also did Ayu shoot the video herself? LOL
https://twitter.com/ayu_19980408/sta...63492382666752

The camera would be hella shaky if she was filming ahah. At least she was there.

Remember you sounds good

It has leaked?

^ 45s preview on online CD sites(full album LQ)

VIBEES sounds like a cheerleader song haha
taskinson... hell yeah

I tried on CDJAPAN without success :(

This account has all the snippets: https://twitter.com/AyuMiFans

Thanks !!

Taskinson and VIBEES, think I will love them !!
ray of truth, this preview sounds so deja-vu
Remember you seems to be a classic ballad

i bought the CD+Blu-ray version~~

The end of Ray of truth is kinda hot. taskinson is THE MOMENT.

I love taskinson, very EDM-ish kinda interlude!
And it goes well with MASK which is the next track after it.

remember you sounds promising!

I think we all agree that it's going to be a very good album. For me, even though she has some albums that I like more than others, the quality of her music, lyrics and acting when performing is unquestionable.

She has been, is and always will be the queen of jpop.

Long live ayu.

Ps: if you (ayu, or any group member) read this, please, don't retire!! Hahaha.

Ooohh, Remember you sounds so beautiful. One of those songs that makes me dream away.

VIBEES sounds promising too!

VIBEES sounds like a concert staple. Definitely gonna love it.

Remember you is OOZING Shape of Love vibes for me. And of course, both are by Tetsuya Yukumi haha

Both songs are not impressive for me

Remember you is so promising! I love what I’m hearing in the preview! Indeed, it has that Breakdown/Shape of Love vibe and these are among my favorite songs in her discography.

VIBEES looks funny, but I need to hear more. Not really hooked so far.

I love the new song VIBEES, Remember you
I think this album turns to be a strong album

The new composers really give a fresh direction to her music

I guess VIBEES is pronounced as "VI-BEES"?

Remember you's chorus sounds beauiful, instantly like it.

I really enjoyed the new previews =) was wondering if there'll be a leak this weekend

No rock Ballad O_O

ray of truth should be her new songs. TRUTH would be a hot song for that music..
taskinson sounds ok to me
Nonfiction remix is on fire
VIBEES is good
Remember you is good, reminds me Secret.

These tracks save the album. I didn't like the PV songs and (Not)Remember you, but these few songs are way better than them.

Just the way you are Clips may shows ayu would like to move to production and behind the camera for her career. She is not retiring, but she is exploring something new.

So far from the snippets that I have listened, my instant love is Remember you. VIBEES sounds promising too. Looking forward to the full album!

The album is better then what I was expecting it to be a month ago. Both Vibes and Remember You sounds like fine tracks and both interludes sounds great.

i think this album will land in her lower tier of her Discography with Party Queen, Made in Japan, Colours and Rock'n'Roll Circus.

Usually all her albums has at least few songs that I want to skip right away, this one doesn (Maybe Summer Again is the one I dislike the most, but it is objectively far better than ''Thank you'' or ''Eye Smoke Magic'') However, none of them feel like a clear stand-out that I could see myself playing in repeat 10 years from now. (Maybe VIBEES when we hear the full version? and since it is only 3:18 I think it will just be a short fun song).

I am still very happy we finally have new music on an album and it is a much satisfying product than TROUBLE.

Actually I feel that “just the way you are” PV actually amplify her beautiful voice. Let say if ayu herself was in the PV instead of the comedian lady, it will only be mediocre. Since we are so used to ayu being inside her own PVs.

However, after watching the pv without ayu inside, I tend to put focus on her song and her voice more than anything else.

Just listened to the previews.
I forgot ray of truth was an interlude and started to get super hyped after hearing the preview. It sounds SO GOOD. Wish it was a full song. taskinson also sounds great. The interludes sound way more interesting than the new full tracks. The remix sounds awful so far and pointless. VIBEES sounds pretty fun, and Remember you sounds just okay so far. I do like that I can hear clear emotion in her voice and I feel like she is toning down her baby voice a lot lately which I am so grateful for.

Have been given the opportunity by the staff's great enthusiasm(?)
On the eve of the release of the album "Remember you", ayu will live talk on YouTube by herself!
You will be able to see a very rare sight of her!

She will be answering your comments, so be sure to have lots of questions ready!
Don't miss it!

