Ayumi ~ The Anything Goes Thread 8 ~
 

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Commence conversations about ayuma hamasaki here.
I, for one, really am getting back into her music. I quite enjoy it now.

Yay new thread :D
Glad you're back girl! Which songs are you currently enjoying?
I'm in a dark mood lately, so a lot of my story/guilty/party queen~

Really? I've been exactly the opposite...in the calmer mode (aka Rainbow/ LOVE again)..I've listened to Rainbow continously these days :D (excepting today)....the main reason for these choices is the rainy weather, I love listening to RAINBOW in rainy days...It has a special appeal to me.

I love listening to RAINBOW when I make french fries.

There's something stimulating in everlasting dream～WE WISH～Real me. Or maybe in the french fries.. :laugh

And yes, I'm 100% serious! Feel free to call me crazy! :D

^
You can use Ayu for everything. Really. That woman is a chameleon, in every sense, lol.
After seeing Kylie Minogue latest single's cover, I don't know why, but I thought about Memorial Address... so this January, I'm listening to it! Still loving it to death.

interesting :laugh.. I also have these kind of 'weird' moments sometimes

I just want my Ayu albums to come in the mail already so I can finish my collection >: )

I love the dark rocker Ayu from the Microphone PV. Nobody commands attention like her!

Been listening to her more recent album lately; I still just can't seem to digest FTL now

@tsumekaze: thank you so much for your translation!!

Ohh then I guess we need a translation of the book first then?

I wonder if Misa will translate this lifestyle book, it's definitely going to take a great amount of time (I think!).

In my World Geography class, they were discussing over artists that are huge influences, and I'm just sitting in my seat like pfft have you even watch Hamasaki Ayumi :laugh

Im a guy :P
And I'm currently in the mood for the ASfXX album.
It's trashtastic fun!

^ really?! I'm so sorry!!! Somehow your avatar led me into thinking you were a girl. It's like I identify you with that. Not in the creepy smiling face sense tho! LOL.
ASfXX mood?
Are you sure you're okay?

Jokin' aside, nothing is bettah then nasal '90 ayu singing along to trashy pop music. ♥
TRASHTASTIC FUN. I couldn't have defined it BETTER. LOL
I'm so biased that I even like the A song.
"Have you gone so far that you can never come back?"
yup. probably I have.

@rainbow_smile you're welcome darling! let me know if you need help with your question!
@surreal_17 RAINBOW mood!! I have to be in a really good mood for those... still I love it for when it rains, too♥ currently I'm a bit down so listening to PQ while wondering da hell is going wrong with my life along with ayu really helps LOL.

LOL it's ok, don't worry about it.
My avatar is like that because people always spoke about the smile of doom so I decided to give her lips :P

As for ASfXX, I think you really have to like JTrash. Most people hate the album but I really think it's full of crappy jams XD

^ I'll exchange half of my itunes library for HANA. seriously.
MITSUKERU MADE TUM TUM HITO WA YASASHII MONO WO SHINJI NAGARA TUM TUM.
no one can't possibly not like that. the tum tum part. People, seriously.
I guess I'm too into Jtrash.
Plus I love when she makes me go deaf in the chorus of YOU.
"KIMI GA INAKYAAA"
I'm not even ironic.

ps. THE SMILE OF DOOM. XD In someway your edit of it it's even creepier. In a good way. It's like that "I want to kill you" aura got all condensed into the eyes only. She's planning something.

edit: Now I'm listening to Asfxx. I hope you're happy. Look what you've done.

My four CD's came in <3 The lyric booklet for Love songs is so gorgeous! As well as FIVE. So glad I have these songs in my library finally eek! Hopefully LOVE again ships soon so I can actually listen to it finally lol I STILL haven't heard it...nor any of the songs off of it lol

LOVE again is best listened to a little bit at a time. I love every song on it, but listening to the album all at once makes them all sorta blend together and it's actually kind of exhausting o_O The melodies on LOVE again as a whole are just spectacularly good. But it took me 3-4 times through the album, plus the songs coming up when my Ayu playlist was on Random, to realize it.

Haha thanks for the warning. I'll do a straight run through to get a feel; then listen over the weeks to let it sink in. Had to do the same with Party Queen.

Oh ayumi! Where is you announcement for an album?! What is going on?!

