A Classical cover & tracklist
 

デビュー15周年に向けて5ヶ月連続リリース、第3弾！
1月8日（火）にクラシック・アルバム『 Classical』を発売！！
デビュー15周年記念日である2013年4月8日に向け、5ヶ月連続リリース第3弾！
山下康介氏全面監修によるクラシック・アルバム！
ファンクラブ投票によって選ばれた人気代表曲7曲に、2012年に発表した新曲「You & Me」「Song 4 u」「Missing」を加えた全10曲をフル・オーケストラ生演奏による本格クラシックにリア レンジ！
数多くの劇伴音楽を手がける作曲家・山下康介氏が、若手編曲家を率いて全面監修！“オールタイムベスト”と もいえる名曲の数々が、楽曲本来の良さをさらに引き出した重厚かつ繊細なアレンジで蘇る！まさに、生演奏な らではの息吹が感じられる、この時代だからこそより多くの人に聴いてもらいたい作品に仕上がっ ている。
ジャケットには、アーティスト・村上隆氏のカイカイキキと国内最大イラストSNS「pixiv」が共同運営 するギャラリーや、Google+のイラストプロジェクトへの参加などで各方面の注目を集める新進気鋭のイ ラストレーター、うき氏による直筆描き下ろしイラストを採用！初回封入特典として、そのジャケットイラスト ・ポスター付き！
メインストリームのポップスとアートを紡ぐ、世代を超えて愛されるべき名盤、ここに誕生！！
http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/7317/classical.jpg

source: teamayu

WHAT?!

Avex... seriously ...This cover is...a fan made ?
Very dissapointed by the cover and the tracklist... I hope it will be good anyway....

Tracklist was pretty much expected though the new tracks are a surprise.

I'm shocked. avex are you trolling us or what??!

and why do we need Song 4 u and Missing here? OMG

I haven't bought again yet, I doubt about buying A CLASSICAL. 3000 yen for 10 songs and 2 of them: Song 4 u and Missing?!

I don't like the tracklist ..i was hoping for something else:(

TROLL AVEX TROLL
TROLL AYU TROLL XD

less than 30k I am sure

Wow. Crap crap crap. 1000000000000% crap.

^ haha! yeah, the price is too high and all we got is a 10-song tracklist + secondhand cover. this is just ridiculous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kousuke_Yamashita

This is the guy who did the rearrangements/compositions. He did Gokaiger!

Also, it seems that the cover was done by an artist from pixiv (like Japanese deviantArt but awesome) and Kaikai Kiki (a service for artists started by Takashi Murakami). Keep in mind that the cover really is an illustration and is not just the original photo processed in a program.

Only M, Love Song & BLUE BIRD get my interest...
Maybe You & Me ad Days too...

So 5 of 10? I wanna listen before i'll decide to buy or not!
Very disappointed 'bout the cover!!!

I bet you this is what the poll was for... which is why this is such a terrible tracklist.

WTF Avex...after the mess with again, I thought we would be getting something much better than this. Especially since we ALREADY HAVE SONG 4 U AND MISSING ORCHESTRA VERSIONS!

From all her new songs, she choose the worst ones...
And the cover is ugly, sorry for whoever made this drawing...

M, Dearest, Love song classical, OK with that.

SEASONS, Voyage, Days, BLUE BIRD... yes they're pretty, but C'MON we've already heard bunch of remix and versions for those songs !

You & Me ? Song 4 u ? Missing ? Are you kidding me ?! They're not made to be classical and they're quite weak compared to other recent tracks which would have deserved this treatment MUCH MORE !

I'm disappointing, they had a great opportunity to surprise us, and they will face a flop. Again.

the tracklist is boring, as for the cover being really drawn or smth - anyway, it doesn't look so good for me. there are way better Ayu arts browsing around

so far, the release seems blank and pointless. bad tracklist also

That's pretty much what the poll was for. The description says the fanclub chose this set of tracks (well 7 of them), though to be honest, they probably should have told them what it was for...

