I am... is like a greatest hits album. So many singles.

I will never forgive the monstruosity she did with endless sorrow.

Well... at least it was different? There must be a reason for it.

^ I think it was re-arranged to fit the feel of the album tracks, but ended up sounding much more inferior. Her voice on the I am... version is really soft and pretty tho.

MY STORY is perfect the way it is, and talk about bland - FIVE is like the definition of it and LOVE again is filled with more boring-ness than MY STORY. The thing that's great about MY STORY is that, even if some may feel it has slower or "boring" tracks, the tracks never suffer from trying to be something they are not. The epic tracks are epic, the nostalgic tracks are nostalgic, etc. what I'm trying to say is, I never feel the songs are being "forced", like they build up to a letdown. That doesn't happen and so it's not disappointing. The image they were trying to paint with each track is exactly what it was meant to be. However, tracks like Bye bye darling are a perfect example of songs that were meant to be on the same level as her more "fierce" and "attitude" tracks, but just didn't cut the cake. Petal as well. That tried to be dramatic but it sounded cheap by comparison.

And let's not talk about FIVE cause that atrocity is so un-Ayu. Any other artist could've released it, except for BRILLANTE, and I never would've bothered with it. I think the true test of whether you are a Stan or not is if you think of all your fav ayu songs and imagine another artist releasing it, would you still bother listening to them? I don't listen to material for the sake of it being an ayu release. If it doesn't sit well, it doesn't sit well.

I honestly think you aren't really looking at MY STORY with an unbiased eye.

well the feeling I had listening to MY STORY vs LOVE again was "this is ayumi hamasaki's autobiography" VS "my pink album..." I'm sorry but MY STORY has this really raw and personal feel to the album, which I felt was poignant and really beautiful. it's one of her best albums IMO because it had a great theme, the songs flowed super well and it was to me, her diary.

I agree with another user about I am... that as an album I think it's pretty shit, but out of the 15 or so songs, more than 3/4 of them stood out really really well as individual songs, yet together as an album it was pretty trash. I attributed the mess to the change in her mind due to the 911 incident.

with regards to the topic itself, I never thought her songs sounded dated, not especially nowadays. if anything they sound blander, emptier and as if less effort was put into it. kinda like pottery you know? her recent songs sound like every ornament was mass-produced in a factory so they come out look pretty but that's about it. the older ones were pretty AND were full of substance cos most likely she crafted every one by hand on the potter wheel.

the best example was FIVE I think. I hated that mini so much lol... progress was decent then the rest were so meh. BRILLANTE reminds me of a heavy dessert - good on the first listen then it kinda disgusts me the next time onward.

I will admit that although I was still blown away overall when MY STORY came out, I did feel the latter half of the album somewhat blended together and dragged. However, looking back and in my current mindset, I love MY STORY even more now because of exactly what I said. Not every track had to be full of attitude, as long as it's good at what it's trying to do. I feel more so now than ever, especially by comparison, that the songs on that album are perfect as is. As I mentioned, my biggest gripe are tracks that attempt to be epic but fail. All I see there is potential for what could have been, or a missed opportunity. Another point is that MY STORYs arrangements were so very lush. I mean, there were a multitude of layers to her music then - so many that I still am beginning to notice the subtleties. Even if back then I had felt "this track isn't a highlight of the album to say the least" I tend to love those tracks now because even the dull tracks during that time period are unbelievably more entertaining than the non-album highlights of today, as well as many of the so called "album highlights" or promotional tracks.

I definitely have days where all I am in the mood for are tracks like HAPPY ENDING, HOPE or PAIN, Replace, and winding road.

Waterballoon sums it up well. It's as if each track was carefully crafted back then, and now it's not quite like that.

Some of the tracks on MY STORY were accidents. And also, it helped that she didn't feel right that Memorial address had to end up being a mini, so she spent extra time on MY STORY that she normally wouldn't for an album. I think for me, I've just let go of most feelings I had for albums that were 'big' for me in her 'golden years' and just think of each album as its own entity in a different stage of Ayu's career. Like we know that Secret and LOVE again were sort of heavy on 'leftovers', but I don't think that really makes them bad albums especially if you actually listen to them from start to finish more than a few times.

http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100089
^-- this thread has an interview that talks about the conception of MY STORY

Also... there's this TeamAyu interview that Misa-chan scanlated...

http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=99174

However, imageshack resized all of the images so they are almost illegible now.

Oh thank goodness, I saved one of them.

the scanlation further proved why MY STORY was a gem, a masterpiece, her magnum opus if you would put it, in my opinion.

back to my point on how every song in the past was specially crafted by Ayu, this interview proves it so.

compare it to her interview on LOVE again when it's just "oh this was a song I had for a while but never wanted to release it" I bet the interludes thought processes were like "well we needed one so we threw one to tasuku and that was how it was born."

I disagree but not entirely.

Up to today I would say the only of her albums that that sound a bit dated are, as others have already said, A Song for xx and LOVEppears. However, some of her newer releases, more specifically her new single, have songs that sound popular now, but that might become easily dated in a few years...

So, as for today I would say no, her newer releases don't sound dated yet imo, but some of them may become dated in the future.

btw how can anyone say LOVEppears sound dated.. lol. it's her 2nd best album.. though I have to admit the electro-pop in the album wasn't as refined as NEXT LEVEL's or even the new single. but still!! it's such a good album, I thought it was Timeless.

What, R&B Why...? Really?
Well, I really find them SO similar. And it's definetely not about the titles, lol. Mind you, I'm not an expert, like, at all. But I don't find Why... anywhere near R&B, I find it rockish. The same type of rockish It Was has, with the difference It Was was much better delivered. I think these two songs have the same kind of "flow" and atmosphere, if I make any sense.
What I know for sure is that when I listened the first time to Why... I immediately thought "Damn, It Was was such a better thing".

Dolls transcends time.

I agree that some new songs aren't as timeless. It's sad. I actually can't really form an opinion about it..

LOL aside from GAME and Inspire, MS is very bland and anyone could sing it.

Lol, it is so not rockish. Why... has elements of R&B while being a pop ballad. It has guitars, but they don't define the song -iits based more on the strings used in it. It was really does have a rock based sound. They both are atmospheric, though. I think both songs attempt to deliver a nostalgic sense, but It was is superior in that sense.

:doh

:thud I absolutely don't agree :lech This album is so nostalgic but I understand when people say that this album can be boring because there are a lot of Mid tempo songs but songs like Walking Proud, Liar, About You, Winding road, Happy Ending and Hope or Pain are not generic (in her discography maybe) I can't pretend knowing all the japanese singers but among her peers she is the only one who tried these kind of styles

ANother song is quite an R&B song but Why is a typical Pop rock song like Ayu has done 100 times in the past and even now ! I really don't understand where you hear R&B influence in this song ? ^^

The Urata version is way more R&B than the JUNO version.

r&b influenced, try to read better.
and lol, Ayu made those songs but they're standard fare. All of you little godasaki stans try to say she's some groundbreaking artist but all of those songs are run of the mill, typical jpop and SAFE jpop at that.
Just accept that it'll never slay. Either way, I'm done.

http://31.media.tumblr.com/16c48717e...cbm7o1_500.gif