[waterballoon]

If we want to talk about a-nation '09... BLUE BIRD was horrible choppy in its chorus. Compared to the recording in Secret, the one in a-nation '09 was extremely staccato-ish in her articulations and execution of the notes... that's just not very good imo.

Anyway, about her peaking when her voice kinda sucked... well sorry but from her debut-2000 her nasal-screechy voice was that kind of voice that Japan loved. I don't have it with me now, but I remember an article mentioning about her monochrome in the "A" single, and she was praised for that style of singing in monochrome.

Of course I'm not saying it's bad that her voice changed; when her voice went a little lower and added the vibratos in 2002.. that was wonderful, no? In fact 2003 had some of her best vocal performances, particularly in TV. 2004-2006 was her best years in terms of vocal performance to me, cos she had everything - tone, technique, control and quality.

And I mean, I'm not picking on her or whatever. But hey she's a singer. And behind all the sexy get-ups, cool gimmicks, singers do one thing - sing. It's like... being an artist an using the best canvas and most brilliant colors but sucking at drawing. What's the point again?

Ayu CAN sing honey. In fact I believe 2002-2006 was the period where she really proved she's not that "random girl Max picked up at a bar". But things have gone downhill ever since late-2007... and it's a fact. Nothing to be ashamed of seriously, because even Ayu herself knows and recognized it. I'm glad she's trying to make it better, so that's all that's enough for me.

Things and people change, and I know it'll be hard for Ayu to return to that period where her voice just blew me away. But it's all right... nowadays my standards for Ayu have dropped tremendously anyway, and I would say most of her recent performances in the current Ayu standard is fine.

Can We Go Back to where we used to be? Guess not.