Ayu just arrived in france and I'm so pissed off that I couldn't go meeting her and instead am stuck in Italy studying for my exams. ARRRRHHJ. Ayuuu I want to see you so bad ;____;

:P
I really do like ASfXX
It's the underrated gem in her discography

I just read the translation to Ivy from LOVE again and I am again amazed at her lyrics.

I just thought it would be really cool if she release her 15th album on April 8th to finish the celebration of her 15th anniversary

Ever since my CDs came in, I've been listening to Ayu non-stop. I have forgotten how flawless BALLAD, count down, Don't look back, NEXT LEVEL, rollin', Love song, MOON, sending mail, Thank U, etc. are like ughhhhhh!

It would be really cool! :D

You have forgotten how flawless ayu is in general.

I think a lot of people are just tired of her regardless of what she releases (amazing by opinions of masses or not).

I think that Feel the love is one of the best up beat songs she ever released, The chorus is in my head since the Team ayu preview release (and is my ringtone too).

Most liked Merry-go-round, I do like it (and Verbal in it <3) but I seem to enjoy Feel the love a lot more.

This. Most of the things that she released somehow always get complaints at first, but then they started to grow on people. I've been playing FTL non-stop recently, and the chorus is just so fun to listen too.

I've been loving Feel the love ever since the TA snippet leaked, and I'm not even tired of it yet, it's like this song is a drug

I can confirm this. I used to dislike, "You were..." and "Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~", but actually taking the time to LISTEN to them, I've come to appreciate them. So whenever I receive LOVE again in the future, I'm gonna sit down and listen. Because I've noticed ever since with NEXT LEVEL I just breeze through her albums and end up not liking them. But after a couple years, they all finally just sank in.

Guilty! Merry-go-round > Feel the love, in my preference. But Merry-go-round was one of my favorite songs of last year.

I always say it: everything you say about a song or an album in the first year after the release is rubbish. Once 365 days passed, you can actually have an opinion about it, lol.
But I tend to have the opposite problem with Ayu: I love everything TOO MUCH! And then I have to wait until the excitment is gone to truly discover how I feel about her last songs, lol.

Pray is really beautiful. :)

^ I need lyrics now.

You're right. I mean, you can like a song for 1 week or one month and then you kinda forget about it. But with ayu, I tend to appreciate more her songs after a period of time has passed since the release. She has those kind of songs that take time to be digested well..and that is a very good thing in many ways :)

IS THIS THE PLACE WHERE I CAN FANGIRL OVER PRAY?

Pray is very dramatic indeed.

Pray is beautiful.

Pray is indeed beautiful. This instrumental <3

Guys, I can't even handle the epic-ness that is Pray.

Not only is it beautiful, and well-produced, with a deep and moving arrangement, but it just fits in so PERFECTLY with the rest of her discography. I hear Ayu in the song. Does that make sense? There are some parts that remind me of "meaning of Love" (which might be the greatest mystery of my life, because I consider that song to be a blight on her discography, but I can hear echoes of it in Pray's chorus)....and I swear the piano at the end leading into the last stanza was lifted straight from the stripped-down HANABI a-nation performances.

This is a song only Ayu can pull off. I love it way too much.

And the opening strings...EPIC.

Edit: scratch that; with the exception of one note, the piano before the last stanza IS HANABI. lmfaoooo

YES!! Just wanted to mention that the chords are exactly the same as in HANABI

I can't believe no one else has mentioned it yet, lololol. If anything, it just makes Pray even more epic. I honestly think it's going to be one of the timeless gems in her discography. :luv2

I was just slower than you haha And actually, I can hear a tiny bit of You were... in Pray as well, so I'm listening and trying to find maybe there are some similarities with other somgs as well haha

This is like an awesome mashup of her ballads!

If I start humming Pray, when it gets to the chorus, I automatically start humming 'meaning of Love'. I didn't even remember what that song sounded like until I heard Pray. :tired Where do you hear You were...?

A is so amazing I can't even...

Omg HANABI! You're perfectly right...so that's why the song seems familiar in some way..

like... the first couple of notes in the chorus :D though it does remind me of Meaning of Love as well!!

Bridge reminds me of something as well, but I don't remember what ><

Loving Pray right now. This morning was a surprise.. was not expecting the full song!

