All right! Let's do some math shall we?
A Song For xx:
Hana
FRIEND II
Wishing
As if...
POWDER SNOW
SIGNAL
from your letter
Present
Total NEW album tracks: 8
LOVEppears:
Fly high (re-cut single later)
And Then
PS II
LOVE ~refrain~ (which was like a remix of LOVE~Destiny~)
Who...
kanariya (re-cut later)
Total NEW album tracks: 6, 5 if you exclude LOVE ~refrain~
Duty:
Duty
End of the World
SCAR
AUDIENCE (re-cut single later)
teddy bear
Key ~eternal tie ver.~
girlish
Total NEW album tracks: 7
I am...:
I am...
Connected
Naturally
still alone
Daybreak (re-cut single later)
no more words
Endless sorrow ~gone with the wind ver.~ (remix of Endless sorrow)
flower garden
Total NEW album tracks: 8, 7 if you exclude Endless sorrow ~gone with the wind ver.~
RAINBOW:
WE WISH
Real me
Heartplace
Over
everywhere nowhere
Dolls
Close to you
+
Total NEW album tracks: 8
Memorial address:
ANGEL'S SONG
Because of you
Memorial address
Total NEW album tracks: 3 (but this is a mini-album so whatever)
MY STORY:
About You
my name's WOMEN
Liar
HOPE or PAIN
HAPPY ENDING
walking proud
HONEY
Replace
winding road
Humming 7/4
Total NEW album tracks: 10
(miss)understood:
Ladies Night
(miss)understood
In The Corner
criminal
Beautiful Day
rainy day
Total NEW album tracks: 6
Secret:
until that Day...
1 LOVE
It was
JEWEL
momentum
kiss o' kill
Secret
Total NEW album tracks: 7
GUILTY:
(don't) Leave me alone
GUILTY
Marionette
MY ALL
untitled ~for her~
Total NEW album tracks: 5 (Together When... excluded cos it WAS released before the album)
So, we can see that her album tracks have usually been ranging from 6-8... NEXT LEVEL has 6 new album tracks, so I hope that whoever who's feeling ripped out or pissed of the 4 interludes to please calm down and at least wait for some preview to decide if you want to cancel your pre-order!
On the topic of her 'classics', when she performed Mirrorcle World and SURREAL at some TV live last year, you can see that the audience, including the hosts were all singing along to SURREAL. I know SURREAL is a classic, and I can't deny that A LOT of her older songs are true classics.
I respect her work ever since 1998, and songs like SEASONS and M are really gems of her career. However, I don't think it's right to keep using these 'classics' as a yardstick to judge her newer work.
For example, SunshineSlayer (I'm not picking on you, just that you made a lot of good points here.
), said she LIKES Days, while still liking the past classics. So of course, it means her newer songs still have an appeal.
To a fan of Ayu who say started in the Secret era, it's obvious that the newer songs would be more appealing to them. I'm an Ayu fan since like Secret, but I discovered NOT through the new songs, but through ourselves actually (well if ourselves is not considered an older song, then never mind)... and before I came to this forum, my iTunes was filled with songs like:
Trauma
YOU
evolution
M
Yeah you get the gist. Old songs. Her older songs are awesome, but it's not fair to think that her newer songs "lack in quality" or whatever just because they are being compared to the Classics. IMO, evolution can NEVER EVER be replaced, because it sounds so damn unique and yeah SPECIAL! So I don't bother hearing to new songs and trying to compare them to her older works and thinking she has gotten worse or something.
I think for NEXT LEVEL, all these new things (EnergizE sound like a mesh of HONEY & ANGEL'S SONG; cool by the way, Curtain call being a 'gospel ballad', Sparkle's "shallow/thoughtless" lyrics)... are really new things she's trying. She has already mentioned that she's taking lyrics, music style and all that to a NEXT LEVEL in the official site, so I suppose when listening to the previews, we should be "prepared" for like something new/fresh/different? Hahaha.
Ayu is the one singer (besides Madonna IMO) who constantly re-invents herself. She doesn't it every album ala Madonna, but at least she changes things up. I would be yawning if NEXT LEVEL contains songs that are similar to M and SEASONS and what have you. The fact that she's changing and all that... I think it's quite cool.
Sure, the new songs MAY not be as good as the older works, but I don't know what to expect either. I think if I were Ayu, I wouldn't be able to produce songs half as good as evolution (lol). So yeah... we should still be grateful; the fact that she's already deaf in her left ear... going to LA frequently (suffering from jet lags and all that even)... and still working hard for an album!
Since we can't do anything anymore to change anything, why not just sit back, and take a listen to the previews (when they are leaked)? For one, Days is her best song to me (whether that is a biased opinion is uh... oh well) but I don't go thinking 'Days is the God, evolution suxxxxx!!!111'! It's unfair to her if anyone thinks like that.
What I'm saying, embrace change, especially for Ayu, since she's so apt at it.
And lastly, Ayu is the only artist who I've ever heard who had interludes in her albums, so embrace it.
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Er anyone who has heard the previews, what kind of genre is LOVE n' HATE? Rock?