Love it. Never expected the song to be like this. But it's really fresh.

Grandma-ish? Seriously? [2]

Sometimes I think that people just doesn't have anything more to complain about.

....What? VERBAL has kinda been the rapper in m-flo since the late 90's. soooo.... yeah. Am I misunderstanding your post?

Oh, I wasn't really talking about VERBAL specifically, just Ayu's execution of the song. I KNOW VERBAL has been rapping forever, haha, so I wasn't comparing him and Macklemore by any means.

The way I was thinking of it was...

"Why listen to this amateurish Ayumi Hamasaki song featuring rap (done by VERBAL) when you can listen to Macklemore who produces much more professional sounding rap songs/whatever?" -> "Ayu doesn't really do this much, so it doesn't really seem right to compare the two..."

I figure that a lot of the production decisions for this were made by her anyway, so even though m-flo was producing, Ayu probably still had to approve everything and write the rap and so on.

lol it's Ayu we have here, with here there's always something to complain about! It's just how it is.:innocent

It's better than feel the love. But overall, this EDM style for get I don't like. Every other song of hers that has had electronic influences or was predominantly electronic is better than these, except maybe Party Queen. Wake me up was the perfect culmination of Ayus style and electro. Same for Sparkle. This, well if it weren't by ayu id never bother to listen to it.

I was with it until the rap part, I didn't really like Ayu's part after either. I like it 100% more than Feel the love though.

And yay to the English translation being there too!

It's a very generic use of "EDM" but I think they're doing it on purpose to be accessible.

I find Ayu has never really placed her electro-infused tracks in the forefront on a single so this is probably what she/the label want to put out as the 'main' attraction compared to say, her previous ones that were always album tracks or second A-sides.

I like marry go round. It´s nice and Ayu´s vocal is very good. But I didn´t like the rapper part too. I think it was unnecessary, because the song is good just Ayu singing it.

I understand what you mean and I kinda agree.
Still I really don't understand how she can release something like this when other people have been releasing far more professional sounding songs (as regards Macklemore, is career is pretty young, Ryan Lewis is just 25 YO, and everything is produced by the 2 of them with not so great conditions so... It is not as if Ayu's career was this young and she couldn't work with the bests).
And I'm not talking about the rap part only. Apart from some segments (the intro for example), the arrangements during the dance parts are really generic and uninspired. That is just my opinion once again I don't mean to offend people.
I just don't understand her level of demand sometimes and I don't understand how the professional around her can approve this kind of product and don't want to go further.
Yet if the great majority loves it, that was the point. It is just sad from an artistic point of view.

For now, I think this single is intended to be 'safe' and 'fun'.

We will get more experimental tracks on the album. Ayu doesn't seem to like to collaborate much with people who are 'the best in the business' but would rather take friends and colleagues over someone who has been at the top of their game in the world of -insert genre here-. That's just how Ayu is. She's probably not going to work with photographers who do work for Italian Vogue or somehow work with the best up-and-coming electro music producer, but the final products that she comes up with tend to be rather good at least in my opinion, and that's all that matters to me personally.

It depends on their aim, I suppose, when it comes to approving these tracks. This is probably her most accessible and radio-friendly set of songs in a LONG while. I really hope this single does well in other mediums even though Hey!Say!JUMP is going to definitely get the #1 spot on Oricon.

For me, I think of Ayu's career as one that you need to be very open with. She isn't very predictable and often makes strange decisions when it comes to people to work with (Timmy for the most part imo here) but in the end, if you are open to the changes and aren't looking at things like "But she could have done this! Or that? Why didn't she do this?", it's a lot easier to digest and enjoy what she's got going on. I'm just grateful that new music is coming out and that I'm able to enjoy it. I know at least for me, I don't go into her releases expecting anything in particular. I'm not thinking... "Are we finally going to get a rock track? Is this going to be a track that displays her artistry as she did X years ago?" but I'm just thinking... "Oh my god, yes! New Ayu!".

