Party Queen is 3 years old today...

[ExodusUK]

The album that nearly tore the fanbase...APART. I have a fond memory of when the album leaked, which always stays in my mind whenever I hear it now.. and it's walking around Chengdu at night with NaNaNa on repeat. NaNaNa was and still is my favourite song from the album. After that probably...Reminds me, Tell me why and Return Road. Other than that...the album is Panty Queef to me.

[NintendoHTF1242]

It took a while but it did become one of my favorite Ayu albums. I just love how she tore apart the entire hardcore Ayu fanbase though. Get it girl! But anyway, I still listen to reminds me religiously.

And damn, has it already been three years since the world was supposed to end? Lol.

[hayasaki]

Yeah It was around this time three years ago and this album reminds me of those days when I spent my vacation in my mom's home country. Letter and Call were my favorites Party queen is one of my favorite albums minus the title track. i wish ayu didn't released that song lol

[happiholic★]

I still hate this album. Never listen to it

Actually, I do love the cover for this album. I still maintain that the "tabloid" idea was executed poorly, but I love the images. And I do love Tell Me Why. I never listen to it, because its a part of this album. I never listen to Party Queen so I forget Tell Me Why exists.

[oaristos]

I still wake up in the middle of the night sometimes thinking: "why, ayu?"

[Delicious n Bold]

It was a weirdly nostalgic album for me. I loved it when it came out and now I forget about it but I still think about it from time to time.

[stickyrice]

Party Queen was the last Ayu album and last Jpop album I purchased a physical copy of. I didn't even enjoy the album all that much but just felt a need to buy it because it was Ayu. I decided it had to be my last album though because I calculated how much I spent over the years collecting CDS, sometimes the CD and CD+DVD because yaydifferentcovers!!! and good lord o_o Word of advice to younger members (who don't have a lot of income) SAVE. YOUR. MONEY lol

[AYUmyQUEEN]

I loved it when it came out and I still love it!

[Party_King]

Awww <3

After reading the threads title some memories from March 2012 were back in my mind...
damn how does the time changed myself!

My favourites from this Album are still:
NaNaNa, Shake It ♥, call, Return Road and Eyes, Smoke, Magic (yes, really! )

I've got the SPECIAL LIMITED BOX SET 2 months ago - and i looove it

[orangeakira]

I listen to sose me a lot. does that count?

[love in music]

There are some bad songs on there but honestly some real gems. reminds me, Tell Me why, Return Road, and Letter I love.

[Kouyou]

Loved it when it came out, still love it now. It's flawed, for sure. The covers are bad, there was too much Timmy--I get it, but I still love it so much. That may even play a part in why I love it so much. It really got people fired up and I think that's great. I like the flow of the album and the story I believe it tells. I genuinely enjoy nearly all of the tracks and I can't say that about all of Ayu's albums. Each track is significant to me. I'm not going to argue that it's the best Ayu album, but it is one of my favorites.

[Andrenekoi]

The closest the ever got to an artistic statement... That's why so much people hate it.

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

Still hate it. Oh well.
I'm not sure if it's really the album or just the feeling/atmosphere that surrounds it. That whole year was just so weird. So much Leslie influence and it felt so contrived. I don't dislike every song, letter and call are great. But the others I've never warmed up to.

I think I also hate how it got the tour my beloved Love songs was supposed to have. So I might just be bitter, and I'm aware of that lol.

[xLuna&1LOVE]

I am not a big fan of Party Queen, allthough I felt more personally connected with this album than any other from her discography. Even though no song from Party Queen is a favourite, this is the album I turn back to when I feel sad (because of heartbreak). Luckily I have found love, so I have moved on to other albums. Party Queen has something very understandable to it, especially when you can connect to its mood.

[waterballoon]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

The closest the ever got to an artistic statement... That's why so much people hate it.

still hate it. I used to love the party tracks the most last time but I can't stand them now, maybe except Shake It (once in a while)

the middle was the strongest, but Return Road was the epitome of her unprofessional-ism (seriously who put the idea of milking her ex-husband one last time into a video?!)

we also got her worst arena tour from this concept, it led us to the Maro fiasco... just her worst era and what a shame really

[Isicio]

I love Party queen, is a fantastic song I always think that Party Queen album is like a Western album experiment with different styless of songs in the album and is the only album without a physical single release!!

