New song:『Pray for you』
 

It sounds really good omg

This is so bittersweet... I'm really happy to know we'll get more music but it's so sad that she didn't get to surprise us the way she wanted to. I'm so thankful to Ayu... :heart

it sounded so familiar, a very ayu melody. this would have been a very emotional moment at CDL :cry

This would have been such a wonderful surprise for her fans tonight.
Really excited to hear the her vocals to it. <3

It sounds familiar but there were a lot of unexpected elements. The song seems really grand towards the end. I can't wait to hear it.

Can't wait to listen the final version :love

How are even listening? I can't make myself turn off CDL 2016-2017 stream :-)

She seems to have used the same sound as in one of her interludes, but I can't remember which one atm. LABIRYNTH maybe?

I've already freaked out about the song on SNS, but it sounds really good! I was so surprised when she posted it

OMG that intro is sublime and that instrumentation!!! Just happy to hear flute. Thanks Ayu for this gift. I can't wait to hear the lyrics.

It would have been a very touching and positive way for ayu to reach out to her fans physically, but it was just not meant to be. We will Pray for you ayu!

multiple devices! ;)

You still have to chose one thing to listen to, otherwise it's chaos :-P

sounds good!

it`s amazing!!!

the instrumental sounds very promising.

Yes!

Oh, it is definitely chaos, my dear

Will this song be released on iTunes?

I love this instrumental, sounds so like her...it's emotional, even if we didn't get a CDL.

I can't wait for it to be available in full on streaming platforms.

Thank you, Ayu, as always...

I hope we get to hear it soon!

btw... what happened to her song Pray?
This song reminds me her underrated song Pray.

Well, it landed on Colours after serving as the theme song for Buddha 2. She sang it during TA15 but it got replaced by Days during the recording. She might have performed it during TA16 (I can't remember but I don't think she did?) and that's it. She hasn't done anything with Pray since then.
It's a great song and I really like it a lot! :heart

Pray is the most streamed song from Colours on Spotify with 536,811k streams (followed by Feel the Love with 259,161k streams, huge difference) so even if she didn't performed (on camera I mean lol) I think people still know how good it is! :yes

Yuta Nakano again? :(

I don't know how this could possibly be related...

...

Er... Happy new year, everybody.

Some people are just never happy...

I hope they will announce the release date for the single. Can't hardly wait!!

That was a strange comparison. Timmy created some of my favorite Ayu songs like "BRILLAINTE" and "YOU're the only one" so I actually hope he returns in the future.

It sounds absolutely beautiful! I'm such a sucker for any of her ballads with flutes in them. I can't wait to hear her vocals.

just from the music in the clip, I really can't imagine how she will be singing and that gives me some degree of excitement for this song :)

Can't wait to hear her vocal too. The arrangements sound familiar too me... But it's really beautiful. We'll see in few weeks... It smell a new release for sure, maybe an other best, or full album.

That's why I am curious why she doesn't perform more this song. It is a beautiful song and it is most streamed song from Colors on Spotify. It has lots of proofs that her fans like to see this live performance.

Hopefully not another TROUBLE album. Please have an album with more than 10 non-instrument songs. ... lol

A familiar song but also very delicate at the beginning and grand at the end. Would have loved to see this pan out as per Ayu's plans....hope we can hear it soon.

It would be nice if after the 2 week quarantine period she does a line live performance or something of this song.

Ooh she just announced A BALLADS 2 on LINE!!

I JUST SAW ON TWITTER TOO

HOLY SHIT

I’m so excited I’ve been praying for this for years! (Pun intended)

I really hope they also include a remastered version of Rainbow!

I already preordered the bluray goods version lol.
I do hope they take the time to release new versions for at least a couple songs, just to make it worth it and actually be a continuation of the first one haha

Someone who has the time to edit a major OP post can start the thread but here's the teaser pic: https://i.imgur.com/0hHt3ve.png

from official website:

two CDs, two DVDs/BluRays

I'd be excited for something like this too, but my gut feeling is that she'd only include the songs from after A BALLADS.

ugh I'm excited for the DVDs. I hope it's not some bullshit compilation of her ballad performances from already released concerts :(

Assumimg this song is on A BALLADS 2, does that mean we'll have to wait until March to hear it? I was thinking they might release it as a new single beforehand but that probably wouldn't make sense if the song is supposed to make the compilation more interesting to consumers.

