who value their opinion too much without finding merit in the opinions of others, tend to be narrow minded and at times overly self-absorbed. I find that stems from arrogance and pride. And it is distressing that pointing out someone's flawed opinion has become unacceptable but often time people tend to get their viewpoint across in a condescending manner which then leads to animosity and more difference in opinion. And I wholeheartedly agree that apparently and unfortunately, demureness seems to be a dying standard on the internet these days.

I hate TK with a passion and I love Love songs lol.

Sweetheart I was just being sarcastic and comical hence why I used an "emoticon" at the end of my statement to stress humor. Chillax. ;)
I'm fully aware that expressing one's viewpoint does not fundamentally make them a "stan".

The word 'stan' is tossed around these days so much whenever anyone feels passionately positive towards anything. I wish people would stop using it altogether because it rarely ever means something. It's a sad notion that people think of a fandom as 'we, the non-stans... and the stans'.

EVERYTHING was announced at the same time. It was really weird and confusing, but nothing out of the ordinary for Ayu. Though this is probably the most concentrated news wave she's ever had at once.

- Party Queen's announcement
- LIFE STYLE BOOK - separate announcement
- Party Queen photobook - separate announcement
- POWER of MUSIC live CD
- POWER of MUSIC Blu-ray/DVD
- how beautiful you are digital single on 2/8
- 18 PLAYBUTTONS
*all on February 1st

So everything will be coming out and nothing will be combined as far as we know. This is likely to make up for the only releases in 2011 being the remix albums, FIVE, Rock'n'Roll Circus Tour FINAL, A 50 Singles and CDL. (It's kind of really odd that for Ayu that's 'barely anything to have been released' but if you don't count the DVDs/lives, that's only two releases.)

Well that clears everything up. I was wondering where all of these releases were coming from and why there are an abundance of them. I guess her management is making up for her release "drought" last year.

"Stan" (and, while we're at it, "flop," "flawless" and any variation thereof) needs to be eradicated from the Internet vernacular.

Phew that's a lot. Thanks for taking the time to list the new releases again. Just to clarify, the live album still doesn't have a release date, right? Or is it being made available the same day as the DVD/Blu-ray?

Mini-rant directed at no one in particular: I get trying to "make-up" for the lack of releases last year (it's still weird to think there hasn't been a new single since 2010), but her staff needs to get its **** together. I know that I shouldn't expect anything other than mass chaos after an Ayu announcement (especially now that we're getting larger gaps between releases with new material--or gaps between days with releases with new material), but I can't believe we're still going through this after almost 14 years in the business. Her staff has to have a better way of organizing new information and energizing her audience with new releases instead of just RSS-bombing everyone every few months.

I sure hope the waiting will pay off! She disappointed me with the album title and the song titles, but who knows, maybe the songs are super-B.

As for NEXT LEVEL, It contains a lot of my favorite ayu tracks from all time, but I never play that album... I honestly don't know why... Maybe the flow? The horrible cover art? Love songs was a pretty weird album to me, but it really grew on me, now I never listen to it. And in FIVE the only song I liked was progress, (kinda liked Why... ft. Juno too). For my feeling she keeps disappointing me with her latest releases, I sure hope that this one will change my feelings.

I hope that there will be a lot of upbeat songs and upbeat rock songs! I love those :D. Though this most likely seems to be the case. (AND PLEASE AYU let 'the next LOVE' be a song, not an interlude! *begs*)

^ yes, no release for the live album yet!

They only announced the plans to release the live album. They did not specify anything else other than that it would be released.

As always, Ayu's staff loves to just bleed information for one day and then it will be dry until just before the new release comes out. I think it has something to do with 'information bans' or whatever. They have a rough idea of a release date beforehand but they never publicly release it until they have other releases to announce as well. Like whenever a new Ayu CD is coming out, a self-imposed ban on information release is 'lifted' and they can announce it. I'm not entirely sure why they do this and not just let us know that something will be coming out as soon as they know but perhaps it has to do with Ayu's tendency to procrastinate?

oh yeah me too! :D

These are the stans. :yes

There's nothing wrong with admiring, or, enjoying someone's work. That's something i totally accept. The attitude Lady Deviance describes above is what makes them unbearable.

