I really like the instrumental, and the way the song keeps on growing. Sounds like something from A ONE (i.e. very very ayu-ish) but also a bit OST-like, reminded me of alan's Kuon no Kawa/RED CLIFF. Can't wait to hear the whole thing, I hope it'll be a promotional digital single for A BALLADS 2!

I'm really excited for the song and I hope we get to hear it or a snippet with vocals soon! :heart

"Pray for you" reminded me both BUDDHA's themes, including her own "Pray" and X JAPAN's "Scarlet Love Song".

I love Pray so much

Reminds me of 'A Bell'

Sweet! I'm looking forward to its release

Do you guys think it might be possible that this song is going to be just an instrumental with no lyrics/vocal? The more I listen to the melody and arrangement the harder it is for me to imagine her actually singing it out.

I did wonder how some parts were going to work out, because like you said it doesn't feel like there's always room for her to sing!
But I refuse to believe she'd be sadistic enough to tease an instrumental only track! I was wondering if maybe it meant it just won't have the usual verse-chorus-verse-chorus-chorus structure, and go for something a bit different like Heaven or reminds me, ...

I highly doubt that this is going to stay an instrumental only. I don't see how that would make sense.

She has a song like "Walk", which is built in a similar way. While listening to "Pray for you" instrumental, I can easily point a lot of places her vocals could be in.

One of my favorite things from Ayu is how she manages to harmonize her voice with an instrumental in an unique and blending way (an example of this is forgiveness).

I feel this song will have vocals, because she wants to send a message and she can do this only through her lyrics - unless she composes the entire instrumental as well.

I guess what’s a little unusual to me in the track is how the melody seems to be fully played out by instruments - not just one, but multiple in sequence (piano, then flute, then horns etc). In her usual instrumentals for songs, the melody is seldom played by instruments. But maybe this is just due to the fact that the song isn’t officially released. Like RAINBOW

I think this song version we have is the live-track and not a studio version of course. Arrangement should be rather different in the final one and the end as it is now reminds me of Voyage a lot!

Can you please make a list of those, as I am just curious?

I personally don’t feel like Last minute, Zutto, Out of Control, Walk, Shape of Love, WORDS, Mad World, You are the only one, Pray, Sweet Scar sound anything like this?

^Tea!

https://i.imgur.com/EK8XJ7L.gif

^Let's normalise using Ayu gifs and this one in particular!

As much as I think the statement is too extreme, I think I understand where Akutenshi is coming from because I had the exact same reaction - bored to death thinking 'welp, that's an Ayu ballad all right' and when the horns came in I actually started paying attention.

Obviously it's all a matter of taste and I am in NO WAY qualified as a musician, but to me Pray for you does sound like Pray, Anything for you, Zutto, WORDS or Walk to quote a few. And apart from Walk, none of those actually appeal to me unfortunately.

While being of... varying quality let's say, I feel like the other ones in njanjyarp's list have something 'special' that made me remember them - the dry guitar in Shape of love, the 'etheral' instruments in You are the only one + break at the end, the relative simplicity of Sweet Scar, the change of tone in Last minute, ...

So yeah, while I disagree that Pray for you sounds like all her ballads in the last 7 years because she's had some KILLER ballads, I can't see it becoming one of my favourite based on the instrumental version. But then again, I would have said the same listening to the instrumental version of Walk and yet I was obsessed when it came out.

I guess I'm just secretly hoping for November part II

Again, we only have Yuta NakaSameOl’ to thank for this :/

Would really love for her to work with other arrangers for once...

Ayu definitely has a lot stand out ballads and she also has a lot of ballads with a familiar ayu vibe. I think it's unfair to say her ballads sound the same, it's more of a healthy mix between something new and the usual.

^Definitely, and I love that she does this! I know Party Queen or Colours didn’t really impress anyone here but I still listen to loads of tracks on those two just because of how special they feel in her discography!

He does tend to sound same-y... It’s a fine line isn’t it, between a signature sound and always sounding the same!

I like the instrumental, although nothing could beat RAINBOW, ever!