I'm happy we're still getting new music but if this is for A BALLADS 2, then it probably won't be on the new album (whenever there will be one).

^We might get it as a digital release before A BALLADS 2

First off all, I hope people do not take this the wrong way I'm not hating on Timmy nor on Ayu's songs. (this is not a complain)

The people around you shape you/influence your thoughts and decisions, especially when it comes to music.

Also I have heard that Timmy has vocal coached her and I don't know if he was active vocal directing her in the studio but her vocals have been changing too.

He seemed to have influenced her in many ways and I think it's good as a musician to switch things up, even if she has to think more herself now.

Everybody has a different, taste, I thought the songs were not bad... but not my favorite...

This sounds like a Ghibli movie ending ahah I love it

It's a really pretty instrumental so far... I wonder if we'll ever get an album with her last 2 singles and this one on there.

Maybe I'm just being optimistic but with how things are going right now, I'd say yes. It might take some time but I feel like there is going to be an album.

I'm certain Ohia and DaD will be included, not sure about Pray for you, though. It could end up as a compilation exclusive track (like RAINBOW or part of me) but then there was also You & Me which was initially on ASB and then made its way onto LOVE again. However, that could have been a result of the song's popularity.

how popular was You & Me?

It's a very Ayu instrumental. I'm honestly tired of ballads, i want another Last Minute or Memorial Address, or anything of that sort lol But that's obviously what sells over there.

Poor Ayu... So stupid and devoided of a personality she actually becomes another person because of her back vocalist.

It was certified gold* and did/does very well on YouTube when compared to her other PVs. As of now, the short version has 5,9M views (since 2012) while the full PV has 1,3M views (since 2nd October, 2019).

*

Not defending their opinion, but close friends often borrow each other's traits even without realizing that. There definitely could be some influence.

Given how this thread is about the new song, Pray for you, I don't feel that Timmy influencing her life is that relevant. She always had creativity ups and downs and it's normal for an artist to not deliver the same content throughout 20+ years of career. I feel that for this song she kept her iconic strong ballad sound while experimenting with instruments, and also gave it that epic feeling which makes me think it will do well in a live with an orchestra.

Timmy has contributed to one of the most iconic Ayu songs and his legacy will remain, but I think Ayu does what she feels she wants to do in the end regardless of who provides their opinion to her.

I hope everyone can enjoy this beautiful present from her when the vocal version is released :)

At first, it sounded like a LOVE again reject to me. Then, listening to the instrumental again, I feel like there's something magical about this track. It's not ground-breaking at all, but I think it'll have a nice energy to it once it's out. I'm excited now! :heart

this is absolutely what I felt too, but only judging from the instrumental—and I can't be sure if it's the entirety of the song, either (although the length seems to suggest so). I hope the vocal gives it more magic.

Yeah new song! The use of horns is a very welcomed change, wow! The rest doesn't seem that fresh. Looking forward to it!

I think the Pray for you instrumental sounds beautiful. Sounds like it would make a great anime theme song. I guess it's not something totally new and unique but I think it's well done and I love the feeling of the song. I think Ayu's vocals will fit very nicely as long as she doesn't overdo it.:yes

I am waiting for full version of song.

It sounds like something from Secret. I was expecting more rockish ballads, but anything new is nice at this point.

It sounds like almost every other ballad she's released for the last 7 years now. The horns and flute are at least a nice change up for once, but this will most likely be another skip for me.

I really like the instrumental, and the way the song keeps on growing. Sounds like something from A ONE (i.e. very very ayu-ish) but also a bit OST-like, reminded me of alan's Kuon no Kawa/RED CLIFF. Can't wait to hear the whole thing, I hope it'll be a promotional digital single for A BALLADS 2!

