lol

hahahahaha, she's a freak! Love her! :luv2:luv2:luv2

LOL ayu!
So cute :love:love:love:love

Where did you find this photo?

TeamAyu blog

wah haha she really went to see the billboard? haha.
so her new blog entry is about this ~

she looks happy
i love her

Alvin Goh just posted this on his instagram account.

Arrived Tokyo today and saw pics of my new works plastered all over! Please check out Ayumi Hamasaki's new album "COLOURS" out today 2nd July! #ayumihamasaki #滨崎步 #浜崎あゆみ #alvingoh

http://i.imgur.com/qPoQIT1.jpg

Love her! xD So cute! ^-^

Ayu is so sweet!!

You know, now listening to a cd rip of all the songs completely in order all the way through. This album isn't nearly as "EDM" as everyone says it is. Terminal, Lelio, and Feel the Love. That's pretty much all there is to the dancey-ness of the album. Actually does anyone on this forum actually know what "Electronic Dance Music" is? The only song on this album that meets the requirement is Terminal. Maybe Feel the love if you're lenient. XOXO has EDM elements in it, but I wouldn't consider it "electronic dance music".

^ It seems anything with programmed instruments is considered "EDM" these days. It just seems to me like a buzzword for the current trends in pop. Who knows...

I remember NEXT LEVEL being promoted as an "electro" album back in 2009. whereas now using "EDM" seems like a cheap marketing term used in an effort to appear hip and trendy. I have to say, I don't like the marketing for this album. I find the glorification and commoditization of the International producers very strange as well.

^Well, considering Namie is the biggest soloist right now and how people around here received the news, Ayu and her team pretty much did what was hot in pop music nowadays.

I really liked the result and I really enjoyed all of the songs, but I believe this won't last for any other release... The closer she will get from it will be adding elements from EDM-pop on some of her future releases like she tends to do when she tries a new sound aesthetic.

Considering the promotion, the videos, the artwork and even the way the international producers were used as a selling point, I would say this is kinda like a "career relaunch" or a rebranding... She went to the shadows to rest her image since her 10th anni, and she starting to actually come back now.

I know this is silly considering the CD JUST came out, but hearing this interesting new-ish sound for her makes me wonder what she's going to do next.


Oh goodness I need to get caught up with my CD's. I haven't bought any of her more recent CD's....

I wouldn't mind if she continued with this style, but I'd like to see her dabble in a less polished sound. She shouldn't feel limited to well-known musicians. Wonder if she can recruit another indie guy (like Tetsuya Yukumi) for her team.

Where's she going next? Probably do her usual Love songs LOVE again stuff

I think ayu wanted to point that she was working with famous producers outside Japan because it is something quite unusual there. Also, there's fact that she could attract more listeners, her fans and people who were curious about the results of the material. Although most of Japanese people have the habit to glorify American things, I prefer to believe that this was not ayu's intent. Here in Brazil when a pop singer produces music with U.S. famous names, they also have a lot of promotion revolving the producers. I think this happens more in the pop genre due to the amount of money involved.

I don't give two fucks what she does for the next album but please continue working with DAISHI DANCE thx ayu

is in Lelio PV making of.

I'm not even convinced it's a genre! Electronic Dance Music...so that'd just be dance music then?

EDIT: Ahhh that pic of Ayu is so cute! Love how she's so excited about the billboard!

I don't really seen her going for well-known musicians as a staple... She doesn't really seen to like repeating herself for much more than 3 or 4 songs per album.

I wouldn't say those were her "typical" sound... I don't even find them to be all that similar aside being mid-tempo. Love songs is heavily rooted on her orchestral influenced pop sound... Her sound usually mixes pop, rock, dance and orchestra, and usually she picks one of those to throw at the front, Love songs being the first time she did it with the orchestra.

LOVE again... is heavily rooted on nostalgia, it revisits most of the sounds she worked during her career and gives it a strong 90's jpop feeling.

