NEXT LEVEL album tracks now available on dwango.jp! (interludes revealed)

[Uemarasan]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

At least to me though, it simply seems with this album that she is mostly just following the current trend of electro-pop music because she DOES think it will sell, not because its necessarily what she feels like she has to make because she wants to. No one here can say either way though unless they are Ayu themselves though.

If Ayu wanted to follow current trends in Japanese music and sell well, she would put out pop R&B (Thelma Aoyama and Exile) or urban pop (Namie Amuro) or gimmicky pop (Hexagon) or even boyband pop (maybe she could get her backup dancers to be an Ayu boyband? Ayurashi?). You seem to be forgetting that electro-pop is past its expiry date in Japan, having peaked during the euro-pop of the late 90s/early 00s

The only techno-pop artist of note in J-pop is Perfume, but I would hardly call this a trend.

It just seems like Ayu wants to go back to her euro-pop roots. After all, it's the euro-pop trend that helped launch her as a top artist back when LOVEppears came out.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by Uemarasan

If Ayu wanted to follow current trends in Japanese music and sell well, she would put out pop R&B (Thelma Aoyama and Exile) or urban pop (Namie Amuro) or gimmicky pop (Hexagon) or even boyband pop (maybe she could get her backup dancers to be an Ayu boyband? Ayurashi?). You seem to be forgetting that electro-pop is past its expiry date in Japan, having peaked during the euro-pop of the late 90s/early 00s

No its not.(past its expiration date) Eurodance and this type of pop are very different. And btw, the peak period for the Euro dance/pop sound in Japan was the early to mid 90s. Aoyama Thelma is turning out to be a one hit wonder (unfortunately). Koda and Namie are both doing the electro pop thing these days and Perfume obviously is huge. A lot of artists are starting to incorporate the Perfumy kind of sound. And an even larger amount of western artists have recently or are currently doing the same type of style. It's certainly not something new or anywhere near revolutionary at all.

And am I the only one that doesn't quite see any similarity between this album and loveappears other than that they both encorporate techno elements? For me, Loveappears is a totally different sound than this.

[Zeke.]

^ It is a totally different sound. But they do both have techno so it's basically like Ayu going back to her roots and giving it a new spin. LOVEppears in today's world.

Ayu loves rock, we all know that, but she loves her techno too. Take a look at her remix albums and consider how she was discovered at Velfarre, primarily a trance club. Ayu is the techno artist of the millenium. It's good that she's doing it again.

[Tom Punks]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

And am I the only one that doesn't quite see any similarity between this album and loveappears other than that they both encorporate techno elements? For me, Loveappears is a totally different sound than this.

It's not just you, I don't get the LOVEppears comparisons either. Then again, I haven't listened to all of the previews, but nothing about this album has ever reminded me of LOVEppears in the least bit. @_@

[tourniquet]

LOVEppears features an antique electro sound compared to NEXT LEVEL. the album sounds top nodge production-wise even for today's standards. the previews may lie to me, but that's the impression I got.

[Aga-chan]

Originally Posted by all.night.raver

Ayu loves rock, we all know that, but she loves her techno too. Take a look at her remix albums and consider how she was discovered at Velfarre, primarily a trance club. Ayu is the techno artist of the millenium. It's good that she's doing it again.

It's not like she wanted to release the remix albums, though. And she said that she hadn't had much interest in music during her pre-debut days. It seems she mostly went to clubs, because she didn't has to talk.

[Uemarasan]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

No its not.(past its expiration date) Eurodance and this type of pop are very different. And btw, the peak period for the Euro dance/pop sound in Japan was the early to mid 90s. Aoyama Thelma is turning out to be a one hit wonder (unfortunately). Koda and Namie are both doing the electro pop thing these days and Perfume obviously is huge. A lot of artists are starting to incorporate the Perfumy kind of sound. And an even larger amount of western artists have recently or are currently doing the same type of style. It's certainly not something new or anywhere near revolutionary at all.

And am I the only one that doesn't quite see any similarity between this album and loveappears other than that they both encorporate techno elements? For me, Loveappears is a totally different sound than this.

Scratch what I said. Eurodance/euro-pop/eurobeat peaked in Japan in the mid to late 90s, and maybe a bit of 2000-2001. I forgot about Super Monkeys. But the early 90s were definitely NOT euro-pop. Maybe shibuya-kei. Euro-pop hit its stride when the Para Para game came out, Avex capitalized on the upcoming trend, and club-going entered the mainstream.

Koda's still pushing the R&B/urban sound mostly, although I doubt Ayu would look to her for inspiration for this album since the girl is on her way down down down. I think Namie still manages to retain her urban sound. Her music's increasingly becoming more dance pop, but there is a world of difference between her urban dance pop and the techno-pop of Sparkle. Too bad about Thelma (she is still part of the R&B trend), but Miliyah Kato's hanging in there for R&B.

The only major Japanese artist close to Ayu's techno sound is, as I said, Perfume, but having just one artist do that kind of music does not constitute a trend.