I like ayu, and i enjoy being here, but that doesn't mean i worship everything she does, i'm sorry. I can't do that. i think she's really good at what she does, but i don't think she's a goddess, and i would be lying to myself if i say i believe so; i don't mean to offend anyone either, i just would like to express my ideas in this forum without other people thinking i wanna attack people here or hurt anybody's feelings. :) :shrug

^ and im pretty sure the same can be said about your opinion...

the fact is that people have different taste and when there is a disagreement people tend to get offended and lash back. Calling someone a stan is worse then expression someones opinion and it seems people through stuff like that around just to start stuff.

It actually goes both ways though, I think. There are the people who find it incredibly difficult to accept that people can dislike something that they like and then there are those who find it utterly impossible to accept that anyone can like or even love what they are not very fond of. I don't think it's 'stanning' or 'antistanning' exactly, but more that some people just aren't very good at accepting that others can feel differently about a work and that it's okay for them to feel that way.

More often than not, I think people get offended because those who are not particularly pleased about something tend to be very harsh in their wording which leads to disagreements/fighting which then lead to the Trash Can. But that's just how I see it.

And about Rock'n'Roll Circus... I don't think it was ever intended for it to be a "London-ish" album. At least, I don't recall her ever saying that she wanted to give off a London-feel with it, just that she wanted to record there because she felt that it was a darker atmosphere to record in as opposed to LA or Hawaii in some interview she did.

To quote from Misa-chan's translation of the May bea's Up:
Where did all of the Rock'n'Roll Circus hate come from anyway? I thought the album was pretty well received for the most part but maybe it's just the people who dislike it that are being vocal about it.

Wording has a lot to do with it, yes.

People are ridiculously hyperbolic in both praising and admonishing artists. iI they do something a fan enjoys, it becomes "flawless" and "slaying ur faves" and "queen/goddess/etc", and if they do something a fan dislikes, it becomes "flop", "irrelevant", "career is over", etc. And yeah, the use of the word "stan" is equally hyperbolic. It's all very unnecessary.

And yeah, honestly the titles are fine and very Ayu-ish apart from like, Shake It, NaNaNa, and taskebab, and even those only got a raised eyebrow out of me before moving on cause, as I hope we've all learned by now, a title has no bearing on how good a song is, and never will.

ZzZZzzZzzZZ for all the discussion, there are things that people will never learn, I'm just fine with it. Opinions will always be opinions and not facts or statements, there are some that don't understand that.

Anyway, any guesses for when the covers will pop up? I bet in one month xD
Actually, I'm kinda frustrated seeing that "how beautiful you are" probably won't have a cover... meh, I'm sure that it would be so beautiful ♥

THIS


I hope this album is like NEXT LEVEL part II I didn't like the whole NEXT LEVEL album, though I loved some tracks like mad like identity and Sparkle

Yeah, a month is probably on target but I would gladly take them next week if possible, lol.

a month to take the covers then, another month to get the release, oh geez, there's so much time ahead xD

Yeah the time is really going to drag by now. I mean, March 21st... That's basically April and there is still snow on the ground here! I think I am going to try and refrain from coming here (although it is my homepage). Ku already released her album, nothing else exciting going on the J-pop world right now so no reason for me to come here and "speculate" about this release and wait around for news. Not going to listen to previews or PV stuff. I'll come back for the leak :)

I'm so excited for this release! And because I ordered the limited DVD box set this time I won't download any leaks. But I can't decide if I want to listen to previews or not...

^ lol.. i cant wait either, but you best believe that when those leak, leak,, i'll be getting them!!

I must be in the minority here as I think Love Songs and FIVE are great albums, probably some of her best in years. I do like a lot of the songs on Next Level and a few on Rock'n Roll Circus, but the quality of these current two releases really rejuvenated my fading interest of Ayu since Rainbow and Secret.

I really wish this new album had a CD&3Blu-Ray version, as I have a feeling we'll be seeing a Blu-Ray of the CDL and PV's soon enough. But, just in case (and for me being a sucker) I've ordered it regardless. Surprised to see how quick the Blu-Ray edition has gone out of print though.

you're not the only one :)
Her music since rock n roll circus is the best in the world

I know i'll love whatever this album is.Is AYU guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes yes yes =D

I just want to say it one more time: I ORDERED THE LIMITED BOX SET!!! http://smilys.net/other_smilies/smiley5221.gif I'm so happy about it, haha... xD 'Cos actually I haven't enough money for it but my boyfriend said he will give me some money for it and so it will be my birthday present!!!

