Here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater

I luv this era! XOXO pv is really carefree! The one song that I've always wanted from ayu.
Angel pv has a relaxing effect on me. Those wings are beautiful. In fact I like the best the last scene.

I think the Angel PV was pretty. I don't think the ballerinas were funny or out of place, nor the angels. They were very theatrical, something that doesn't always translate well on videos, but I think it was done in a nice way. I just wish ayu turned into an angel (or devil?) a little earlier.

I'm in love with the Angel video...

XOXO was okay, her acting was nice in that one, the idea was interesting but as someone else said it before, it got boring throughout the video. And Angel... her lip syncing totally ruined it + horrible effects. I can understand for the dancers but, come on really.

this era reminded me last time when Sparkle pv just coming out, those comment mainly repeated in this thread :D

AHS member is like that, they do hate when album like "NEXT LEVEL" "Love songs" "Party Queen" and even single "Feel the love / Merry-go-round" just coming out, but they will forgot what they said after Tour/CDL dvd released.

thats why i still hope she will perform new songs from "LOVE again", she just need performances to make ppl re-love those songs...

btw, i hope someone will make fan-made pv for Lelio by using XOXO scenes :rolleyes

Wow, she looked absolutely breathtaking in Angel! The dress was so flattering on her, wouldn't mind her rocking that look more often <3 The ending was beyond cheesy, but i did enjoy it. The song still makes me want to cut off my ears though ugh

XOXO was basically Shake It part 2, but i enjoyed it a lot. It's perfect for the song, very quirky and carefree. I'M DYING at her engrish at 1:53, it sounds like she's saying "do see, a slut" :laugh

I'm actually really happy with the PV's this time around, they fit the songs and all bring something different from Ayu. This is pretty much what Party Queen should've been lol.

you just can't have it all..

good covers --> check!
good songs --> check!
good video --> NOPE!

I love XOXO because it will finally shut the mouths of all the antis. She is finally staging an elaborated choreography, proving that if she tries, she can be easily better dancer and put a better show than Namie Amuro. Also she is more coordinated than all the 300 girls of AKB48 together. This was such a pleasure to a devoted fan like me, the dance on the floor shows how she easily can be sexy but still classy (Unlike Koda Kumi). Thanks god this PV finally came out, I wonder what now the antis are gonna say bout now that they're out of arguments

Looks like a scene straight out of RuPaul's Drag Race lmfao.

https://31.media.tumblr.com/016b2d5d...aXK1r5hxbq.gif

Good one!

The dance scene in XOXO would have been hot if you could actually see. The glare from the lights seem to ruin the whole scene.

We had all three good for 90% of her catalogue before 2012 lol.

Angel gives me life, It's the best video from te new ones. She looks beautiful and I LOVE her wings ; u;. Still will be buying the CD only version because I like that cover the best XD.

I watch the Angel PV on mute (haven't heard the song yet) and I'm not going to lie... When the "angels" came down from the sky I nearly choked on my sandwich. I have never laughed so hard in my life. And when the ropes came to drag her a way I was dead. I kind of wonder if this was bad on purpose? It HAS to be. Everything in the PV is so bad except for ayu, she looks stunning.

Yeap, she will never dance like Namie, it's almost impossible for someone who started to learn dancing as an adult to be better than someone who did it their whole life.

But her concerts are far better than Namie's... The better a zombie can dance, a zombie still is a zombie.

I'm a huge fan of Namie, but i'll admit that her concerts are pretty much only great cause of her dancing, she's obviously not a top vocalist in any way. Ayu interest me cause of her voice and the emotions in her performances, so yeah i'll give ya that one.

Namie's dead eyes give me life though, which is ironic considering she looks like she doesn't give a damn. It obviously works for her, she's got swagger and sass for days.

Well. I like the "Angel" PV. Quite don't understanding all the hate as always :laugh

The angels in the last scene weren't done that well, but at a first glance I didn't detect anything extremely wrong tbh. On a second view, after seeing the comments I started to see some points in the back of the wings and etc.
I think it's mainly because Ayu is on the center of attention all the time. And I like this, as well in Curtain Call, that PV is lovely.

