#6 in Recochoku daily

https://recochoku.jp/ranking/single/daily

When does Oricon update their daily numbers?

It looks like maybe 7AM Japan time? Seems to be later than normal though for today's updates.

His criticism would have made more sense if he actually used some examples, but as you guys pointed out, I don't think he's actually trying to provide any real critique.

The song is self-referential in many ways and has a lot of older J-pop elements, so I guess you could say it sounds like "all of ayu's older stuff and not fresh"... Whether that's bad or good is something people will decide for themselves when they hear the song though.... I do believe the arrangement could be criticized for being too busy as many pointed out too. It would've been easy to simply drop a few instruments in the verses. That would've created more of a build-up and contrast with the chorus too.

But the composition doesn't sound like "old ayu" unless Love songs also is a part of the "old ayu" discography.

Yuta Nakano has reused a few elements from what I can hear especially from progress (the drum in the verse is basically the same as the second verse in progress, the strings and piano also similar), but the song is not building up as nicely as in progress because almost every instrument kicks in at the same time more or less.

The break down with the guitar solo sounds a lot like her early songs, to especially the I am... period.

But I think this is a good thing. Ayu tried using Western / more trendy producers / composers like Namie did, but I don't think that worked out as well for ayu most of the time (Terminal, lelio and some sweetbox tracks from (miss) understood). And none of those songs were big hits for her, and outside of the sweetbox tracks that were rearranged for her, I don't like how her voice fits the arrangement.

Mmm I see truehappiness. I think Recochoku position for Ohia no ki came 1 hour earlier than Dreamed a Dream.

I like this song but it feels like the song was made by a AI using machine learning after inserting every Ayu song into it from the last 10 years lol

This guy is just a hater... This has been his thing for what? A decade now?
His music taste is pretty bad aswell lol...

So I occasionally read that blog because I actually find him funny at times. I do agree that he seems... extra critical of Ayu and has been for YEARS. But anyway - I think he's been reading this thread because he tweeted this :laugh

https://twitter.com/_RandomJ_/status...21335454236672

6 is not bad. I take it!

The moment people try to bring the 'stan' thing into the conversation, it's already over. How is someone gonna use that as one of their 'points' and then violate it in the exact same tweet?

There really is a lot of positive vibes for this release overall, lots of people who want globe back though because of it as well.

Ok so... here it is hahah
Sorry I forgot FIVE and Party Queen lol
Included some others just to make them all fit nicely hahah /ocd
and again yeah I flipped some of them too :P

https://64.media.tumblr.com/a1f1eee2...00dfe111b3.jpg

^Yess illuminati queen!

Oh, wow! Never realized she posed this way so much lol. I think FIVE looks the best.

Lol. Way too sensitive for someone whose main selling point is making fun of artist's releases.

I absolutely LOVE this song! Omg GAK from the band ZAMB his remix is AMMMMMAZING! Ayu should really make that an official remix and have it released on a remix album (or on a proper single) or something in the future. Yeah I don’t know why she keeps doing that pose. Unless she’s trying to make it a callback to the Next Level era (I really get that vibe from the photo shoot).

Dreamed a Dream is at #1 on Oricon daily with 2,942 downloads. :)

Where is your back-bone, RandomJ, seriously. I expected more from someone who likes to be shady online.


This is so cool haha. I bet there are many many many more, but you already put so much effort into this.

This is awesome! Congrats Ayu! She is still doing great, for someone with like zero promotion but Instagram.

Can someone remind me how much Ohia No Ki sold on oricon on the first day, please?

^ According to oricon it was downloaded 5,052 times. Fingers crossed for Dreamed a Dream to reach high weekly! It deserves it!

Ohh okay, thank you! so Dreamed a Dream sold about half as much :( I guess it's natural because Japan does seem to prefer balads after all

Also take into consideration that Ohia no Ki was her first new song since TROUBLE released.