Tuesday, January 24
From 20:00
Live on YouTube

ayumi hamasaki's official YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/ayu

SHE IS DOING A LIVE TALK ON YOUTUBE.

1/24 3AM Pacific time AHHH [8PM Japan time]!

Surprise PV for 'Just the way you are' and album track previews on CD sites?!
A lot happened in just a few days, exciting!

Really looking forward to hearing the rest of the album, all your reviews have me on the edge of my seat, haha.

Looking forward to the YouTube live Tuesday night too!
10pm AEST for me, I will surely be joining

Keep on asking her there about the retirement.

If someone kept mentioning retiring to me I'd thought people want me to retire. I wouldn't do that.

^ To be fair (and just my own opinion, feel free not to agree I don't mind), if I cared a bit about my fans, I wouldn't drop a "first and last big news" tease bomb so that they have to wait 4 months to know, just for the sake of ""being mysterious and all dramatic""...
But then again, seeing how she answers her Q&A on TeamAyu, I'd expect a classic evasive ayu answer "Maybe, maybe not", so what's the point of asking her (anything) ?

Sorry for still sounding a little bitter about her "first and last big news" insta post, but while I don't always agree about her way of doing things, I do love her and support her career

I agree, this is far, far from her worst album. I'm pleasantly surprised. My favorite songs are Dreamed a Dream, haru, yo koi and mask. I think mask should've been a ballad, but oh well. I'm really happy we're getting an album and even happier that it's really better than expected. It also feels like everyone's having fun.

What fans would like to know is her secret relationship and babies father :cool Don't get me wrong - I respect her privacy but posting a picture of a leg with shoe as "first picture of her baby" is just a teasing. I can bet one day she'll drop a bomb "I got merried" like she did twice already without any pre-warning.

To be honest many of her fans would like her to retire. It's not about not wanting any new music of her, it's about a feeling that she "burned out" a long time ago. It would be better to finish on a high note and stay remember of all those amazing, memorable tracks when she was at the top of charts than keep creating "bad music" just for sake of staying in the industry. She's no longer developing as a singer or creating new trends. She just trying to "fit in" actual music market (with mixed results) and gladly got loyal fans to support her, without them she would be long time gone.

If I understood correctly Ayu asked suddenly to Max Matsuura to let her do a Live on YouTube (different from the one she announced yesterday for tomorrow) tonight a 22.00. She thought a lot on something and wanted to do this. Max Matsuura accepted but he is “scared” because he still doesn’t know what she wants to say.

Wonder if it will be about all the hate for the just the way you are video? Let’s see in a few minutes!!

Link here: https://youtu.be/pgrlhmo99NU

In the thumbnail it says “Emergency Live Call with Ayu” and the title of the live is “Ayu contacted me suddenly because she had “something to talk about” so we are doing an emergency live call…” so Max will join as well, I guess.

I’m so curious. I can’t imagine what this can be about since she was going to do a live anyway tomorrow…

So much pressure and hype, probably for "nothing". Often, little things or thoughts are over exaggerated.

With Ayu, we are used to that now, it can be anything but lately, it's "oh, it was just that, next".

I'm not sure the live will mention her private life (which I don't care about) but what's to come, her current situation, mindset, probably her difficulties with her hearing.

Well, we'll see but making "WE HAVE A BIG URGENT THING TO TALK ABOUT" it's like a little too much and obvious it won't be.

She wants to use Max’s house for filming YouTube live tomorrow…? She said that’s the thing she wanted to say the most

Wonder did she not say what she really wanted to say, cos at the start she said something along the lines of “now that I’m here I don’t know if I should say”… who knows

What I understand is that she wants to collaborate with Max Matsuuras YouTube/Instagram/Twitter channel in order to get to known by other people as well (those who aren’t already following ayu).

Yeah, it was just her asking to borrow his house for the YouTube live tomorrow. They talked about everyone being concerned of her retiring but they said this wasn’t how she would announce that. I don’t know, this was something new for her so I expected something more about her career. I don’t understand what she was trying to do. I guess is a way to make her album release known outside of her fanbase (since it was a live on Max YouTube page).

Maybe if they promoted the album better she'd be known by more people than just TA lol

She needs a good tie-in if she wants to get known outside TA bubble.

Question: is there any news on a taiwan version for Remember You?

The cover and tracks remind me of NEXT LEVEL & Duty some how had some collaboration, lol! I love that. She's gorgeous and I really do like how the 'task' tracks keep coming. This woman truly is the Queen of J-Pop (^.^)

This was an interesting Q&A on TeamAyu today. I'm surprised she answered a question like this at all, to be honest.

