Ayumi ~ The Anything Goes Thread 7 ~

[marty]

Yeah, I enjoyed immensely Party Queen, it had a much more personal approach from Ayu, and the most interesting lyrics in a while. Her take on happiness in Letter is amazing.
I think I'm divided on it musically, because one side of me wishes they did a better job with it. I mean, even a person like me that doesn't really understand anything about stuff like mixing or arrangement, can tell by comparing with other songs that the work done here isn't that great. But the other side of me enjoys this "raw" and "cheap" feeling of these unrefined songs which can blend so well with the concept they tried to convey. Even the booklet shoots are perfect imo: she looks so glamorous, even when it's evident she's selfdestructing. The alcohol, the messy background, they all look "pretty", this is such a strong and good image for describing the diva world.

[tsumekaze_]

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

HOWEVER. If you look at the lyrics - I mean REALLY look at them - she's talking about alcoholism, post-traumatic stress, loneliness, the meaninglessness of the more outwardly fun aspects of her life. It's a great examination of the shallow versus the deep, and the fact that even though Ayu has come to terms with her past self, there is still a sharp division between the product Hamasaki Ayumi and the person Ayu, and she's not sure "Hamasaki Ayumi" isn't winning - the shallow Hamasaki Ayumi persona is getting bigger, and she's not sure where the product ends and the real person "ayu" begins. You can hear this in songs like "Letter" and "Tell me why" where it sounds like she's singing to herself.

This is illuminating It's what I've always perceived but couldn't quite process into actual, meaningful thoughts. To me, after having listened to the whole album (and I mean ALL SONGS) in order, one should play party queen again. That first track which looks so shiny and happy at the beginning is perceveid in a TOTALLY different way after having gone with ayu through the exploration of what she feels. Only like this it's possible to understand how truly sad that song is. I felt the chills down my spine. I can see now why she's a lonely queen. I can see it better after return road, letter, call, reminds me.

Originally Posted by hayasaki

Thei little girl crying in Power of Music's Thank U. Awwww <3

I KNOW RIGHT. <3 too cute

Originally Posted by rainbow_smile

Btw, where's the song that she was supposed to record with fans as part of the consecutive 5 releases bonus?

...I was wondering this as well the other day. IT GOT AAAAXED probably lol

Originally Posted by marty

Yeah, I enjoyed immensely Party Queen, it had a much more personal approach from Ayu, and the most interesting lyrics in a while. Her take on happiness in Letter is amazing.
But the other side of me enjoys this "raw" and "cheap" feeling of these unrefined songs which can blend so well with the concept they tried to convey. Even the booklet shoots are perfect imo: she looks so glamorous, even when it's evident she's selfdestructing. The alcohol, the messy background, they all look "pretty", this is such a strong and good image for describing the diva world.

I perfectly agree. The rawness of letter for example conveys imo feelings which suit better the song than any other refined orchestra sound. Though I doubt this was a desired effect, it turned out very well for me.

[Delirium-Zer0]

Originally Posted by tsumekaze_

This is illuminating It's what I've always perceived but couldn't quite process into actual, meaningful thoughts. To me, after having listened to the whole album (and I mean ALL SONGS) in order, one should play party queen again. That first track which looks so shiny and happy at the beginning is perceveid in a TOTALLY different way after having gone with ayu through the exploration of what she feels. Only like this it's possible to understand how truly sad that song is. I felt the chills down my spine. I can see now why she's a lonely queen. I can see it better after return road, letter, call, reminds me.

The lyric on "Party queen" that made me 100% aware of her point was:

まるで魔法みたい　目の前がバラ色
このままここでゴールドの泡に見惚れたい

It's like magic... everything in front of my eyes is rosy
But as it is, I wanna be mesmerized by these gold bubbles here.

maru de mahou mitai me no mae ga BARA iro
kono mama koko de GOLD no awa ni mitoretai

The whole song is a great counterpoint to the note she made next to POWDER SNOW in the A Song for XX booklet.

"Negativity = bad thing?
The one who affirms is me.
The one who negates is also me."

"ネガティヴ＝悪いこと？　
肯定するのは私。
否定するのも私。"

The whole point of that song was facing the negative, and not ignoring it, because the negative is part of reality and must be acknowledged, which is a good thing. This attitude is what made her interesting to the Japanese music-buying public all those years ago.

She addressed the fact that she was starting to ignore the negative parts of reality in later songs like "Naturally," but with "Party queen" she's starting to realize how destructive it's become to get drunk & forget her troubles - because now she's so focused on the alcohol, she's even blocking out the "fun enjoyable things" that she demands enter her sight in the chorus of the song. Later she even says she knows she'll regret the partying in the morning, but she blocks the thought out.

The shiny, sparkly, laughing tone that you actually hear becomes VERY haunting when you know the truth behind it. It's absolutely brilliant.

Then you hear the rest of the album, and in particular I'm thinking of "reminds me" - a song all about not blocking out past trauma and tragedy, no matter how much you want to & no matter how much it pains you to think about it. It's positive to acknowledge the negative because that's reality and it's part of what makes you who you are. And in "reminds me" we're seeing ayu face that truth directly.

Originally Posted by tsumekaze_

I perfectly agree. The rawness of letter for example conveys imo feelings which suit better the song than any other refined orchestra sound. Though I doubt this was a desired effect, it turned out very well for me.

I think "Letter" is actually one of the songs that did it right, actually. Some of the songs on the album did "raw" very well by actually committing to sounding unrefined & rough. Others sounded like they were TRYING to sound both polished and raw at the same time, and the result was something sort of homogenous and muddled, you know? It made it seem amateurish in places.

[rainbow_smile]

Originally Posted by tsumekaze_

...I was wondering this as well the other day. IT GOT AAAAXED probably lol

What if the fan(s) who won this didn't show up? :O