I agree completely, "flat" and "stacked" feel like perfect descriptions for how the song sounds (especially the chorus, it's not as much of an issue in the less busy verses). It's annoying that this is a persistent issue, I really hoped it would get better after TROUBLE. I just re-listened to MADE IN JAPAN yesterday and I really feel like it didn't have this issue (at least to the same extent, and maybe that's just because the songs weren't so busy)...

I'm not fully in love with Dreamed a Dream, but it has many great things going for it: the synth riff is mad catchy (I've had it stuck in my head and found myself tapping it over the past few days), the melody is pretty great, and Ayu sounds great, she's got attitude for DAYS. I'm really happy to hear her sounding so good even though her hearing is getting worse, I'm glad she's finding ways to make it work. I wish the production didn't sound so cheap (I don't like how the percussion and the high-pitched synth strings sound) but I also feel like the slight dated feeling might be intentional (it is a TK joint after all, and the lyrics talk about the past quite a bit). I'm torn on how I feel about the ending... the slowed-down final stanza is such a cliché for Ayu at this point... but on the other hand, this might be one of those instances where it really fits the song. :laugh

Yeah, and there was also that promo at the end of M drama final episode, if I'm not mistaken

I'm happy she was able to get #1 daily again

^Yep, they aired the commercial after the last episode aired.

Was expecting a little more sales, but yeah, seems Ohia no ki got more people interested to check it for being the comeback song.

still to get number 1 for no tie-ins, little promotion is really great. It shows how faithful her fans was

Dreamed a Dream is at #13 today. Third place sold 3,611 downloads.

A daily number one is nice but what's more important is how/if she charts weekly (= this week only).

I don't like being a hater I was so excited when I found out there was a new song. And I was even more excited when I heard the beginning and knew it was gonna be upbeat. But it just sounds a mess to me. :/ Covers are great though while it is more of the same she looks good :)

The main push was really for that first day, so hard to get longevity from just that.

I find it very rare that the songs without tie-ins or something viral attached to them have any sort of longevity, so...not expecting much.

Yea, I don't expect it to chart after it's first week. I just hope it gets a top 20 placement for this week and that's it.
That's what I meant with "weekly", I was solely referring to this week, since that's the one that counts.

Does streaming not factor into sales? They haven't integrated that yet?

Streaming is its own thing but counts weekly only. Ayu usually doesn't get on that chart because those are sort of insanely high numbers and top 10 is usually 2-3, up to 6 million streams in a week.

Well, hopefully we see an high rate for Dreamed a Dream on Spotify. It's on repeat here, so I'm glad if I could help with that.

Dreamed a Dream seems to be at around 22,000 Spotify plays atm. I wonder if most Japanese fans are using Apple Music tbh. Seems to be about the same rate that Ohia no Ki was being listened to.

It's probably worth noting that after almost a month, Ohia no Ki is at 155k+ plays.

Now that I think about it, Dreamed a Dream didn't have a TV-CM like Ohia, did it?

Ohia had a bit of a week long tease and then it got revealed during the drama when a lot of people were watching without a title about 20-30 minutes before it was actually revealed. Dreamed a Dream did pretty well considering all it had was social media as a push.

Most platforms tend to filter streams when people listen too much on loop

I'm old school so I prefer playing the audio video on Youtube. Even when I'm outside I just use my mp3 files instead of Spotify and such.
What I also love about streaming on Youtube is that after the (Ayu/other artist) song ends sometimes it leads to some live performance I've not watched before.

I agree. While I'm happy she finally released something that isn't super safe sounding, it has the same issue as many of her releases for years now - the mixing is super flat. There is just a problem with her mixing, period. How this hasn't been addressed yet is insane to me.

WOW! finally managed to listen to it and all I can say is wow! it feels like continution from Song 4 U and I really like it! not a safe way to go but this might be her best work since idk, CoLOURS-era?