I'm really excited for the song and I hope we get to hear it or a snippet with vocals soon! :heart

"Pray for you" reminded me both BUDDHA's themes, including her own "Pray" and X JAPAN's "Scarlet Love Song".

I love Pray so much

Reminds me of 'A Bell'

Sweet! I'm looking forward to its release

Do you guys think it might be possible that this song is going to be just an instrumental with no lyrics/vocal? The more I listen to the melody and arrangement the harder it is for me to imagine her actually singing it out.

I did wonder how some parts were going to work out, because like you said it doesn't feel like there's always room for her to sing!
But I refuse to believe she'd be sadistic enough to tease an instrumental only track! I was wondering if maybe it meant it just won't have the usual verse-chorus-verse-chorus-chorus structure, and go for something a bit different like Heaven or reminds me, ...

I highly doubt that this is going to stay an instrumental only. I don't see how that would make sense.

She has a song like "Walk", which is built in a similar way. While listening to "Pray for you" instrumental, I can easily point a lot of places her vocals could be in.

One of my favorite things from Ayu is how she manages to harmonize her voice with an instrumental in an unique and blending way (an example of this is forgiveness).

I feel this song will have vocals, because she wants to send a message and she can do this only through her lyrics - unless she composes the entire instrumental as well.

I guess what’s a little unusual to me in the track is how the melody seems to be fully played out by instruments - not just one, but multiple in sequence (piano, then flute, then horns etc). In her usual instrumentals for songs, the melody is seldom played by instruments. But maybe this is just due to the fact that the song isn’t officially released. Like RAINBOW

I think this song version we have is the live-track and not a studio version of course. Arrangement should be rather different in the final one and the end as it is now reminds me of Voyage a lot!

Can you please make a list of those, as I am just curious?

I personally don’t feel like Last minute, Zutto, Out of Control, Walk, Shape of Love, WORDS, Mad World, You are the only one, Pray, Sweet Scar sound anything like this?

^Tea!

https://i.imgur.com/EK8XJ7L.gif

^Let's normalise using Ayu gifs and this one in particular!

As much as I think the statement is too extreme, I think I understand where Akutenshi is coming from because I had the exact same reaction - bored to death thinking 'welp, that's an Ayu ballad all right' and when the horns came in I actually started paying attention.

Obviously it's all a matter of taste and I am in NO WAY qualified as a musician, but to me Pray for you does sound like Pray, Anything for you, Zutto, WORDS or Walk to quote a few. And apart from Walk, none of those actually appeal to me unfortunately.

While being of... varying quality let's say, I feel like the other ones in njanjyarp's list have something 'special' that made me remember them - the dry guitar in Shape of love, the 'etheral' instruments in You are the only one + break at the end, the relative simplicity of Sweet Scar, the change of tone in Last minute, ...

So yeah, while I disagree that Pray for you sounds like all her ballads in the last 7 years because she's had some KILLER ballads, I can't see it becoming one of my favourite based on the instrumental version. But then again, I would have said the same listening to the instrumental version of Walk and yet I was obsessed when it came out.

I guess I'm just secretly hoping for November part II

Again, we only have Yuta NakaSameOl’ to thank for this :/

Would really love for her to work with other arrangers for once...

Ayu definitely has a lot stand out ballads and she also has a lot of ballads with a familiar ayu vibe. I think it's unfair to say her ballads sound the same, it's more of a healthy mix between something new and the usual.

^Definitely, and I love that she does this! I know Party Queen or Colours didn’t really impress anyone here but I still listen to loads of tracks on those two just because of how special they feel in her discography!

He does tend to sound same-y... It’s a fine line isn’t it, between a signature sound and always sounding the same!

I like the instrumental, although nothing could beat RAINBOW, ever!

The issue I have in particular is with the 7-year and “almost every other”, as while you could say there is something that defines a generic ayu ballad i.e. Close to you, meaning of Love, Days, Anything for you, Winter diary, The Way I am and Ohia no Ki for example those are definitely in minority and even the majority of those while not shining brightest arrangement/composition-wise have at least had meaningful and well/written lyrics. Not every ballad will sound as grand as BRILLANTE. I have a feeling we tend to plaster the “generic” sticker to everything plain-sounding.

