Because that's how artists promote themselves. Like tokyoxjapanxfan mentioned, it always meant lives and interviews and whatnot. Not to mention singles usually come with B-sides and remixes. But Ayu rarely promotes herself nowadays so whatever lol

^ Whenever I'm writing a post right after your I get distracted by your sign lol (not complaining tho)

I wasn't expecting the album to be named MADE IN JAPAN, that's a surprise for me lol I guess that's an opposite route of the usual? To me it looks like the tour named the album, not the other way round.

Either way I hope she goes for some traditional Japanese elements on some of the songs. Like, I don't need her to sing enka on the album (would love it tho) but songs hinting on it, like Shape of Love and Will :yes

Getting two lots of new material. Only this. Or maybe three lots of new material.

I think also, singles provide for the opportunity to deliver a concept. A mini "world" and environment can be fleshed out from the songs and turned into a visual spectacle. It allows for a bit of extravagance, and the world of Hamasaki Ayumi seems much larger and expansive when you look back on a year and see all the different places she took you with her paintings of works. It's like the door opens every 3 months and it's a new place to explore, a new vision to be seen. I miss that feeling of waiting for the door to open again, and the curiosity as to what we will be shown this time. As the release date gree closer, we'd all have our ears pressed to that door. We'd begin to hear muffled sounds (snippets, CM spots) - processing the tease of what's to come. That's how I remember it.

It happens once a year now, and it seems to close faster than ever before. Also, it rarely feels like a world at all anymore. It's like a closet door with creaky floorboards and cobwebs. You can tell someone made an effort to clean it up; there are finger trails left in the piles of accumulated dust - but you always feel like more of an effort could have been made to really make that room shine. And you think to yourself "ah, I guess this is how it is now," and you try to accept the fact. But, when you leave that room, and after the door shuts once more, you can't help but wonder if when the next time it opens, what it would be like to see the room completely luminous again.

I love your metaphor :'D

Hell yeah! I would be totally in for that! ♥


Exactly this.

I usually try to keep the original posts there for posterity but I edited it out just to keep things clear. Kept my crossed out "THIS ISN'T TRUE" part though.

Love that post!

Also I think that when she had a few singles over the year her albums where more diverse. Party Queen was the only album since she stopped releasing regular singles that had a diverse sound. LOVE again, Colors, A ONE... they're all pretty boring albums when listening from start to the end.

+1

I don't even care about the number of singles etc, I was even angry that singles have 2-3 maximum new songs and album gives me a loads of more.. but everything you said above created Ayu. I coudn't write it more clearly.

I think it's just changed a bit as the industry has changed and as Ayu herself has changed. I don't know if we'll ever get that again with her pulling away from promo almost completely and no CM tie ups anymore.

When it comes to Ayu nowadays I don't care about singles anymore. Colours and A ONE were pretty short and something tells me that she's going to keep releasing albums with fewer tracks, so I'd rather have new material instead of a bunch of tracks from singles. It was different back in the day when a single used to mean a new PV, a bunch of TV performances, promotion, etc. Ah, the old days...

I'm not sure if I'm convinced that the album is going to be "dark" as we don't have much information to go on.

Same - to me it sounds more, well...Green-y.

I think if it makes Ayu think "Is this person going to be okay?!", I'm sure it's a bit different from the usual, lol.

I'd say GREEN was a (Band version) rather than rock... Yeah there was a guitar but that's not enough for me (M at PoM is an example of a rock version)

It was a japanese version instead of the original chinese arrangment...

GREEN (MADE IN JAPAN version) would be a great bonus to a single or album haha.

Darker songs (be it because of lyrics, instrumental, both or whatever) are definitely my favourite, but I never hope too much for her to make new ones because she said she writes songs depending on how she feels, and I obviously hope for her to feel good. So, reading what she said about dark lyrics, looks like ayu hit my sweetspot. I wouldn't mind something apparently upbeat and happy-go-lucky but with actually melancholic lyrics such as fairyland; also, I second who said an alterna-like song would be awesome for the internet bullying theme.

I also like Winter diary :)

Winter Diary's PV could be bonus track on the DVD/Bluray.

"To be continued..." message at the end of the PV makes me feel like this song will be linked to other song in the album. It may not be a bonus material for DVD/Bluray.