This is the first Ayu song in maybe 10 years that I’ve been so obsessed with! It has that magic Ayu spark. I don’t know how else to describe it! But the melody got stuck in my head right away (something that always happened with her older music), and I’ve pretty much listened to it on repeat for 4 days. : ) I’m just so happy to hear great quality music from her again after so long. It’s exciting to see what else she might have up her sleeve this year!

old school good style.. love it!

This. It's bizarre how long it's continued.

I thought mixing on this song was not quite as heinous as it had been for like Party Queen / A ONE / LOVE again... but she's also probably not had many songs that were as busy as Dreamed a Dream. Perhaps the sheer amount of aural things happening in this track is being mixed up with another issue that had been far worse before? For example, there's really weird loudness problems with Last minute that make it a little hard to listen to in its current state but this song only really has that kind of "mushed together" problem due to the way the arrangement is. I'd say the "mushed together" can be seen even in older songs like evolution when the guitars/synths/percussion all meet.

Dreamed a Dream didn't manage to chart within the top 20. I think it could have with a few more days but oh well, what's done is done. Number 20 sold 5,411 units. DaD is probably sitting somewhere in the top 30.

It's at #19 on the Billboard Japan Top Download Songs Charts!

She's #22 on Oricon weekly singles downloads charts selling 5,121 copies. Not bad! And this billboard info is even better!

It makes me wonder if Ayu is having final say and just literally cannot hear the issues with the mixes very well. If that’s the case she really needs someone she trusts to make that decision.

This is the type of arrangement she should’ve gone with:

^wow, so awesome!!!

I've never thought of it like that but that makes sense. Although I really like the song, I noticed it sounds a bit loud and I couldn't put my finger on why (knows nothing about the technical side of music) but now that everyone has pointed out the mixing, I can definitely hear it.

Even if she is the boss still there are a lot of people involved and more knowledgeable than her about these kind of technical issue so I don’t know what to think about it ? are they lazy ? when Koji morimoto was responsible of the mixing we didn't have these kind of concern.
I don’t particularly have an issue with this song but it’s seems that mixing issues is a redondant things since some times.

Koji Morimoto I believe is still in charge of mixing lately. It was Naoki Yamada though for a good amount of CD's mixes but Koji is usually always doing live mixing for Ayu.

It’s strange then ? I don’t think he would deliberately lower the quality of his work could it be a budget issue then ?

He seems to share the job with Naoki lately, but for a while Koji Morimoto was absent for albums like A ONE and LOVE again but then they split sixxxxxx.

Party Queen I think also suffered from being mixed by so many different people that the sound was a bit inconsistent.

However for Dreamed a Dream, I feel like the song is handled better than most of the "worst" mixes from the 2012-2015 era. It's also been a long time since we had a song like this as well aside from maybe We are the QUEENS but even that was quite some time ago!

I’m not an expert at all but the only album I’ve a problem with is party queen which is a shame because I really like it. Some songs are well produce like shake it, the jazzy songs for exemple but reminds me, call, letter and some others make me cringes...in these songs her voice is so badly mixed with the music it was a big downfall after love songs ...

Oh yeah, this is the Ayu I need in my life. Sounds like something from her best days! The teetering towards chaos in the chorus, the extravagance, the too-muchness of it all. I like how my ear can’t keep up, demanding several listens, and that it sounds like something from the early 00s with regard to the mix. Perfect.

Wow this is so good :love:love:love:love

The first song I remember listening to thinking the mixing was worse than before is Talkin' 2 myself, where it sounds like a "wall of noise" during the chorus. But I think one of her worst song in terms of mixing is Tell all. I love that song, but it doesn't sound like it went through compression before being released. It's really rough around the edges in other ways too though. Another song that I can remember off the top of my head that has issues is Mirrorcle world.

If I had to make a guess as to what the issue might be... I think it could maybe a be a money, time and scheduling issue? Something changed entirely in the way ayu released music after (miss) understood, going from a regular pre-set schedule every year with 3 singles and an album to random releases, as well as a greater focus on live performances. The industry was and is under pressure making less money, people started listening to LQ digital tracks instead of CD... I'm sure they'd made some difficult priorities. Also Ayu seems to sometimes make last minute changes, which might be more difficult to handle when there's no regular release schedule anymore.
Mixing takes a lot of time, especially when you have many elements in a song like in most Ayu tracks.


