[Official Message] new album "A ONE" 2015.04.08 in stores

[Isicio]

Originally Posted by pepper

I hope at least we will get tracklist in February... Or in the early March..

probably, in March we got all for sure

[kotora]

Originally Posted by rikku1994

I love how negative ppl (mostly the western fans) are with the unreleased album, just lower your expectations now so most of ya'll won't complain as much when the album gets released lol

95% of them are negative and complaints, and I am one of them

#SoSad

Originally Posted by nalini-dahlia

Maybe A One will turn out to be a giant prank where when we open up the case, there's only one song on the tracklist.

Track List:
1. THE GIFT Melody ~ZUTTO / LAST MINUTE / WALK / THE GIFT ~

[melissalove]

Originally Posted by Chris85

If this song is a duet again, there's a chance they will sound as terrible together as they did in Seasons. They sounded good separately, but their "harmony" was a disaster.

That's exactly what i said to or three pages back. Hey great minds think alike.

@kotora

Or the live recording of jj's and ayu's seasons duet. lmfao i gotta stop, i'm having to much fun with this.

[Surreal17]

Originally Posted by pepper

I just still hope it will be ONE ballad like she did with (miss)understood. This one = for HEAVEN, Last minute = criminal, Zutto = Will, Walk = rainy day.

AND THE REST WILL BE POP AND ROCK.
Perfect harmony.

I like your comparisions Zutto indeed fits with Will (masterpiece) but you forgot Pride. And is Will a ballad? I always thought its some kind of asian sounding midtempo.

[DonkeyKongRemix]

Originally Posted by kotora

95% of them are negative and complaints, and I am one of them

#SoSad



Track List:
1. THE GIFT Melody ~ZUTTO / LAST MINUTE / WALK / THE GIFT ~

Exactly, that's what I was pretty much thinking. XD

[adantatu2]

The Gift will be included on the album, so that's make 11+1 ? was it included since the announcement ?

[truehappiness]

It's included in the 11.

[ExodusUK]

It's included in the 11 because it seems like it was planned for 1uite a while what with jj saying he started memorising the Romaji for seasons 2 months ago

[truehappiness]

So that's 7 songs she did in the last month or so?

[kotora]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

So that's 7 songs she did in the last month or so?

7 songs? That is hardcore. Even Beyonce cannot do that

[hayasaki]

I really don't mind if she recorded 7 or so songs within a month but I just pray "dear gods of thousands heavens" please I hope the songs won't sound rushed!!

[Pieces_of_SEVEN]

Originally Posted by kotora

Even Beyonce cannot do that

"EVEN" Beyonce.

[truehappiness]

Wait, who's Beyonce?

[ExodusUK]

There's an interview from around Duty's release where it seems like Ayu says that much of Duty was recorded in between the 2nd week of August and the first week of September. Even more impressive..she followed up Boys & Girls with 4 classic (then) new songs almost exactly a month later.

I wish Ayu and Avex would release some sort of Ayu encyclopaedia with dates/logs/diary entries from over the last 15 years. Including things like working title song names, provisional tracklists, original draft lyrics, when exactly songs were recorded, PV shoot dates, etc

[Bigtop]

I'm trying to be neutral here, but there could be ONE that might have a serious challenge to ayu...and that would be miwa.

Just recently, miwa and the management has announced they would releasing a new album called "ONENESS" - and the miwa team has decided to throw their hat into the April 8th ring and attempt to spoil Ayu's 17th anniversary.

http://www.barks.jp/news/?id=1000112854

I understand this is an ayu thread and not miwa (see here), but miwa's new album announcement may pose a challenge for Ayu in therms of the #1 album battle. As of now, when I checked CDJapan, miwa's new album isn't listed on CDJapan yet, but I don't see any other artists - especially Johnny's - that might steal that #1 spot (please no Kisumai album!!!). Last time miwa released a new album ("Delight"), she got #1. And that was back in 2013. The last time Ayu got a #1 album was "LOVE again", that was also back in 2013. We understand "Colours" didn't do as well because of the stiff competition (and, yes, Kisumai), but as of now, the only REAL competition that I am seeing is miwa - and she just announced it yesterday.

Yes, I do like BOTH ayu and miwa, but this is interesting when you've got the ONE empress dueling out against the ONE rising 24-year-old superstar trying to duel out for the #1...!

This is going to be an interesting duel to watch. miwa just recently went to LA area, supposedly for her new album, so hopefully she can put out some good songs. Hopefully Ayu can put out good songs (those eight new songs) as well.

My other favorite artist, Yanawaraba, is also releasing a new album on April 8th as well, but they're doing a cover album consisting of folk songs from the 1970s and 1980s, and I don't expect them to compete for #1...

[maikaru]

Originally Posted by Bigtop

I'm trying to be neutral here, but there could be ONE that might have a serious challenge to ayu...and that would be miwa.