You did mention WORDS and while musically it’s kind of a simpler song I think the way it progresses and the lyrics just separate it from the batch.

RAINBOW really is one of her undisputed best songs, for me. it would be near-impossible to come up with this kind of perfection in this album (a CREA+D•A•I collaboration? that really builds to a satisfying climax?? in THIS economy???) but I do hope we get a great new song!

What I think about her "generic" ballads is that they are generic based on her own standards. She has a lot of songs with similar sounding / arrangement (and it's Ayu's fault, cause she is stuck with Yuta Nakano, an excellent composer and arranger, but it's up to her asking or picking up melodies and arrangements who sounds similar), but they all sound very "oh, that's an Ayu song". Even if some of them aren't remarkable, she has a solid music identity and for me it's super positive.

Yeah I definitely agree with most of the points made above - first off the generic argument is really nitpicking at this point : the girl been singing for two decades and has covered so many styles that grouping a handful of similar sounding sounds is quite preposterous!

And to be honest I love that about her discography, first because it brings people with different tastes, I'm glad to know people enjoy songs I don't find particularly special, but also just on a personal level I'm glad she has a song for pretty much every mood I'm in! I might not be the biggest fan of her classic sounding ballads but I'd be lying if I said I have never played beloved or the way I am on repeat! And I loved loved loved BRILLANTE when it came out but sometimes it starts playing and I just can't be bothered with it. It's just nice to have such variety, it's something I haven't really found in any other artist I'm interested in.

I think she is my favorite artist specially because of that. If we are talking about music crafting (melodies, arrangement, harmonies) we have some artists in J-Pop who are technically above her (like Utada or Shiina Ringo), but her production in general is way above the average and she is experimenting a lot during all these almost 23 years. Yeah, during the last years she has an specific taste for ballads, but she has given us some unique sounding like We are the QUEENS (a mix with epic orchestra, rock and dance track), W and FLOWER (two rock songs, but with a complete different route for each one), Mad World (also rock-influenced, but a very "current" and elegant rock ballad) and Dreamed a Dream (a 90s electronica and pop blaster).

Also, I always remember a thing Andrenekoi has been saying from a long time: when she wants to make her listeners paying attention to the lyrics (actually, she is a lyric-driven artist per se, but still), she downsize the music production to a basic level to avoid any distraction. The most "meaningful" ballads (in a personal level) of TROUBLE are like that and so is Ohia no Ki (I almost cried the first time I read the translation, so I wonder what would be the lyrics impact in a japanese native speaker who could relate to the motherhood situation).

So, this is 'Ayu' -- which is expected -- but it's like getting more of the same thing when you're fivehead deep in a pool filled with that thing already, and you've spent so long in that pool wading around -- fivehead deep -- believing that initial feel-good experience will come back once more while increasingly pendulous with frustration and apathy over it, you being it, and you wanting to want to be in it but not getting any closer to that ideal.

My initial impressions were that the song sounds like Seiko Matsuda's Baby's breath records sound to fans who were there for albums like 9th Wave. It sounds new and dated at the same time, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if you've heard Seiko's Bara no You ni..., it's impossible to look back on the last 15 years of new Seiko releases and feel remotely as welcoming of them anymore.

I think it's obvious Ayu doesn't want to be pushing out new records/sounds/etc. She may have a big resurgence at some point with one song like Seiko did, or like Nakamori did some years back, but that's going to come out of nowhere and it won't be her working with anyone she's ever worked with. It'll be someone who's figured out some production that rises to the level of BRILLANTE, et. al., but in some way we've never heard Ayu do before.

I'm mostly disappointed with Ayu not writing about this to her fans. I know it's not typical, but Ayu's entire career has emphasized shared loneliness between her and her fans -- that's the point of songs like "curtain call," which was Ayu acknowledging that even as we move on, she has never stopped listening just in case we needed her to let us know so.