Music listening is a subjective art after all. Anyway, we don't even know how Next Level will sound like (since the other tracks haven't even been released yet in any form), but speculating on what we have so far, I find many similarities. For instance: Whatever and Sparkle. They don't sound alike exactly, but structurally they are very close and share a lot of musical elements. Next Level (the track) has the upbeat, driving sound of Trauma, Too Late, and Immature, Rule has the heavy bass of PSII and monochrome, Green has the Asian sound of End Roll, and Days is in the same league as Love refrain and Who. The one distinct element in LOVEppears (the relentless, restless techno-like pacing) is apparent in all the Next Level tracks available so far, even Days. But again, it's all subjective.

Madonna isn't doing dance pop anymore (Confessions was so long ago). With Hard Candy, she's doing retro urban. Still, Ayu isn't selling to the Western market, so why take up that trend? It's not even selling or doing that well in Japan, Western-artist wise.

So let me just reiterate my stance: techno-pop is no longer a trend in Japan. Urban dance pop is. The euro-pop of the 90s/00s evolved into the techno-pop trend of the early 00s, the biggest selling representative album being Ayu's LOVEppears. Then R&B/J-urban picked up and evolved into urban dance pop, which is the biggest trend now. And then we have Ayu (with the release of Sparkle) reaching back to her euro-/techno-pop roots and here we have Next Level. Hope I'm clear this time.

[noidea]

Originally Posted by jimex289

The fact that she's an old days fans means she has an overall appreciation and true understanding of Ayu's old works that you are lacking; therefore, I don't think you'll ever truly understand why those songs are considered classics. You just get a totally different listening experience. Simple as that.

So...if you did not experience the release of the songs, you can't see their true value? It's more of the opposite: If you dont experience the release, you will judge the song just because of the song, if you experience the release, you will always include the hype in your rating and the fact that you just listened to the songs hundrets of times and every songs thats not horrible grows on you while listening to it often.
Your post sounds like: old songs must be good, because they are old! People that are fans for a long time know that! New songs will never be good! Because they are new! People who are new cant understand songs which are old are good! But they are!


I don't like M, evolution and AUDIENCE much...I dont like the songs off A Song for XX and LOVEppears(with small exceptions), so...do I only dislike them because I'm a new fan? Duty is one of my favourite songs of hers...same with her RAINBOW ballads and I think her best songs came mostly from Memorial address, MY STORY and GUILTY, but I dont think that way because Im new to ayu, I think that way because many of her old songs just were pure ****, the only good thing about them being their lyrics which still are amazing(except Sparkle), you just have a surreal view of the past and on her past work, new fans can appretiate her songs just the same old fans can, they just miss the "everything was better in the past!!!!!!!!!!"-attitude

[Uemarasan]

^Simply put: people have different musical tastes

I'm a relatively old fan (I began with Vogue), but I think My Story has yet to be surpassed. I think Guilty is almost as weak an album as A Song for XX (her weakest), and that Memorial Address lacks album cohesion for me to consider it as anything but a side project.

It is quite a challenge to learn to appreciate A Song for XX. The only song I can listen to from that album in its original form is A Song for XX. Everything else is just so... "idol debut from the 90s!"

[maikaru]

Originally Posted by Uemarasan

^Simply put: people have different musical tastes

I'm a relatively old fan (I began with Vogue), but I think My Story has yet to be surpassed. I think Guilty is almost as weak an album as A Song for XX (her weakest), and that Memorial Address lacks album cohesion for me to consider it as anything but a side project.

It is quite a challenge to learn to appreciate A Song for XX. The only song I can listen to from that album in its original form is A Song for XX. Everything else is just so... "idol debut from the 90s!"

I started recently to really like A Song for XX album.. ahahaha.

I dont get why people are talking about how Techno-pop is not the trend?

Does it matter?

At the time of Loveppears, that kind of sound wasn't the trend.

Her sounds have never matched the trends.
(Maybe A Song for XX album...)

Thats why people like her albums.
As much as I like the songs now, I feel a different feeling from the Ayu songs now.
I like her old songs much more, especially for her voice.
I like her old voice, like high pitch voice, much better..
I also like her lyrics from the old better.. they are more vulnerable, and more sad.. I like that one better. ahaha

Of course, everyone thinks differently.
The people who are old fans are old fans because they enjoyed the old Ayu.
If some of them dont like the new Ayu, you cannot blame them, because they liked the old Ayu, and fell in love with that one, and didn't expect the changes in her.

Of course, the new ones will think that the new songs are great because they fell in love with the new songs, and if they dont like the old songs, then its acceptable to, because they didnt fall in love with the old songs, but the new songs. The new powerful Ayu appeals to them more, not the sad and solitary one. I understand.

But for me, I really enjoy all of her songs, but I like the old ones the best.
I dont really like too much rock, and I dont really like too much pop. Guilty was great, but I didnt like all the dark themes..

I think Next Level is just right. A mix of old and new, and a new style, and a trends..

I am glad she doesnt do urban thing..

[Zeke.]

