Ayus music today sounds more "dated" than her entire discography
 

I realized something today. I remember someone had mentioned the fact that Ayus music was always pretty great at being "timeless". Maybe it was truehappiness. But I totally agree with that statement. I listen to ayus music constantly, rotating between albums and eras seamlessly. Sometimes when I think of how old a song is I'm shocked because it doesn't feel as such.

However, I think more recently the arrangements have been rather weak and not as fleshed out as they used to be. Which made me realize, her recent works sound like they could have been released before I Am... At least. It's very strange, and why I feel it's difficult to stomach at times. People may complain they want this ayu or that ayu back, myself included, but I feel the most frustrating thing is the fact that she was so successful at owning that "timeless" aura with her music, and even though she may try new things, it's as if she's taking steps backwards. It worked for Love songs, that throwback sound, but somehow everything that came afterwards seems stuck somewhere.

Agree? Don't agree?

Love songs could easily be placed after LOVEppears, LOVE again and Party queen after Duty. No?

the only thing i am am noticing is that her arrangement became dull and choppy... there's something missing... i personally fallen in love with her increadible build ups in her songs back when i first heard her. I've said that Love songs sounded dull to me but even tho i do enjoy LOVE again listening to Love songs now makes me eat my own words... Lots of stuff she's put out is dull not even mentioning the single....It made me appreaciate Love songs much more. Even Party Queen (which i enjoyed a lot) had more depth in arangements than what she's releasing nowadays. That's the only thing that bothers me and also that she's diven into this EDM crap.....that sounds like everything else in the west now. And there are quite a few examples how she took that genre and made it her own in a way only she can, i dunno why she didn't do it this time...
I'm worried that she's becoming mainstream, but what worries me the most are her arrangements getting less and less depth....

I disagree. Her most dated works are ASFXX and LOVEppears. Everything else from Duty onward is pretty much in its own encapsulated time space IMO.

Honestly, i do feel the same as u guys. I don't know. There are gems on her latest albums here and there but majority of the songs are somewhat lackluster. Perhaps the last song that may have blown me away (really) was Song 4 U. I'm not saying that we might be tired of her but perhaps we are tired of her songs arrangements? Almost all songs got the same patterns; build ups; and rock guitar solos during refrain parts specially on her midtempo songs. i dunno. Its just... its hard to put it into words. Anyway, i'm happy Ayu's trying things lately specially new arrangers.

That's cool, thanks for sharing.

She's always had these sorts of build up-compositions though...

Thinking that the work is "dated" is different from feeling that it is "lackluster" imo.

^true, but her arrangements have been feeling more 'empty', where as her older material didn't suffer from that. Which may give the impression of being dated by comparison.

I don't really get that... but part of it may be because she has the same arranger or two working on everything for the last 4-5 years. The amount of tracks since 2007 that haven't been done by CMJK or Yuta is insane. tasuku only made a recent comeback and everything that he's done was great.

Personally I would not consider "Feel the love / Merry-go-round" as an Ayu single. It's just a nice little single with two amazing remixes that could have been thrown towards electro-pop hungry folks by anyone. That eminent "Ayu-sound" can be found on LOVE again, though. I feel a tad betrayed with her latest output as I honestly thought Avex would come up with something more elaborated and defined after more than three years (if you want LOVE and again to be mini-albums even though you certainly know they are not, tehehe).

For my very own treat I'd always tend to go for an album from A Song for XX to GUILTY.

What makes a song "dated" anyway?

Arrangement, I think. The 'sound' feels like it came from a decade prior for both ASFXX and LOVEppears imo. They are 90s albums though, so it's not that bad, really.

For me, some of her songs nowadays sounds dated because they LACK something. Be it the arrangement, effects, and the sound as a whole unlike most of her earlier works (perhaps except for ASFXX album). isn't that lackluster suppose to mean? Sorry if i'm being too objective. I'm speaking from a non-native English speaker's pov. lol

"Dated" means it ages badly or sounds old. A dated track usually is something that sounds so attached to the trends of a time that you can't put that song on a different context.

For example, Madonna's track Like a Virgin. It's production is SO typical of the 80's that you instantly recognize it is a 80's song, releasing it today on the same way it was released on the 80's would make no sense. Billie Jean by Michael Jackson has a typical 80's production, but it was produced on a way it works even nowadays without sounding out of place and time.

