Ayu's music: when did it start to go downhill for you?

[Faiza]

^ I have to agree with Rock n Roll Circus being the start of the decline though there are a couple of tracks that I enjoy, it was the first time in my ayu fandom where I wasn't completely blown away by everything, the music, the artwork, the pvs, the whole aesthetic!

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by Faiza

^ I have to agree with Rock n Roll Circus being the start of the decline though there are a couple of tracks that I enjoy, it was the first time in my ayu fandom where I wasn't completely blown away by everything, the music, the artwork, the pvs, the whole aesthetic!

I have to disagree here because I thought that both Guilty and Next Level were major downturns in quality. I felt like Rock n' Roll Circus and Love Songs were both far superior albums and got my hopes up for Ayu's music again; both of those albums were released in one year so she definitely had some creative juices going. Then after that Party Queen and Love Again were really disappointing and bland (although Party Queen has grown on me a bit.)

So for me, the downturn was actually Guilty.

Originally Posted by nalini-dahlia

M(A)DE IN JAPAN made me very happy. I feel like it deters away from the recent sound she's been using a lot.

I agree. I really enjoyed Made in Japan. I also feel like a big part of the problem for the albums from Party Queen on was the mixing was flat as hell. Her albums used to feel like they jumped off the speakers. I believe she did finally get rid of the mixer that she used on Love Again, etc before Made in Japan and it made a huge difference in the quality of sound.

[DonkeyKongRemix]

Guilty and Next Level are in my top five albums, so I definitely think we see this very differently.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by nalini-dahlia

Guilty and Next Level are in my top five albums, so I definitely think we see this very differently.

I've found over the years that they are the albums I listen to the least (other than Love again of course because that album is just....awful, haha). Whereas I still can play Love Songs from start to finish without skipping and can do that for at least half of Rock n' Roll Circus. I also think that the Rock n' Roll Circus tour was probably her best or at least right up there so that helps as well.

[Chibi-Chan]

I have to say that since Secret her albums as a whole weren't as great as before. Secret, Guilty, NEXT LEVEL and RnR Circus all had good songs here and there, but for me they lack a lot of creativity and none of them has an Ayu feel to it. They could have easily been released by everyone else. Not a single one of those albums can take me into a whole new universe like when I'm listening to LOVEppears or RAINBOW, for example.
And then Love songs was such a great album that I had hoped she would have had back whatever it was that was missing the last four albums before. But even though all releases afterwards also have great songs I really love here and there, none of them would be an album I like to listen to from start to finish, minus MIJ, that one was as brilliant as the albums I treasure so much.
I don't know, but now that I think about it LOVEppears, Duty, I am..., RAINBOW, MY STORY, (miss)understood, Love songs as well as MADE IN JAPAN, all of them are albums which have a vision from start to end, or at least for me. What I mean is, when I look at the cover for LOVEppears, I already get swept up into this cold, industrialised world and you can already feel how Ayu is saying through her pose and the look in her eyes that she may be lonely but won't give up without a fight. The cover definitely tells you what this album will be, music and lyric wise.
For me this vision or alternate world an album can take you in is missing in her releases since Secret minus Love songs and MADE IN JAPAN for me.
It's not that all albums since Secret would be bad or something, there are still songs I really enjoy and most of those albums are still good pop albums. But for me the magic that an Ayu album would have had back then is largely missing.

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

For me it was Guilty.

Something around this time started feeling very different about her music to me.

It was my least favorite album until Party Queen. But to be fair I loved NL. So in terms of going down hill, for me it's just like, Guilty is when I started being a more critical listener?

[jean-baptiste]

This is an interesting question for me as I discovered ayu sometime in 2007, just around the release of talkin' 2 myself. So the era some people say was the start of ayu's decline was just the start of everything for me. However, I was able to consume all of ayu's music and acquaint myself with her history in such a short amount of time.