Ayu is cute

So... no 'Tell all' hidden track on any of the versions? :(

Woah, is that a bag or is ayu's arm in an arm sling? o_o
I think it's really cute that he came to support her while she filmed ^^
And that picture of her in front of the billboard is so adorbs

I do believe she is in an arm sling... and her husband... man... hes huge.

:mischief:mischief:mischief

Ayu, you go girl!

Them tattoos doe <33 I hope someone will upload the making ofs soon ^^

Gosh I want to sit on her husband's face rofl! Is that an arm sling or a bag tho?

HAHAHAHAHAHHAH!!! He is insanely handsome though. I didn't think he was THAT cute at first but these different angles of him... mmhm.

from special digest at AyuAngel, yes it is an arm sling, and I wonder what happened to her arm/hand

http://i.imgur.com/UugElZ8l.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/uDPEklPl.jpg

yea i also wonder what happened with her arm..probably slight injury from her dance moves.
i didn't notice her husband in the lelio making off haha.

I'm looking forward to see more pic from booklet, anyone has its scan??
Thanks in advance for sharing

Rock :love I love her rockier songs

lulz her taste in men is so great though.

Alvin Goh is really excited about Colours release haha

My copy just arrived this morning UGH it's so gorgeous! <3

He's so excited he posted another "unedited" cover of Colours! I had hard times doing a proper "HQ" cd only cover for iTunes.

Kumi did the same thing months ago when her newest album was released haha

http://i.imgur.com/44FZ22Q.jpg

Alvin Goh posted these pics on his instagram account last night.

Hello Kitty bouquet at Yoyogi

Colours booklet shot

Ayu is the queen of looking very uncomfortable while trying to look sexy. She really needs an award.

Well............Ayu is tiny :laugh


And ugh my CDs will probably arrive middle of next week but I get all my FtL Tour goods as well ^_^

isnt everyone whos working with Ayu will get so much excited like this? especially if you are the first timer, look at how excited L***** haha, no really at the same time they can promote themselves too; sorry Alvin the covers are just niiiceeee

yeah that pic is so awkward and static >.<

btw, for Kuu, lolol its the same billboard at the same place xDDDD maybe Ayu saw kuu did this before xDDDD

I soooo happy that Yumi Kawamura is singing the BGVocals for Ayu again
I am hoping that she will be present at PREMIUM SHOWCASE

who is yumi kawamura?

omg hahah look at these google ads on my browser, the links leads to her official site *--*

^ wow that's cool
i also opened a random website about traveling to japan, there's also an ad about ayu's Colours. cool!

^ Hey that's cool!! Can't believe they put web ads!!!!

Just listened to CD-version and wow... The mixes sound so much more dynamic in HQ. NOW & 4EVA, Pray, and Terminal are especially amazing! I wasn't a fan of Pray before, and I still wish they didn't utilize a programmed drum track, but the full HQ mix isn't nearly as flat as the m4a iTunes rip.

GOD I NEED A CD RIP OF TELL ALL SO BAD IN MY LIFE.

Well if you are not an RPG player mainly Persona 3 & 4 that I guess you do not know her. She sung on the soundtrack for the aforementioned games and she was also a back up singer at Ayu's Hotel Love Songs Tour 2012:D

Ugh darn it now i"m thinking how awesome it'd be to hear Ayu do a cover of "Burn My Dread" live.

just in case anyone need it, Colours CD CD+DVD CD+BD scans > http://ayufan.com/blog/?p=13120

Vans merchandising along with Colours promo, loved those flags

http://i.imgur.com/XVqMpXr.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/2qc5CiA.jpg

Maybe ayumi isn't promoting, but avex is doing a good job !!!

I mostly listened to previews and the PV clips and just got the full album and it does sound better in HQ. It's not my personal favourite Ayu album or general style and won't often be on my playlist but it's not bad. It's quite a nice break so when the next totally Ayu style song comes along it will sound fresh and I'll appreciate it more!
Is What is forever love? english spoken sections referencing Mannie or is it just me that hears that in there?

I think more about Tomoya than Mannie

Thank you very much!