It has less to do with the song being "bad" or "good" or "lacking" or not something, and more to do with the song work even if it was released a long time ago.

Aswering the thread. Considering I hate almost everything Zeke loves about Ayumi's career, I think it's obvious I'm gonna disagree. I agree with True Happiness, the only albums from her discography that feel dated to me are A Song for XX and LOVEppears... They actually feel dated to me even considering their time of release. Still, she had some dated tracks after that (I am..., My Story, Secret and Guilty has some), but not full albums.

I wouldn't say you hate what I love but that I hate what you/everyone else loves. Lol.

I actually think from RAINBOW onwards her sounds is more modern. You'd have to be deaf or dim to not notice how the old j-poppy and dated the other songs sound.

I think you're all looking through nostalgia goggles and need to deal

Everything after LOVEppears and before Love Songs, is timeless, and it's one of the reasons why I loved it. I also heavily tie that idea in with how unique the songs are. I could never find anyone else that had that timeless quality to their songs, but also managed to keep the songs poppy or rockish, without sounding like generic anime anthems. That's part of why old Ayu = awesome.

Loveppears is like my favorite, but it's definitely reminiscent of that era. Even some m.o.v.e. songs remind me of it.

Love Songs to me is like, purposely dated. It's the only thing I like about the album, because it's the best thing that makes it conceptual to me, and it lets me not concentrate on...ugh everything else.


I think Party Queen and Love again have that old ayu timeless factor, but chunks of the tracks are very NOW. This last single is very NOW, although Merry go Round isn't as NOW lol It reminds me of some 90s tracks.

I Am... sounds dated? For me LOVE again is seriously dated. Notice how I mentioned the more recent albums could be inserted AFTER LOVEppears, making that and a song for the most dated of her discog... RAINBOW is pretty dated too though if you wanna mention that. WE WISH, July 1st, and Real Me all have a specific aura that screams that time period.

RAINBOW belongs to no time period.

I think there are elements in the arrangements on that album that are a bit early 00's jpoppy or that were trendy...but definitely not like what everything else sounded like then. And it's mainly only because of how electro and synthy the tracks are.


Damn she was awesome that year.

True. It's that "hip" dj-scratch sound effect that is really used a lot and was trendy around that time. RAINBOW is much more dated sounding than many of her millennial album releases. The evolution between that and Memorial address is remarkable to be honest. I enjoy RAINBOW but it's there's certainly a time and place for that album more so than other albums. I truly have to be in the mood for that cd, and it doesn't make my rotation very often as it doesn't translate well to current date for me. It's somewhat cheesy.

idk I mean. I think I get what you're saying. I think it really fits in with the time it was released, even though it's really unique. Although, it's weird to say that, considering everyone then hated the shit out of it lol

But to me, it's a special album that really doesn't fit in anywhere. It's her only other conceptual album (to me) besides Love Songs. And I think that's why, it has a very specific mood, and sound, that isn't going to translate well all the time.


I also think that the only reason why it sounds to me like it fits with it's time period, is because, this is the sound I associate with that time. It's the only thing I listened to then and it defined that year, so, it's hard for me to see it, not fitting in. It's somewhat dated for me, in that respect.

I forget LOVE again exists, so I'll give you that.
And lol, for someone who has IMO as a signature, you really should look into reigning that hostility -its really unbecoming.

It's hard to remember LOVE again since there was nothing that really defined it nor did anything from it (the album itself) ever get much attention.

We haven't gotten many lives or any PVs for the album tracks. The release kind of just happened.

Idk if I'm understanding this right, but to me ASFXX - Secret are timeless. These were the first Japanese albums I ever listened to (and really the first time I completely fell in love with an artist) and when I was discovering Ayu's discography I had all these albums at the same time, and so I never really associate them with any specific time period. I mean I didn't really pay much attention to the order things came out i just enjoyed them for what they were. When I think about how old they really are it just surprises me because I feel like these songs should still be considered new and when I think of stuff from the US that came out at the same time it just doesn't seem possible.

Everything after secret, to me, I can fit into a specific time and can associate it with other things and it just seems to fit and that's where it stays. Everything before it is just a big blob that doesn't really feel old, but also doesn't really feel new, it just is.