Ah, the ballerinas meshed up extremely well with the chorus imo, something have to happened when it kicks off and I see that they matched well with this purpose.

^ i like Angel PV too~ But I can't understand the angels on the lines, they can afford to do simply effects with this... And then cheep effect of adding her those wings... Though the rest is very nice, is like Curtain call but with more work on. /with cheep ANGELS SONG effect. Angel-ANGEL'S SONG, lol/

The whole composition, the dancers, the body language... It looked like a contemporary take on renaissance painting coming to life. Even if the effect on the wings weren't the best (wanna see it on proper quality, but forgiveness and Why... CG work sucked too), I found every take to be really beautiful.

And also, there's safety rope in the end of the video because Ayu isn't really an angel and can't fly by herself... It's not a hard concept to notice.

I like XOXO Pv... but her outfit isn't really good... looks like she forget to take on a skirt or pants. But.. the PV is fun.
For Angel.. ist is a nice Video... her acting is a bit to much for me.. and a big question... she has wings in the end.. why she needs the lines to fly?? Makes no sense.
I thouht, she become a devil in the end... it looks like a angle with black wings for me.

I loved XOXO :heart
Angel is meh

I'm not even a fan of Namie, but I can tell you that the woman's dancing is far better than Ayu's in XOXO. She's been doing it longer. Even with her dead face she still has more ease. I guess that's why she looks so bored. Its so routine to her. Ayu's dance, on the other hand, looks like something from a middle school talent show. I applause her for having fun and doing her, when people are constantly whining that they want old Ayu back. I think she is trying to be a touch trashy, and loving it. Kuu's Be My Baby out classes this any day.

The "antis" are going to have a field day with this video, like they always do. There really isn't anything in it to shut them down. And might I say, you should like an "anti" towards Namie and Kuu, which makes you no better. How do you think their devoted fans feel?

So according to AyuAngel's recent Facebook post: the album will be available internationaly via iTunes (a picture was post from the French itunes store for preorder). Liar! It's not available in the US store, so it is not available in all countries.

omg...wtf did I just watched...none of the pvs in this album are even decent imo. sigh...Angel had so much potential but poorly done...xoxo I don't even know where to begin...Lelio...seriously?? Did she not have much budget and time to film these?

Well at least the songs are good...the covers are simple and very typical ayu covers but she looks good. I actually have no problem with the font and placement.

Damn! Angel PV had so much potential.
The beginning was beautiful but I really don't understand the storyboard. Who can approve this, really... There is a cut out of nowhere, a change of background + camera angle (couldn't they just shoot the whole thing "straight" without any background/camera angle shifts? Was it THAT hard?). It would have been ok to do this several times, but just once is weird.

The end was not great either but she is not known for having great CG in her PV (except for a few like alterna).
I also think it would have been better if she had no wings in the end. It would have been way more sublte...

I don't even want to bother watching XOXO full PV.

I also think MGR is the best PV. It looks professional at least.

I'm not liking the videos. They're not amazing, but they're not terrible. Just alright. If I do end up buying this album I'm going with CD only.

LOL

I feel the same. I don't know, if it's an "Ayu PV" I always expect something more, but compare to other music videos by other artists, they're not exactly horrible.

the album is pure gold, every song is just unique

the videos...each one of thoses are bad on different levels
i think trying to make 3 different videos on a short time with low budget
turn it into bad results.

the worst of all is that theses videos are far away from videos that make her the first artist in japan.


at least we're gonna have the live version of thoses songs on the next blu-ray concerts.

im very relieved that she decided to not make a video for "Pray" or "what's love forever"

I really like everything about this album, even though I'm still wondering why she even bothered singing Japanese in XOXO and Lelio at all. I wonder if she'll ever attempt to release an English studio (mini)album like BoA did a couple years back.

Anyway, this album went straight to my top 3 of albums by Ayu. :)

The stan wars need to stop.

