ayu in straits times article [Who will ascend the throne?]

[Raleigh]

thanks for the scan ^^

[ll moments ll]

thanks for the article!
i pretty much agree w/ everyone else about the lyrics.

[mui-gei-tal]

AYU FOREVER~
thanks for the scan!

[Mirai Noah]

Thank you for the article. It was quite... interesting.

[extepan]

thanks for the scan, i actually liked the article a lot. the only thing i dont agree with it, is that i find ayu's lyrics very poetic.

[zeroshin888]

yeah i dont like what the dude said about Ayu's lyrics. In fact, i HATE that guy's writing. It sounds so informal in some parts and so empty and vague. i just dislike it!

[evechoco]

thanks for the article, ayu lyrics are poetic and its always my favorite

[hooniee]

i like ayu's lyrics bcos its meaningful. how could he say its not poetic blah blah blaa... =______="

[norain]

pop-metal, yes game is pop-metal...although her album did move away from her usuals...it has more pop-metal, also considered rock in some cases...

lol

A ROCK

I want that compliation....A Ballads A Best A Rock A Trance

[Surreal]

When I read the papers I got pretty pissed too. Wrong numbers of BoA's first week sales and that lyrics thingy. Unless they are talking about the shipping number of BoA's album , 800,000 is ridiculous.

I bet that guy only read the English translations of Ayu's lyrics because in Japanese it has a different feel altogether.

[luminaire]

I'd like to state that the person who wrote the article was, in all likelihood, the person who referred to Shiina Ringo as Shino Ringo and called Tokyo Jihen Ringo's backing band in another review under the same column two weeks ago or so. If they don't know their stuff, then obviously they're going to make some glaring errors, like the "La La Love Song" bit, when it's supposed to be "LA LA LA Love Song". And it isn't even a new song in the first place, it was from a tribute album to Kubota Toshinobu released LAST YEAR. Stupid, stupid retards. (I actually wanted to email them to correct them about the Shiina Ringo bit, but that would have been rather facetious and conceited on my part, I gathered.)

Anyway, I violently disagree with the review. One, BoA's best album has sold around 700,000 copies since debuting on the Oricon Charts 2 weeks ago - and a difference of 100K is a lot, from the "800,000" they claimed. And her lower sales figures are not due to sameness of sound, otherwise Ayu wouldn't be shipping a lot time ago. Neither would a lot of J-pop artistes be. It's due to the increasing usage of cellphones and all in Japan, and due to rampant piracy as well. What utter rubbish, "sounding the same". Meh. "Unshakeable success"? Sales figures for Ayu aren't exactly "unshakeable" as well, seeing as how "MY STORY" broke a million in 7 weeks, which is like 7 times the amount of time "I am..." and "Duty" took to break a million.

And puh-lease. Ayu's lyrics are some of the best out there. And if you think that's worth mentioning, how about the fact that she did composition and arrangement on this album as well? And she doesn't do trance-dance music, mind you.

And as for the rock thing, may I say that Ayu has been toying with rock ever since "SURREAL" and her albums starting from "I am..." onwards all had a rockier sound than "A Song for XX" and "LOVEppears". And as far as I'm concerned, she hasn't reinvented herself in a long, long time. And BoA toyed with electric guitars in "Rock with You", which ended up tasteless and utterly bad.

As far as J-pop reviews are concerned here, if they're written by anyone who makes serious errors in their writing, then they aren't worth reading at all. I don't even think they listen to the albums before writing.

[Ibitsu Kokoro]

... wtf ... ayu's lyrics are awesome. o_o;

[Qt Mashi]

owell this newspaper is little and plain, so i dont care very much

Ayu in the teen magazine is much better !!!!!

[isaac hiew]

"Not that they're credible, insightful and poetic".....

Well why on earth we love ayumi's songs if her lyrics are just like what the above mentioned???

Usually "Best compilations" are tend to be considered as a waste of money, and might cause controversies among one artists' fans.

"Hey, I liked song A, but why this best album didn't include it? Nah, Ain't gonna buy it".

"I liked every songs, it's unfair to songs that weren't in it"

Or the worst....

"Nah, I got ALL the best mp3s of artist A......"

So I guess that is why Best Albums tend to have lower sales. Such releases should actually be a start-up point for those who begin to have interest in one artist.... IMHO.

[luminaire]

Actually, best-albums tend to sell more than actual albums due to new material or re-recordings being usually placed on those.

[Brittany]

Originally Posted by Phantoma

Me neither. I'd like them to find one pop star that writes better lyrics than her. Thanks for the article.

Ayu is TEH genius lyrics writer.. 'cos she writes her own stuff and it's about her experiences.. it's very un-like poppy stuff you see how a lot of pop stars have people writing songs for them

Plz, I'm so tired of hearing all this stuff that Ayu will be kicked outta her throne and being replaced by BoA or Ai Otsuka .. it's getting a tad bit annoying. People come and go, but please, I hate how newspapers rub it into our faces

[enoise]

^agree. Artists come and go. Ayu's teh best lyricist in my opinion *let's enjoy it NOW*

Omigod, I can't believe the uproar over the comment over Ayumi's lyrics. The irony here is, how many of you have only read the English translations of her songs? It's much easier to say "It's so poetic" when you use the right English words to translate the lines. I dunno, it's not like all her songs are insightful (ahem, HONEY. But I love the song anyway). Some of Ayumi's songs have better lyrics that others, many of them use pretty simple Japanese. Could someone be a better lyricist than Ayumi? In all likelihood, yes, but you just haven't heard their songs yet.
Don't get me wrong, though, great lyrics or not, I still like Ayumi's songs. I think the accompanying music is more important than lyrics in many cases, simply because it's the first thing you hear. If you don't like the beat, you probably won't listen to the song much.

[tinyppl]

I wouldn't say that ayu's lyrics are the best but she writes stuff honestly and in her lives, she sings with her heart (at least in my opinion) I mean she doesn't include english lyrics like 'Boy I fall in love with you' (>.< okie I was talking about Boa's Valenti) which I sort of find it meaningless -_- No offence. It's getting common nowadays that singers pen their lyrics and sometimes the words are pretty mild. I find more honesty and meaning in ayu's lyrics as compared to some of the mainstream pop music IMO

[luminaire]

devilayu: There is one lyricist better than Ayu. Azuki NANA, GARNET CROW's lyricist and keyboardist. I'd say her command of the language is more powerful than Ayu's.