[Zeke.]

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

Am I the only one who thinks Ayu's collaborations have been almost 100% failures?

So far, with all Ayu's collaborations, it's been very apparent who she's collaborating with when you hear it, because there's not much Ayu in there at all aside from her voice & lyrics. You get the feeling like she doesn't want to be rude & suggest anything, or like she trusts them to just get it right, and the result is rather meh. Her DAISHI DANCE tracks just sound like DAISHI DANCE tracks with Ayu's vocals on them, not Ayu tracks where she said "this song could benefit from the DAISHI DANCE sound, that's the producer I should get for this... Hey my man DD, can you do a song that's kinda like haru haru but a bit rougher around the edges for this? Aw yeah, this sounds awesome! Hmmm, but it needs depth... maybe give the piano some reverb or something?"

It's like she forgets she's a boss who's hiring these people. Like, it's okay to have some input. But I feel like beyond the lyrics, she no longer does. Which kills me, because if she were a good boss, it's entirely possible she could stretch the limits of her collaborators' talents and help them discover more talents rather than letting them do what they always do. But since they're not part of HER team - HER band, HER dancers, HER usual songwriters, HER usual arrangers - it's like she doesn't feel comfortable with doing that.

Put simply, I don't think her collaborations bring out the best in her material, nor the best in the collaborators' abilities. I think she settles on the final product, trusting that "well, they probably know best, they're the professionals" without realizing that she's a professional too, and as an artist she has every right to be picky.

What about Connected? But yeah, I understand your point and agree. It's why I don't like Colours sans Lelio. But I know if Ayu had input many would say it would end up sounding not different enough for them.