They all have the last laugh because Namie/Ayu/Kumi/Utada never 'throw shade' at each other the way Western divas do and they definitely all respect one another's artistry.

^^It's really hard to understand her english sometimes. If ayu ever did release something like that she has to focus mainly on pronunciation and not the words themselves. Up until yesterday I thought in xoxo she was saying "girls just wanna have fun. Dat's allreenee." or something like that.

xoxo's pv is so bad that it is good

Aside from the terrible videos, the main problem with the album is the tracklist. I loved every song when they leaked, but I'm not happy with the official order of the songs. "Hello new me" and "Pray" seem so out of place before "Terminal", I would have saved those two ballads for the closing of the album.

Thank you! I'm pretty sure all of them would be disgusted by their fans' behavior towards another artist.

Something I just have to say as much as I love them all, none of their dancing skills are anywhere near the level of BoA's. But that's why I love them all, they all have different skills that make them special.

Xoxo pv is fine. Just nothing special. I only really dislike the part when they fight over the phone outside. Just too much lol. I'm just kind of tired of these type of videos because ayu's done them for forever it feels. It's like, there are other ways to stage fun, party song type videos. Lik sparkle was cool. But the thing where she just has a bunch of people at a club or party, and there's dancing, and she's maybe singing. It gets worn out.

She's been doing this periodically since Fly High. Then Greatful Days, Humming 7/4...and it was okay, when it was rare and better done usually. But in recent years, there is more, and it's not always well done. This could have been different, is all I'm saying. Time for drastically new concepts.

Really, not all of ayu's pus are great and people exaggerate and maybe forget how whatever some of them are even if it was endearing old ayu. But this isn't great either.

Angel would have been a decent ayu-ish pv if it weren't for the end. Wtf? Could've been way better

The funny thing is, Ayu fans are not that hard to please :/

You know this Angel PV could have just been her walking around with the dancers, and I bet some people might have said it was boring, but you'd have a lot less hate on it.

They had a fine idea with the angels coming in, and then Ayu trying to be one....but they fucked it up because it looked ridiculous and stupid.


And they are consistently doing this. With everything. I feel like I've been making this same post for everything she's ever released for the last 5 years.

I would have preffered that!

They did mess up in my opinion. The transition with the dancers crossing the screen was ridiculous, it looked cheesy...
The video for angel was my last hope, it had a lot of potential! The idea was nice, ayu becoming an angel but the effects... And the dancers ascending from the top... It looked so funny. I was watching it with my best friend (who isn't an ayu fan but I made her watch a lot of videos) and we both thought it looked somewhat cheap and cheesy.
My friend even said that the dancers were kinda weird but the angels were the worst. It looked weird. I would have preferred something even more similar to the Curtain Call video with something about angels or something and even my friend said she liked Curtain Call as a song and video and they should have went with something in that direction.

^Yeah that's what I was thinking. It's too much like curtain call. It's almost entirely done in one shot while she's walking toward the camera (mostly) in a black dress with her hair slicked back in a dark looking back studio lot (I know it's supposed to look like a town but it looks like a movie set like with curtain call). The only difference is this time around they have those awkward dancing women who keep coming and leaving every other minute and that horrible cgi angel wing ending that they should have spent more time and money on.

This video looks like an alternate version of curtain call.

EDIT: Holy crap I watched angel and curtain call side by side and they sink up. The sparks at the end of curtain call started right as the last chorus of angel started, both videos are almost the exact same length (curtain call is 3:47, and angel is 3:41 but it looks like the last few seconds of the angel pv were cut out so in the end they're pretty much the same length), and they also both end with either ayu flying away, or the camera flying away.

I did not like a single video. I'm so disappointed and so tired of being disappointed. I was having hope with the beautiful covers and songs...my God ayu, i'm sure your genius is still there, why can't you make the right use of it anymore ? Either she lost it long time ago or she never had it and everything we thought having been produced by her really wasn't. Sorry for the complain.

