New single 'オヒアの木' composed by Kazuhito Kikuchi out now!

[truehappiness]

Originally Posted by maxikot

The song is charming. I keep playing it from time to time and even before I learned the translation of the lyrics it managed to wrap my heart with warm emotions. It's her singing that does it and in general, it's a very pretty song. I'm so glad we got it

What I like about the song is that it feels like she finally was able to restrain that sort of typically too sweet sounding ballad she does (meaning of Love-type songs) and there's a maturity to the way it sounds. This song seems tailored for the Japanese fans for sure however so I do understand why people may not like it too much or aren't impressed but at the same time... we haven't gotten music since TROUBLE, it's almost like a miracle to have gotten this, lol.

[njanjayrp]

We can debate whether it’s boring, whether it has the classic ayu sound which it does. The song however is definitely not predictable. From beginning and to the end it keeps changing and it’s very dynamic. Except from the first verse the song keeps getting better and better and I do love the way she sings the rest of the it. The composition is mediocre at best, but the way she sings it gives it a good twist and makes it enjoyable.

[Katsuyuki012]

I really enjoy the song and while it might be 'basic', it does not follow Ayu's usual structure (guitar bridge -> quiet singing of the chorus before repeating the 2nd chorus etc). That felt very refreshing to me.

[Ruan Borges]

I keep listening the song everyday since it's release, guess I was really missing new material lol I feel good with this song, ayu knows how to deliver emotions with her voice, always gets me!

Btw, after a full week on spotify Ohia no Ki has reached 61.880 plays, and 880.769 views on youtube.

[Andrenekoi]

^ I would love an studio recording of the a capella version of The way I am

[truehappiness]

Is there a reason why all your song titles are in English?
The meaning would be really restricted in Japanese, how to say — for example, if I use RED instead of 赤, wouldn’t you wonder, “What’s the meaning? It’s not 赤, right?” I want to evoke more ideas that way.

- translated by tenshi no hane

This was from the 15th anni. TA issue and I was wondering how she'd answer this regarding Ohia. I assume it'd be like "I needed this to be in Japanese, there is no way it would have been made any other way" if she had to.

[Akutenshi]

I can't speak for others who are disappointed in the song, but I know for me, it is purely Yuta's arrangement that ruins the song.

And yes, you can argue that the decision lies in Ayu wanting the arrangement that way, fine, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the arrangement is the single thing that ruins it. The cheesy chimes at the beginning and end, the synthetic instruments, the melodrama of it all. I love Ayu ballads, but they continuously get worse every time she releases them nowadays.

I don't think people want a song about her child to be some weird, quirky pop song, but this could have been so much more poignant with even just a simple piano, maybe an acoustic guitar to touch on the Hawaiian influence? A million other directions this song could have gone in, arrangement-wise, without being "weird" and still retaining the softness and beauty of a ballad.

[Chibi-Chan]

Originally Posted by Akutenshi

I can't speak for others who are disappointed in the song, but I know for me, it is purely Yuta's arrangement that ruins the song.

And yes, you can argue that the decision lies in Ayu wanting the arrangement that way, fine, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the arrangement is the single thing that ruins it. The cheesy chimes at the beginning and end, the synthetic instruments, the melodrama of it all. I love Ayu ballads, but they continuously get worse every time she releases them nowadays.

I don't think people want a song about her child to be some weird, quirky pop song, but this could have been so much more poignant with even just a simple piano, maybe an acoustic guitar to touch on the Hawaiian influence? A million other directions this song could have gone in, arrangement-wise, without being "weird" and still retaining the softness and beauty of a ballad.

I agree, that's what I meant by predictable. From the first cheesy chimes it wasn't hard to guess how this would continue. At this point, her ballads add nothing to her catalogue, on the contrary, they weaken it. Therefore, I would prefer no song at all over something that just reminds me of percieved 100 bad and weak other ballads.

[Andrenekoi]

^Most, if not all, songs popstars made to their children I can think of are cheesy as fuck. It's not a big deal tbh.

[truehappiness]

I think the problem that a lot of people have is that it has sort of been the default sound even though she hasn't really released much at all just in general since she's only been touring in that time, it's all that people have had to go on since TROUBLE so between this, aeternal, The way I am, there's a thirst for something "different" but personally I was just happy something new actually came out. There'll be other new songs it looks like soon so it's not like this is all that's coming.

[RealLight]

I think the song is lovely, I like the melody and the lyrics are beautiful, but I agree with all of these:

Originally Posted by Evolution7/4

I'm shocked to see people call this a classic Ayu song. I see it as standard to the generic ballads shes been making since Love Again. Not classic Ayu to me.
Its the lyrics that make this song. Definitely not the unmemorable basic composition.

