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Originally Posted by truehappiness
I'm pretty sure you've had one of those after almost every release since 2009, haha.
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Lol, well I definitely was severely disappointed in R'n'R Circus, going into the listening experience with a fully conceptualized idea of what I thought the album's songs would be like based off all the visual teasers she had given us leading up to its release. But with PQ, I specifically avoided constructing images of what the songs would be like in my mind to avoid that pitfall. I said to myself "This is unprecedented; an Ayu album filled with never-before-heard material! Out of 14 tracks, I'm sure to
love at least 4 of them." But that most definitely was not the case. I try to set my expectations low, and now I'm thankful if I get even
one track that I love 100%. I just want a track that makes a monumental impact from the first listen; I've grown tired of tracks that I become partial to only with time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by truehappiness
The taint around LOVE again mostly has something to do with the LOVE -and- again releases and then coming together as LOVE again as though it was some sort of strange joke.
I'm thinking that mashing together the minis as LOVE again and not attempting to create a concept in any way other than "here's LOVE and again with some other tracks" left a sour taste for most people.
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At first this may have been the case, and certainly had an influence on how the album was received, but it has no bearing on the album itself in retrospect. It always comes down to the material, IMO. Had the new songs on the cumulative album been (just as) stellar, it would have softened the blow. When I look back on the album now, I completely forget that LOVE and again were marketed as "albums", and my perception of LOVE again is influenced only by the full-length's material. Going off of that, the best material on LOVE again are the tracks that were released prior (from LOVE and again), with the rest of the tracks being perceived as dull by comparison. I don't mind that she put the minis' tracks on another album; I mind the fact that she put them on an album filled with tracks that sound as if they haven't been properly finished. They sound like demo recordings you would send off to an agency for reference purpose only, before investing time and effort into polishing them up for official release.