Good songs, OK covers, bad music videos.
This era isn't bad and fans can save money if they don't like the music videos

My friend complained how ugly she is in both XOXO and Angel and how lousy the videos are. I couldn't agree more coz I myself was embarassed to show him. Oh well stick to the songs then ;(

I'm also having this thought a lot these days.
A third option could be she is losing interest in her job. But I don't know. I'm afraid she just used to have a really good and professional team which helped her a lot. Now she just seems to be surrounded by friends and amateurs.

I think for the time released, forgiveness was acceptable. The wings in Angel are basically on par with forgiveness, but forgiveness was released 11 years ago lol. (To be fair, I watched it on my phone, perhaps the cgi is better than it looked in HQ BR quality).


I think the premise was good for the video. The execution was shoddy. Seems to be a reoccurring theme...

I think maybe the ropes signify that as a demon, she can't be (read: fly) with the angels, and the ropes are lifting her up to be with them?

Angels have white wings, so she's definitely not one of them.

Do the iTunes editions usually come with hidden tracks attached? Still hope to see 'Tell all' in CD quality...

These PVs.... lol... Angel had a good concept, poor execution. Last good PV I remember from Ayu was Brillante...

I can understand why people are annoyed with Angel's MV but XOXO? I mean, what kind of MV are you expecting from that song? If a song has "Girls just wanna have fun" in its lyrics then you better expect a music video like that.

And why is everyone comparing Namie's dancing with Ayu's? I mean Namie came from a girl group and consistently releases dance songs? Seriously, Namie is a better dancer but you don't have to bash Ayu for it.

Xoxo is the one video that I think is completely fine. Her and Lilico (spell?) actually have chemistry that's believable--they perform the same way at her concerts. So I enjoy them together. She looks great too.

It's no work of art, but it's effective and appropriate. I'd take this over some car driving and fist pumping, scenic California beach party possibility anyday haha. (Ie: Wake me up)

Why are you showing videos you dislike to your friends? xD

^Probably an outsider's opinion. It's good to get critiques from 3rd parties that probably don't listen to jpop or know who ayumi hamasaki is. I feel like since we like ayu, our opinions and views are kinda "set" by standards we've given her based on previous performances. "The videos this time aren't as good as on the last album; This song sounds like a rip off of that one song she did years ago; The sound is pretty generic for her new song; The vocals she did for her concert are definitely at her best from the last five years." let someone who doesn't know anything about her and has no pre-formed opinions about her watch or hear something of hers and let it be judged for what it is without comparison.

I'd show Lelio to everyone if the video wasn't so awful.


I think on my facebook I just shared the soundcloud link :laugh

People would take one look at that video and be like "did she make this in her garage?" Surely no professional would have such garbage videos, but there it is.

Geez, the album is now being bashed just because of the PVs :laugh

General opinion of the forum:
Colours before PVs release: I LUV IT AYU THANKS GOD YOU'RE RELEASING THIS ALBUM NOW. THIS MUSIC GIVE ME LIFE WAAAAA
Colours after PVs release: GO TO HELL AYU. WTF IS THIS. THIS IS PROBABLY HER WORST ERA OF ALL TIME

I think that concludes that most of us are pretty visually impressed hahaha

Calm down everyone, I still love the musics and I'm here mostly for them. :heart

And well, in regards about having opinions about people who doesn't really know Ayu. This album received a good reception imo, everybody who I send some musics loved one or another, essentially Lelio, Terminal and XOXO. Maybe because it's more mainstream?
I don't know but I think she's on the right direction if she wants to be more popular from now on.

The sad thing is that Lelio is a masterpiece compared to XOXO and Angel haha (or atleast tolerable)

Probably one reason I'm always disappointed with her PVs is because I have a vivid imagination and always daydream these super epic visuals to accompany the music, lol.

Does anyone remember the alterna PV leak? If I remember correctly, the first time anyone had heard the full song was along with PV. Dunno if anyone remembers, but I think that was by far the most epic day in Ayu fandom (while I was a fan, at least). :yes

Well yeah, the PVs are awful but the songs are still great. All the PV leaks has done is change peoples minds on which version of Colours to order.

omg sushi never say that!