So even though GUILTY was the first album release I was around for, I can still say that when NEXT LEVEL was released just a bit over a year later, I instantly felt the decline in music quality. A few stellar tracks on there (GREEN and NEXT LEVEL), but majority of the songs I didn't care for. I didn't see it as a decline in her career as a whole though because I felt Rock'n'Roll Circus was a small step up even though I didn't care for half the tracks on the album once again. Then Love songs blew me away and is one of my fav ayu albums. However, after that, I totally lost interest in her for a number of reasons. And I didn't go back to following her until a few months after LOVE again was released.

I can answer this question by looking at her career as a whole and stating where I think a massive shift in her artistry came about (and I'd say it was with Memorial address and then MY STORY following, two of her weakest releases for me). I can also answer it by noting the point things changed from the time I became a fan and onward (and I'd have to say it was with NEXT LEVEL). But I feel it's unfair to say that was a decline since she's had some really good albums and amazing songs since then.

So I think I'll answer this by pinpointing the lowest point in ayu's music for me, and I'd have to say it was M(A)DE IN JAPAN. I think it's her worst album from songs to the cover. In contrast to not only the rest of her discography but even just the previous release (sixxxxxx which has great songs and a great cover), it honestly was a pathetic excuse for an album for someone of ayu's caliber, just in my opinion of course.

[Andrenekoi]

I still love the fact people don't really agree on what is her career low point. It would be really depressing and symptomatic of her short comings if it was easy to point out what is her best or worst work.

[KarenPang]

I like M(A)DE IN JAPAN but unfortunately the covers & PVs didn't do justice to the songs

The covers should have been something Oriental inspired given the album title instead of yet another typical photoshoot that could have been something found in magazines

I like FLOWER & Mad World but the PVs didn't elevate the songs

If you're talking about creativity decline , I say probably from Love songs onwards as each accompanied release photos were mainly beauty shots after shots unlike Ayu's past releases where she nailed it from every aspect

[ayumi_croatia]

It's so interesting how we all see things differently. Many posters said Ayu's magic was lost with GUILTY. For me, it's the exact opposite. That album speaks to me.

So interesting to see how polarizing her discography can be

[EndOfTheWorld]

I think there are some commonalities between peoples' feelings here. The usual answers are My Story, Guilty, or Party Queen. An interesting thing I observed is that about every 4 years (give or take) Ayu's career takes a change. Memorial Address and My Story were a pretty significant shift for Ayu. The Rainbow album to me was like the rainbow after the storm. "No rain, can't get the rainbow". That album was pretty much a goodbye to the Ayu of 1998-2002. The A Ballads cover supports this along with the PV for RAINBOW. Present Ayu providing love and comfort to her past self. I believe that Memorial Address continued this theme of coming to terms with yourself and releasing the pain from the past. The theme of moving on. It gave a little bit of a preview for My Story which was the completion of the change. This album was quite different from everything that came before it. I think Ayu showed a lot of maturity on this album in every way. It also had a new western pop/rock sound. Many people considered the My Story era to be the "downhill" starting point for a while.
But then it gets tricky around 2008. My personal bias gets in the way around this time because I love Guilty a lot. Not sure why people feel so disappointed by it. Ayu's vocals were great on that album and it gave us songs like Mirrorcle World, talkin 2 myself, fated, Together When, decision, Marrionette. Perhaps it was the PVs? Guilty's videos are not quite as imaginative as many of Ayu's previous ones. On Secret there was the momentum video and of course Jewel and 1 Love with the return of the mocking clowns. But Guilty had more realistic PV concepts except for Marionette. Or maybe it was the big shift to a hard rock sound that turned people off. 2008-2010 is harder to figure out because to me personally I don't see any major issues. But for the 10th anniversary and on, I think Ayu changed the format of her career. Scaling things back a bit and following a formula of a few rock songs, a few pop songs, a ballad, and a seasonal song.
Before 2008 I was only a very casual Ayu fan basically only knowing Dearest but when I became old enough and Ayu's music was more available online I was able to follow her around Guilty/Next Level. So the only big change I was truly around for was Party Queen and I hated that.
Party Queen was quite shocking to many fans which caused people to dislike this album. I'm sure I don't have to explain Party Queen to anyone. But now that the shock has worn off from the change people appreciate it more because they got used to the sudden change.
2004, 2008, and 2012 seem to be the most popular times that Ayu fans claim things changed for the worst. All 4 years apart from each other. So basically it all depends on if you personally like the direction that Ayu has chosen to go in when she releases something. If you don't like the change it will be Ayu's downturn. ..Until a few years later when you revisit that time and realize it wasn't as bad as it all seemed.

