The box set looks so pretty!
I just made a shipping request at tenso, hope mail will be fast ^^

Its been a long time since her face is up in places :) im happy

From Yahoo Japan Auctions

Announcement poster

https://s15.postimg.cc/mnqgkcfkb/153...dchi324310.jpg

CD + Blu-ray

https://s15.postimg.cc/phtlxu7gr/153...nb8j608331.jpg

Back

ayumi hamasaki Just the beginning -20- TOUR 2017 2018.2.20 Okinawa Convention Center time duration - about 127 mins

https://s15.postimg.cc/viraux9ij/153...7wci446330.jpg

ayumi hamasaki Just the beginning -20- TOUR 2017 2017.7.17 Osaka-Jo Hall time duration - about 130 mins

https://s15.postimg.cc/soo5hgzmj/153...geoh608331.jpg

^
Can't wait to get it! To box looks really nice

From TROUBLE's "booklet":

We Are The QUEENS
Arrangement: Yuta Nakano

aeternal
Arrangement: Takehito Shimizu / Atsushi Sato

WORDS
Arrangement: Takehito Shimizu / Atsushi Sato

W
Arrangement: tasuku

The way I am
Arrangement: Yuta Nakano

Source: http://tieba.baidu.com/p/5839820630

^thank you!

TROUBLE front & back covers

From Yahoo Japan Auctions , again

CD A



CD B

^is this her boob ?! :D:D:D:D:D

Lmao that wrong capitalisation of A Song for xx

What is "Distant Memories"?

^ An interlude in the concert

at least it's not a typo :P lol

I adore limited edition *-* I am shocked how many people bought both limited editions. Instagram and twitter are full of pictures of them.

I need a rip of the concert so badlyyyy
I especially want the AUDIO RIP of ourselves from Chapter 3

^ looks around too

I want to watch the concerts ;_;

You can watch ourselves in Okinawa here on Baidu:
http://tieba.baidu.com/p/5840292520

^ thanks. I prefer the costume she wore for ourselves during the first part.

For some reason, I can't play this video :(

I am + Moments in Okinawa hall

http://tw.weibo.com/2120591210/4273019268878072

TROUBLE is now available digitally for sale

Recochoku http://recochoku.jp/album/A200130745...ate=4307040001

iTunes Japan https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/tr...413180345?l=en

Also Ayu recorded an audio comment for TROUBLE that iTunes Japan is selling it

30 seconds of the audio can be heard as part of the preview with aeternal as BGM

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/me...418380648?l=en

Brings back so much memories!!!
I wished there was a more HQ..the sound isnt too good to rip from this

dont remember her sounding so hoarse when I was there on the 2nd last day lol
im so frustrated because she sounded good on the day i went but here she aint hitting all her high notes and her falsetto is weak and airy af.. sigh

Oh god... how much I hate vibrato at Last Minute

Shake it https://www.weibo.com/2120591210/GuD...&mod=weibotime

FLOWER https://www.weibo.com/2120591210/GuD...e&type=comment

tenso have my order but I had to verify more details with them because it looked "suss" or something. Did anyone else have this issue? I have to wait for them to check my verification details before theyll let me ship it out. :irked

Yeah, I saw a small clip of that as well - and it's kind of scary.
I do love ourselves though!

It’s not that bad.

Do ya'll have a link to Last minute? I love vibrato.

thank you. And omg, that is some hardcore vibrato :luv2

Really want to see the full concerts. That was the best part of this release for me. She has so many concerts to release over the last couple of years. Still wondering about what's going to happen with Chapter 2 as that's the one I wanted to see the most.

^ I still want a DVD release of the last CDL. :(

I can survive the vibrato, but the fake crying seems to be ruining the song every fucking time. It’s embarrassing to watch. I can forgive screaming and shouting, but she wouldn’t sound half as bad if she would only stop pretending to cry. Sounding awful should not be a part of the performance and with some of the songs its becoming normal and she seems to be doing it on purpose. And no you cannot possibly get that sad all of sudden after performing the song for over 70 times. She does the same thing when she sings Walk - the first time at the CDL it seemed genuin and I didn’t mind, but then last year she started choking at the same time both nights in Yoyogi and ruined a nearly perfect vocal performance.

Is it that hard to just stop, nobody is going to like her less if she stops the whole crying thing for the sake of performance. If it weren’t for that she could handle the majority of her recent songs without any problem.

