^ not really, but i remember reading some posts that brought up "putting LOVE and again onto one album or something"
and it happened.

Actually, a LOT of people thought that as soon as again was announced.

I still wish it was titled LOVEgain. :luv2

It seems more combined this way as a whole.

But yeah, that wouldn't surprise me. I remember 'A SUMMER' being discussed a few weeks before A SUMMER BEST was announced...

Though, it is a pretty generic release/release title. She may have been thinking of it the whole time.

i enjoyed A summer... I know I could have done it myself, but who cares! lol
I wonder what this 5th release is going to be... about another 7 days till we find out!

I'm hoping for it to be climatic! :)

I don't think it will be A BEST 3. I just have a feeling it is something else.

heres hoping to a group of remix albums!!

ayu trance 5 plz.

task'n'bass and glasses confirmed to be interludes by mu-mo:
http://shop.mu-mo.net/a/item1/?merc_no=AVCD-38705

Yay! I was right! The other interlude is glasses. :D

Extremely pumped for Gloria now.

But petal seems quite mysterious too.
I wonder if it'll be related to SAKURA at all....

I'm happy this album only has 2 interludes, and it's even the ones most of us suspected haha.
So excited for Petals & Gloria now!

i'm betting Gloria will be an other sweet ballad....tho i feel like all except Bye-bye darling are gonna be ballads lol

^
Me too argh I truly hope it's not that case :/ I want at least one good popish song and one great rock song !

^still i'm hoping to be surprised lol

yay! I was right about the interludes!!
this makes me happy!!

Only 4 new songs (and 2 interludes)....?! I won't buy it definitely... :(

5 new songs

Avex does have people who monitor their artists OS careers and fanbases - I had some contact with one of them back in 2010 and 2011 about hiring costs for an event. They might not necessarily be members here but they do read comments on fan sites as part of their reference for OS fan concentration :)

I'm pumped for Gloria now - after Aria was an interlude I was worried it would be another epic title lost to interlude-dom!

hope there's at least one dark rock song in this album (though quite unlikely). Gloria? petal?

i have more faith in this album than PQ tbh.

People who are ordering the PLAYBUTTON with Tenso. Will Tenso send the PLAYBUTTON to your address? I remember somebody at AHS had problems with the other PLAYBUTTONs.

I'm hoping for a darker song.

The closest I think we've gotten so far in the LOVE again era in terms of 'dark' is Sweet scar, but even then, I consider it more bittersweet. Here's hoping to something more along the lines of SCAR or still alone...

Now I just realized how perfect SCAR would be before Ivy. Playlist time I think. :love

i would love some darker rock songs....
Because of You would be perfect if she DID break up with the man?

i just cant wait to watch the PVs in HD Sweet Scar must be beautiful and also for the goods! ^^

holy **** so Gloria is actually a full song?! YAAAY

I pray Gloria is a dark song...
untitled should be sad...Ivy is rather sad. so just hoping..

SAKURA gives me traditional vibes but it could be that preview we've seen. Hoping the preview isnt Bye-Bye darling, which I hope is a dark song too...

How does mumo know?
I'm glad glasses is an interlude though.

wonder who composed what.

Kunio Tago for untitled II definitely.
I think the Yuta Nakano compositions are gonna be amazing.
Hoshino probably composed the previewed song

Yay I'm glad "Gloria" and "SAKURA" are full songs!

Somehow I kinda want it to be like "Will", I'm probably thinking about it because of its lyrics. That would be amazing! But yeah no matter which track I definitely want a dark rock song.

Gloria reminds me of the Maki Goto album... which makes me think of this song



oh if Gloria were a song like this... :heart

mememememe..me.

Gloria reminds me of mix of M with Return Road (and a bit of kiss 'o kill) but it looks like a ballad in that section... If so, hopefully a M type of song... We have already many typical ballads on this album.

Bye-bye darling can be anything. It could be "ladies anthem" like mnW or anything with that attitude, but it can be also an experimental track like alterna, Like a doll etc. Also it can be somewhere in is this LOVE? type. I'm hoping the preview is for SAKURA and not for Bbd, cause that would mean, SAKURA could be a cherre-o cute song or another ballady-medium...

glad glasses are interlude.
still don't know what to think about petal... it can ALSO be anything. Everybody thought snowy kiss was a power winter ballad but it came totally diffrent... petal sounds medium ballady, but who knows... it's in "dramatic" sector along with snowy kiss and neutral Sweet scar...

petal sounds random.

identity and criminal random. I bet it turns out great. :luv2

^ criminal sounded dark from the begining.

^ That is true. But I wouldn't classify identity as dark either.