I cant

:o

Most of the songs are already have orchestra version right?
I doubt what it would be like in this Classical version.

ps. I knew that there will be You & Me.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb...susro1_400.gif

LOL

avex I love this joke, pretty good!
Seriously, I'm not gonna buy this album!

OH LOL!!! wtf is this?!?

worst decision ever? i don't expect this to chart very well. tracklist seems very lazy (i guess because of the time constraints?) aaah, i can't~

WTF? You & me? seriously? where's JEWEL???!!! i'm just too disappointed now!~~!

Really? I was looking forward to this album so much, because I love "My Story ~Classical~", but I'll certainly not buy this one.
The tracklist is boring and the cover is a bad joke. It seems to be an illustration and it's beautiful...but still, couldn't the artist draw a new picture of Ayu and not the cover of "LOVE"?

AVEX needs to get their ***** together, because Ayu's latest releases are not fun at all anymore. :no

LOVE cover edited by a fan?(?) Bad decision, too expensive and the tracklist is too short but... let's wait.

LOVE cover redrawn by a Japanese artist. I don't catch any names in the description but they do mention an illustrator. Usually Ayu drawings tend to be kind of off but this one is really photorealistic.

And about the tracklist, I think TeamAyu just didn't know what they were getting into since no one knew what that poll was for.

the tracklist is fine with me...
but the cover.... hmmm... i don't like it.... >.<
i don't understand why avex choose this concept for A CLASSICAL album.

IMO .... MY STORY Classical cover is way better than this one ... >.<a

I think it's partly because MY STORY Classical's 'actual' cover was a repurposed MY STORY cover? Though this one for A Classical is made from scratch and that one was just edited in a program.

http://i.imgur.com/zpcyR.jpg

why they have to use LOVE cover again on A CLASSICAL..WHYYY~~~ even though it's drawn by an artist still..can they have different pose?? so we can see varieties...
and the tracklist... sigh...

I'll wait till listening to the songs to say if it's crap or not... All I can say is that I don't like the use the same cover as LOVE and that I hope every song have new arrangement, even Song 4 U and Missing...

why?..why??..i dont get it...what is avex doing?? seriously??

and fans voted for THESE songs? I think they feel rather scammed seeing how Missing and Song 4 u have orchestra remixes and then now they were misled into the A CLASSICAL business..

Personally, I think the album will probably be fantastic since these songs have not had studio full orchestra treatments but due to the weird fan-favorite nature of the album (they say it's an ALL TIME BEST of sorts), people are going to hate the tracklist at first glance... or at every glance since it could've been a bit more varied.

Just so no one is confused, TA voted for these songs:
M
Love song
SEASONS
BLUE BIRD
Days
Voyage
Dearest

And these three were put in because they were 'new' or something:
You & Me
Song 4 u
Missing

avex shouldn't really be blamed for anything other than the last three since her fanclub had the other slots in their hands... they just didn't know what they were voting for at the time. The tracklist isn't really 'lazy', but this is what happens when you ask fans what their favorites are and only give them one choice per fan. If you asked overseas fans, it'd probably be WILDLY different but then again, that's almost always the case.

Also, I feel like people should know that the 'Orchestra versions' on her singles/minis are NOT the same as full orchestrated classical versions. Normally those just contain piano and a set of strings or acoustic guitar. For example, the Song 4 u and Missing remixes on LOVE are probably not a good indicator of what the "Classical" versions will sound like.

songs, better be excellent. if not, I won't buy it. enough. it's just enough. I tried to support ayu, but now I seriously don't want to buy it. or may be I shall wait till April when the purpose of serial codes be revealed. anyways, this is hude disappointment to me.

OMG just only 10 tracks??? but all 10 songs are my favourite lol
and um ...I have seen Pixiver drawn a lot of amazing pics, why they don't drow ayu in their own style??

Anyways, I'm not going to buy this since its annoucement. B b Bye Bye~

.......... I'm going to buy HK version only I guess....
tracklist and cover is... sucks =="

I've already had again and LOVE Japan version, I hope the serial number didn't affect the versions I've had T__T

lol I was waiting for the cover and the tracklist to decide if I should buy it or not.
The cover is not that bad, but it looks cheap and it's kind of lazy to use the LOVE picture again. And the tracklist is boring as hell... I definitely won't be spending 30€ in this mess.

ok fine...will just wait to hear the tracklists... cover... never minddddddd~

Well, I do appreciate the effort the artist had for making such a really good photorealistic drawing. But as for a cover it's disappointing and the tracklist does seem pretty boring. I hope avex is just trolling us for now. Or the orchestral versions should be very epic.