This is exactly what I think. The thing is that the level of demand, the overall quality of her productions seem to have decreased progressively for me, as if she relied on friends and acquaintances way too much lately.
And that annoy me a lot because she can do/did a lot better than that. And I fear this is going to get worse over time.
Well I'm getting off topic I think :headache

I was excited by a new single first but now I really can't wait for those edgier, more polished album tracks you mentioned. Or singles on par with something like Sparkle (you can insert the majority of her previous dance tracks here) if she is going to take the dance music direction.

edit:
I wish I could be as cool as you ; )

I'm also looking forward to Pray which could be her first epic ballad in a while... hope that turns out well!

With Sparkle, I think they had a very specific image they were going for when it came to the arrangement/presentation (PV and performances later on), which is why it came out the way it did. (basically perfect)

I think for this release, they couldn't go that heavy since she seems to be in another bit of a love daze, so the music seems to reflect that.

Actually, as much as I love ayu, I wouldn't like a thing of her just because it's new, I would like it if I can enjoy it. Feel the love/Merry-go-round is shaping up to be a really great single for my taste.

I know where people who were talking about the vocals are coming from but I think that's because you might not like her present voice being high-pitched (like how she sounded on the beginning of her career, just that then she had the higher voice).

As for the level of production, ayu is in the industry long enough, m-flo too and the other producers of the songs worked with a lot of big names. It doesn't necessarily make them perfect or make them do perfect things all the time, but I think it's more a subjective matter if you like the song or not and if the song is good or bad, and less on how the real production is. Even if it's not what people expected or sound like (put popular american artist music here) doesn't mean the production and the producers choices were actually bad or not professional. It was made by professionals. If it's not to one's liking then it's ok, but that's basically the reason. Just not connecting to things related to the songs. I personally think that ayu did a great job experimenting with EDM and these songs still have her personality in them, so you can say she brought that style to herself, and doesn't really sound like others' music, which makes it even better in that sense. I can understand people who want her to turn her image upside down along with more american like EMD/electro pop style, but then, it's just not her and not what she is wishing to be. Unless if some people accept it, they will just keep getting bored with her and have unrealistic expectations of her.

I eventually like just about anything Ayu releases, so I'm not sure where this places me, haha.

http://i.imgur.com/8UWH0og.jpg
From dyronpac on Instagram. He was lighting the music video. Ayu really likes these high waisted shorts....

I don't mind the rap at all, maybe because I've heard verbal ln other tracks before. But come on, the rap/featurette part on this song is nothing to complain about after the whole FIVE debacle and the overuse of Timmy on Party Queen.

Lol, blocks of wood draped with a black piece of cloth? The budget of this PV may even surpass that of my name's WOMEN.

Go on a date
Stay up late
No heartbreak
So we shake shake shake !! =)

Btw Zeke, I'm actually adding up Party queen to Sparkle and Wake me up to the list of her greatest electro stuff, but Feel the love and M-g-r might join the list eventually.

Sparkle is hard to compete with, I will admit. Ftl/M-g-r just came in place.

Does anyone remember if CDTV shows PVs when they show opening themes? I don't remember... I just remember getting to see Love song when they had it on that Dokkiri show, but this is a bit of a different situation.

If so, we will probably get a preview in the first December CDTV episode.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzm...h-flying_music

It looks like they do. We should expect a PV snippet of Feel the love by then at the latest. (December 7th)

What the hell happened with the Queen of jpop? Why she suddenly decided to make this type of superficial music? Why is she using m-flop when she could be using RIP SLYME? Last night, while watching Ringo's ''Netsuai Hakkakuchuu'', I thougt: ''Man, this could've been an amazing Ayu song''. It's everything that Feel the love wanted to be but failed. It saddens me that all the important ones are evolving while Ayu decided to play NOTHING FROM NOTHING again.

Yeah, high waisted clothes hide the tattoos she has on her hips...

It's too bad that you don't see this as a form of evolution.

Why is a horrible song a form of evolution? It will be an evolution when she learn from this mistake.

I really like this song... so let s hope she will do a lot of other "mistakes"

Evolution comes in many forms.

I will not judge Ayu like that just because of one song and one single, or even if you are talking about the LOVE again era as a whole. I disagree with the fact that you brought up the title "Queen of J-pop" comparison in here. Ayu is just a normal person like any of us. She has controls over her career and she can decide to produce any kind of music that she wants.