If she did the urban thing I think I'd puke and die of embarrassment. Lol.

[bluegie]

I just love how this album creates a so called battlefield between the old and new fans.

To me, it's not only her music, but her image(s) and such attracted the fans in the early days. It's quite obvious that her images for the last few years weren't that creative at all. Like... she has used the "glamorous" and "cute" theme since (m)u (and that was 2005). She practically did those similar summer songs since fairyland (except last year).

She did mention that she didn't wanna be the front trendy because she's getting older (not old btw) and she wanna focus on something else. But I'm glad that she finally making something conceptual again. NEXT LEVEL covers do wow me to a certain extend. I really hope the new songs give me a wow as well.

@ all.night.raver's: I won't puke lol... I dun think it'll be that urban even if she's doing one. I think those songs will just have a tiny bit of urban hint inside... Yeah... I can't imagine ayu singing FUNKY TOWN or Sexy Girl..

[(miss)understood]

Well I dont mean to be a total bummer, but everyone I've told in person that this album has four 1:30~2:00 interludes on it, thinks that is lame.

I'm not cancelling my preorder, but I think it sucks, big time. I'd rather have at least three of those songs be crappy full length songs than interludes, what a waste.

[bluegie]

^Ehh... did I miss something?? When did they reveal that those interludes are 1:30 - 2 mins each?? Anywayz, I think you focus too much on the number of interludes. Just forget this and focus on the WHOLE thing instead .

[(miss)understood]

lol is that advice.

no im making it up based on the length of past interludes.

[njanjayrp]

ahh I like both the old and the new songs and I honestly would never want to change a single song that she has made so far. Sure I loved her LOVEppears voice, but in a different way, I love her GUILTY voice and even though he voice changed she still hasn't lost the honesty behind it and I doubt that will ever change. Electro-pop is quite popular in Japan now with bands like Perfume and a couple of other artists I think that Ayu is just trying to use some of more up-to-date ideas and refresh her music, even though I am sure (obviously) that she will keep making her rock music that many of us love. As someone said, Ayu is getting older and it would be dumb to see her dress like a 15 year old as that's not who she is and I think that it's really hard for an artist/song writer who grows as a person and changes to keep writing the similar things for years. And for once I agree with Maikaru, NEXT LEVEL seems to be something new with all those good old things that we love about Ayu's music. Let's just wait until we hear the whole album.

[bluegie]

Originally Posted by njanjayrp

As someone said, Ayu is getting older and it would be dumb to see her dress like a 15 year old as that's not who she is and I think that it's really hard for an artist/song writer who grows as a person and changes to keep writing the similar things for years.

That is Seiko.

No one wants to see ayu dress like a teenager. But a 30 yr old (or even 40, 50, 60, etc) person can be very trendy at one's age. I think ayu looks very mature and trendy this time.

Edit: oh and yeap! She has been writing similar things for at least a few years so that's why we're not getting rock or heavy metal this time hehe.

@ (miss)understood: ohh k . To me, if a interlude can survive up to 2 mins, I consider that as a song .

[Coelacanth]

"NEXT LEVEL" doesn't seem like it'll be that "NEXT LEVEL" from what I can hear. I don't mean that negatively, but none of the songs made me sit up and go "wow, this sounds like it's out of her comfort-zone!" (I might still just be numb because of B&D though, lol)

I think maybe Ayu is trying to make her sound a little more relevant and current with the times. A lot of her songs (see tracks 11-14 on GUILTY) can sound pretty dated and a lot of younger people might find this type of sound "uncool" in 2009, you know? Especially since the Japanese seem to finally be catching up with Western music trends.

[Zeke.]

Originally Posted by Coelacanth

"NEXT LEVEL" doesn't seem like it'll be that "NEXT LEVEL" from what I can hear. I don't mean that negatively, but none of the songs made me sit up and go "wow, this sounds like it's out of her comfort-zone!" (I might still just be numb because of B&D though, lol)

I think maybe Ayu is trying to make her sound a little more relevant and current with the times.

Really, nothing is out of Ayu's comfort zone. Nothing worth trying anyway.
Country? No way.
R&B? She could do it, and I think she has some R&B elements in her music, but it doesn't fit her and that genre is hottzy anyway. Lol.
Ayu has done most everything, or anything that is worth trying. She does what she likes. I think this album is a perfect example of the type of music she should be doing. It fits her so well.

And I don't want another B&D/Pride...

[Coelacanth]

Originally Posted by all.night.raver

Country? No way.

I don't know why, but I've always felt Endless sorrow ~gone with the wind ver~ had a country vibe to it. Maybe idk lol.

Anyway, I think as far as instrumentation goes she should leave her comfort zone more often. One thing that has bugged me for a long time is that she's been neglecting the acoustic guitar as a prominent instrument in ballads. The acoustic guitar is a little bit rougher and folk-ier than the piano so I think it'll work better with this "man" voice she has going on now, especially in "Curtain call". She's also never worked with real brass instruments, and I think the only song featuring a wind instrument is "Close to you".