I'd really appreciate a letter about this. Even if it reads, "I'm really bored with all of this, and I just want to do tours until I'm completely done." Because again, her commitment in 2007-2008 was that "as a professional" she would never just let things go. If that's changed for one reason or another, from one human being to another, I'd just like to know that I shouldn't wait or come back and check every now and then.

A part of me sees A BALLADS II and thinks, maaaaybe she'll pick it up again?... maybe??. And I can't help that as a fan going back to 2005-2006. But if she's ready to go forward like Amuro was in 2018, I'd just like to see a full finale, a thank you, best wishes, and a final curtain call on the legendary 'A' symbol. I feel like 20+ years deserves a formal farewell. And then she can do her Fukushima residency and spend her days off in rubber boots fishing at the nearest wharf. She can do her own Ayu tees, like, "Ayu-ready A-hole?!!" and "I sold 70 million records and all I got left is a bunch of leftover boxes of these t-shirts."

Anyway, it's OK. But I'd rather not hear stuff like this personally, as it feels like she's "playing" Ayu in a song now. And the whole Ayu brand runs far deeper for most of us than this is willing to acknowledge with effort.

That sounds rude, but it does sound really like the last saltine of a box of saltines for me, personally. If everyone likes it, that's great. I just know that if I were Ayu, I'd have spent the last 9 months revisiting what all of this meant 15-20 years ago -- for all of us, including Ayu -- and I'd be up day and night, exhausted and worked to the bone, to get something like that again given how easily we forgot that it could all so quickly be swept away with no possibility of ever even having the means to do it if we ever wanted to do it again.

Ayumi is a mother now and and we all know there's the coronavirus. So stop talking like that! All of you!

I can understand from where you're coming from, but you said something interesting: "if I were Ayu".

The thing is, while we would all do stuff if we were in someone's shoes (I could sing better, I could work better, I could draw better, etc. etc.), we can't actually know what's going on through a person's mind to even say that. No, you cannot know what you would do if you were Ayu, you can only imagine and that would still be one of 48728573845 possibilities.

I understand, people are tired, we are all tired, but this pandemic affects people in different ways! She may be hurting, and we cannot know for sure how and how much and she doesn't have to tell us. She has so many things going on in her life, so there's no way she would deliver at the same pace. BUT from this, to thinking that she is on a retiring path and that's that, is sad to think...

People can be inconsistent, people can get tired...this doesn't mean that she will stop. In this era, she felt the need to give us a soothing present in the form of a very "Ayu" ballad and a compilation of ballads to heal our souls and this can be more powerful than anything new she would release because it channels the spirit of familiarity, it channels that feeling that you are home.

I hope this can be heard in her new ballad, and I hope people can see that even if she referred to her artist persona as a product, this doesn't give us the right to treat her that way or to expect that she should be in a certain way for us to feel connected to her.

The truth is, things have changed, she's a mother now, has many other priorities - but please don't dismiss her only because of that! She can still work and deliver powerful music, just that this is at her own pace, and I respect that.

Looking forward to this new song and I am certain her feelings will be delivered in full, because it's her song and her lyrics - those things that redefined an era and a genre.

This..

Also I'm pretty sure commenting on how you would live someone's life is a pretty intrusive and rude thing to do, especially when you try to make it a point to say you'd live it better than they are living it. Very disrespectful.

And also it's super easy to say this when you have limited information, but the fact is at some point we all get tired of whatever we are doing. I've been in the IT industry for 10 years and boy am I tired. Priorities and people change. People get sick and tired of things.

12 months ago I would've thought "wow, a pandemic and work slowing down, what a great time to knuckle down on Japanese!"