How I felt seeing the cover lol

The tracklist isn't AWFUL. But for a fan selection; it's really lacking and kind-of boring. I wanted some stand-out tracks like JEWEL or something :/ But I have a feeling I'm going to absolutely love M in the classical form ahhhh <3

Meh... I'm content. :P

i dont mind the tracklist but the cover... its a joke right? at least pull off a LOVEppears album cover and "appears" single cover?

EDIT: its official. its on ayu's official webpage now.

It was official before I got the info from teamayu.com ^^

I wonder how the booklet look like...

many fans can draw it flawlessly no surprise at all by a Chinese fan u can find her weibo on the watermarks

Sorry but this is... awful... Just the logo would've been better, reusing the same cover just sounds cheap as hell too.
And the tracklist... I'm only interested in a few tracks. I think I might cancel my order, I really want to support her but it's too expensive for me. :/

http://bluechii.bl.funpic.de/ayu-sca...ical/msc08.jpg

Probably like this? MY STORY Classical did not have a 'proper' booklet.

Looking at this is interesting... only 7/12 tracks on that album were done by the Lamoureux Orchestra. The rest were done by Japanese groups.

http://i.imgur.com/eUaxV.jpg

Her version of LOVE isn't as clean as this one imo.

kinda disappointing that they just recycled the LOVE cover with a small change. AND WTF. Song 4 U and Missing? I know they don't have classical versions but they already have acoustic versions which is almost the same thing to me. very ****ing disappointed.

The skill of the cover artist doesn't really matter much to me, what bothers me is that the original cover was very simple, which worked with its colors and the fact that the mini "LOVE" centered on pop ballads, but for a majestic classical album to have this colorless facial close-up... No. It just doesn't work for me.
And not to mention the horrible tracklist... Sure, the tracks might be great but there are so many other songs that deserve a classical rearrangement much better.

As MY STORY classical cover is a small change over MY STORY cover

Then why were you expecting something different? :shakehead

In my three going on four years of Ayu fandom, I don't remember ever being this disappointed.

.... WHY IS THERE A CLASSICAL VERSION OF VOYAGE. THERE'S ALREADY AN ~*ACOUSTIC ORCHESTRA VERSION*~ WHICH SOUNDS EXACTLY THE SAME ANYWAY

OHHHHH MY GOD WHY IS THIS HAPPENING

On the other hand, I'm excited to hear M ;)

What? "MY STORY Classical" was MADE to go with "MY STORY", "A Classical" isn't made for "LOVE"... I don't really get why they had to use the exact same picture too, this is just disappointing... Sorry ayu :(

Are you kidding me with this ****...?
What a horrible tracklist. Just HORRIBLE. :no

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA W-T-F.
Okay, I'm sorry, but this is way too lazy.
The cover is a pre-existing image.
Song 4 U and Missing are already existing orchestras
Just 8 new orchestera songs? I bet they just take the vocals from the originals and put them on orchestras, no new vocals or anything.

I don't know if the one being lazy is Ayu or Avex; but TBH - it doesn't seem like Ayu had anything to do with this release, AT ALL.

I said there would be meltdowns.
I was right.

What kind of cheap-ass cover?
And that tracklist...
Although a love song orchestra version is OKAY...

looking forward to the classical arrangement of her old songs

im actually...
disappointed... this is so underwhelming.

Where the **** is JEWEL!? :eviltongu

I see it as because "A Classical" is part of the 15th anniversary releases and LOVE represents them for whatever reason.

I think if you ask most Japanese fans to name their favorite song (ONLY ONE), they would probably list one of the songs in the tracklist for sure. (or walking proud which didn't get one for obvious reasons) I'm surprised evolution didn't make it though.