It's not a great explanation but hopefully it makes sense. Also, for me, this doesn't make an album good or bad, it's just another aspect of the songs.

First time I noticed something like that, it was with meaning of love from Rock 'n' Roll Circus. It wasn't a bad song, really, but I kept thinking "Woah, really it was Ayu recording this? Seriously?". It felt different. But then there was Love Songs and Party Queen, and even FIVE, because songs like "Why..." (a.k.a It Was 2 less epic in everything) and "beloved", as much they were safe and somewhat generic, were still Ayu-generic. There was Ayu-ity everywhere.
I only felt something was off again with some LOVEagain album tracks. They start good, but it feels like they didn't finish a job and it's an even more strident contrast since there are true masterpieces in that album too.
I don't know, with some stuff in LOVEagain I feel like they didn't even try properly, while with Feel the love and merry-go-roundit it feels to me Ayu is not so strict with herself anymore, as if she's more lenient with her work.

I think except her first 2 albums and some songs here and there her music is aging really well mainly because she didn't follow trends or almost never ! All songs that have followed the trends sound dated now (A song for xx (80's style), Loveppears (techno), Real me (r&b) for exemples ...). LOVEagain is pretty much an album filled with songs not released in the past like she said in an interview (for exemple gloria is from 2006 ) but the probleme is Yuta Nakano ... he is versatil but his arrangements for Ayu songs since several years are redundant ... Personnally I'm amazed by some of her older songs who still sound modern now ! She was ahead of her time it's quite a pity she has not succeeded to sustain this level but it's pretty common among all singers ^^

Sorry sis but what is this? Why... and It was... have nothing in common but ellipsis in the title. Mid-tempos, but one is pop-rock and the other veers to R&B.

It was didn't even have ellipses. The songs are not similar at all.

^ lol, you're right. Point still stands though.

Five is a top seller on Ayu's iTunes, only behind her major compilations and the new single...

I remember saying it was a release for the general public. :P

If it isn't an album the stans like its outdated :)

I looooved FIVE.

Where and when did Ayu say that? o.o

Also... "Gloria" composed in 2006? "petal" sounds more after (miss)understood to me, though.

Would appreciate it if you could provide me with a reliable source as I did not know this until now.

SCawaii [?] interview. Just about every song was an old track. Apparently Gloria has been in the works for the last 6 years before being released now. SAKURA was also all ready to go for a while (arranged and composed) before it was finally put onto LOVE again. This is the same interview that Ayu said she likes sleeping in the nude, haha.

Translated by Misa-chan.

http://lettersfromayu.wordpress.com/...ature-article/

This album and Secret have the most tracks that were probably 'oldies', I think. This makes me wonder just what kinds of CREA compositions she has lying around. And just when did she get this PhrasedDifferently track????

What means I hate pretty much all of her timeless albums, I guess...

Still figuring out how not to sleep during My Story.

there's a song called "Why..."?

god damn I'm out of the loop.
Stop listening to the whole album in one sitting?


Maybe it's just me and the fact that I always took every single one of her songs individually.

If you can't listen in one take, it may be a good collection of songs, but not a good album.

I fall asleep through MY STORY too. It's MUCH too long with a lot of slow portions. It's good, but I can't not fall asleep if I listen to it all the way through.

And uh, I'm pretty sure Ayu wants people to listen to the albums all the way through if possible.

My Story's tracklist is its problem. I actually think that aside from About You and Humming, its very similar to Love Again as it has really strong tracks, but also some of the blandest crap ever without much momentum.

Her "timeless" (i.e. peak) albums have pretty weak tracks, i don't get all the praise. I am... is a very inconsistent album in sound, but alot of the tracks are good by themselves or when scattered in concerts. The CD itself is a bland mess after M and couldn't choose to either be polished pop (Naturally, evolution, Unite!) or a raw, rockier album (NEVER EVER, no more words, still alone).

We have always seen things differently lol

Although looks like you and Comatose share the same view when it comes to cohesiveness.


I listen to the albums maybe once or twice all the way through, and usually right when they're released.

After that, into the vast collection of Ayu songs they go. As with everyone. Very few people have perfect enough albums that I can sit all the way through, multiple times.