Yeah, 12 months later and life got the best of me yet again lol My field never really slowed down and I haven't touched Kanji in that whole time! I'd love to imagine what I could achieve in a given period of time, but even I can sort my crap out lol

I wholeheartedly agree with you. I'm fine with her having changed maybe and simply having other priorities now. But I would like to know. Before every release, where she is teasing us with how good it supposedly is, I'm so disappointed afterwards because there is no real effort, it never compares with the Ayu I fell in love with almost 20 years ago. I also just wish she would let us know and be like "see guys, atm I'm not feeling like doing what I did for so many years, I'm having more fun releasing whatever from time to time and want to mostly perform". Then I wouldn't expect what I did expect from her years ago and would just be happy that she found a place where she is happy. But her being like "this is the best release evaaaa" everytime kind of feels as if she wants her fans to stay around, wants to keep them hooked, even though she knows they expect something different from her and this feels kind of "unfair", given that a lot of us walked that way with her for two decades.

Actions speak louder than words. She hasn’t released a full album in almost five years - does she really need to spell out that she’s not into releasing music in the same way as she used to? I don’t think so. I doubt she’d ever say her heart’s not in it the same way, but the clues seem pretty obvious.

Honestly I can relate to the above. As a person, I understand that she has changed and has different priorities. It feels like she is living with a ghost of her past consistently both trying to please her old fans, and not really creating anything to connect with people on a new level. For me the honesty is missing. With every new release or even concert it feels like the passion and effort are there. What is lacking is the vulnerability that made me connect with her. There is deep respect and appreciation for everything that she has achieved, and for whatever she chooses to do, but there is absolutely no doubt that creatively she is wading in very stale waters.
But hey, we all keep coming back in hopes, so that's gotta say something.

Why would she say something like she's not as into things as she once was though? First of all, it may not be true, that's just what some people are assuming. Second of all, if it were true that would be bad for her brand and would ruffle the feathers of anyone else working with her at Avex. I'm not saying money is everything to her but it's important and it seems that she wants to keep working with Avex as even though she is releasing at a slower pace, she's still releasing things. Thirdly, I don't get why some fans feel like she has to be honest with them about how she feels about her career. She doesn't owe us any explanation of what she's feeling right now just because we have followed her for a long time and she has been honest with us about things in the past. We are not her friends, we are not her family, we are fans that have had the privilege of discovering a talented singer/songwriter. We may think we are close to her and have some sort of bond, but in reality we aren't. I'm not saying we're not important to her, but we are not close with her on the level that we can expect to know her true feelings about her career.

Also, if you have expectations of her releasing the same quality of music as she did 10+ years ago when year after year you have been more disappointed than not, that's on you and not her.

She doesn’t owe anyone anything and she can do anything she feels like. She hasn’t stopped releasing, has she? The only year we didn’t have a new song was 2019, and still we had concerts. The only thing changing has been the pace in which things are being released. Lack of creativity? Completely agree. But a bankrupt company doesn’t help either lol
I understand the frustration of some fans not getting the honesty She always “promised” to have with TA, you know... the whole 2015 “come back” thing, she crying on TV over the fact she went away to LA but she regrets it because she felt she abandoned her fans, etc. Sorrows, I’m looking at you. But she’s at a different point in her life now, her priorities may have changed. But she hasn’t stopped, never. I mean, we even had a CDL right after she gave birth. I’m sure we’ll have a new album, probably we won’t have to wait much. (I don’t like comparisons, but Britney’s or Rihanna’s latest albums were released in 2016 iirc, so it’s not like Ayu is the only one taking “4eva” to release one)

To keep myself on topic, I’m excited for the new song! So am I for A ballads 2. It feels so nice seeing the forum so active again. Hope they finally release PoM18 on the luxury version so I can happily spend my $$$$ saving avex.

Just because you don't like a release, doesn't mean it's objectively bad or that ayu didn't put any effort into it

The comments on Ayu's perceived lack of effort remind me of The way I am's lyrics........


Even so, as long as you say
you want to believe the future is bright
I will stay here, continuing to make dreams come true
And when you no longer need me, please,
don’t pity me

Throw me away without hesitation

^That's really accurate! And such an underrated song :yes

Not people here thinking they DESERVE an explanation and to know exactly what's going on in HER mind, HER life, and HER career :rolleyes There's not enough eye roll emojis in the world to express how asinine some of y'all are sounding right now.