So true !! from the first listen I immediately recognized HANABI =)

Wow I never noticed it but I def hear meaning of Love and HANABI in here LOL.
In meaning of Love, she holds the "yo" part at the end of the prechorus. Same as in Pray
And the build up's pretty similar too so it's no wonder you sing them together loll.

This reminds me a lot of the No way to say/Part of Me discussion xD;; .

Is it wrong to be tearing up with PRAY? That song already made my 2014!!! ayu!!! Take my money!! throw the tour dates to my face NOW!

I got the HANABI vibe too! Love this song already~

The bit before the first chorus reminds me of MOON for some weird reason xD

^ I don't know but that didn't stop me from doing it. All. Night.

Pray.

Thank you Ayu again for completing my life.

In regards to Pray...
Did anyone else notice, essentially, "If I'm reborn, I'll find you again."

Also said in Part of me and Together when...
Possibly for the same person?
Or is this a common saying in Japan?
I'm unsure.

Yes i noticed it immediately when hearing the song for the first time. It's a motif she uses often, I don't know if it's common in japan, maybe it's just her thing...
It could be directed to the same person, I thought the same. Also because it's the first time that she defines this "promise" as "kattenasugiru", meaning too selfish. She never did that before I believe...so it could mean that she's at a new stage regarding this past relationship...the person she's speaking to, fictional or real, is definetely the subject of together when though.

lyrically, Pray reminds me quite a bit of criminal, although the latter takes "fault" to a negative level and makes the protagonist a, well, "criminal". the former brings about the "greater love" theme, ambiguous and fitting for Buddha

^agreed.
Maybe she hurt the person she was in love with somehow. Being that criminal came out in 2006/2007 maybe it's nagase?
She says there about it being her fault and so on, and that if the other person is fighting alone that's a sign that she cannot be forgiven and can't ask for forgiveness.
In pray she sings about "many things in which she can't still receive comprehension" and that even though she loves him she won't meet him again because she loves him more than anyone. Maybe she knows she'll end up hurting him again?
Sorry if I read too much into this, I love lyrics' speculation XD

btw she doesn't always write lyrics based on her own experiences. during the RAINBOW era she mentioned there were songs (Over) where she wrote based on her friends' experiences.

usually her theme songs touch on a more generic kind of love

oh I didn't know that. Interesting. Maybe sometimes it's also a mix of the two things...

anyway, the lovely "dare yori mo aishiteru kara" got sung BEFORE pray in HERE.
ENJOY ahs.
http://youtu.be/X5O5haDt9Yk?t=24s

and this just because I can:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDWh-TaHk0E

the woman didn't know she was going to become the queen of japa...j-pop-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qeGglwlvK8 <

I don't think all her songs are completely based on her own stories or experiences. I believe I read somewhere once when she said she also wrote lyrics based on poems and movie quotes and such :)

I don't think she could write all the songs based off her, but she could totally do her own feelings on the subject.
Which all her lyrics scream that. It's about the experience and the feelings, not necessary the acts themselves.

A Song for XX is my most fav ayu's album now.

I want this~~~ :weep

http://page4.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp...388#enlargeimg

Omg I want that as well!!

WTF with Pray cover!? It was like Pray is just an bonus song from FTL/MGR so they just use an un-published picture of it. Come on Avex! Show some creativity!

I'm sooo tempted to buy it, but I don't know how to move in the website since it's not in english.
Also, I'm so afraid about shipping and customs fees.. It's always such a pain.. :weep

It's not really an 'official' single, so I get why they used that. It's like how Happening Here got some A logo or something.

I need an Ayu announcement!

It was so cool. The other day i was at work and talking to one of my coworkers who happened to be japanese. We were talking and suddenly I started telling her about my trip to tokyo in the summer and I went to an Ayumi concert.
She started to laugh... LOL... She couldn't believe I knew ayumi.

I knoooow ..... Remember hbya, I mean holy s*it that was pretty! Whyyy Avex whyyyy ~~~ *tears*

yeah..How Beautiful You Are cover is simply gorgeous. One of my favourite Ayu covers.

Yeah but with hbya they had a whole photo shoot's worth of pictures originally for PQ that they didn't end up using, so they had a nice new pic at their disposal for it. hbya is definitely the exception rather than the rule, I don't think that's something we can expect with most digital singles.

Oh yeah, you got the point. Together When... also too, the cover were taken from Guilty booklet. Damn you Avex...