Originally Posted by KittyKathy

Classic Ayu songs for me are from the albums LOVEppears, Duty, I am... and maybe RAINBOW. I don't hear that in this song.

Originally Posted by Akutenshi

I can't speak for others who are disappointed in the song, but I know for me, it is purely Yuta's arrangement that ruins the song.

And yes, you can argue that the decision lies in Ayu wanting the arrangement that way, fine, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the arrangement is the single thing that ruins it. The cheesy chimes at the beginning and end, the synthetic instruments, the melodrama of it all. I love Ayu ballads, but they continuously get worse every time she releases them nowadays.

I don't think people want a song about her child to be some weird, quirky pop song, but this could have been so much more poignant with even just a simple piano, maybe an acoustic guitar to touch on the Hawaiian influence? A million other directions this song could have gone in, arrangement-wise, without being "weird" and still retaining the softness and beauty of a ballad.

[jbrat2219]

I'm a huge Yuta fan so maybe that's my blind spot when it comes to her ballads, but I think someone here said it best (can't remember who, sorry!); I think the point of this song is to let the lyrics shine. The arrangement being something that ayu is the most comfortable with kind of fits in this case, in my opinion. Creatively, I agree, the song is not the greatest thing ever but that's not something I would personally care about for a song like this. I think lyrically, it's classic ayu at her best.

[truehappiness]

Listening to the song, I still get a warm feeling from it and I like it more every time it does come up. Her vocals feel smoother than some of the stuff that was on TROUBLE.

I'm glad though that Ayu is typically able to satisfy different parts of her fanbase with various tracks but sometimes you just can't please any of them but for the people that do enjoy most or all of it, it's even better!

[ストロボ・EdGE]

I strongly feel that the sense of fandom-community would be a lot more pleasant if we stopped having this divide between “the Grateful Fans” and “the Perceived-as-Hypercritical Fans”. This is probably more of a comment on Stan culture in general though. (I wouldn’t know because this is the only forum I’ve ever spent any degree of time on.) It’s so funny how human beings find ways to splinter themselves even in an increasingly thinning Japanese pop music forum dedicated to one nostalgia-act.

All these years later I’m still nonplussed af tbh.

[truehappiness]

I think it's just a difference of opinion in most cases. Some people like it, some people don't. It's not that complicated. If you don't like it though, that doesn't make it so that the people who do like it have invalid feelings toward the song.

[Sim']

Originally Posted by truehappiness

I think it's just a difference of opinion in most cases. Some people like it, some people don't. It's not that complicated. If you don't like it though, that doesn't make it so that the people who do like it have invalid feelings toward the song.

Totally agree on this, it is a difference of opinion after all, and thanks god we don't all love the same thing, life would be SO boring...
If I may complete this awesome quote and just add this last part :

I think it's just a difference of opinion in most cases. Some people like it, some people don't. It's not that complicated. If you don't like it though, that doesn't make it so that the people who do like it have invalid feelings toward the song. And if you like it though, that doesn't make it a "classic Ayu song" either so that the people who do not like it have invalid feelings toward the song.

I feel this sentence is now more balanced and both feelings are legitimate...

As for what is classic Ayu / ballad, to each one his definition, so keep in mind there's no right / wrong in this field
(I personally don't see the point in looking for "the factual classic Ayu songs" when this is such a subjective issue and there'll be no definitive answer, but whatever, just my opinion...)

This new song will never make it to my playlist, but I'm just happy to listen again & again to "my classic Ayu songs" (Mirrorcle World, Song 4 u, alterna, M) and "my classic ballads" (HANABI, RAINBOW, CAROLS, Together When...) #queen

[Katsuyuki012]

Ohia no Ki is at #14 in its second week with 5,819 copies sold, bringing its total sales to 10,871 so far.

Had it been released a day later it would've debuted in the top 10, but definitely not top 5. Nevertheless, it was released a day early and I'm just glad it managed to climb up a few positions.

[truehappiness]

The fact that it's pretty easily available on YT seems to be affecting things and it's where people are listening to it. It has about a million streams at the moment.

[truehappiness]

This one in particular I feel does add something. There's a maturity here that typically isn't in the ballads made in this fashion and lyrically it's new ground for her as a topic.

[Larisa-chan]

Listened to this several days ago, but didn't get a chance to post my thoughts.

Well... the lyrics are a nice change, of course, she now has a new subject matter to write about lol Very sweet

The music itself? Completely forgettable for me!