It really is!! The context and just one's own surrounding can change the whole view of a song! I also didn't like CAROLS as much in the beginning, but I was lucky and had a snowy day and CAROLS at the same time ;)
SURREAL is one of my all time favorite songs, if not the one favorite, and I didn't even like it much in the beginning. To me it was an overperformed classic. And then I was just lucky and saw underneath the surface. It's unique progression, lack of real chorus and just the slight weirdness/difference to other pop songs that makes Ayu's songs special :)

I just rediscovered HAPPY ENDING and Jesus Christ I love this song so much :luv2:luv2:luv2 And that AT05 performance of it is just perfection imo

Got COLOURS in the mail today. I'm listening to it now. It makes being sick a little better.

Feel the Love is just so darn exciting. XD

btw, I can't get over how Pray always makes me think of "I will go the distance" by Michael Bolton. I don't even know if this comparison has any true reason behind it or not.

The perfect time of the year.

^ How I love all the lives of JEWEL <3

My dream is to see a HUGE performance of JEWEL where the stage/runway is just covered in trees and flowers made out of crystals, same way as the MV. With beautiful white/light blue lighting reflecting off every crystal on stage, onto her and the audience. And she just slowly makes her way down the runway and around the trees with this beautiful gown covered in diamonds too, with a super long train. And just HER on stage, no crazy dramatic dancers, no overly dramatic acting from her, just her singing in this incredibly beautiful stage and looking like a dang angel that was dipped in diamonds, lol.

I mean I love every performance of that song too, but I want her to bring the MV to the stage sooooo bad D:

Has anyone ever discussed the significance of the momentum PV, regarding it's plotline? I think I was always confused by it, and today I finally made sense of it. The conclusion I came to isn't revolutionary by any means, but I never understood who the old man was supposed to be. It's certain that ayu is singing as a ghost, but I never realized that the man in the PV is supposed to be her former lover - the last person she loved before she passed on. In the lyrics, she speaks of her "last" and her "firsts" that this person represents, and I only just now put it together that she isn't singing in the context of having separated from her lover, she is singing in the context of having died while loving him. It was literally her last miracle she experienced in life, and he's continued to age, while she waits to be reunited in death with him ("Until the day our hands reach white snow..."). I'm thinking the line "I wonder if I'm so stupid, just waiting for the time passage - believing that I'll surely be forgiven some day" signifies that she senses her lover harbors some sort of resentment on her for departing from him so early on (that's why ayu is young, while he old), and he never directly faced her death, leaving her to feel that way. But in the end, when he brings the flowers (which I read "symbolize that the soul of the departed has received restored innocence after death") she feels she has finally been forgiven, and is finally able to rest peacefully.

Digging a little deeper, it could be that the candles she sits amongst, represents every winter that has come and passed in which she clings to the living world, and remains waiting (notice she lights another one for the current year).

All artists for Kouhaku uta Gassen was announced. Ayu will not come this year again =( Still hope that she'll attend Music Station Super Live

^ Didn't she announced in 2014 that she would not attend Kouhaku anymore or something like that?

https://www.japantoday.com/category/...me-in-15-years

__

I love everything about the A BEST II so much <3 From the Best of CDL to the TV lives, the vibratos, the hair.

I've been falling in love more and more with someone this month and this song is just perfect for that, the tension and explosion of the final chorus really captures that feeling of europhia.

really? I miss this info

It was a very iffy time so I think it got overshadowed by other news. No more Ayu at Kouhaku though from now on unless there's some special thing she wants to do there.

Ayu always busy with CDL preparation at this day. Maybe she doesn't want to force herself and make everything without hurry

^ Yes... I think her last Kouhaku performances were a bit lame so I support her decision on focusing on CDL.

Well, the only kouhaku performance I really love is the Virgin Road one... I'm not very found of her tv lives most of the time.

I love this performance! It's one of my favorites for July 1st <3

It's a shame she's not going back to kouhaku. I actually really liked many of her performances, and it's a tv performance. Not that may of them otherwise. Her progress performance was great I think.

BTW on the topic of bests, actually, this recent gaga interview really reminded me of some of the things ayu expressed when she released a best regarding doing what you like and doing what you have to do. I guess all artists face the same issues at some point, but it was interesting nonetheless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNic2PH1Wmg

Wow, that interview was really sad towards the end. :( Thank you for sharing. I definitely have always felt like Ayu and Gaga would have similar thoughts on that subject, especially the line between the person and the performer

Secret album was released 10 years ago. Can you believe it?