It's reading posts like this that reminds me that I became obsessed with Ayu in a different way from people here.
For me, I started taking an interest in her when
glitter/fated came out when I was 15 (I'll be 20 next month) and I had no real interest in looking into her back discography. I tried, but only a couple of songs stood out (
Bold & Delicious, fairyland, voyage &
Moments). Even though I followed her releases I wasn't obsessed. It took until her
Love songs era for me to really start to love her. Even though I had a lot of her music (thanks to my Dad's friend, Mark, loaning me his CDs) for months my Ayu playlist only consisted of
glitter,
fated,
Mirrorcle World and the
MOON/blossom,
crossroad and
L singles. This was the Ayu I was falling for; her older music meant nothing to me for a long time. I gave
NL and
RnRC a listen every now and then, but I wasn't really into them. Then
Party Queen was announced - and I decided to give all of the music of hers I had a listen as I debated whether or not the £30 for the CD+DVD ver was going to be worth it when I'm so selective about her songs. But as I was listening to it again I really started to love it and her music was all I could listen to in the months leading up to the release despite the fact my favourite band of four years (KAT-TUN) had just released their new album. On top of that,
Party Queen just sucked me in and for me it's her most relatable album - so it's her newer styles that have drawn me to her music, rather than the more "classic Ayu" sound that many people here got into her with. I can appreciate all eras of her music now -- including
NOTHING FROM NOTHING -- and even though I originally started listening to her music in her
GUILTY era, it's the current Ayu who speaks loudest to me.
