Sometimes I feel like people should step away for a bit, and accept that there are fans who aren't going to blindly fall in love with everything that Ayu does, just because it's her.

Unfortunately, I wish that were the case here. I accepted that long ago, sometime during Rock'n'Roll Circus and Love songs. It was a rough time during NEXT LEVEL though.

My personal mantra is that if you don't have something nice to say, maybe it's better to not say it too often.

^ that's a good philosophy to have. I'll go back to lurking again, until she puts out something I can genuinely get excited about.

FLOWER

I want BUTTERFLY.

:P

To be fair, it seemed like you had some trouble accepting the fact some fans might like something you don't, not the other way around :P

I'm glad if she releases something as good as sixxxxxx again. I'm not expecting another LOVEppears or Duty because that's never going to happen again. I think A ONE as a little forgettable, but sixxxxxx does sound more polished compared to many of her recent releases.

I think two songs will be called today because ayumi hamasaki is like Janice from accounting: she don't give a f*, not a single one

I'm cool with all the titles except TODAY, just because it's such a bland and ugly and generic word lol. It gives me Sky high vibes too which is... yeah no thx. Thank god FLOWER's lyrics are dark because if she used that title on something encore and cheesy... also no thx.

Really don't want a second coming of sixxxxxx tho because that whole mini felt like soulless mediocre versions of old cliches. Like nothing on there really needed to exist because she'd done it all way better in the past.

I'd really like for her to do a full, proper album again. Colours felt more like a mixtape and A ONE just... didn't jive as an album idk. I just want a 14-track affair with a couple interludes and an overarching theme/concept that really feels unified... Don't really think that's gonna happen though. :<

I'm very excited as for lyrics snippets but they makes me want to hear previews now.

I have a strange feeling we will get the whole album in a week or so.

She posted something on TA now, saw on twitter

Winter chapter was posted on TA~

Last one tomorrow.

It seems strange that we have so much lyrical information already, and yet no preorders? Perhaps this will be a digital album? It's still shrouded in so much mystery.

She must want to pull a Beyonce and Lemonade us.

MADE IN JAPAN visual album as well?

The last cople of TA entries have not been translated. :(

Imagine she release is it as a digital album only available to TA members. :tired

I started thinking about this because I heard Beyonce's album is only available in the Tidal app that her hubby is the founder of?

Yeah for Rock'n'Roll Circus we at least had a date but for this...?

I would love a visual album, but I don't think she's even given us hints of PV recording yet? If she does release it digitally I hope it's not just for TA members. It took me a while to find Beyonce's album until I saw the movie is on itunes, and even then the resolution wasn't that great.

Yes, yes, yes! I don't think anyone could've put my exact feelings about this in words better. I really miss her proper albums and am deeply hoping that this one delivers in that regard; although, just like Tom Punks I don't have high hopes.

I think that was just an old formula that she's since then abandoned, really.

I'm kind of glad she's gotten out of the formulaic releases but oh my god, the unpredictability aside from a tour kinda kills me sometimes.

Hmmm no new photo today?

Probably a bit later. It is getting later and later as this goes on, lol.

And in the caption of the pic she posted yesterday, she said dress rehearsals were starting tomorrow (today)...so who knows if that will throw a wrench in things :laugh

I'm so sad it seems we won't be getting anything today ):

Ahh I think she is too busy today...

Damn. It's a new day in Japan. No new post today :(

omg it's gonna irk me that there is no countdown for today LOLOL

Two hashtags in one day maybe?

Ayu, whatchu doing?!

I think the first message in this thread (about 13-14 tracks in this album) needs to be edited. There is no source about the numbers of tracks in the album anywhere. It is our assumption only. It is a bit misleading.

Received instagram notification that ayu posted new pic. Got excited only to realised it's not a reveal-new-song-title post. Lol

I thought it was very clear it was an assumption.

Is she going to post another snippet later, after she has posted the 2nd tour trailer this morning?

Potentially. I want to say maybe the weekend affected things.

Well, I just hope they won't announce that the new album will be a mini album instead of a full one. XD

Could it be revealed here?

https://instagram.com/p/BFJnyWYl-U4/

Huh

Maybe they're really going to pull a Beyonce and stream it lol

And of course AWA doesn't work outside Japan :laugh

She will certainly not have the succes of Beyonce but if it's true Avex certainly tries with Ayu a new way to share the exclusivity of a new release because it's something relatively undeveloped in Japan ! Like I said earlier she has nothing to loose at trying something different it's not like she was going to sell millions of the physical release anyway lol

No one but beyonce could have the success that she has haha

Avex does tend to test stuff with Ayu, but who knows what this actually turns out to be. Could be nothing, could be a lot haha

I just saw it and was like, lol is she trying to pull a quasi-Beyoncé on us?

can someone explain this Beyonce Lemonade thing to me? I don't follow her

is it possible that we get the album available on the same day it's announced in a streaming service platform? would make sense to start the tour with the album released. the only time the tour started a bit earlier was with RnRC

Maybe is only 1 song + previews

I also don´t know exactly, but I think her new album was available from one day to another on her husband´s streaming platform without any announcmnet beforehand.

^like her last album, her latest (talkin' 'bout Beyonce) was a "surprise" relase avaiable online with no further announcement. Lemonade however was only avaiable through Tidal and accompanied by a visual-art-movie the same day aired on HBO.

What's AWA exatcly? A streaming platform? (also, is it free or not? in case someone could have access to it and upload songs here, unless Japan AGAIN makes it impossible to download songs and upload them)

11th of may is wednesday, the usual day for CD releases in Japan.

Looks like no more previews.

Perhaps the songs she posts on Twitter are the new songs she will perform in the Tour.

I see...
Well, ayu did it before, with Colours

omg omg omgg1!!!!!!