Just recently, miwa and the management has announced they would releasing a new album called "ONENESS" - and the miwa team has decided to throw their hat into the April 8th ring and attempt to spoil Ayu's 17th anniversary.

http://www.barks.jp/news/?id=1000112854

I understand this is an ayu thread and not miwa (see here), but miwa's new album announcement may pose a challenge for Ayu in therms of the #1 album battle. As of now, when I checked CDJapan, miwa's new album isn't listed on CDJapan yet, but I don't see any other artists - especially Johnny's - that might steal that #1 spot (please no Kisumai album!!!). Last time miwa released a new album ("Delight"), she got #1. And that was back in 2013. The last time Ayu got a #1 album was "LOVE again", that was also back in 2013. We understand "Colours" didn't do as well because of the stiff competition (and, yes, Kisumai), but as of now, the only REAL competition that I am seeing is miwa - and she just announced it yesterday.

Yes, I do like BOTH ayu and miwa, but this is interesting when you've got the ONE empress dueling out against the ONE rising 24-year-old superstar trying to duel out for the #1...!

This is going to be an interesting duel to watch. miwa just recently went to LA area, supposedly for her new album, so hopefully she can put out some good songs. Hopefully Ayu can put out good songs (those eight new songs) as well.

My other favorite artist, Yanawaraba, is also releasing a new album on April 8th as well, but they're doing a cover album consisting of folk songs from the 1970s and 1980s, and I don't expect them to compete for #1...

Let's call a spade a spade. Colours didn't work out because everyone thought Ayu had finally gone completely insane with her music videos and stuff. Like actually I think a lot of Colours was a parody and she was trying to be intelligent and witty (Lelio and stuff), but it just came off as her being a bimbo who just liked to party... a la Party Queen fiasco.

miwa... she's pretty decent. But it looks seriously too coincidental to be a coincidence. I dunno. ONENESS? The date? Way too similar.

[orbitalaspect]

Originally Posted by Bigtop

I'm trying to be neutral here, but there could be ONE that might have a serious challenge to ayu...and that would be miwa.

Just recently, miwa and the management has announced they would releasing a new album called "ONENESS" - and the miwa team has decided to throw their hat into the April 8th ring and attempt to spoil Ayu's 17th anniversary.

http://www.barks.jp/news/?id=1000112854

I understand this is an ayu thread and not miwa (see here), but miwa's new album announcement may pose a challenge for Ayu in therms of the #1 album battle. As of now, when I checked CDJapan, miwa's new album isn't listed on CDJapan yet, but I don't see any other artists - especially Johnny's - that might steal that #1 spot (please no Kisumai album!!!). Last time miwa released a new album ("Delight"), she got #1. And that was back in 2013. The last time Ayu got a #1 album was "LOVE again", that was also back in 2013. We understand "Colours" didn't do as well because of the stiff competition (and, yes, Kisumai), but as of now, the only REAL competition that I am seeing is miwa - and she just announced it yesterday.

Yes, I do like BOTH ayu and miwa, but this is interesting when you've got the ONE empress dueling out against the ONE rising 24-year-old superstar trying to duel out for the #1...!

This is going to be an interesting duel to watch. miwa just recently went to LA area, supposedly for her new album, so hopefully she can put out some good songs. Hopefully Ayu can put out good songs (those eight new songs) as well.

My other favorite artist, Yanawaraba, is also releasing a new album on April 8th as well, but they're doing a cover album consisting of folk songs from the 1970s and 1980s, and I don't expect them to compete for #1...

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it's unlikely miwa's ONENESS will outsell Ayumi's new album. Miwa's last album was released in 2013, and with the market's lack of interest in soloists, artists that space out their releases will their sales drop quite dramatically. I can think of a million examples, Koda being a very good example, as Bon Voyage didn't even outsell JAPONESQUE's first week, even though she had a few singles preceding it along with a slew of promotion. MIKA NAKASHIMA is another example, as REAL sold extremely poorly compared to STAR. Otsuka Ai's return last year was astonishingly poor, even with single releases. Her album only sold about 10,000 copies, compared to LOVE LETTER's 180,000 about 6 years prior.

miwa has had quite a few singles, but I think she'll experience the BoA effect with ONENESS. I genuinely think the album will sell poorly because so many of the tracks will have appeared on singles over the last two years (6 single releases since Delight). She's really stuck in this crappy spot where she'll be hurt if she leaves off songs from the singles, but she'll hurt if she includes them all because of how many there are.

Anyway, I think it's unlikely. What I'm more concerned about are Koda's sales for WALK OF MY LIFE. Koda usually just barely outsells Ayu each year, so really, whatever Koda sells will be a super strong indicator of how well A ONE will sell.

I think most of us will cry a little if A ONE hits #1, but most of us are just hoping this album reflects Ayu more than her last several albums have. It's been so spotty and bad, I think we're all just hoping for a real Ayumi record again. If Ayumi SOMEHOW pulls this off, I think more of us will cry about that than anything else. Hell, I'm just hoping she can make Zeke's adorable ass happy for the first time in several years.

[truehappiness]

I thought LOVE again was pretty Ayuish... LOVE and again were fantastic but then the execution of the full album was a little funky. So much pink that era. I think LOVE again is going to be the era that people go back to and appreciate a lot more... like 2009 and NEXT LEVEL.

[Uemarasan]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Party Queen and Rock'n'Roll Circus probably have the weakest mixing of any of her albums IMO.

Not surprising then that these are the albums I least listen to. One listen is enough to acquire a complete understanding of the songs' soundscape. No replay value.

[Gustavopc]

RnRC mixing never bothered me until the concert came out and I started listening to most live versions instead of the studio ones Don't look back is still better at studio tho