Oh yeah, I forget about Tomoya sometimes. It was the 'too far away' part that made me think of Mannie. And now that she feels able to travel more, she regrets the break up?

I had the same thought =) thumbs up for avex this time!

I think I'm gonna write a basic review for Colours this weekend.. I really actually like the cover with the "C" covering her eye, it's the one I chose for the album in my phone lol.

and wow Angel is SO GOOD in 320KPS.. that and Mgr are the best songs on the album imo

I finally got my copy at the store!!!!! I can't wait to hear all of the new songs! Gonna play them during the long ride home tonight!

:banana1

Does anyone know if Candle Edition with CD+Blu-ray still available? I don't really need a candle but it's an ultimate edition and boxed packaging looks cool too.

http://i57.tinypic.com/2db2x4l.png

XOXO is playing as a commercial on YouTube ;)

:OMG

Sometimes I wonder tho--is that only because Youtube is pulling shady info from your cookies and your browsing history that it's customizing the ads for you? I wondered the same thing about the user that posted screencaps of the Colours ads on a website they visited.

^ yep, those are googleads ^^

^ I find them creepy as hell. @__@

^Even if Google is promoting Ayu based on the user interests, showing her to people that actually searched for her in the first place, Avex still had to pay for those ads, so, it's as official promotion as it gets.^^

Avex is apparently doing a great job now. :)

^As I said sometimes, they were probably giving some time in the heavy promotion because of how superexposed Ayu were for all those years. She was literally shoved on Japanese public's throats a whole decade... It was almost like a hiatus to the general public.

Them she kept promoting to her core fanbase for some years while having some minnor general promotions here and there.

Now (actually, since she started to appear on non-Avex festivals) they are starting to promote her to the general public again, what most likely won't make Colours a hit album, but has a good potential of bulding interest among the general public for her next releases. The internet ads and the billboards are the most visible part of her promotion, but the Showcase introducing her new era for her core fanbase, and now her public relations team working to make sure she will be on the news and gather interest for the general public for her both as a performer and as a musician. In other words, it's like the promotion for a new artist.

We will see how effective it will be once the Showcase hits TV and if they will do something interesting during A-Nation.

I get the colours banner ads as well... but I've gotten various music videos as commercials before. A few weeks ago I was getting a Ketsumeishi video. I feel like my browser history wouldn't have anything relating to Ketsumeishi haha...

I have a lot of Japanese and Korean CM's on YouTube, but I can't see one with ayu!!

I've never seen a japanese cm on youtube =\ only portuguese and english ones..

^ me too. It must have to deal with the country viewers/users are in. I'd love an Ayu cm to pop up while I'm on YouTube lol btw, I loooove the album! I wish not all the tracks were leaked early though. Plus it's STILL not on USA iTunes Store, so no the theory that it's released internationally is a lie. And the blu-ray works on my blu-ray player too yeay! I was worried that it wouldn't

^

blu-rays are all region free, aint it?

ps: i wonder if that's because of the producers, idk, it's strange.

Well, it's in lots of other international iTunes stores, including the Swedish one, so I'm thinking that brener's theory about it having to do something with the producers is correct. I can't come up with any other good reason why it wouldn't be released in the US store...

US iTunes updates on Tuesday. Since the album was physically released on Wednesday last week (after the update!), earliest possible time for it to show up is this coming Tuesday. That's assuming the album will be added if at all. They are still missing many of her releases that used to be sold in the iTunes Store before her discography was taken away and added back. But then the US store is temperamental when it comes to J-POP.

Not all blurays. In terms of DVDs, Japan and the States are different regions (USA is Region 1, Japan is version 2) but when it comes to blurays, Japan and USA are both Region A.

avex may release region-free blurays though, I'm not sure.