If you'd like to hear another example of sub par mixing, head of to my instagram where I posted a rock mix of Dreamed a Dream... :headache

talkin' 2 myself was the first time Yuta started composing for Ayu, so that could be it as well. Prior to that, he only ever worked with Ayu as part of H/\L. Also H/\L at that time was still active with members like Mayuko in there. I think H/\L as we know them dissolved in like 2009-2010?

I agree. It really started after (miss)understood. It wasn't too bad in talkin' 2 myself and I'm still able to ignore it here. But even though I loved Mirror and was so excited for Mirrorcle World, I always found it way too noisy and I barely listen to it. It annoys the hell out of me. Same goes for Tell All. What really bothers me with those two as well as now with Dreamed a Dream: They could have been so damn great. They have exactly the kind of J-Pop sound I usually fall for. But they are all so noisy I avoid listening to them. It's a shame.

It's nice to see the song getting received well by random listeners in Japan! It seems like it reminds people of the 'older times' while still feeling fresh. Comparing Route 246 to Dreamed a Dream, someone said that Ayu's song was more like TM Network while the Nogizaki song was a bit more globe-like, which I kind of get.

Official audio on her channel is at around 176k at the moment and the "YouTube Audio" version is at 25k.

This is very good.

This song is so nostalgic. And yeah, it's not one of her best tracks, but who cares, she got a whole pack of impecable ones. In fact it's good enough for me to enjoy a new Ayu release that I was longing for <3 <3 <3

I wonder when the PV will be released?

If there is one, maybe with the next album? If it's like Ohia no Ki though, maybe they'll film it before a-nation or just after?

I tend to not think of it as going back quite that far, but maybe you guys are right. I remember the first track that it really screamed out to me was Party Queen itself. It was just soooo flat. And that continued for the next few albums. Then I thought Made in Japan got a lot better. Then it got worse again. Really, really weird. I also agree with truehappiness that this at least doesn't sound as bad as the Party Queen/Love Again era.

In the case of "Party queen" specific track, it's clear for me it was intentional. The whole atmosphere of the song is build to emphasize the feeling of "void" the album wants to imply. That "rose-coloured" and "golden" vibes are awkward and totally fake and that's why I really like that "emptiness" of the arrangement.

The mixing of the album isn't superb, of course, but in terms of artistic choice, I think I get what she was trying to convey with that album-opener track. It's like when you're so drunk (or high lol) that the sounds around us are getting blurred and empty, representing the sadness within her at the moment, even if she was partying hard.

It seems at least like the mixing got weird once Naoki Yamada 'replaced' her usual mixer entirely. IMO, that's when the levels of instrumentals and vocals started to get really bizarre and uneven. Before then, her songs may have been loud/busy/noisy but they were at least balanced which I think are both being conflated as the same problem. I don't think it was ever noticed before Party Queen onward because for the most part the same guy who knew what to do was working on her albums but now he's only back once in a while or for half of an album so it's a mixed bag. Party Queen especially as an album was weird because other than the next LOVE/Return Road, the rest of the album was mixed by foreigners. David Reitzas who did a bunch of songs on Love songs and progress did the best job there with how beautiful you are.

WOW this is awesome!! :luv2:luv2:luv2
I just hope these talented remixers make the full version too :mischief

I guess they could always contact some of the remixers and provide them with means to make a full version perhaps!

This would be very nice
I'd love an orchestra version of Ohia no Ki :)

I can understand how people would prefer this, but it sounds devoid of artistic personality. The original arrangement sounds like a true Ayu song.

Mirrorcle World should never have been made. The original was perfect as an introduction.

Honestly I stopped listening to her music from Party Queen onwards (except for bits and pieces and recently discovering Love Again; I think that album’s supremely underrated). It’s only now that I find myself genuinely interested in Ayu’s musical output again. The last decade was a nadir.