I am... is like a greatest hits album. So many singles.

I will never forgive the monstruosity she did with endless sorrow.

Well... at least it was different? There must be a reason for it.

^ I think it was re-arranged to fit the feel of the album tracks, but ended up sounding much more inferior. Her voice on the I am... version is really soft and pretty tho.

MY STORY is perfect the way it is, and talk about bland - FIVE is like the definition of it and LOVE again is filled with more boring-ness than MY STORY. The thing that's great about MY STORY is that, even if some may feel it has slower or "boring" tracks, the tracks never suffer from trying to be something they are not. The epic tracks are epic, the nostalgic tracks are nostalgic, etc. what I'm trying to say is, I never feel the songs are being "forced", like they build up to a letdown. That doesn't happen and so it's not disappointing. The image they were trying to paint with each track is exactly what it was meant to be. However, tracks like Bye bye darling are a perfect example of songs that were meant to be on the same level as her more "fierce" and "attitude" tracks, but just didn't cut the cake. Petal as well. That tried to be dramatic but it sounded cheap by comparison.

And let's not talk about FIVE cause that atrocity is so un-Ayu. Any other artist could've released it, except for BRILLANTE, and I never would've bothered with it. I think the true test of whether you are a Stan or not is if you think of all your fav ayu songs and imagine another artist releasing it, would you still bother listening to them? I don't listen to material for the sake of it being an ayu release. If it doesn't sit well, it doesn't sit well.

I honestly think you aren't really looking at MY STORY with an unbiased eye.

well the feeling I had listening to MY STORY vs LOVE again was "this is ayumi hamasaki's autobiography" VS "my pink album..." I'm sorry but MY STORY has this really raw and personal feel to the album, which I felt was poignant and really beautiful. it's one of her best albums IMO because it had a great theme, the songs flowed super well and it was to me, her diary.

I agree with another user about I am... that as an album I think it's pretty shit, but out of the 15 or so songs, more than 3/4 of them stood out really really well as individual songs, yet together as an album it was pretty trash. I attributed the mess to the change in her mind due to the 911 incident.

with regards to the topic itself, I never thought her songs sounded dated, not especially nowadays. if anything they sound blander, emptier and as if less effort was put into it. kinda like pottery you know? her recent songs sound like every ornament was mass-produced in a factory so they come out look pretty but that's about it. the older ones were pretty AND were full of substance cos most likely she crafted every one by hand on the potter wheel.

the best example was FIVE I think. I hated that mini so much lol... progress was decent then the rest were so meh. BRILLANTE reminds me of a heavy dessert - good on the first listen then it kinda disgusts me the next time onward.

I will admit that although I was still blown away overall when MY STORY came out, I did feel the latter half of the album somewhat blended together and dragged. However, looking back and in my current mindset, I love MY STORY even more now because of exactly what I said. Not every track had to be full of attitude, as long as it's good at what it's trying to do. I feel more so now than ever, especially by comparison, that the songs on that album are perfect as is. As I mentioned, my biggest gripe are tracks that attempt to be epic but fail. All I see there is potential for what could have been, or a missed opportunity. Another point is that MY STORYs arrangements were so very lush. I mean, there were a multitude of layers to her music then - so many that I still am beginning to notice the subtleties. Even if back then I had felt "this track isn't a highlight of the album to say the least" I tend to love those tracks now because even the dull tracks during that time period are unbelievably more entertaining than the non-album highlights of today, as well as many of the so called "album highlights" or promotional tracks.

I definitely have days where all I am in the mood for are tracks like HAPPY ENDING, HOPE or PAIN, Replace, and winding road.

Waterballoon sums it up well. It's as if each track was carefully crafted back then, and now it's not quite like that.

Some of the tracks on MY STORY were accidents. And also, it helped that she didn't feel right that Memorial address had to end up being a mini, so she spent extra time on MY STORY that she normally wouldn't for an album. I think for me, I've just let go of most feelings I had for albums that were 'big' for me in her 'golden years' and just think of each album as its own entity in a different stage of Ayu's career. Like we know that Secret and LOVE again were sort of heavy on 'leftovers', but I don't think that really makes them bad albums especially if you actually listen to them from start to finish more than a few times.

http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100089
^-- this thread has an interview that talks about the conception of MY STORY

Also... there's this TeamAyu interview that Misa-chan scanlated...

http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=99174

However, imageshack resized all of the images so they are almost illegible now.