I'm sorry, I'm just so salty about her pvs right now. This music had such potential to have amazing visuals. I'm really hoping she doesn't pull a NEXT LEVEL "lets be high on drugs" tour either with these songs.

I'll never forgive the amazingness that could have been those performances, but instead I just got random LSD dancing.


alterna PV leak was amazing. Everyone was all over fairyland, and alterna was just like, this random b song side over there. And then the PV hit, and no one could figure out which one was better, and everyone was just reveling in the awesomeness.

Aw man, alterna/fairyland.... good times. ;_;

I think that a fair analytical frame to perceive Ayu's new work is through the standards of American popular culture, as a majority of the music in this new album has been produced by people who work in that realm. In this respect, I think that Angel's PV is acceptable, but I am quite speechless about XOXO and Lelio. With regards to Lelio, even other mainstream EDM tracks these days have a much better video, potentially paired up with some sort of depth (not going to bother with examples). XOXO seems like an unclassy version of J.Lo's On The Floor (possibly due to Ke$ha's influences), and I personally feel like Ayu should have conceptualized the video from a different angle. Feminists can argue that Ayu is a free woman who can do whatever she likes with her career, but I would have liked to see how "girls just wanna have fun" in a more grown manner than simply perpetuating nightlife stereotypes.

2005 was the most bizarrely awesome year of her career.

All the singles...

STEP you
is this LOVE?
fairyland
alterna
HEAVEN
Will
Bold & Delicious
Pride

She was experimenting so damn much with her sound that I thought the sky was the limit for her. I consider Secret, GUILTY (edgier rock, but safe for the most part), Rock 'n' Roll Circus (minus maybe Sexy little things and Dlb), Love songs, and LOVE again to be extremely 'safe' albums for her when put next to (m)u. The album is a mess in terms of flow and cohesion, but if anything that album proved her versatility as a recording artist.

Every album she releases almost everyone in this forum use that comment XD

A lot seems to have happened...

I think a lot of the visual aspects of her career (basically PVs though, but photoshoots tend to also end up being a bit iffy) tend to be better when things are produced in Japan. She doesn't really typically have many great PVs after a certain point that are filmed in the US and so on.

I think It's time for Ayu to change/fire her current director ! Try to look for the new one ! Nowadays, her PVs are bad, I wish she could released the PVs which is beautiful, poet, meaningful as Namie's PVs (let me let you go, Neon light lipstick, STUKI ,...) .
The good songs should have the good PV too !
In this album:
PV Feel the love : 7/10 for its meaning
PV Merry go round : 9/10 for Ayu's beauty, melody and the meaning
PV Lelio : 7.5/10 for the good music and the background
PV Angel : 8/10 for the music and the wings but how boring it is
PV XOXO : 6/10 for the good music, new style and funny scenes but the terrible outfits and over-acted lipping

I think the last one I really loved was Don't look back. Man, that was pure gold. When the other face is revealed my jaw dropped hahaha

I quite liked one and another like Sweet scar and its changing of colors and do it again with the apocalypse going on... but thinking now, the love really stopped at 2010 :laugh
So, since then I never had high expectations about her PVs, when they're pretty I'm quite satisfied.

PS: when she does filming in overseas I always put my expectation even lower, why Luis Hernandez is even hired? His PVs are always such a boring film when it's something more than 2-minute long :laugh

OMG, Angel's PV is when a nice idea goes completely wrong, just terrible imo! The beginning looked nice, but then the dancers came and, sorry, I think the dancers randomly dancing around her didn't look nice, they looked comic. And the end is just terribly executed imo. Honestly for me this is the worst pv of this album.

But I enjoyed XOXO, the selfie parody was funny :D And I like to see her trying to dance, though Ayu dancing on top of a male dancer looked kinda awkward for her...

In the end my favorite pv from this album is definitely merry-go-round.