For some reason I was convinced that Ayu's blu-ray releases were all region-free but according to my searching, they're all in Region A. So even if I had a Blu-ray player, I wouldn't be able to play the Ayu Blu-rays I own :(... Well, at least I can play all her DVDs without problem since Japan and Sweden have the same DVD region.
I do hate this region-thing though, in the age of globalization and the Internet it feels like it should be a relic of the past. I don't begrudge the media industry for finding new ways to make money when they're losing so much due to illegal copying/downloading of media, but it feels sour when it's at the cost of the paying consumer who wants to enjoy international media.
And this little rant is going a bit off-topic so I'll just say: Terminal has been my groove for the last few days, I love it and I hope to be able to buy the album when I (supposing something doesn't go wrong) get money on Thursday.

I hope they add it so I can preview all of the songs on it. ^_^ I've decided that I'm going to save up to buy some Ayu cd's and I wanna know which one's I should buy.

Preach, sister!

Anyway, I wonder if Ayu will have a comeback of sorts? Nothing huge, but for her to have a "hit" again. I don't recall anyone saying anything about the songs on Colours being huge in Japan. I remember I read in another thread that people consider Days to be her last big hit?

I read on some thread, that You & Me is her last big hit because it got a lot of downloads and views on YouTube.

Hello new me can be a hit soon, maybe.

Besides Colours, that was just released, every Ayu album has at least one certified track... So, minnor hits-wise she still serving.

Many blu-ray players can easily be unlocked to be region free. My player only needed me to type some specific numbers with the remote control with the CD door open and that was it, now I can watch DVDs and Blu-rays of any regions :) (you can search the different codes for different models on the internet)

Sooo, forgive me if this has been answered already, but is Colours going to be released on US iTunes soon or what? It's been on UK iTunes for a week now, and they've put everything up to now on US iTunes so... I wonder what the delay is?

Alvin Goh released this booklet picture on his instagram today.

http://i.imgur.com/QIooGXn.jpg

owlflight gave insight on the previous page.

Is it bad that when I read that I thought perhaps it was because people enjoyed watching Ayu get pushed out of a vehicle?

I've just read this: http://www.jpopasia.com/news/ayumi-h...se::16724.html

Well, dunno how to feel about this article...

I don't care about that article cause It based on the sale number of ORICON chart which didn't count the oversea sold number or the one at the venue ! It's just the chart for the idol, not for the artists anymore !

Every new album is her worst selling album. For years it's been this way lol. And chart positions are irrelevant considering it just depends what week she's on lol.

Since MY STORY! xD

^Every new album since I am.../RAINBOW is also her most hated album as well. ;)

by deaf people I guess :D

I always thought LOVE again was her most hated album '-' anyway, RAINBOW is my favorite album :heart

I remember reading some article talking about her decline and how she's old news. They said something along the lines of "Her last real hit that was memorable began the chorus with "aah itsuka eien no~".

I meet at my work many Japanese people each week. Sometimes we talk a little bit more, and usually they ask what I like about Japan etc. Almost every time, when I mention Ayu, and that I like her music (sometimes I even add something like "I know she's not that popular anymore etc") they tell me "Yeah, but she's still the biggest singer in our country", and I get this answer from different age groups. But not that many people know when she is releasing something (but this happens with Namie too, people tell me that they like her, but then they're like "oh, is she releasing a ballad best album, really?". With Ayu they usually add "DID YOU KNOW THAT SHE MARRIED THAT FOREIGNER?!" :D

RAINBOW, NEXT LEVEL and Party Queen all received a lot of hate. RAINBOW seens to be among her most bashed.

I'm assuming that Rainbow got hate when it was released? Because I wasn't even into J-Pop when it was released (I think I was like 12?), so I don't know what fan reactions were like. Personally, I freaking LOVE that album. Like, its perfect. Like, Ayu, you are perfect for making that album.

Next Level I was around for, but I don't really remember giving a fuck about what other people thought of it. And I really like that album, too. Sparkle is probably my favorite Ayu song. Or, at least one of them.

Lol! Love this.

Don`t understand why people hate albums :shakehead.

i can't understand why Party Queen recevied that amount of hate. It's one of my fav album! Maybe it's not Duty or (miss)understood but it's maybe 3rd or 4rth of my favorites...