Oh thank goodness, I saved one of them.

the scanlation further proved why MY STORY was a gem, a masterpiece, her magnum opus if you would put it, in my opinion.

back to my point on how every song in the past was specially crafted by Ayu, this interview proves it so.

compare it to her interview on LOVE again when it's just "oh this was a song I had for a while but never wanted to release it" I bet the interludes thought processes were like "well we needed one so we threw one to tasuku and that was how it was born."

I disagree but not entirely.

Up to today I would say the only of her albums that that sound a bit dated are, as others have already said, A Song for xx and LOVEppears. However, some of her newer releases, more specifically her new single, have songs that sound popular now, but that might become easily dated in a few years...

So, as for today I would say no, her newer releases don't sound dated yet imo, but some of them may become dated in the future.

btw how can anyone say LOVEppears sound dated.. lol. it's her 2nd best album.. though I have to admit the electro-pop in the album wasn't as refined as NEXT LEVEL's or even the new single. but still!! it's such a good album, I thought it was Timeless.

What, R&B Why...? Really?
Well, I really find them SO similar. And it's definetely not about the titles, lol. Mind you, I'm not an expert, like, at all. But I don't find Why... anywhere near R&B, I find it rockish. The same type of rockish It Was has, with the difference It Was was much better delivered. I think these two songs have the same kind of "flow" and atmosphere, if I make any sense.
What I know for sure is that when I listened the first time to Why... I immediately thought "Damn, It Was was such a better thing".

Dolls transcends time.

I agree that some new songs aren't as timeless. It's sad. I actually can't really form an opinion about it..

LOL aside from GAME and Inspire, MS is very bland and anyone could sing it.

Lol, it is so not rockish. Why... has elements of R&B while being a pop ballad. It has guitars, but they don't define the song -iits based more on the strings used in it. It was really does have a rock based sound. They both are atmospheric, though. I think both songs attempt to deliver a nostalgic sense, but It was is superior in that sense.

:doh

:thud I absolutely don't agree :lech This album is so nostalgic but I understand when people say that this album can be boring because there are a lot of Mid tempo songs but songs like Walking Proud, Liar, About You, Winding road, Happy Ending and Hope or Pain are not generic (in her discography maybe) I can't pretend knowing all the japanese singers but among her peers she is the only one who tried these kind of styles

ANother song is quite an R&B song but Why is a typical Pop rock song like Ayu has done 100 times in the past and even now ! I really don't understand where you hear R&B influence in this song ? ^^

The Urata version is way more R&B than the JUNO version.

r&b influenced, try to read better.
and lol, Ayu made those songs but they're standard fare. All of you little godasaki stans try to say she's some groundbreaking artist but all of those songs are run of the mill, typical jpop and SAFE jpop at that.
Just accept that it'll never slay. Either way, I'm done.

http://31.media.tumblr.com/16c48717e...cbm7o1_500.gif

^ However... we all know that you love MY STORY and you can't live without it! :o

I like MY STORY too, but I think people are giving it that weird I am.... treatment that everyone who joined this place in the early 2000s did. It's one of the strangest things about this fandom... basically LOVEppears/Duty/I am.../MY STORY/(miss)understood are on some sort of pedestal while everything else is 'okay'.

This forum is more and more funny ! you cant speak without being attacked ... :eviltongu

I am not a stan and I don't put her on a piedestal I just say she has experimented more music style than her peers that's all ! give me examples it's to easy to say "typical jpop safe" ...

Your little obsession with my posts is a little creepy, tbh.

And a fan supports, but doesn't praise everything -you're a fan, congrats.
And you really want examples, huh?
These are soundwise, fyi:

- ASFXX, but that's her debut so I won't count it
- B&G, Trauma, Immature, TO BE, Love ~destiny~
- Girlish, Audience
- connected (even if I love it), untie!, asib
-RAINBOW is nearly flawless, but Real me and July 1st. Independeturo too.
-MA has Angle's Song.
-MS.... Happy Ending, Hope or Pain, HONEY, Replace, winding road.
walking proud is an A grade ballad, but you can't deny its the typical one.
-(m)u was very out of the box

Won't do the rest, since i think you get the point.