I usually dislike her vibrato but here it works, sounds really cool actually.

Sometimes Ayu reminds me of that girl in the movie Mean Girls in the scene when all the girls need to read what they are sorry for before the crowd break their fall. But then this girl tells some heartbroken story, while appearantly never really did go to that high school, and responses with 'nooooooooo I just have a lot of feelings.'
Idk, that just having a lot of feelings just screams Ayu to me, and I got reminded of it again, when reading your post.

Sorry for the irrelevant post. I do agree wholeheartly with you though.

Boo, I assume you don't remember me cause I have a different account now, but you and I had some great conversations back in the day. You were cool beans. I was Love Shine... and then something else? Don't remember.

I hope its not the tone of the forum that's put you off. I find that these days Ayu gets slammed left right and center by supposed "fans" that the rest of the group can get a little defensive. You say one thing you don't like and some member comes along and says all sorts of stupid shit to make you feel bad about having a valid opition, and others just egg them on. They are tired of seeing criticism of her and start jumping on the wrong people. Not an excuse, though.

It is pretty funny to see some of the stuff that goes on here now a days though :laugh

--

I wanna watch those performances, but I will have to wait till I'm home, boo.

I completely agree with you. Back in the old days she truly got emotional while singing some songs such as Who..., teddy bear or Memorial Address. I'll always remember how those AT 03-04 performance gave me chills. Now it just seems extremely fake so it just makes her sound worse and it ruins the performance.

THANK YOU, not only Last minute but to a lot of songs she's been doing this act for the last few years.

I wonder what is the measurement being used to decide if the crying is real

Crocodile scale.

After listening to TROUBLE at least dozen times:

W is the worst thing she has ever released. It's deplorable.

The way I am is really lovely, the melody is so good. The acoustic version is better though. I tacked it on the end of my TROUBLE playlist.

WORDS is nothing as a standalone song, but it works in the context of the mini album.

Aeternal has a nice atmosphere (if that makes sense lol) but I get bored with it pretty quickly

I even started liking We Are Queens. I guess it gives this EP a welcome change of pace, while not being awful like W.

This was not worth the 2 year wait. She can do much more, but at least she gave us The way I am.

It’s very subjective. Ayu isn’t that good of an actress. It is also very obvious when she is doing it as a part of the performance. As I said I find it hard to belive that day after day and year after year after performing a song so many times it gets you so emotional and at the same point.

There are times when it seems more or less genuine and at times it’s real, but as is everything else during her shows, most of those tears are staged and over exaggerated.

It’s evident when going to multiple dates of a tour and witnessing her “breakdown” at the EXACT same portion of the song, almost as if it’s timed, right down to her body movement during the “cry,” her facial expressions, and the lyrics she omitts.

Well, I disagree about her acting skills. It's not a naturalistic take, it's very theatrical, but she delivers.

I agree, irritating song, trying to be something, but it is all over the place (musically...but also I didn't like lyrics). The rest of the album is ok.

And here I am, having "W" as my most played song from the album so far xD Love the drums there(I do air drumming with this song!), lyrics too. Maybe a bit too much woo woo, but it doesn't bother me.

Taking a naturalistic take on acting on a stage doesn't even make sense :P

for me personally, most of her crying seems staged. which I don't mind most of the time. especially when she's reaching her hand out or "running" after a male dancer portraying as her love for that performance is definitely staged. the most convincing staged cry one ever for me is during Ballad in the 2010 RnRC tour. I've cried during that performance. but you can tell when it's real and she gets really choked up with tears. in those instances I believe it's a moment she's experiencing like in an encore of her final show or a certain song or event. but yeah I'd say most of the time it is staged.

I do also feel her voice is very hoarse after watching the clips. I can understand that because she was touring soooooo much last year and barely had time to rest her voice. I'm definitely not digging that performance of "I am". she looked gorgeous and was a great performance, but musically I really am not digging it. I don't like it when she messes with the octaves of the originals. "I am" is my most all-time favorite song of her's. I can understand where she has to lower the octaves of songs because she wouldn't be able to hit notes anymore. but it's my favorite song lol it sounds better in it's original octave. and the hoarseness made it meh to me. I would've thought avex would fix the vocals at times when they release DVDs of her performances. hmmm.