The fact that she is changing her image (like always) and her style is a form of evolution to me. Evolution indeed comes in many forms.

Instead of whining over how "horrible" her music is right now, I will enjoy this moment that will happen only once. Ayu made many mistakes, but I honestly will not be a fan if she is just a flawless product like before.

Really I agree, this is a de-evolution. Ayu always did her own thing, usually making the trends and being ahead of the game. This is her hoping on the bandwagon after everyone else has been riding that truck for a few years now.

I don't think Ayu ever really set any trends when it came to music... at some point, in fashion/style, maybe... but not when it came to what she produced as a singer. She has always done whatever she wanted and right now it just so happens that it's going to be EDM infused.

I feel that this is probably the perfect set of comeback single tracks for her that could be followed up with another single (or album) with a ballad(s).

I feel like this a lot of the time about her recent music. I don't know what any of them are doing. But I don't actually think of it as sad, from an artistic point of view...it's kind of the opposite for me.

For example, I like a lot of -big- artists, that are anything but artistic in the way that I see Ayu, like Rihanna, Namie, Koda, etc. But their songs are ridiculously well made a lot of the time.

I expect that from Ayu, AND I expect her to imbue her music with herself at the level that other -artists- do. Because I feel like for her entire career, she was able to do this, and produce top notch songs.



I also don't think that she ever really set trends. She was always trendy. If you listen to artists releasing around her, you can see that. But I do think that she always had a knack (apart from maybe a song for xx) for making her music seem timeless.

I don't think some of these songs will be timeless in the future. And I can also see how people can attach value to that, and they might say, these songs aren't as good.

But personally, I like trendy music, so, I don't always base value on it.

http://31.media.tumblr.com/909898858...877to1_500.jpg

found this on tumblr, i really kind of hope that they are fake >.< i don't think i have ever really DISLIKED one of her covers before.

as for the songs i really like feel the love

but i'm not so crazy about merry-go-round which is sad because i <3 the title

^ I hope they are not like LOVE covers and all those mags and "ayu" photobook shots.

I really hate that PrinceSam doesn't say that these are fanmade on the things that they make... Oh well. This happens way too often.

Chinese fans make me kind of angry... at least have a disclaimer or something so people don't spread them thinking they're real. Anyway, the people at Foraver Club made them with images from the 'ayu' photobook. I doubt they are going to take from that photoshoot for the single. The "A" at the end of the single was golden so I wonder if they'll have a metallic theme.

Highly unlikely. However, the Numero Tokyo shots were gorgeous! So that was fine imo.

Actually they did mention that it was fan made. It's usually those people who just post them elsewhere and didn't give credits that make these fan made items made believe to be the real deal.

They need to make it very blatant and in English. I know they have it in Chinese but that won't stop people who don't know what it says.

That font needs to delete itself from existence. yuck.

It's a Taiwanese fan club, not really cater to international fans (some of the mods however does post in English). This kinda teaches people to do research instead of just seeing and posting whatever you see on the internet (esp when you don't understand the language).

Uhmmm... Don't really understand the people saying Merry-go-round isn't good. It's amazing. The lyrics are so touching, and I almost started to shed a tear. I didn't feel like this about an Ayu song in a long time. The melody, everything is great. And surprisingly, Verbal isn't a detractor from the song.

This song really saved this single. I'm excited for the music video now. It's getting a music video, right?

Now, I have something to forget the disaster that was Feel the Love. This is what I wanted from Ayu for a long time - a meaningful song, upbeat but not stupid. Do you know what I mean? Like, with real, heartfelt lyrics. No "Let's dance all night."

I think it's nice she can do both. Shows how versatile she is. :yes

Ayu is trying new things yet again. With ayu you can never tell what's coming next and that's what I love so much about her.

It doesn't help that they pretty much hide the fact that it's a "PRINCE SAM" work waaayyy down in the descriptions. And even though people shouldn't be spreading it, they should take precautions so that people will definitely not think "Oh, this is real!" or something.

It is getting a music video.


I think this is from the PV shoot. Same roof as Last angel/Love song...