Ugh Ayu seriously, dragging it out just ask to borrow his house. Even Max was like “wth woman” (not angrily, he was laughing, but more like “dude, you could have asked me privately”). I couldn’t really make out whether she was actively trolling or just really that clueless about how it sounded like she was going to make some big announcement.

Anyhow. She mentioned she’s not retiring for now, but she can’t say she’ll never retire. Also seems like she’s not that interested in promoting the album beyond team ayu. She mentions she felt she could be using Youtube for something more interesting than that. She talked about how her and Max are now way past the stage of doing stuff for their own burning desires and rather want to make the industry better and support newcomers.

I guess the part she said about not knowing if she's going to sing until she dies is pretty obvious, because her hearing isn't getting better (and we don't have any technology that could reverse the process), so eventually she will have to stop singing because of that.

This album is effing perfection in full.

Did it leak!???

Yes. I posted it in Downloads. Was shared by junshen!

I can't survive from taskinson. THIS SONG IS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!! I'm dead, crystallized and revived into a phoenix then dead again.

VIBEES is the highlight of this album for me, the best track!

Thank youuuuuuuuu!

:)

Thank you so much!! It is definitely a great album. VIBEES is not my cup of tea, but I loved Remember you. Waiting for the lyrics translation!

I like how different of a sound VIBEES has. Definitely a stand out track in her whole discography. Her vocals are a bit too screechy at points but it's still a pretty entertaining song. I also love "Remember you" in full. I really love her vocals in that track especially.

I am so bitter that crappy remix took up the spot of a possible new song.
Overall, judging the album as a whole I'd say it is pretty uninspired. Many of the songs have little replay value which is kind of rare for me at least with an ayu album. I think a couple of songs will hold up over time but that's it. I'm realizing how many songs on this album that I initially thought were okay when they were released aged pretty terribly.

Hopefully that live stream won't result in international fans spamming Come to x/Greetings from x. Or constant Yasss queens. There's that one person on Twitter, who's every comment to her seems to be Yasss queen. lol

I will wait for the album to officially come out before listening. It's only a few hours now anyway. I actually listened to like one second of VIBEES, just because I wanted to know what style of music it is and could only make out electric guitars or something? Though interestingly, going by the comments it seems like a new sound for her, so not a strictly rock-pop-ish song?

I think the mixing on Dreamed a Dream is slightly different, cleaner, richer, and nicer. I could be wrong though.

I believe the mixing/mastering on all the older songs is different.

Yeah, 23rd Monster sounds different as well. Also Ohia no ki

Saw someone on Bilibili posted the unboxing of TA version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLjtd7ryRQ0

The photoshoot in the lyric booklet is surprisingly few. But it looks very elegant in the packaging and design overall.

23rd Monster also sounds fixed. The one on Spotify sounded so jarring in terms of volume after DaD and NYU and it has become a lot more crisp. The opening of the album is so damn strong. I think I would have appreciated Nonfiction and Summer again as part of this album, since they didnt leave a very strong impression as singles for me.

ray of truth is BEAUTIFUL!!! I would listen to it more for sure and thats rare for an interlude.

Remember you's opening is soooo oldschool I love it. I love how in the second chorus, her vocals get subtly stronger and more forceful without going overboard. Classic Tetsuya Yukumi ballad with no bridge. I did wish for a modulation but he doesn't do that either. Really reminds me of a stronger Shape of Love haha.

taskinson is a boppppppp...which I think should have transitioned into Summer again and not MASK LMAO

VIBEES is definitely a concert staple! Its so different from what she has done I love it~ The energy is gonna be amazing live. The ending was a nice twist in melody!

Overall I listened to the whole album thoroughly, and its a very coherent piece :D it took a long time but I'm so happy it gelled all together so nicely

There's only like three or four images right? I was surprised too.

The TA version's photobook cover shoot (where Ayu's wearing a striking purple dress with a cityscape background) shots, as well as the shots taken of her in the leopard dress (one of which is present in the lyric booklet) are so gorgeous - it's a travesty that she didn't utilise either of them as the album's actual covers.

Just listened to the album ! Overall I'm happy with it it sounds very nice !
I'm still in love with NonFiction and 23rd Monster.
The remix of NonFiction is nice but that's it... It was not very necessary on this album...