She definitely has worse. W is not that bad.

I thought I was the only one who thought her voice sounds very hoarse! She hasn't really had much time to rest her voice after AT15. I watched a few clips of the Okinawa performances and was surprised that didn't they try to make her voice sound less hoarse.

So... after almost three entire threads, I finally had the opportunity to give TROUBLE a careful listen and I thought I'd share my opinion here. :)

I have to admit that this is, in my opinion, one of her most disappointing releases ever. I haven't been expecting much from Ayu since 2010-11, but she always manages to surprise me once in a while—with Last minute, FLOWER, Mad World, and all songs from sixxxxxx, for example.

With TROUBLE, I just don't feel... anything. :weep I'm not mad because the EP doesn't sound terrible, but I'm also not excited because there isn't anything groundbreaking or remotely interesting about it. Sonically speaking, the songs are bad but æternal and The way I am sound like leftovers from A ONE, while W is a bit too cluttered. I still bought the EP on iTunes because I enjoy Ayu's voice and I think I'll be listening to TROUBLE in between her old albums. In the end, I just wish I even had more to write about it, but with only three new songs, no clear concept, and no videos... I can barely have a long conversation about this release.

Anyway, I'm definitely interested in seeing how TROUBLE performs on the charts, especially now that Oricon counts digital sales!

What really bugs me is that one of the main selling points for this album is the “fact” that “all 5 songs are of single quality.” Every retailer is echoing this same claim made by avex and it angers me for a number of reasons.

First of all, none of the songs hold a candle to ANY of her previous single releases. They don’t even sound remotely as polished as previous album-exclusive promotional pieces (aka, the new songs used to promote an album’s release). I’d go one step further and say she has songs that weren’t promoted at all on previous albums that surpass those on this release.

Secondly, especially with it being a mini album, with nothing but 3 new additions, they SHOULD be of single quality!! That’s not really a claim one should have to make - it’s an expectation, a minimum!

Finally, if avex deems these tracks “single quality,” it really destroys my hope for future releases. This is not the standard they should be aiming for. If this is top tier for them, how can we expect anything better to be produced hereafter?

As always, they are blissfully unaware of all the issues this release has, which means her release are bound to continue suffering from the very same issues in the future.

Waitt...
Oricon now counting the digital sales???

Oricon counts digital sales but in a separated category: "digital ranking".
Physical and digital sales are not all put together in the same ranking.


https://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/dia/w/2018-08-13/

they deleted all of æternal demos from Spotify (and also from apple music i guess), including the poetry reading. nice to see they're keeping her streaming page organized.

Much as I like æternal & The way I am , I feel that TROUBLE is just a typical mini album release , not something memorable that commemorates Ayu's 20th anniversary

I know Ayu has been having problems with her hearing but as a long time fan , I felt a bit short changed on this . Even the TROUBLE photoshoot for once didn't wow me a lot :no

Just like oaristos , I've been keeping my expectations on Ayu quite low over the last few years but yet she still can surprise me in a good way from time to time

But with TROUBLE , I didn't had a big pow wow impression on it and that's unfortunate :x

Until yesterday, I still was debating with myself if I should just go into the store and buy the mini, because buying an Ayu release early in an actual store was always something I wanted to do. In the end I didn't and even though I listened to the mini now a couple of times, there is nothing to enjoy.
It's by far her worst release ever. It's boring and uninspired, there is no magic going on.
Songs like aeternal, WORDS and The way I am already exit in her discography a dozen times, just better and the only reason I can tolerate W is because at least it doesn't put me to sleep.
It's the first time I don't enjoy a single song on an Ayu release and it is disappointing to see how are releases have gotten weaker and weaker over the last couple of years and how a lot of her albums are just a bunch of songs she basically already released.
I listen mostly to artists who are 20 years+ in the business already and all of them put out a release at one point or another I didn't like, but Ayu is the only one who, besides at one point being the Queen of reinvention, stopped trying to give her songs some magic and is just rehashing old sounds besides very few exceptions. I guess this is what disappoints me the most, it seems as if she, as an artist, has completely lost her vision and in the end doesn't even care about it. She already trolled us with LOVE and again, but TROUBLE simply feels as if she just had finished three songs and threw them in with the other two and released it.

I feel the same way. However, I am looking forward to what comes next! With this out of the way as a (mini) album, there's no reason to believe any of it will be on a future release.