Feel the love is not a disaster. It may not be for everyone, but ugh... I don't think that fans need to constantly put something that they aren't a fan of down especially when others DO like it.

I love Merry-go-round. It's an EDM, but is a really different song in her discography. I'm glad she is trying new things and not only medium ballads.

:)

I don't think this is really an evolution~ The thing is Ayu has songs with way better production. Both the songs don't sound really polished to me and I dunno. Even though I like Merry-go-round a lot from the preview and think Feel the love is better than songs like Greatful Days I still think that it's quite weak to be a lead track and to be honest neither one of the two songs is good enough to be on a single. Knowing Ayu this is only going to be a one time thing [hopefully]. I am not to crazy about this direction tbh. I'll survive a couple of songs though and in the long run I will prolly appreciate theM~they aren't bad, but far from absolutely amazing.

If that is really the same roof, I have mixed feelings about the upcoming PVs lol :D

I don't think Feel the love is a disaster either... I enjoyed the song, and I'm looking forward to the PV. But this is just a relaxing, fun and happy song, and I'm happy Ayu is trying out new things. Boost up my interests :luv2

What do you mean by 'better production' though? Arrangements? Mixing?

Both of those. The songs just don't sound polished enough to me. Maybe they'll sound a bit better once the cd is out.

The mixing was done by that new guy so it could explain why it sounds very different...

And as for arrangements, I think she tends to veer towards drums/guitar/strings a bit too much, so this is fresh imo. The synths do sound a bit cheap, but what can you do? At least it isn't the Nakata boop boops.

They do sound fresh, but for me it's not always a good thing. Bold & Delicious was fresh and the arrangment was epic. I dunno I am among people who want Yuta Nakano to arrange everything.

Merry-go-round is deffo gonna be something I'll listen to a lot~ Even though so many of Nakata's songs sound the same I think his arrangements sound richer somehow.

It's probably because he's perfected that sort of Akiba/electro-pop sound, haha.

I've just heard Merry-go-round on her Facebook page. I'm...indifferent about it. I neither love nor hate it. It sounds weird now but I'm very sure it will somehow grow on me.

One thing, though: I'm really glad that it doesn't sound too hip-hop-esque. With m-flo attached to it I was afraid that the song would be some hip-hop R&B shit.

i agree on that it's pretty much what i've said when feel the love came out... I wouldn't be too quick to say it's de-evolution, it's probably just a one time glitch in Ayu's brain lol or she just wanted to be different from what she usual does but ended up like the rest of the music scene today. We can handle that i think lol It's just a one time event, HOPEFULLY. At least majority is happy now with the songs, which rarelly happens in this place lol. I myself am kinda used to being the odd one all the time because i tend to love what everyone else just cannot stand and visa versa lol SO i'm just gonna sit patiently and wait for Pray.

This song is analyzed way touch. I love it plain and simple.

so the beginning riffs were an ORGASM to my ears then the arrangement gets soooooooo bland I can't omg please improve it for the final release

but besides that IT'S EVERYTHING I WANTED. REMEMBER HOW I mentioned hoping Merry-go-round would be an EDM snowy kiss? HOLY SHIT WE GOT IT and I freaking love the lyrics... there's this bittersweet (wistful?) nuance to it... it's too beautiful. Kinda like the atmosphere of Days + the shot beats of snowy kiss. VERBAL/m-flo wasn't redundant, it brought me back to Kana Nishino's earlier songs which was super cool.

btw aside from the arrangement, I kinda hate the 1000000000 layers over her voice. very much like snowy kiss... it comes across noisy.

I completely forgot to comment on Merry-go-round here I see. I really like the song. It sounded awesome and VERBAL's rap is awesome as it always is♥ I was also able to relate to the lyrics so well that I started to cry which is very rare for me when it's a Ayu song. Last time I actually cried while listening to an Ayu song was in Love songs era I think. That album made me cry. Sadly I haven't listened to it at all since then. o.O

I can't wait for covers!

Is this fanmade? I guess so, 'cause I haven't seen it in AHS before.

http://31.media.tumblr.com/909898858...877to1_500.jpg

^ Actually yes, the image has been already posted here.

And yes, it's fanmade. :yes

Okay, sorry then xD Thanks for replying!