Anyone notice the possible connection between Virgin Road and Return Road...?

Of course we don't know the actual lyrics to Return Road yet but I have a feeling it's about her divorce. :/

The only albums I can listen to without skipping a single song are Guilty and Love Songs. As for Five, I love Progress, Why and Brillante but really dislike ANother song and the stanza of Beloved (which makes me skip it anyway).

I really like the direction her music took, I was really scared after Next Level that this is the future of Ayu's music but fortunately R'n'R Circus was great again (if only it didn't include Sunrise and Sunset it would be perfect as well to me).

Party Queen is the first album I ordered on spec but I'm really optimistic :)

IMO, individual Ayu albums never really define what is going to come next. Maybe the following single or two, but never an entire album.

Oh, so much hate to my dear NEXT LEVEL xD I always feel like an exception haha

I will download it as soon as possible, even buying the CD+5DVD version.. you don't know how slow the brazilian postmail is... X.X
Probably it will arrive in my home 2 or more weeks after the release date, and I still can be taxed with 60% of the total amount. Ayu, what I do to you... xD

^ I also love NEXT LEVEL!

^ I love NEXT LEVEL too, though we're a minority ><

I don't say I don't love Next Level, I just don't prefer electro songs like Energize or Rollin' or discomunication :V (I don't mind Sparkle though) I prefer rock songs so I'm happy Next Level was an episode and not a new current as the album's name seemed to suggest.

If this is as good as Love songs or R'n'RC, which I have faith that it will be, or better, I'll be ecstatic. Two amazing albums for me.

FIVE...meh, not so much. HATE the collabs, BRILLANTE is perfection, progress is nice, and beloved is forgettable... :/

I guess there is that track that you don't really care for on each album, or something that doesn't really get listened to as much as the others.


A Song for XX - from your letter
LOVEppears - P.S. II
Duty - Girlish
I am... - Endless sorrow ~gone with the wind ver.~ (LOVE LOVE LOVE the original)
RAINBOW - hard because I do love every track, but close to you
MA - Greatful days
MY STORY - my name's WOMEN
(miss)understood - In the corner
Secret - Secret
GUILTY - GUILTY
NEXT LEVEL - rollin'
Rock 'n' Roll Circus - Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~
Love songs - like a Doll
FIVE - ANother song and that other collab that I've never even listened to in full once, and dislike it so much that I can't even remember the title. LOL

^ you are so sensible.. lol

beloved to me just feels like a typical ayu ballad, which is fine, but its feels that it could of been on any album, so yes, forgettable.
I personal love the collabs, but I want more of just ayu.

And although i like rock in roll circus, i hope its more like next level (not to be like next level, but more like it!)

Its so weird how its a typical ayu ballad now....I just got crazy nostalgic lol

I like rnrc, but just cause, its like typical ayu formula lol I want something new, I dont want it to be like anything...Id be happy if it was like I said earlier, a mix of LS and RNRC.

Me too! It's my #1 Ayu album!!!

NEXT LEVEL is great for keeping me awake when I have too much homework and need music with energy :P

With RnRC, which I only recently bought, I was really looking forward to it because I love her rock-style music and her more unique, experimental music. However - and this could've been because of the order of the songs - there seemed to be so many bland pop songs on that album! Even beautiful songs like BALLAD and You were... were brought down because they were placed after two songs that put me to sleep (Sunset and Meaning of Love). I thought there were some awesome stand-out tracks (microphone, countdown, last links, DLB, Lady Dynamite, Sexy Little Things), but, as an album, it just didn't work.

I'm looking forward to this new album. She named her first album after the divorce "Party Queen" - which surprised me (but not in a bad way), especially because, title-wise, it's the polar opposite of GUILTY (which is the album my thoughts first went to after hearing about the divorce and then how she was releasing a new album) - and I realized that I have absolutely no idea what to expect, and I love that :D