It turned out to be one of her best songs IMO, it was a great choice to make a full song.

^but as much as I Love MW, I still think mirror has a better feeling.

I was absolutely obsessed with the song when it came out. My co-workers had to ask me to remove it from my ringtone, because they couldn't stand the "yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah" part.:D

This. I also used it as a ringtone (though it was the start of the song).

Also that arrangement - the idea was good, but the verses are super week it just doesn't work well with the song for some reason.

I really loved Mirror when it was released, but after Mirrorcle World (one of her best records ever), it falls flat for me.

Completely agree with you, Mirrorcle world is one of my favorite ayu songs, I'm actually shocked people dislike it this much XD

Wait there are actually people who don't like Mirrorcle world?
The song is definitely up there with some of my favorite ayu songs and I can't even listen to Mirror anymore, seems pointless.

Mirrorcle World is iconic, I love the final verse

I listened MW before I knew it was an extension of Mirror, and after I listened to it, I always felt it was kinda flat compared to MW.

I agree! If I ever had to choose only one ayu song I could listen to the rest of my life, it would be Mirrorcle World without any doubt. It's like her modern classic and might be her most iconic song since her prime. I love it so much.

I always prefered Mirrorcle World over Mirror because Mirror seems too busy and flat + mixing is kinda bad imo.

Mirrorcle World is iconic and it gave us the best wow ow wowah yeah since evolution shook us

Mirrorcle World is my favorite song (like ever) :) Glad to see some love for this epic song, definitely iconic ^^

I'm gonna out myself by jumping on this bandwagon. I was completely obsessed with Mirrorcle World. I loved this release so much (the song, the single, the PV) that I actually made custom ringtones from multiple parts of the song and used them for my call tone, text alert, and alarm :laugh

ah the good old days of custom ringtones

Yeah I don't even know what my phone sounds like anymore. It's been on silent since 2017.

Hahahahaha meee!

Mine had been silent since 2009 or so... Still, custom ringtone ruined the NEXT LEVEL interludes for me cuz my brain read them as phone calls now. x_x

I used to have the Traverse Town tune from KH as my alarm clock for 15 years. It’s totally ruined, I wake up to the birds chirping now.

lol same here, I just unmute him when I need to wake up at a certain time, which doesn't happen quite often.

I think I had Disco-munication as phone ring and load of Load of the Shugyo as alarm. Both are ruined.

Disco-munication was such a badass ringtone!

Me too and I used to change my alarms from time to time. ever free, Voyage and Free & Easy, mostly because they start pretty calm and I hate waking up to loudness.

My ringtone back in college was the very beginning of Ai Otsuka’s song 360 and its completely ruined for me. Like if I have my library on shuffle and it comes on I start screaming and immediately skip the track :laugh

My alarm clock for some years was "from your letter" idk how, I think I must have picked it at random without looking. Whenever I hear the opening, I immediately feel tired like I've just woken up and have to skip it.

I had the Bold and Delicious opening as a ringtone is was pretty funny :p.

I was never a huge fan of Angel so I used it as an alarm tone hoping I'd get used to it and start enjoying it.

It didn't help lol

^Hahah that sounds very counter-productive!

I tried a few Ayumi songs as ringtones but I think I'm just more confortable with regular ringtones or nature sounds, I grow tired of 'actual' songs as ringtones very quick!

To come back to DaD, after a few days (weeks?), I must stay I still really enjoy the song. I may not have been as obsessed with it as I have been with some other songs in the past, but I still give it at least a daily listen and I find it quite catchy, can't wait to see a performance!

I listened to it several times in a row in big headphones the other day, it's pretty efffing good. As someone said it's indeed like a sequel to We are the Queens. Another blockbuster song.

we will get a live performance <3

https://avex.jp/ayu/schedule/detail.php?id=1084522

Awesome! August 26th and it's going to be a medley with You&Me!