I will give you this: Most of her biggest hits are generic winterish ballads and generic summerish up-tempos. Very little of her staples have any experiement to them. And most of the loved albums on this forum are her safest releases to date... My Story, LOVEppears, A Song for XX, Rock'n'Roll Circus, Secret... You pick one, it's filled with generic jpop.

She did and does experiement, mostly by mixing genres on an unexpected way: RAINBOW, (miss)understood, Party Queen, Duty, NEXT LEVEL, Love songs are filled with tracks pop singers wouldn't release.
She does experiement a lot more than Koda (you can count her risky tracks with your fingers) and Namie (that usually follow the genres closely). Ai Otsuka experiements as much as Ayu (but she, as a musician, plays with structures instead of mixing genres) and Hikki has the weirdest pop catalogue ever since Deep River. Ayu (and Hikki) are huge parts on creating the sound of post 2000 jpop, but the artists following them (not everyone is) usually uses their less intersting material or a waterd down take on their most interesting as influence.

FIVE was a release focusing the general public and not her fanbase, that's why it has such an un-ayuish vibe. Considering it's her bst selling original EP on iTunes, it worked.

Throw Rainbow in there too :D

Yep. That's why everyone loved Ayu.


@Junnie: LOVEppears is like, my favorite album. But it sounds dated to me because it sounds like that era of jpop, as in, comparison to what else was going on with other people at this time.


And thank god for the accident that was Liar. That's one of her best songs.

RAINBOW is/was hated by like everyone. People forget it exists, tbh.

INSPIRE is my least favorite song in the album. Lol, and talk about hostility in a post.

If ayus music is so generic and jpop safe, then why is it that I can't find any other jpop artists who quite fill her void or make their attempt at "generic safe jpop hits" even half as good as ayu does them? If I wanted someone who did some strange svante garde shut then I wouldn't listen to ayu. I'd listen to some flop of the charts like rurutia.

At the end of the day, she makes good JPOP. Or did. She is a JPOP artist, glorified.

INSPIRE c/w GAME was the least bland of the MY STORY singles.

It was a good single, but for me Moments is the pinacle of that album. INSPIRE is a little too chaotic. It's extremely noisy during the chorus.

Done reading. Now, to sum things up:

"A Song for XX" and "LOVEppears" suffer from a very dated early/mid 90ies pop sound and badly aged electro influences, "I am..." contains a lot of cheesy, incoherent singles and gets even worse towards the last tracks let alone the monstrosity they've done with "Endless sorrow", "RAINBOW" is the impersonation of people's hatred and barely anyone is able to recall its existence, "Memorial address" would have better come out as full sized studio album, "MY STORY" is way too long, people fall asleep listening to it and it contains a bunch of the blandest songs ever, "Secret" and "LOVE again" are mere compilations of neglected, partially off-sounding leftovers and "FIVE" is only good for "progress" and "BRILLANTE".

This thread literally just ruined everything I've ever dared to believe in...

^ go listen to Uncontrolled - you'll feel better on Ayu's biggest flops in no time!

Moments is THE single from that album, and walking proud THE song.

I connected more with winding road and Replace tbh.

plz take that back i actually like you :(

people who really liked lyrics were all like WINDING ROAD EVERYTHING. And then I think she had a performance with it, or talked about how much it meant to her, or something, and then people paid attention to it again.


happy ending/walking proud own that album. And then there's Moments. And then HOPE and PAIN. And then Inspire and my names women are awesome. And then there's Liar and About You.

The album isn't even like her mish mash singles compilations like the other albums lol Why MY STORY gets so much hate will always be beyond me. I couldn't care less about the tracklist issues lol It's an album packed full of great songs.

I get way less, from way more people.

INSPIRE sucks lmao

But anyone who dare says anything bad about HAPPY ENDING...just delete your account off of here bye

INSPIRE is her only summer hit that doesn't sound like a summer hit therefore INSPIRE = awesome

My story IS happy ending/walking proud.
Two great pop songs that I can listen to every day without problem.
Momants what?
Carlos who? (Although Carlos is nice in winter weather).