VIBEES is original and refreshing, I like it !!
Taskinson is a masterpiece, it' a pity it is not a full song ! Like freedreamer it should have transitioned into Summer Again :)

Remember you is a very very classic ballad, nothing outstanding, same as Just the way you are. I think I will not listen to them very often lol

My top 5 :

NonFiction
23rd Monster
VIBEES
Taskinson
Summer Again

Yea, shame that they are not using it.
I think they want to go for the dress that has a more romantic feels to it.

If they create an orchestra version, I think it will be more exciting and different. Compare to the original, the remix is so bland.

The orchestra version will be a great transition to Just the way you are as well.

Totally agree with you!

Maybe she doesn't want to show the leopard print on any album cover anymore? Since there are already 2 leopard print covers. But yes, her style and makeup in that costume is hot and gorgeous!

The songs work perfectly together. When the singles came out I was like "ok". But now, listening the whoIe thing, I think this album is really solid. Good job, Ayu!!!

Ayu's stream will start in a few minutes

https://youtu.be/x9afFYSQWYY

Hope someone's downloading the stream, pretty sure they will delete it.

She's cute !
Hope someone will understand what she's saying !

the comments are going TOO FAST LOL

The comments are too fast though

She says that it is difficult to come to Hokkaido with concerts since it is far away and hard to bring stuff there, but if enough people gather she would come.
She asks the staff what day it is today, weekday or not.
Basically spent a lot of time figuring out Super Chat.

checking out the bucks :mischief

It seems like she can’t discuss anything about tracks from her new album on YouTube? She kinda read my message (to which I asked about which of the new tracks happens to be her fave and she mumbled something about YouTube) and also, did she mention that the Asia tour is over already (? I caught something like 終わる��), or something like that… cant save myself with my crappy nihongo

She said she won’t said it on YouTube basically.
The whole thing is not very interesting IMHO…

her vibes in answering these questions does not strike me as coming from someone who is planning to retire :laugh

can someone who actually speaks Japanese summarise what they think about her answers?

Now that was disappointing. Most of it was spent trying to figure out what's going on and she didn't want to talk about the new album AT ALL, because that's a TA exclusive apparently. 🙄 Does she remember that she used to just talk about her music in interviews and stuff? I was quite excited, because I thought we'd get to hear from her about the new album, not talking about how she's not living the luxurious life some might think she does or something.

:grumpy ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh ://///////

LMAO so this was just a...pre-album-hype-stream-but-im-totally-not-talking-about-the-album-out-tomorrow stream

Same. lol

I don't understand why she did this live if not talking about the new album.
We are ALL fans, TA or not.

She can’t even remember how many Ayu mi x there is, neither could her staff.
They had some good Tequila…

I thought fan means TA, whether they are a member or not. Good luck filling concerts and selling music from those, who're willing to pay for the fan club. Her attitude actually really annoyed me. What was that whole thing for? She wanted more interesting questions, but also didn't want to talk about the album. What a mess.

It’s still going isn’t it? I’m watching it now, y’all are talking like it’s over. Lol.

That doesn't strike me as surprising though, since going by her first All Night Nippon, she didn't quite like those releases. Isn't one of them also one of the covers used in the ourselves PV?

To me it is, since I said "F it" and left. lol

Oh it ended. I heard she mentioned Singapore?!

Lol ok it’s actually over now.

She looked really pretty.

That being said, idk I felt bad for all the people paying money to highlight their questions and it seemed so few were read / answered. Felt like a quick and cheap way to recoup some money they spent on producing the album, outside of sales.

Yup she did. And I was the one that asked her if there’a any plans to release another ayu-mi-x series in the future. The livestream is private now.

looool I loved this live!! especially when Max appeared

it was funny! it was almost like a tv-show because they changed the screens.

but there was one moment when she read the message from 14 years old mom and said something like 'wow, first I thought you're 14 years old mom! that would be sensational' and then it turned out that she misread the message and the girl is really 14 years old mom.

Yeah, Youtube live is very unfortunate.
Clearly, none of her staff is capable to handle live youtube nor do they brief ayu about the superchat.
All of the fans that spend their money are going to waste because she still has not read some of them. She skips it. Totally last minutes idea and no professional involve to handle it.

I think the Asia tour won't happen, I believe she explains that because of corona they need to pending the asia tour and then no talks about that anymore.