I see this "trying to jump on the trendy thing" as a evolution for Ayu. I mean, it's not the first time she does something just for the fun of trying it, but it is the first time she's doing it with the most popular genre. She's still challenging and evolving herself guys. LOVEagain, now, that was a safe play (even with gorgeous songs).
And if she can express herself with EDM, owning the style like she does with every other, I don't see where the problem is.

Don't really care for VERBAL being in the song...but I can deal with it. He's done much worse. Also, people seem to be liking this much more than FTL...I love them both a lot. :)

Really hoping for some remixes on the single! It's EDM...how can you not remix that. lol

I love Merry-go-round so much ^_^ it's so different

Though I really hate the Gangnam Style effect they used in both songs T_T ahhh those parts

^
What Gangnam Style effect? :O

I'm really impressed by Merry-go-round though. I like Feel the love, it's fun and catchy, but Merry-go-round it's way better. Cannot wait for the full song :heart
It's strange listen to Ayu and VERBAL together in a song lol I was waiting for a collab between them for ages and now it's here :D I still can't believe it!

even Feel the love is better than Merry-go-round but Im not feelin any of them :(

THIS SO MUCH OMFG

I really don't understand why Ayu doing EDM is a big problem. Ayu fucking owned this shit so hard that Namie is crying. So y'all are gonna have to deal. Merry-go-round is one of the best Ayu songs I've heard in a long time. And that's saying a lot because I stopped with Ayu ever since Love songs.

Merry-Go-Round is actually solid, much better than Feel The Love for sure. The instrumental is stunning and her vocals are rather nice as well!

I can't help but find them dull and uninspired though, Ayu sounds awkward doing this kind of EDM music, it comes off as gimmicky and a tad tacky actually. As catchy as they are i can't take them seriously, i really appreciate that she's trying something new but if she has to do electropop/dance music something like Sparkle or Rollin' would be much more pleasing imo. Cause here she just sounds like a back-up singer, she doesn't own the songs at all. Namie does this genre of music much more justice, where Ayu clearly owns on the ballad front (which is why i'm looking much more forward to Pray)

Hear, hear!

I for one am glad if we only get 2 ballads in the next album (NL style). We've had so many since Love Songs and alot of them didn't really stood out...

I think these songs are going to eventually grow on people who may think they're not 'up to par' later on, or when they're seen live, they'll be thought of differently. It's entirely too limiting to think 'she needs to do things like Sparkle or rollin'', because if she DOES, then she will be criticized for either treading on ground she has already been on or that she didn't live up to the previous tracks' quality.

lol I'm beyond done thinking anything ayu would do in every aspect would ever stop being harshly critisized =P

I found Party Queen and NaNaNa to be in the same vein as Sparkle and i absolute love both of them, while your last comment about quality is true i just think that kind of dance music goes better with her voice. I rarely criticize Ayu, i just think her delivery and the overall quality of the songs could've been much better, they sound dated. With that being said, i'm probably still going to enjoy them when they come on my iPod, i'm just a little underwhelmed that's all.

It's not that big a deal anyway, i'm still going to enjoy the album cause she's going to deliver some amazing ballads as usual. Hopefully she'll venture into a less confused EDM sound like on Next Level, if she decides to go in that direction again of course (judging by this single, you never know)

This single could sell really well if it had good promotions, these songs are the kind of songs that get people addicted easily, if they started promoting them for sure the sales would be nice... It's too bad they don't care about promoting her releases to the general public that does't keep track of every news about her :(

I really don't get how people can say she sounds good in "Merry-go-round". I'm not saying it to troll, I just don't get it. I will say her vocals in "Feel the love" are good enough, and sort of what I expected, but MgR... I think she sounds like an old-woman that struggles to hold a tone, and has been drowned in auto-tune. I hope it's just this one song, because I have never honestly felt she sounded down-right bad before. :( (With the possible exception of some SS performances).

Feel the love is terribly generic but I'm loving Merry-go-round, especially because of VERBAL <3

I like both songs, but i think her voice doesn't fit this genre at all. These songs are more for voices like Namie.

I always thought her voice was really great for electronic songs... especially when they're remixed!