I just dont get it why some people said Pray is generic, funny, its obviously AYU's BALLAD STYLE, every artist had their own style with their song,listen to Atsushi's ballads for example or Namie (Tsuki is different though) you can tell that "oh this is this artist's song"

unless Ayu releases another EDM song,and people will complain "Ayuuuuu pleeaasseee release the old stuffs that you used to,beautiful ballad bla bla bla"

I would love new Feel the love and Sparkle, or just cool new stuff.
Pray is really beautiful.

^ I wish she continues on experimenting with edm or in general "sparkle" "feel the love" "merry go round" -like type of songs. It would be a lovely addition to her discography and I love how she does them live.
for example I LOVED the section when she is up that dj set thing singing blue bird, you&me ecc, and the whole remix thing with DJ 2YAN, in A best live.
And in AT2012 the whole shake it/step you and NaNaNa/sparkle.
I think she pulls these kind of sexy/upbeat song very very well!!!

I like that Ayu has the balls so to say to experiment with different things. I'm always ready for her stuff, it's nice when it's something I've never heard before and then she releases something oldy-style :) Doesn't mean I like/love them all but that's how it is :)

I'm not so into Pray. I liked FTL & MGR more :)

Argh, I need so much an original cover for Pray too!!
And a PV. Just give this little jewel of a song a damn video, Avex.

I am really eager for some news regarding a new album or single

I think she's pregannt..she would have announced a tour otherwise..like every year without fail. OMG guys we're going to have ~A BABY~. But she won't announce it till she has a single or album ready to release with the news.

^
XD wait & see !

Exciting!!

Is it just me but are the vocals that Ayu is lipsyncing to..different from the actual vocals used in the finished video and song?


I guess back then, when Ayu was releasing songs so fast just a month apart..a lot of the songs weren't finished up until the very last possible moment.

I'm a bit surprised that there's no announcements for new album or a tour actually. :O I wonder what she's up to. :D

I don't think she is pregnant. Otherwise the dress she wore in Paris would have not fit her X_X

I kind of think she could be pregnant too. You could actually see a little bump in her dress. But that could be just how the dress fit her XD, so.. Either way an album or a Baby i'm excited!!!

Well hikki is now engaged to a 23 yo italian guy (both younger than her by many years, and not Japanese) so some japanese public should cut ayu some slack, the hikki stans who troll ayu too, or... japanese public will just start to hate on hikki as well =P ayu you are not alone.

Woah, just read a translation of her blog post or something, and she wrote "[...] please watch over me quietly." I think Ayu said almost the same in her blog enry about her engagement recently? Is this an expression commonly used in Japan?

I wouldn't mind some announcement about a single, album or tour. I miss the excitement of anticipating new releases and tour information.

Yes it's a formula XD a fixed expression. Like "yoroshiku onegai shimasu"

Instead of bashing hikki everyone is saying that they're competing even when it comes to wedding, or "I WISH I WAS THE ONE MARRYING HER".
One said that he thought he would marry her because "she's divorced so no one wants her anymore" and that she'd be grateful that he took her.
......meh. EVOLUTION, minnasan. Once divorced you're trash, apparently.

Yes as much I like some aspect of japanese culture I really dislike their way of thinking about some subjects like this one ! It's so old school I respect this but I understand why there are so much single people there and why the natality is so low ...

I feel the same way. This whole idea is disgusting, no matter who says it or what culture comes from. It's the XXI century, time to get some ideas upgraded.

I had a dream that Ayu wrote on TA that she had finished recording the Pray video and that it was directed by Timmy.

And AHS went ballistic. lol

^
I certainly would. But in a very, very, very good way! XD

Guys, I've heard Ayu has an "A" song, but I can't seem to find info about it... Could any of you tell me about it please? I feel like such a bad ventilator :D

A is a song that ayu recorded with the musical act m.c.A.T. before her Avex debut. I think somewhere between 1997-1998.

here's the link with the song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu6CkjTjHJk

Never heard of this before !! thank you =)

Thank you so much! I read in the comments that it was released after poker face though and I finally found it on jpopsuki, it's included in an avex 10th anniversary album. So I guess she did record it under avex?

^Thanks for bringing that song up. I totally forgot about it and realised I hadn't heard it before. Catchy!