[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by js_surrealism

I am probably in the minority here but this live album was a huge let down for me. I mean, there are really only 2 reasons to buy a live album - 1) new songs being performed, and/or 2) high performance quality (production, vocal performance, etc).

The set list was uninspired. I am sure watching the show live would have been great for any ayu fan. But to have an entire album of old music was disappointing. The only new track Tell all also added absolutely nothing to her arsenal; I might as well just listen to the vastly superior studio version. New arrangements were minimal. I really wish she had done the live album idea for the Power of Music tour instead.

And what takes the cake is just how awful and cheap sounding the production is! I am really surprised no one has made a bigger deal out of this but honestly, listen to this and then go listen to Tokyo Jihen's live album (Tokyo Collection) and you will know what I mean. The music here sounds muddled, her voice is forced. She had one chance to really make it work in the opening (A Song for xx) and she squandered it. The whole thing just sounds like a fan-recorded effort.

I have been a huge fan of the stuff she's put out in the last 5 years (Party Queen I loved, Love again was decent, You & Me I thought was fantastic), but this is just a let down on so many levels. I will no doubt still look forward to the DVD and hope the visual spectacle gives me something to be impressed by, but I'd just much rather wish she didn't allow something so obviously sub-standard to be released in the first place.

The whole point of the 15th Anni. tour was to celebrate some of her biggest hits and not create something new and different. Don't expect a visual spectacle as the only new thing is the pool, so it's mostly the stuff we've seen.