『A BALLADS 2』on sale 2021.03.12

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

For Finally, wasn’t she remaking them with the intent of sounding as close to the original as possible? (Mostly so she could regain the rights to them? Maybe this was just a rumor that I heard?)

Maybe I’m wrong lol. (Also, that was the reason for Jojo too, right?)


In any case, for me personally, I feel that when Ayu has re-recorded things, they’ve been rather intentionally changed. Updated versions to fit her current voice or mood or career. So I never got that “it doesn’t beat the original” feeling because I don’t think they were ever trying to be the original.

Edit: A Best being the outlier lol. I believe it was Avex who pushed her to re-record those.

[Deep snow]

I'd be a bit disappointed if A BALLADS 2 ended up having songs that are only remastered, instead of re-arranged, but I guess (as a lot of you have pointed out), she never promised it in the announcement.

remastering is a good thing anyway, since some of her awesome songs have truly unfortunate mastering. I hope it would improve the songs like in the 20th Anniversary edition of LOVEppears.

Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan

Edit: A Best being the outlier lol. I believe it was Avex who pushed her to re-record those.

from the 2004 documentary, what I gather is that avex "only" pushed her to release the album. the decision to re-record the old songs, as well as the addition of non-singles A Song for ×× and Who..., was hers, taken in defiance of being forced to release a singles compilation prematurely.