I definitely agree. I love her voice with trance backdrops.

She's not really living up to the quality anyways.

I don't think that there will ever be a song that isn't criticized, regardless of who releases it.

Harshly criticized? Well. Kind of subjective on that point.

If you guys don't like opinions, maybe you should ignore them. If you're getting tired of seeing them everyday, maybe you need to take a break from AHS.

These threads have been pretty positive imo lol There has been REALLY FAIR discussion.


And yeah. Merry Go Round yey! Her vocals sound not so great but lol That's Ayu sometimes.

@^: I do love it with the trance. Not so much this style. But like Connected? <3

Maybe I just don't know any better but I don't see what's wrong with her vocals in Merry-go-round :shrug

Sounds sexy to me <3

+1000000:banana1

I did, and nothing changed at all... so whatever. And the J-Pop fandom in general kind of just imploded upon itself. If anything, Merry-go-round has been on most fans' good sides, but it's Feel the love that is getting a bit of an unfair judgement.

...A break for your own sanity, not a break expecting things to change, because they won't.

It has been the same with every release...although personally, I think it's gotten better :shrug


In your opinion it's unfair. In my opinion, it's very fair. Besides, when the song first leaked, there were loads of people who loved it. Even with all of us that don't, the discussion was never predominantly negative.

I don't understand what more you want from people.

Merry go round is definitely better than Feel the love but I'm not blown away by it. What does boggle the mind though is the possibility that she is reusing the same roof from Last Angel. For the love of god why???? Is there no one who can show her around LA to find a better location or has she reached the point where she will now reuse old sets much like her dancers double as actors, her photographers become directors and her manicurist design the cd jackets...?

She'll probably drop another picture of her of Mannie on the ground....or her and Maro :laugh

Or maybe she'll show up in a dress made of grass to tease Maro and show him how wasteful she is with his food

Well, who knows how they'll use the roof...

We'll see when the short version comes out! I am excited but a bit worried. I hope it has nothing to do with Feel the love's PV.

sleeping in the cardboard scene after she broke up with her bf lol

I actually think the opposite of most of you, I find both songs very pleasing. I like her changing her Genre more. I absolutely hate her ballads and find the majority of them extremely forgettable, especially as of current, I wasn't even going to buy this release, and that would be a first since 2008 or 2007. But then I heard the clips and bought both versions. I like them..

OMFG LMAO!!!

I have both songs on repeat and cannot stop

I want to see covers ><

Umm... I'm wondering if the CD+DVD (FC) version will be made available at the CDL location. any idea?

Well, since a merry-go-round keeps you on making the same ride on and on, I wouldn't be surprised if she's making a reference to the Love songs trilogy or even the LOVE again one. It acutally sounds very likely, and considering it's ayu... Like, "the story is being repeated. Again."

But then it's just a roof, she could be twerking up there like Namie should have done in Hands On Me, who knows?

read on twitter that according to ayumifans weibo, tomorrow morning Mezamashi news will air preview of Ayu's new PV! omg im nervous and excited at the same time *praying*

OMG '-'

I laughed after this short but very expressive comment xD Honestly I'm super afraid of the coming PVs and don't have high hopes unfortunately.

exactly, i'm not expecting anything about these new videos, seriously... =\

me too, especially after seeing Namie's Neon Lipstick PV preview * i cant believe it I would say this, but I cant restraint myself*

^

is it just me or that PV is rly... disposable, like.. seriously.

i'm keeping my expectations for an other relationship problem stuff... frankly it's gonna be random and well i do't expect ANYTHING at all, in fact i don't care for the single to be honest after seeing what Namie is doing, i made a conclusion that Ayu or her team cares either... *sigh* she should be doing what Namie is doing, not the other way around.

^ yes, you've been extremely vocal on your points....

Guys, let's see the bright side: if we have very low expectations, there are higher chances we'll be pleased with whatever they're gonna do with the PV, lol!
And don't forget Ayu is also known as the Unpredictabily Queen (posivity, I'm all about positivyyyy).

^ :yes
No one predicted she would get pushed out of a car last time

Oh boy, that sure was exciting.

^ Hahahaha! That still has me LMAO.