Well I guess that's the reason they're gonna use but I'm really disappointed... I'm really broke so I can't really spend 3200yen for this even though I love her. :(

Why did they have to ask the Japanese fans' favorite songs without even telling them why.

the outline is different :innocent
I prefer her works:lech

I think they wanted to keep it secret unlike how "What is your favorite summer song(s)?" pointed at a summer best exactly. "What songs would you like to hear in classical form?" doesn't really point at anything other than a classical arrange album (or concert) and it seems they also wanted to go for a 'fan favorite' tracklist with this album for whatever reason. As much as I like fan favorites, rearrangements of some lesser known/lesser remixed tracks were probably in order for this.

But a lot of the Japanese Ayu fans LOVE JEWEL. I'd say about 40% of them said JEWEL as favorite song when I asked... :(

WTF????!!?!!! Alright, i'm not gonna buy this.

Cover was pretty expected, it continues the "sketch-style" used in MY STORY Classical cover. Tracklist looks nice, but would be nice to have more tracks. And the cover is pretty nice, since it's hand drawn, unlike MY STORY cover.

and her work is from this pic and eyes of ayu is flawless in her works
http://ww4.sinaimg.cn/large/4b034f65tw1dzp0wpvd4ij.jpg
comparison
http://ww2.sinaimg.cn/large/4b034f65tw1dzp0s2f8dkj.jpg

A RECYCLE

that's like saying all the ayu-mi-x covers are similar and that ayu-mi-x 8 will be the same. don't play the sarcastic game with me. i'll blow your ayu fandom out of the water.

http://i48.tinypic.com/2ain5vn.gif

no

I think JEWEL, evolution, and insert random 3rd track, where all edged out by the three new songs

am I not getting the change with My Story classical and My story...
they are two completely different covers.

LOL

I knew this was going to be crap the minute I saw the title.


Exactly lmao

The inside actual CD cover of MY STORY Classical is a gold/white version of the CD only MY STORY cover. It's also rather hideous. The part most people think of as the cover is a slipcase.

http://i.imgur.com/ubx9L.png

Jeez, now that I look back at the 'official' shot for MY STORY's cover (not the alternate CD+DVD ones)... it's soooooo bad.

Oh my God, thanks for pointing that out - now I'm even more disappointed... :grumpy

I don't mind if they use only (sparkling gold) logo on the cover. = ="

http://imageshack.us/a/img706/707/classicalb.jpghttp://imageshack.us/a/img826/3084/classicalw.jpg

PS. I just realize that they change the album title from "A CLASSICAL" to "A Classical"....

Yeah, I'm waiting for M too, since every version of M is flawless. :luv2

if i ever decide to download the album, I'm changing its name to that :)

i just realized: if people don't buy this, then that buy all 5 releases gift thing is crashed dead burned.

i'm okay with the cover and tracklist. but where is jewel, together when, you were, moon, beloved.. all the newer tracks are missing :x

lol, I forgot about that... the only cover I think about it is the slipcases...
okay.

We can't judge before we heard the preview from the song in this album, but yeah I don't wanna lie that I hate the cover, if the song is good so i'll buy it

the cover doesnt bother me, I'm just BLAH over the entire thing now...
underwhelming.

I think as soon as this was announced after the TA poll, people should have expected at the very least, M/Days/SEASONS/BLUE BIRD/Dearest so I don't really think disappointment is in order since we sort of saw it coming? I'm looking forward to hearing everything since classical Ayu is awesome, but I don't think fans here will particularly be happy with this tracklist considering what 'could have been'.

Yeah, 2012 definitely is the worst year Ayu has ever had, musically speaking. I hope her fans cease from buying into this kind of lazy, uninspired work to force her into seriously rethinking and reconsidering the future direction of her musical career. Frankly, this kind of garbage is a one-way ticket to dinner theater and discount bins. She needs a healthy shock to her system to get that creativity flowing again.