If TROUBLE will be the only mini release Ayu put out this year that will be really disappointing :x

2018 hasn't end yet so there might be a possibility for her to put out something else before the year ends , I hope

@ Chibi-Chan - agree with you on that . You see artistes that've been around even longer than Ayu but their releases don't sound stale to me and I still like what they put out even as their discography grows

The clips she sounded hoarse, and some notes can’t hit. “I am” is one of my all time favourite and I felt sudden sad after I watched the clip (I know is unhealthy to feel sad or crying over this, like my husband said “21st century stress”)...

Thou what I’ve heard (seen) can’t be unheard (unseen) :no, so I am now looping the CDL 2009-2010 version of “I am” :shimmy:smitten:inlove

I would love it if she released something else before the year ends, but between a-nation, then almost immediately having to rehearse for the new tour starting in October until February, it seems unlikely we'll get anything else this year :/ I'm just hoping that after the TROUBLE tour, she'll release a proper full album, and not just wait a few months before going on another tour with no new releases.

Does anyone have full version of AX_YUKU_0592 NKN_arr#2.5 (3 minutes long)? I'm missing this one.

Her voice sounds so low in this clip. I wonder if that's how her real natural singing voice sounds like when she's not trying to alter it or to sound cute.

This album doesn't give me any emotion at all, the songs are totally bland to me. I'm very worried for the future of the music of Ayu, because it's like nobody in her team (She included) give a damn for a quality release anymore. We have the Love Again fiasco but at least it has a few great songs on it. Come on! You can't name a Mini album an album just because you want it, only 5 songs and no Pvs, and a bunch of leftovers from a One and Made in Japan.

thank you for the link. this is a painful clip to watch. no amount of editing could have masked how damaged her voice was here :(

I haven't listened to TROUBLE since it's digital release. I gave it a few repeat listens but haven't felt any desire to return to it. It's Ayu's weakest release for me as well. I still like the songs but that's it, they are just pleasant. Nothing remarkable or interesting. The strongest element of TROUBLE are the lyrics. I don't understand the title or the concept at all. I hated the promotion too. It was so frustrating. I guess they wanted to be mysterious but to me it all came across as weird. Just the whole release seems bizarre to me.
To be honest, I would rather listen to Party Queen. That album at least is interesting musically which is what I care most about. My least favorite album from Ayu has better songs than TROUBLE. I would rather listen to Party Queen, NaNaNa, call, Letter, reminds me, Return Road, Tell me why than any song on TROUBLE. Or really all the tracks from Party Queen. That is a very strange feeling to me.:shakehead

Hmm I do think it's true that some of her songs sound similar to past ones, and past ones she did better. I don't know, I think it's just how she is now. I feel that she is creative with her writing but when it comes to other things like picking out unique sounding demos or really pushing to work with creative people outside of her comfort zone to do exciting new things she just doesn't care to do it very often, and when she does, she usually steps out into a place not many people even wanted her to go to. I'm assuming she just has other things on her mind that are taking priority over being super creative and pleasing fans. She has been like this for a while now, in my opinion. I don't really blame her for it but I can understand fans being disappointed by it.

In a way I was hoping that there will be different new songs in both CD versions of TROUBLE instead of the tracklist being reversed :s

At least it's not another LOVE again issue but still :x

Party Queen had a lot of contention when it was released . I was the rare few that generally like the songs in it but not the covers/photoshoot

Frankly I rather see TROUBLE get released as a full length album next year & this year a 20th anniversary best album gets released instead

Artistes who commemorate their milestone anniversaries in the business , they usually do that with a best album or maybe a concept/tribute album

As it was released early digitally (on Saturday) Trouble is charting on the chart for last week.

It sold 856 digital copies in its first three days and is ranking on #12.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...924/a0ZNM7.jpg

I couldn't watch the videos but in this digest se shounds incredible for me https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmea2UCh...by=a.you_video

The thing is that, while I myself haven't listened to TROUBLE yet, she said she was going to sing about the past two years, but the lyrics don't reflect that 100%. I think that maybe, MAYBE she wanted a release to put We are (I wrote ate, lol) the QUEENS and WORDS into context, so that she can move on. Perhaps it's like a middle-thing between M(A)DE IN JAPAN and the next full-lenght album, so that's why it isn't that much of a breakthrough release.
Just a thought.