They're kind of conflicting tracklist wise. In one sense, one could say they stand out as their titles are so different to the others present (eg. Song 4 u, Wake me up). Yet at the same time, they seem to blend in as meek in comparison to these same song titles.

Though, it probably will end up being the 'teddy bear' inspired of the lot (since 'petal' sounds soft).

One could argue against this though. A petal eventually falls from the flower...it could certainly be a dark song if this theme appeared.

so with the confirmation from mu-mo it means this album only has two interludes? thats great news!

i'm with everyone else on Gloria...i'm really excited for it! its kind of like BRILLANTE, i was excited for it too just by the title and then it turned out to be amazing! i hope Gloria can be so epically amazing too! i want a grand ballad or something. :yes

^Actually it was confirmed by the official website when the tracklist was revealed.

lol i would be surprised if any of those songs turned into dark rock tracks...:innocent

Looking forward to the new songs :)

I've been imagining Gloria as something gospel-influenced. It would be so cool if she brought the Pride/B&D/BtB/Curtain Call style backing vocals or a big choir back for a truly big song :love If not, it could be a piano ballad or have a organ in it or something. But with her, you never know. (And that's what I love.) SAKURA must be something special, just because it has a japanese name :P

I am kinda curious why they shoot a PV for Melody, instead of one of the new songs like Gloria or SAKURA...

:(

^
maybe they filmed it earlier and dont have time for the new songs *shrugs*

The first announcement of "LOVE"'s tracklist included "Melody" as a PV on the DVD instead of "Missing" (which they later changed, of course), so I definitely think it's possible that the PV for "Melody" is finished since long ago.

I wonder why they changed the pv from melody to missing...

Wow, such early confirmation of what is what.

And as for the Melody switching with Missing thing... I think maybe they realized Missing had more potential or something?

I'm wondering if back then (before LOVE's release) the PV was actually shot. Who knows, it might also be like "blossom" and ayu won't be in it lol.
I wish there was at least one PV for an album track though... :/

No, we know Ayu is in it for sure, haha.

It was shown in a LOVE again CM before CDL started in the venue.

I was about to write "I can't wait for the covers" and then I remember
Oh yeah we already have them lmao.

Oh really? Is there any fancam? I'm wondering what they saw :o

The reports state that the PV has Ayu in black/white (like white top/black pants) surrounded by the dancers dressed in red. There's also a bit of a kaleidoscope effect a la TO BE or Not yet from AT07. It's also kind of artsy?

http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showpo...&postcount=199
http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showpo...&postcount=197

Sounds promising.
But Song for u's PV also seemed promising. Then we saw the whole thing.

Song 4 u wasn't that bad. It's visually pretty out there for Ayu. However, the lack of cuts to anything other than the chess board scenes was probably a bad idea since like almost all of Ayu's videos at least have different angles in the same scenes if not with different scenes/backdrops entirely but I get what their concept was going for.

And actually, it's one of Ayu's most 'reblogged' things with 12,000+ since people like the 'look' of the PV.

It definitely looks better than most of her PVs as of late, but Im the kind of guy that needs more than looks. they could have done so much.. they could have done so much with every PV, but Slavex's budget is just sad these days.

I don't want to be, but I'm super excited for the 5th and final release.
IF, AND IF its gonna be A BEST 3, I HOPE FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY, she actually bothers to record new vocals (and instruments?)

Like Gackt did for The Sixth Day ~Single Collection~. It just makes that single compilation so, so so amazing. For Gackt it shows an extreme improvment in his voice. So please, please, PLEASE Ayu!! NEW VOCALS!!

I don't think it's the budget, but just the concept/storyboarding/execution overall that is different. It seems to me like Masashi is just burnt out maybe. He did Ladies Night which was pretty good as well as is this LOVE?, both of which are loved by Ayu fans and had his usual 'twists' at the very end, but his PVs since late-2010 aren't as well liked. It's possible it's just being stretched too thin because he has to direct everything.

It was nice to see Wataru Takeishi back for Sweet scar though.

For an artist of her status, her music videos are rather lackluster to me. Visually they may be nice but boring.

Sweet Scar was cute but Snowy Kiss was too dull.

My favorite still has to be Rule and Marionette.
and Fairyland because the guys are hot.

Not holding my breath for Melody. The inclusion of dancers already has me worried.

Song 4 u had potential, had the idea, but the execution was beyond terrible.

In fact, I've stopped expecting amazing PVs from Ayu because I know they are going to be few and far between from now on. They feel like afterthoughts instead of a visual expression of Ayu's music. Coming from what her videos were like circa 2003-2005, it's a pretty depressing thought. Return Road and sweet scar and the only great PVs she made in 2012.

I really hope she puts more effort into her videos and that maybe, just maybe, Melody will deliver. If the director's ideas are drying up, use new ones.