I'm always optimistic when it comes to Ayu, but seriously, from Five onwards she has been nothing but a major disappointment. Hikki released one song and one video this year, and both of those blew away all that Ayu had done for the past couple of years. At this point, Ayu should think about collaborating (it worked for Namie) with REAL artists and younger composers and not just random and old people she likes. Superfly, Yasutaka Nakata, Funky Monkey Babys, Naoto Inti Raymi, Jake Shimabukuro, Mr. Children, Kuwata Keisuke, Ikimonogakari. You know, COOL people. If she continues on this track, she'll most likely end up as an irrelevant fossil before her time.

can't really blame Avex or Ayu~~since the fans who voted the songs they like~but hey, let's just wait for the album....but I definitely will buy..oh wait!...i did pre-order this album last month~HAHAHAHA!

I'm here for that.

That's a bit harsh imo. (not just a bit, a lot actually) 'again' seems to be rather loved by most people (PV-wise, snowy kiss/Wake me up not so much but Sweet scar is liked) so it's not like she's spiraling into nothingness at the moment. These releases are meant to be a celebration and people don't seem to realize that WE'RE GETTING 5 RELEASES IN 5 MONTHS. For the majority of 2012, we had Party Queen and A SUMMER BEST and now we've got 2 new minis, a classical album, and two other releases to look forward to.

BTW, FUNKY MONKEY BABYS announced their disbandment and most (all?) of those acts would definitely NOT mesh with Ayu as 'cool' as they are. Unfortunately, I don't think Ayu will collaborate much anymore after the whole JUNO/Urata thing that went on at a-nation. She tried it out and then it kind of just went boom on her, but it's likely because a-nation ended up being Ayu+Urata instead of mainly Ayu.

And I don't think she's working necessarily with all 'old' composers since her most recent release had a track composed by a duo from a British production group which is a step in the right direction in terms of finding 'new people' to work with. (Though she could have just gotten the demo because she liked it)

Total crap. They really ruin it this time.

i really hope Ayu will continue doing what she's doing right now, making music....but please Ayu, make a cool PV...eg. Microphone or Sparkle. I dont mind if she's gonna collab with other artists...

the bolded part: If anything, I think this year she has shown that she is creative... just from Party Queen to You and Me and then to again, all this is hugely different. Just because you dont like it, doesnt mean its not creativity.

also I rather enjoyed FIVE and party queen... some of her best work, and then again. this is an amazing time in the ayu world and I hope she does continue down this path.
:yes

Since this is a gift for fans, why are they including tracks that have already appeared in LOVE already?!?! this is a disappointing release..... hope the 4th and 5th release makes up for this....

Is this real? xD

praying for a NEW album.

but if a best album will help with her sales, then fine.

manly because remix albums are a form of promotion for the main accompanying album.
just look at the remix albums from her earlier days.

**** the japanese fans who want the same songs over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and ****ing over again

Because it's a gift for fans, everything got rearranged by Kousuke Yamashita.

The versions on LOVE will most definitely NOT be the same as what ends up on here. They should be utterly superior compared to her standard "Orchestra / Acoustic Orchestra / Acoustic Piano" mixes.

Hopefully if people haven't listened to MY STORY Classical and don't know the difference between the remixes that are on singles and what they will probably get with this album will do so because IMO the difference is HUGE.

However, GAME only had strings on MY STORY Classical -BUT- they were very powerful and a lot more full sounding than her usual string-only rearrangements. I think it's because there was an effort to make the track 'work' with strings?

Musically is one of the best years for Ayu. Party Queen is amazing, You&Me bleh, but LOVE and again are amazing too.

But as an artist this may be one of the worst years for her, her fans are who are criticizing her, I bet she doesn't mind about media, but she love her fans and they are now who are not supportin her. That's sad. Fortunatly she's in love, that's the most important thing in life, even for Ayumi Hamasaki, no matter sales, no matther charts.

where a RULE?

also i would like to think there is a difference between plain old Orchestra and classical versions.

at least for me My Story classical sounds completely different then Orchestra versions.

uh...the cover.....well....................

We just have to wait and see~~

^ I have no doubt that its going to be amazing...
its just the track listing for me is a little lack luster

Say "thanks" to all those TA members.... ¬¬

Am I the only one who is glad about the "you & me" version?

Game from My Story Classiclas was superb. I'm hoping a version like that...