[Trinu]

I've been listening to some of her albums today and it does feel like MY STORY was the last "event" album she had.

It's just one song longer than (miss)understood, but somehow feels a lot bigger? She touched so many styles and themes in those songs.

(miss)understood was half-Ayu / half-Sweetbox and it shows.
But it has her, imo, best songs: is this LOVE? and HEAVEN.

Secret went from mini-album to full album two weeks before the release.
And the quality between tracks like 1LOVE (expected in the mini) and kiss'o'kill (made for the album) is huge.

From then on... every album has felt like a mere excuse to go on tour, but each has given us some masterpiece.

GUILTY has all the rock songs.
NEXT LEVEL has Sparkle.
RnRC has Sexy Little Things.
Love Songs has the trilogy singles.
etc.

But nothing feels "complete" anymore.
If you add to that the fact that her videos now are ridiculous love stories taken from a cheap dorama, well.

[channy]

I consider the releases from 1998 to 2008 of Ayu's musical career as the most important, iconic and original ones. GUILTY is like the death and reBiRTH of Ayu as a singer to me. As much as I appreciate the album almost entirely, it happened to become the biggest and most noticeable turning point in terms of everything she's done before.

GUILTY had a highly unforeseen, rough and un-ayuish sound signature and certainly proved Avex to be open and risky enough to go paths that I personally would describe as mostly not suitable for "regular" pop consumers. An absolute novelty, alienating at first but, to me, very convincing in terms of quality and longevity, eventually.

However, that very unique ayu-feel lived and ended with GUILTY; these days I sometimes wonder if it might have been also me getting older at that time. Well, Ayu never got back to the pre-GUILTY brilliance but as other users mentioned before, every album that would follow up had at least a couple of new evergreens

Lowest point to this day? A ONE! It's the only album I can hardly listen to in full and at most did so maybe twice. Terrible, screechy, distorted loudness all over the place. "Anything for You" and "Walk" are always on my MP3-Player, though. Two gems buried beneath a layer of musical cruelity.

Oh, and to this day I have not been able to get over the changes in her voice. Only the pre-GUILTY ayu-"voices" (yea, they've always differed from each other with every new album coming out back then) make me feel completely comfortable and happy with her music

[truehappiness]

It's been like almost 20 years for me and it has never really gone downhill imo.

[Aokani]

For me it's just A ONE.

Originally Posted by channy

Lowest point to this day? A ONE! It's the only album I can hardly listen to in full and at most did so maybe twice. Terrible, screechy, distorted loudness all over the place.

And I don't like her voice in most of the songs.

[truehappiness]

I thought for most people that was Party Queen due to the strange inconsistent mixing and such.

[monochrome99]

I find most of her recent stuff (2012 till now) boring and sometimes corny. I haven't enjoyed an album since Five/Love songs and I haven't enjoyed a song since Sweet scar.

It seems like most of us are aware that she stuck with a formula in 2006 and it was pretty obvious with the releases afterwards, summer singles/winter ballads/rock album tracks, and while they weren't bad at all, but it just became repetitive.

I don't necessarily have one album where it all went wrong but it's been pretty much up and down since Secret.

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

It's been like almost 20 years for me and it has never really gone downhill imo.

It’s the same with me. There are albums I enjoy less like NEXT LEVEL and Colours obviously, but then Party Queen and A ONE feature some of her best works. I learned to appriciate each of the eras on their own.

[Next_Level29]

Originally Posted by njanjayrp

It’s the same with me. There are albums I enjoy less like NEXT LEVEL and Colours obviously, but then Party Queen and A ONE feature some of her best works. I learned to appriciate each of the eras on their own.

well said