I liked the simple beauty of how beautiful you are but Shake It and NaNaNa were kind of... odd choices for PVs and the concepts were kind of just "eh?".

I suppose the point of those two PVs from Party Queen was to be that kind of "TRASHY EH" like the covers, but that doesn't really make them that great or worth more than a few playthroughs. I enjoyed the PVs from 2010-2011, it's just the 2012 had too many love-y PVs (3 of them) or PVs that probably should have been executed differently or had an entirely different concept altogether (Shake It/NaNaNa).

For me, it's not so much that it should be 'expected' that her PVs are no longer creative or anything but there have been a few too many storyline-centric multi-part PVs that deprive songs that would otherwise get an individual video that's 'different' from the other PVs as of late. Just in the last two or three years, there have been two 'trilogies' involving love and one 'two parter' that was kind of just there. (I suspect it may be to save money but I don't think that's the case since an in-studio PV is probably cheaper than an extra overseas one) We can only hope that she slowly starts to trickle in the older directors she used to use very often and let Masashi Muto take a break for a while.

Shake it wasn't that bad actually, good for a laugh. I forgot that one. NaNaNa was downright terrible. HBYA was nice in a way for its simplicity but Ayu has done that type of video too many times and executed it far better on other occasions (CAROLS, curtain call, even sweet scar). I miss the epic ballad videos like Together when...

I thought shake it was a bit cute with ayu in that getup.
But I also agree that Nanana was just... Yeah

Have we got who are the guys behind the new songs? I'd be much disappointed if tasuku is only behind an interlude. again.

The composers for the new songs that were listed were Yasuhiko Hoshino (he did Melody), Kunio Tago (did untitled ~for her~), and Yuta Nakano (does basically all songs for Ayu nowadays).

Arrangers have not been revealed, but tasuku worked on some stuff for Party Queen, Wake me up, and You & Me.

^ Oh, thanks! He also worked on snowy kiss, I think? idk the more tasuku we get the better imo even Y&M sounds okay now for me after the CDL perfomance

Also it seems safe to say that Kunio Tago is behind untitled 2 right? :P Probably this will be the only "dark" song out of the new ones

Yes, he also did snowy kiss! I love his arrangements! They're usually so rich.

Oh, EWWW.. he's the one that did the totally BORING and BLAND Melody... man!
I can't believe I dislike this song so much... lol
;)

I like Melody, it reminds me of retro!Ayu from ASFXX since he basically did that entire album and some of her tracks on LOVEppears/Duty. It's weird to think that he also did End of the World and girlish, haha.

Its an okay track, it just doesnt go anywhere for me. (Kinda like the most of A song for XX, lol... explains a lot.)
It's the weakest track of the mini/singles we have.

^ I still believe your "hate" on Melody is only acting and actually you love that song. Cause, you know, it's impossible not to like it <3

I am actually a pretty good actor, but that's beside the point! =p

SO! I'm thinking next monday, not the 14, but the 21st, is gonna be the day we get some news about the last release... I think we usually get this stuff on mondays right?
Hopefully its something amazing!

Melody is almost better than Sweet scar.

I wonder when will Ayu work again with the guy who wrote CAROLS.

My 2 favourites titles are full songs, yay !!!
I hope they're good, SAKURA could be like Will or GREEN and GLORIA like HEAVEN, or she can make something new

the best ballad is Ivy. end of topic.

(and it's the best song on both minis.)

Ivy - Snowy Kiss - Sweet Scar >> your faves

Just wait until Gloria and SAKURA come up in their business...

i hope one of them is a killer rock song...
(dies inside because it wont happen)

Bye-bye darling is the only one that could maybe be rockish. Please be rockish? haha~

i'd take Melody or sweet scar over Ivy anytime. It just sound like someone got starbucks spilled all over the mixing board in that song xD

So much love for Ivy.

I never thought another Ayu song would rank so highly in my eyes. :love

Hoping for previews in a week or two.

petal can be anything too. EVEN untitled ~2~. We don't know anything about this continuation. Just like HANABI and HANABI ~episode II~. First one was calm, second was way powerful and rockish. Or POWDER SNOW. Anything can happened... I don't really think it will be rock anyway, but I think we might be surprised how diffrent from 1st one it might be.

I'm mostly curious for petal. Please don't be Melody ~part II~. Please.

My reasoning for that is because Ayu tends to lump similar-ish songs together in her albums for the sake of flow/whatever. (You & Me is more of a Humming 7/4 type where she kinda puts it at the end and it doesn't fit with what's around it)

I'm thinking the breakdown will be something like....