Maybe is my favorite modern album of ayu and I don't know it till now! LOL
I will play it today

[attractive nausea]

As much as i LOVED the album when it came out, today my feelings are different.
It was the era where i was totally obsessed with ayu, well i still love her to death now but i'd listen to her like 500 times a week according to my last.fm account and i was 15 years old, experiencing my first love bla bla bla.
I remember wanting everything to be perfect so i didn't even listen to HBYA and Party Queen when she sang them at CDL, i wanted to keep the total surprise for when the album would come out, even when it leaked i wanted to wait till i got my physicial copy, which was 2 weeks after the release date btw, a lot of wait , i'd come home everyday super excited asking my mom whether the album arrived or not

When i got it, i put it in my old CD player whose sound was horrible, but i didn't care at that time (now i got a brand new stereo system that i'll use when i get A ONE) and it was a wonderful moment, i read what people would say about the songs on AHS you know, but what i was hearing would exceed how i tried to picture the songs, it was new, there was a lot of genres, first the "party songs", then "the fillers" (i like Letter and Call but at that time not so much), then "the angry rockish songs", then the "r'n'b song" then the "jazzy/cabaret songs" and finally the "ballad song"

I really loved the songs and the concept behind the album, i think it's the only one that really has a strong concept that you can hear and read though the lyrics and the songs themselves :

- First "Party queen", ayu is partying and wants to get drunk and have fun with her friends, fine, nothing bad.
- NaNaNa is the continuity, still having fun, but she says in the lyrics that she's the lonely queen, uh oh, maybe it's not as good as she wants to make it seem.
- Shake it! ♥ Ayu is still dancing and having fun, but in the bridge she says something like "that girl over there seems to be more appreciated than me, i know it even if you don't say it out loud", you can now guess that in fact she's partying to forget about something and that she's actually sad and doubting of herself
- Letter and call both convey the same feeling to me, she's being nostalgic yet tender, this might be the tomorrow of her crazy partying night
- And then we get "reminds me" and "Return Road", you know why she was out partying all night, that's because she just broke up with her boyfriend/husband and she's devastated about it, she can't stand being on her own because when she is she can't stop thinking about him and their relationship and how lonely/lost she is now that it's gone, it even makes her think about other bad things that happened to her in her life (see reminds me lyrics, "everyone has that one thing they wish they could forget (...)" she's not just talking about her relationship imo) this is the very "angry" part of the album
- Tell me why, she's reflecting on her past relationship and how things were, she lets us know that her significant other was really insecure and that their relationship wasn't always "good" (sorry i don't find a way to express my thoughts in english correctly), she lets us know that there has been times where she was struggling with him because she wanted to help him but he wouldn't let her in etc
- And now, the next LOVE, ayu doesn't give a fuck anymore, she's being very cynical about herself and love, you can see that she's being bitter in fact. "That thing which they call love Just where can I find it? What does it look like? How much do I need to pay? Hey, where did you buy it?" This is her saying "My love life has been a mess so now i'm just being bitter" This is pretty unusual of her to write things like that, usually she's the one praising love, but now it's like she doesn't even want to try anymore.
- Eyes, Smoke, Magic, she's losing herself even more, i don't really know how to interpret that song because she's talking with the point of view of her as a child about her parents, this song is def weird
- AND FINALLY THE AYU WE KNOW IS BACK, in How beautiful you are, you can see that she's believing in love again. (i pretty summed it up because i'm tired of writing right now haha)

Now that i think about it you can almost see the "5 stages of loss and grief" in this album, even though those stages are initially about the death of someone.
1. Denial : Party Queen, NaNaNa, Shake it! ♥
2. Anger : reminds me, Return Road
3. Bargaining : Tell me why...
4. Depression : the next LOVE. Eyes, Smoke, Magic
5. Acceptance : How beautiful you are

Ok maybe i took this a little bit too far
It would have been better if she ended this album with a song like Love Song imo, because this is really the song that shows the Ayu that lives for love and can't picture her life without it.

So i really loved this album when it came out, but today i see the flaws of the songs, they're not as good as they seemed to me before, i don't listen to this album that much now, maybe it's also because i overplayed it a little.

[pepper]

It's still one of my favorite album! It doesn't include 827381273872 sappy ballads and every song is very diffrent from another. I don't listen only to two tracks! And not even because they are bad - how beautiful you are is just another ballad (and I'm not fan of them) and the next LOVE - I don't like her vocals in it. She just sounds bad, altought this song had a potential.

I love cheesy Party Queen, NaNaNa was my favorite but now I have enough of it XD I love Shake it and all the rock tracks (especially reminds me, but Letter and call are awesome too) Return Road is a huge track with nice PV. Tell me why is VERY original which is very unpreciated here I think. Eyes, smoke, magic is a definition of experimental and unexpected track from Ayu and I love it.

Yeah, I really like this album PQ includes rock and up-beat, my favorite Ayu

and only Letter/call sounds like a filler, but rock filler are good ones. I don't like RED LINE/Life/MY ALL type of songs. Or hello new me (brrr).

[pepper]

attractive nausea - I love your storyline behind this album. It fits it very well.

I kinda don't like the cheesy feeling of this album. The covers etc. But well, (miss)understood is my favorite and the covers was bad as well XDDDDDD
Yeah, the feeling might be kinda "western" and cheap. But Timmy did BRILLANTE which is like, one of my favorites of all the time. I like how many song on PQ have this sarcastic, nostalgic vibes. It's not only about weddings, gifts, loving-you-so-much things and yet with that "western" clothing, it doesn't sound AS BAD as Colours. Colours just DON'T fit Ayu. She tried too much on this album to be "western super singer" with these trance and electro vibes. Party Queen was just a feeling but still got the "Ayu" in it. Colours doesn't.