[Yoshiaki]

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

I absolutely want to hug you right now. I feel mostly the same. I enjoy the album on a shallow level (I actually like voices that do what hers is doing for most of this album - Angel is the only place on the album where I feel like she's just plain doing it wrong), but as a long-time Ayu fan. I don't like it as an Ayu album at all for those exact reasons.

The connection between us and her just seems to be totally severed.

Coelacanth mentioned above that there's a lack of canon in the japanese pop music world, and that's so true. There can't be one because there's never critical analysis of any of it. I feel like Ayu has always been very deliberate and careful about her presentation, but over the years she's collected a team of "yes" men who just do whatever she says, but she has no one correcting her, making her aware of things she's doing wrong, or helping guide her so she uses her greatest talents most effectively and hands off the things she's bad at to other people.

This album, for example, has proven that Ayu and her team are NOT filmmakers and should never be in charge of making the videos ever ever ever again. Ever. But she'll do it again because NO ONE around her is telling her not to.

It's a bad habit she got into over a decade ago - doing things she's not talented enough to do, while suppressing the things she's best at. Because she has no one guiding her. There are no J-pop critics whose reviews she can read and say "Okay, I won't do that anymore." There aren't people telling her objectively that an outfit she's wearing doesn't look good on her. Her three sources of input are fans who are fervently for or against absolutely everything, hikikomori internet bashers, and the "okay boss whatever you say" types that work for her. That's not an environment where high quality creative output can thrive.

And yeah, what's really upsetting is that over the years, we've SEEN the greatness she's capable of. Every now & then she'll have a great piece of work that restores my faith in her at least partially, but they prove to be teases - in the end, she goes back to phoning it in, making something safe and boring and disconnected just for the sake of making something. And no one is truly helping guide her towards doing truly great work. She has worshippers and haters, but no true lovers of her work that are helping her be the best she can be. And it's really upsetting.

But I've been watching this downward spiral of the Hamasaki Ayumi product for years, and I knew it'd get to this point eventually. The alterna video ended up coming true, and it's killing me to watch it happen.

I kinda disagreed with you the point that no one is feedback to ayu of what she shouldn't do, or what she should have done... IMO, i think those recent albums are mainly 90% idea came from ayu, but not because she doesnt have anyone to guide her... Rather, I think she is producing what she wants, instead of what the company wants (that would probably suits most of the people around)...

I might be very wrong, but yrs ago, I think that ayu has revealed too much of herself to us (she used to be like someone who doesnt really care about anything, a super cool person)... and that results the loss of the mysterious-ness in her... (I rmb someone in this forum mentioned bout this as well...). And I think, it also gotta do with the fact that she does not want to be treated as a product. Irony, this didn't turn out to be quite right... Coincidentally, her voice also become deeper as each yr goes on...

Now, I think she is living the way she wants, and she's enjoying it (i think at her stage of life, probably she needs someone who loves her, and that's more than enough?) But still, I think that she is putting her very best in giving the best quality music to us... Just that, it's in her way of doing so, rather than following to the company's way... Furthermore, I think despite her low popularity, she should still have a much say in the company...