01. Wake me up
02. Song 4 u
03. Missing
--------
04. SAKURA
05. Melody
-------
07. Bye-bye darling
08. snowy kiss
-------
09. Sweet scar
10. petal
12. untitled for her... story 2
13. Gloria
14. Ivy
-------
15. You & Me

The first part might be an 'upbeat' set with a bit of a transition with Missing into a midtempo section with Melody and SAKURA. Bye-bye darling/snowy kiss could be the 'odd' tracks of the album with a rocky tinge or some sort of 'weird' aspect to them. Then the kind of long slow ballad-y section starts before You & Me. I'd imagine petal could be something different before glasses, but coming after Sweet scar I don't know if it could be anything but a ballad.

if all "predicted" type of songs might be as u said, it will be...

01. Wake me up
02. Song 4 u
03. Missing - power ballad/medium
--------
04. SAKURA - medium/ballad(?)
05. Melody - ballad
-------
07. Bye-bye darling
08. snowy kiss
-------
09. Sweet scar - ballad
10. petal - ballad
12. untitled for her... story 2 - ballad
13. Gloria - ballad
14. Ivy - ballad
-------
15. You & Me


this is just... ridiculous.

just get rid of Wake me up, Song 4 u, snowy kiss and You & Me (and Bye-bye darling if this isn't a ballad)
and call it A BALLADS 2.

even "love atmosphered" Love songs didn't had that much.

it had only crossroad-MOON and then somewhere in the middle blossom ballad/medium section
and then only medium November (but still not A BALLAD) and then Virgin Road.

ballad heavy - MOON / Virgin Road
medium - crossroad, November, Virgin Road and Sweet Season.

But still, it wasn't that HEAVY.

but on counting it's kinda similar. Other songs on Love songs = 6 (do it again, sending mail, Love song, Thank U, Last angel, Like a doll)
LOVE again = 5 (Wake me up, Song 4 u, You & Me, snowy kiss and possibly Bye-bye darling)

eh.

but I'm guessing petal might be NOT a ballad since it's a track right before a interlude.

then it will be 5=5. A Love songs twin sister lol :P

I think the end act will be the surprise.

i want something smooth n tender song like jewel
or ballad with orchestra sound like Carols
n upbeat fun song like step you

I'm not getting my hopes up for fear of disappointment.
I'm sure the songs will sound good

Oh god, i hope they're not all ballads. LOVE SONGS DID NOT HAVE SO MANY BALLADS!

Love Song - NOT a ballad
Moon - BALLAD
Sending Mail - NOT a ballad
Last Angel - NOT a ballad
Like A Doll - NOT a ballad
Blossom - BALLAD
Thank U - No idea what this abomination is..
Sweet Season - BALLAD
Do It Again - NOT a ballad
November - BALLAD(??)
Virgin Road - BALLAD

5-6 ballads out of a total 15 songs(included interludes)

if Love again has 8 ballads out of 15 songs(incl interludes) i will seriously be so annoyed >.<

I thought every ayu song was a ballad until proven innocent?
I wonder if the 5 songs will mainly be ballads..

i hope not...
I want a good mix of music.

Yeah!! enough with ballads based releases. Or at least less ballads and more mix

*likes*

15th anniversary ~COMPLETE SINGLES~ i will die if it is xd

i want that so bad! Something like we had with the first one... a box set with pictures, that dvd...
ah.
*dies*

I really enjoyed the glamour of her 10th anniversary.

So I also hope we receive something just as extravagant as A COMPLETE. :heart

The album after this one better contain some god damn awesome rock. And not rock'n'roll circus rock, because that was not rock at all. I think it only had ONE or maybe two rock songs.

^ Or release an A ROCK! With some ballads rearranged as rock songs (e.g. ASFXX on A BALLADS).

Mmmmyeahhhh.

I don't know why but I think there will be a hidden track after You & Me

Didn't think about this...but that would be awesome! It'd justify including it on the album for me :P

That's what I was gonna say. hey, great minds think alike!! :yes

this is my ultimate dream ._. they can put Ladies Night ~another night~ in it <3 Imagine these songs, even from the 2 latest (singles...) minis! Missing with more angst *___* I see do it again in rock remix... Sparkle ._. there's so much...

I want demos and b-sides that didn't make the album cut the past 15 years and alternate versions of the songs.


A Best was done she said too early, then we have A Best 2, then A Complete Collection, then A Summer Best and I think now it'll be A Best 3.. sigh

No best please!

I can see a new best coming at some point this year, just because Japan eats them up like crazy. I wish they hadn't released A SUMMER BEST though, makes it feel too soon for a new one.

But I'm all up for alternate versions or unreleased tracks! :love I wouldn't mind something like A BALLADS II as well, Ayu's got a big enough choice of songs to rework for it :P