Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Punks
Yeah, but the songs don't all have to sound the same to form a cohesive album (imo). They just have to all work together as a collective. Party Queen, (miss)understood, Secret etc. all feel cohesive within themselves despite having a pretty wide array of styles. This just feels like a hodgepodge of random tracks she selected and decided to throw together lol.
But then, for me, the LEAST cohesive albums are usually the ones where everything sounds really similar and then the cohesion is thrown off by a couple random tracks that don't fit in. Like, LOVE again having Wake me up and a couple other weirdos, or Love songs with all the non-TK songs that were produced TOTALLY differently and sounded super awkward on the album lol.
I think in part this album's problem isn't just a lack of cohesion, it's that it feels like an assortment of songs that don't even FORM an album. It's like Colours really. As much as I love everything on Colours (save for Pray ugh), it doesn't really work as an album. Except at least Colours was for the most part consistent in style. This is just... all over the place xD
I really hope you're kidding lol
It just seems weird to me that you'd think LOVE again is stronger than Love songs
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If you think of Party Queen as a concept record, sure. It follows this progression after the end of a relationship. From the party phase where she feels so happy to be free and single (Party Queen, NaNaNa, Shake It<3) then into confusion and anger (call, Letter, reminds me), then to sadness (reminds me, Return Road, Tell me why), then avoiding the things she normally does to give herself time to heal and learn to move on (the next LOVE, Eyes, Smoke, Magic) and then ends on a reflective song that sounds like Ayu but still somehow different (how beautiful you are). But that's about it. It's starkly incohesive if the concept wasn't there to hold the record together.
Still, when you think about it, it's a brilliant concept to follow Ls with.
I will argue that Ls is a more cohesive record than PQ. The songs share some variety, but it's Ayu's sound. Every song on there is about love in some way. Whether it's songs like Love Song, Sending Mail, Last angel, blossom, Sweet Season, November, and Virgin Road which talk about loving someone specific... or it's MOON, which was written after Ayu's pet passed away... or it's Thank U, about her fans. I think Ls was better compiled, though I wish the interludes didn't sound so cheap.
I hate to argue that sales are a good indicator of good albums, but if you look at Ls to RnRC's sales, it sold about 17% less than RnRC overall. PQ to Ls, PQ sold about 47% less. LOVE again sold 40% less than PQ. and Colours sold about 40% less than LOVE again. So, while I think a huge huge part of this is lack of promotion and a number of other factors, I think PQ and everything since PQ hasn't been well received by fans. And I think you can look at the drop from single to single, album to album, and get a good idea of whether a bad release is causing more lost market. She's going to lose a percentage of sales from one album to the next regardless, but a huge drop of almost 50% just a matter of months after spending two weeks at #1 with a mini-album that sold almost 70% more copies doesn't always mean that no promotion made it bomb.
I think a good example to look at is someone like Kyarypamyupamyu. Nanda Collection debuted at #1 with 100k in sales (~275,000 total), but her follow-up Pikapika Fantajin sold about 1/4th as many copies (~70,000 total). And she promoted it too.
But you can look at single sales for Ayu, for example. Look at Ftl/Mgr, which sold about 37,000 total. Then a full year later Z/Lm/W sells almost 36,000. I think she keeps more of the market if the release is well received by existing fans.
As an aside, I've said it before, and I'll say it again, because it bears repeating: We will honestly have a good idea of how A ONE is received by looking at Koda's sales. Koda has just barely outsold Ayu since GUILTY and Kingdom were released (Dejavu was the only exception), and I think WALK OF MY LIFE is going to be a stronger, better record than Bon Voyage.
As an aside, I like bringing up sales because I like the numbers and statistics part of the discussion. It's just fun to see how these numbers stack up over time and to try to predict them. I think A ONE will be a Top 10 record, but I'm concerned it will actually debut in the bottom half of the Top 10. Also, I think Ayu and Koda will top out at around 35-40,000 each this year. But that's better than my estimates for Ai Otsuka. I think LOVE TRiCKY may barely sell 2,000 copies.