I always forget Carlos exists lol.
I forget forgiveness too tho, even tho its a song of life like dolls so idek.

No

the orchestra version of forgiveness slays everybody Jesus himself jams out to that song lbvs

Lol some of these comments.

And honestly, I didn't mean for this to turn into a MY STORY debate. I'd love to have that conversation all over again but I didn't mean for this thread to turn into that. Anyway, all of ayus albums have a few tracks which aren't the star of the album, but at least in my story they are coherent, lush, and just work together.

^ lol Every thread becomes a MY STORY debate~ :laugh

I know!! :headache

Quote:

Originally Posted by truehappiness (Post 3049593) RAINBOW is/was hated by like everyone. People forget it exists, tbh.

Whaaaa:thud ???
The album is a pure GOLD :luv2
I can sometimes stan for I am... but RAINBOW is soooo close to it
Yeah that's because people saw ala Britney Spears image in her all of sudden

Why are people hating on RAINBOW anyway?
It's one of Ayu's timeless bests.
Most of the arrangements defy time.

It's just because it's how the fanbase generally looks at that album. Back when it came out, it wasn't well received at all. I always liked RAINBOW, but whenever people have to rate albums, RAINBOW always ends up around the bottom.

I think that it's because it's hard to like as an album for reasons like it's "too" versatile but mostly ballady, kind of like a bit shorter MY STORY (hence people's problems with it). RAINBOW really has awesome songs but sometimes it's not all that to listen to as an album.
It actually has 5 ballads but feels like it has more for some reason.

I think that a change of the tracklist could really help.

The overall vibe I get from RAINBOW is like the one I get from NEXT LEVEL. The singles stick out like sore thumbs, but everything else is pretty solid. (THEY DO NOT SOUND SIMILAR)

Lol at everything becoming a MY STORY debate where the same things are repeated over and over again (and I love it, doublelol),
So, I just found out RAINBOW is hated: how the hell did that happened?! Especially in this thread, where we're talking about transcending songs, I mean, all of RAINBOW is the most trascendental, unearthly sound experience delivered by Ayu imo. A lot of Ayu albums are epic, but RAINBOW is the epitome of timeless.

Well, disliking or not really being into RAINBOW was certainly the popular opinion from 2003-2008 at least... not sure about now.

http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13191

There are also a lot of other polls and such where RAINBOW just so happens to end up in the bottom.

Basically, for a lot of this forum's lifetime, it was like...

I am... > LOVEppears/Duty > everything else

But recently, I've found that people are more MY STORY / (miss)understood > Memorial address > the others lately.

^
You shouldn't have linked that thread. My innocence is ruined forever. The hate towards RAINBOW... I can't. I was better not knowing.
I don't know why, but I never heard anyone say anything bad about that album till now, lol.
(But, really, guys: can we imagine ten years from now, everybody praising LOVEagain masterpieceness and reading our old posts, saying "Omg, how could those people not realize how fab this album is, they were all so deaf"?)

That is basically how the pattern goes. It sort of happened with NEXT LEVEL already.

^
Not me, NEXT LEVEL was love at first sight!:D But I'm still waiting for a turn of the tide for people starting to glorify Sunrise/Sunset covers, lol. (And, yes, I liked them. Still do.)
But, honestly, everything one says about a song in the first year after its release is void. You're just rehearsing for your true opinion debut.

I also love NEXT LEVEL (my jogging jam :luv2) but I really hate Sunrise/Sunset covers, she's like a plastic doll in those :dead2:dead2

^ LOL the Sunrise/Sunset meltdown was E.P.I.C.

NL was pretty bad when it came out, but its actually pretty good!

I dunno why people were so angry about NEXT LEVEL. It's a good album.

And Sunrise/Sunset's meltdowns were just... too much.

About the new single, it doesn't sound exactly dated but rather cheaply produced, which is happening with kuu too lately. I guess avex is just giving them all namie's rejects or something.

I don't think Party Queen and LOVE again suffer from that though, instead they have their own problems of cohesion and stagnancy.

okay sis, i love u but lets be real: those covers are srsly below Ayu's standard.

m-flo isn't really a "Namie reject"...

And Namie hasn't worked with Komuro in how long?

I assume that it only sounds 'cheap' because they didn't exactly go with progressive electro producers for arrangement.