I thought she put a mushroom on the head in I am... / Moments performance.

When will today’s sales be out?

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...922/cZmavx.jpg

That's not too bad.
I've expected around 15k first day.
The mu-mo versions count btw.

Wow it’s actually good. MIJ was 19,898 on the first day

Some people say that she's now a performing artist rather than a recording one, but if that's the case her live endeavours should be made readily available for anyone to buy. I'd pay good money for separate release of the TA 15 live, for example. Hopefully the other part of Just the beginning will be released for everyone to enjoy - and support! - not just a select few.
Didn't they release the info of the TROUBLE LE like three weeks in advance? No one has 200 dollars just lying around to spend on music-related things.

^^^
Nice! That's not bad at all :-)

Not bad indeed!

It's been a few days since the digital release and I don't listen to it anymore.
I find this album boring (even W feels empty now).

I played the album in a loop since its digital release and I like it more and more. Even aeternal sounds better for me now.

I love the album too, and I can actually feel the magic in her songs even now. Just because her vision doesn't match yours, doesn't mean she's not putting any effort.

It's not her best release, but it's not bad by any means. I'm happy to see considerably strong sales on the first day of release and I rellay hope the will continue. <3

^Level of lack of effort: The EP was planned to flow and xonvey different messages when listened on 2 different official track orders.

I doubt we'll get any new music this year. But I hope she's working on a proper album for the next year. TROUBLE was not worth the wait, and Avex saying these songs are "single quality" is just them trying to sell/save face.

agree.

Nice sales so far! Didn't expect that.

Agreed. There are some flaws with it (as there are with most of her releases) but this is nowhere close to being her worst.

Also on the topic of not feeling the ayu magic, I still feel the ayu magic in "We are the QUEENS" and "W". I mean it's hard not to. Both are such outstanding tracks in her discography. I hope I don't ever reach the point where I don't feel that ayu magic. Even if it's just a few songs on an album, I've still been able to feel it pretty consistently over the past decade.

I think the digest versions of the concert sound pretty good. I would wait to pass judgment until a proper rip comes out because the individual songs that were uploaded from China look and sound like it's someone recording it playing on their laptop or tv or something; the sound in general was just bad. It wasn't limited to just Ayu's vocals.

Yep, I was rewatching that with good earphones and the instrumentals sounds pretty awful. She's not perfect by any means vocally (and she is struggling to sustain notes during "I am..." verses), but I think the proper show isn't that bad as those videos show.

I'm a little bit dissapointed. Hoped for a full album - Trouble is okay, but nothing special. The Way I am is my favorite as far

I'm waiting for JTB tour 3rd Chapter full DVD/BD-rip :ymad

I want to see Chapter 3 again, ghhhhh

Did mu-mo stop accepting foreign credit cards or something? it's been giving me an error constantly :(

I had no problems.

Sometimes Japanese companies really don't accept some foreign credit cards. For example, when I wanted to pay for a fanclub, it simply won't let me, when my friend tried for me, it worked fine. I still don't know why this was, but it happened a lot to me and my friends that sometimes paying with a credit card doesn't work for one of us while the others had no problems. I would recommend trying another credit card.

「WORDS」／浜崎あゆみ
https://www.uta-net.com/song/253466/

今日のうたコラムでは
最新作『TROUBLE』収録曲をご紹介！

何かから逃げ出して
＜この夜が明けて欲しくない＞と願い
＜明日の来ない世界＞を探している
孤独なあなたにこそ
届いてほしい1曲です。
➡︎https://ps.uta-net.com/cnkp

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DknvnTtUwAAZiDu.jpg

^Seems important? Is that Ayu explaining the meaning behind TROUBLE and WORDS?

It says something like:

With today's column, introducing a number from recent release "TROUBLE!"

Taking off running from something,
wishing "I do not want this night to dawn,"
searching for "a world where tomorrow does not come"—
unto solitudinous you precisely,
it is a song I hope be delivered.

Edit: Lol, I didn't realize there's a whole article attached to that link.

The second link looks like an article that is some kind of interpretation or lyrical analysis of WORDS. The google translation doesn't make a lot of sense but that is what it looks like to me. I don't think I have ever heard of uta-net.com honestly. It looks kind of old school.:laugh

Yeah, uta-net is one of the 'big' lyric sites in Japan.