I don't hate Namie so it doesn't really bother me that much, that album and PLAY are probably her best.

I don't "hate" Namie either; some of her songs are nice to listen to. But, I don't get the same feeling listening to her music. I don't feel emotionally involved. I don't know, it's just like something to listen to.

I have very few absolute favorites by Namie but the following I adore:
Come (first Namie song ever)
White Light
NEW LOOK
the SPEED STAR

Then maybe one point less than those are:
GIRL TALK
No

I have others that aren't bad and I enjoy when listening to, but I am not drawn in by the entire "package" like I am with Ayu and to some extent, Ku.

Anyways, back on topic, after hearing about 2ch it's kind of sad that it's Ayu's 15th Anniversary year and nobody really cares. I guess you know you're a has-been when every chance you get to perform a song to the general public you go with your peak songs. It's like "Hey, remember this song guys!? YEAH!!" and the audience is like "Yes Ayu, we've heard it everywhere in 2001 and we've heard you perform it every year for the past 5 years any chance you get..." When you're promoting your prime instead of your present, that's when you know it's over.

Ayu really needs to take a short break and come out with a bang-on album. LOVE again, as beautiful it is, doesn't have that spark that her peak-era albums did. Maybe bringing back CREA would help :innocent

I'm going to the Yoyogi dates :) hope i can get nice sits!!!

i don't know who is better, but in the last years, kuu and namie's music videos are way better than ayu's pv's

I know it'll never happen but i wish she'd do a FULL world tour. Even if she missed Canada and came to NY, I could probably save the money and possibly make it there for a day to see the show. :(

Btw, is the voting for the songs thing in Japanese? How does it work?

You can't compare Ayu & these 2 ! Namie & Koda are dancers so their clips are full of dance behind a cheap background ! Ayu is much more researched sometime it's not well executed but there are a real work with symbolisms etc ... I don't say Ayu is better but the style is completely different ! I much more enjoy Song 4 u than any recent clips of Namie or Koda but all these things are subjective =)

thats why! we cant change them. we can only change ourselves to ignore these comments.

But she really HAS lost her spark. Or she's at least lost her edge. She's done nothing new, innovating or exciting since NEXT LEVEL / RnR Circus. She's been releasing the same album either in mini-form or in full form since Love Songs and her videos have gone downhill since Love Songs as well. I love, absolutely LOVE Ayu but it's so hard to love her so much and keep being disappointed time after time knowing that she has it in her to be so much better and more innovating.

Having said that, SAKURA is one of the best ballads of her career but one song salvage a career does not.

Keiichi_JPU
I have to disagree, she keeps releasing amazing and fresh new songs every single year.
And her PVs have always been bad to my mind.

I still get a hard time getting the whole "she is releasing the same album since xxx" when, even she is releasing mostly midtempos, she still is picking different music aesthetics for every album.

Unless people also believe My Story, Secret and Guilty sound the same for being all centered on pop-rock, even if they take different genres of rock as a starting point. ~~'

@mizuki-7

Namie is pretty much re-releasing the same PVs for two decades now... But for some reason people at AHS finds her dancing in front of a car with a bored face very artistc...

:yes

There's always a possibilty for a second peak is there not? Look at Namie, she's been selling over half a million in albums in recent years. There's no doubt that Ayu could probably do the same thing, add on promotions and her already great tours, and u have a chance at a second peak.

Instead of ayu taking a break, go on hiatus maybe the people that feel like that should take a break from ayu~

Poor Namie she always comes out on every Ayumi conversation. Keep on selling those albums Namie don't listen to haters.:lech

i have to agree with u. LOVE again was kinda a "blah" album for me. cos most songs are of the same genre. either ballad or medium tempo songs. But let's not forget epics like progress and BRILLANTE! :)

I know most people dislike Party Queen the album, but i guess the album was meant to be like that. it's a dark album. I hope ppl can look beyond the cheesy album cover and the sucky songs inside the album. at the very least, i like Shake it a lot =x

Sorry if I came out to seemingly dislike Namie, I like her music and I just thought she'd serve as a good example for 'second peak' artists :laugh

^^I :heart Party Queen album SOOOOOOO MUCH!!! I play it all the time!!

^I actually come to like it even more now after some time has passed
The album was ok back then but it seems that I wasn't in right mood for it then even though i ADORE Eyes , smoke, magic the first part of the album was bleh for me
Now it's just perfect,some things have happened and the album just clicked with me

@axmish87 Actually at first Eyes Smoke Magic was about one of the few tracks i didnt like, which is a bit odd for me considering i really like that type of music. Heck i love almost every genre of music except for heavy metal, country and western. :heart