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/...6e/331gkgh.gif

^^ But people knew that Ayu was going to release a new album, right? Beyoncé's album was a complete surprise, like one day it was just there on iTunes and people were like ":dead2"

anyway, at least we're probably going to have some news from AWA in a few days! I'm excited, I wish she could really just drop the album since she doesn't really have anything to loose.

It has a free trial for 3 months and you have to pay for it after that. You can only download the app in Japan though. And I think the purpose of streaming apps is that you can only listen to the music online and can't download it?

Somehow, I feel like this is happening so hard.

I think the album will probably be a full one but we only got previews for the lead tracks perhaps. Mostly since she's been working on it since January!

Too bad it wouldn't count for her sales--but it'd be nice having it so soon. Though I'd wait for the physical copy lol.

Kinda excited to know what will happen wednesday but the way Ayu suddenly stopped posting lyrics everyday had my level of excitement go down

Bad decision to do so IMO. Was like a sudden stop on a train that was going faaaaaaast.

^
Maybe the AWA thing is a a decision of last minute making the countdown completely useless ?? lol we will be fixed really soon anyway =)

Just a few more days~

This is getting crazy~

i doubt they'd do something this big as last minute decision since avex get $ if ayu sells well. this kinda sucks tho that first we got awesome lyrics and then nothing :rolleyes oh avex!

Maybe it's going to be exclusive on AWA for a while, then released physically? I don't really see she releasing an album only digitally. Even though she's not a top seller anymore, her sales have been pretty steady and that's money for avex... I would love some exclusive bonus for the physical version! :yes

^^ Dunno if posting lyrics snippets or not is avex's decision though? Posting songs previews is with no doubt avex's decision, but for lyrics i would have said it was ayu's own initiative.

I'm starting to think that lyrics snippets we got will be the songs released on AWA as digital mini album and than few months later we'll get proper full physical album.

^ That would be a very messy way to promote the new album, i think she has recorded everything already so why wait?

We don't know if she recorded anything yet (at least I can't rememeber that she posted anything about it).

maybe we didnt get any new lyrics because its weekend?? hahahah

She said that she was recording a few times on instegram. She also said that she was making the last song back on the day of her anniversary here

She also said she finished recording here, but I'm not sure if meant that she was just done for the day or finished recording all the songs.

I think she said she was still working on new songs in Numero but that interview may have been done before. She finished some work in the studio not too long ago.

That is not a clever way to promote the album. Maybe she provide few songs for steaming but not the full album.

That's the thing though, this sort of release does not rely on promotion. It's just the shock value of dropping the album out of nowhere that promotes itself.

The thing is, I don't think it will generate enough shock. It's something that would make sense to do if Ayu's peak were happening right now, in this day and age, but we all know that's not the case. It can be argued that Beyonce is having a peak, hence why the strategy works for her.

This strategy would be better suited for Hikki's current situation; hiatus for 1500 years and then drop an album out of nowhere. I don't think it makes much sense for Ayu to do this at all really.

I think in the Japanese market, it's too hard to do this sort of thing unless you're like digital only.

Personally, it would be nice since it's something new for Ayu and Japan in general. We've had the "album with 100% new tracks" but never the "album released completely new before physical release", I believe.

^If I recall correcty, Party queen was released 2 weeks before on iTunes

http://ahsforum.com/forum/showthread...ighlight=queen

I think it was an accidental week-ahead-of-time release. But by then we had the previews and the early listening session. For this we have... nothing!

This. And I can't help suspecting that it might be a mini album again, that she has no more lyrics snippets to show... I hope I was wrong.

It would be very odd if this was a mini but I guess we'll see what comes of it.

maybe ALBUM part 1 digital release at the start of the tour
ALBUM part 2 full physical release towards the end of the tour

its kinda like a K-pop marketing pattern. So that every song in each half will get a good enough attention from those who bought the album.

After all, she did say she recorded 9 songs back then and now she has teased 5 of them

excitement level = gone.

I'm still excited, but a little concerned, lol.

I wanna say they're gonna do a digital mini of lead tracks and then physical full mid-tour.

You are all over-reacting based on nothing but assumptions. Let's wait until the 11th.
So what if it's available for streaming first?

The streaming isn't what I'm worried about at all. But unsure of album length mainly.

Welcome to AHS, where people get angry at the artist for stuff never really said. :P

She didn't record them, she only wrote the lyrics at that point. :)

I don't have a feeling it's a mini though. Unless it's one song per season and she makes 7 seasons like the chapters she posted on TA.

Se7777777en is on it's way

The chapters on the TA blog are more indicative of the concert, I think. However, I think we could see a similar "theme" for each part of the album.

quoting this as my reply :laugh

:roflmao

Honestly speaking though, I wouldn't be surprised if the new album actually is a mini album. :'D

so if it's released exclusively on that Japanese streaming service...how long until we get it? Seriously.

I think Chinese fans will find a way to release it, they always do! Gotta send our love to China

^ True! Chinese fans are the best when it comes to sharing stuff!

people will probably record the music playing from speakers using their phones, lol

shout-out to our brothers and sisters in china. keep fighting the good fight.

Don't even put those vibes out into the universe!

what's wrong with mini? I like them. They always really solid

I love minis but I'd like a full album for this era.

This reminds me someone said the album is titled Made in Japan but at the back says "Made in China". That is a way to support China? :P

Half the reason this forum is dead.

I haven't kept up with Ayu in a while. This thread reminded me why.

Not any phones - SMARTphones :D

I can use my feature phone for that though~

Newsflash, it's not actually dead.

Sorry, 80% dead.

:dead2

https://media.giphy.com/media/2FxI6mPwgKpdC/giphy.gif

:P

I haven't noticed it's any different than it used to be 3-4 years ago...