I need Ayu to inspire me again

[ayu_ready?]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

I find that it's easier nowadays to sort of zone out when it comes to Ayu during her tour date bonanzas. Until 2007-2008, she had always had something coming out to be excited about or she had been promoting despite the fact that she was touring but lately she's been very focused on the touring aspect of her career with very long breaks inbetween releases or TV promotion. I think for those who are looking for her to be "fierce" like she was before just aren't realizing that she doesn't need to change her image as often now that she's not exactly releasing every few months like she was in 2005/2006. She would always have a different style and a different haircut, sometimes every month or two, but the changes are now very much more spread out compared to back then. (Basically you would have gotten the "UK" style from early 2010, the girly Love songs look from late 2010, and the FIVE "fierce" look from 2011 all in the span of a few singles as opposed to two years) There's nothing wrong with that really imo since she's been slowing down when it comes to CD releases (though contentwise she put out 4 albums in the last two years).

I became a fan when I was 11 or 12 so it's been a little over 10 years since I started listening to her. Despite that, she still surprises me and manages to make music that I really love listening to. It's really not a big deal for me personally to not listen to Ayu for a while (though during those times I don't really listen to any music at all haha) because I eventually get back into that groove again.

it's just that she's an established artist, like, she doesn't need to try as hard as before, and that is why i think she let herself loose a bit. I think it happens to any artist, Japanese or Western, you spend lots on trying to establish yourself for quite a time and that is the time of well-thought strategy and music, production, management, image creation, promotion
but then after you're like 'whatever, I already got everything, so I'll just do the **** I want and when I want

my problem with Ayu now is that she has always been careful, polished, accurate, concentrated and high-quality. now, to me, the quality of her releases, music, not to mention promotion and even picture ads etc, has a kind of dropped

[Mintkisses]

Thanks everyone for the responses, I'm really appreciative!

There are so many things I want to respond about but this thread is now three pages long. I have to be at work in less than an hour (tehehe).

First off, I'm not FORCING myself to still like her. I am still a dedicated fan, I love listening to any of her music anytime. It's just been the recent releases like FIVE and Party Queen that has gotten me lost. Even though Ayu might be changing her music style, I'll still come on AHS and see the new mag scans, see if anything brand new or exciting is going on, etc. One of the reasons I made this thread was to also hear what Ayu fans feel about Party Queen and why. Honestly, because I want to know why. To hear it from the Ayu fans, it allows me to look at the album in different perspectives and not just my own.

I am like a lot of you as well, even though I don't know what she's talking about her voice gets to me. It's beautiful and definitely unique. Lately, her voice hasn't been bad. I believe my favorite vocal albums are I am... and (miss)understood. GUILTY was also a very strong album vocal wise.

Got to finish all of my thoughts later, but I at least wanted to get that in

[jewelbox]

I became fan when I was about 13 and now I'm 19. I really enjoy her discography from ASFXX to NL but after RnrC it just went downhill. I think she tries too hard nowadays, she isn't like she used to be. Ofc that's just natural.

I think she has somewhat lost direction in everything what she does? Before it was just ayu(& 2 BG singers), singing, maybe some dancers around. Now it's ayu and 4 BG singers, huge stages and special effects, Timmy in everything etc. Does she even feel comfortable on the stage anymore when she's alone? in CDL 11-12 she looked so tired.. she just sat there.
I don't know.. and I won't say that any of those is true . It's just something I've been thinking.
Maybe she really needs a creative break? But I don't wish that..

But no matter what I still adore her and wait until she releases something new, because she always surprises me and there's possibility that the surprise is very positive : like reminds me ~ tell me why section on Party Queen.

[koumori]

I became a fan of Ayu when I was twelve, hgngh. Now I'm pretty much nineteen years old. Uhm, when I first became a fan of her she could do no wrong musically and her personal life was really private so..she was basically some flawless Goddess to me that introduced me to a totally different area of music I've gotten used to it over the years and now I find it easier to critique her, and I also think her music direction and how she approaches creating music has changed significantly, and this is evident across her discography. Although I do still love her and her recent music, her older music will always be more special to me. The fact I can also judge her easier from her personal life thanks to Twitter etc also has affected it I think, since she is no longer some anonymous perfect person mwahaha

Nothing you can do really to find new inspiration if she cannot give you any with her recent change in style.~ Maybe try and interpret the songs differently or concentrate on the lyrics more~

[happiholic★]

I've found that since Ayu's marriage I've been more critical of her. RnRC was the start of the downfall. At the time I had started to get into other singers more heavily, like Koda Kumi, who was just blowing me away. I liked some songs on RnRC, but overall I wasn't feeling it, the way I was with other singers. Then Love Songs came out, which I didn't like at all, save for maybe 2 or 3 songs. Plus, her shocking marriage. It was the first time I realized that I thought she was doing something really... weird. Not to mention her live voice was horrid at the time. I watched a performance of Love Song, and I was just embarrassed. FIVE was underwhelming, but I do LOVE Brilliante, so that restored my faith some. PQ is okay, but I'm not in love with it. But, I love the PoM Tour, so I'm getting back into her. But the title of my favorite singer is now Kuu's. I don't see Ayu going to a direction that will make me love her the way I did, but I still hope and keep listening. I'll never stop liking her, because I still LOVE her older stuff. Not to mention I've changed, as well as what I look for in a singer, and Ayu has never been those things, so I think my love for Kuu is going to be around for a while.

[RayJason]

Originally Posted by love in music

you don't NEED her to inspire you. there are other people/things that are much more inspirational than her. not saying she's not inspirational at all, because to me she is a lot of the time.. but i'd recommend to look to different people/things for inspiration and you won't feel so devastated when she has releases you're not feeling.

^I agree with you!

I personally love her SURREAL, M, evolution releases till Mirrorcle World, Days / GREEN, and Rule / Sparkle releases.

I fell in love with ayu when I was 15, now 17 soon 18. After Rule / Sparkle I didn't 'love' anything as much as I loved the older releases. I don't know, they're missing something to make it PERFECT. I still enjoy Love songs (which I play 1 in a month or less), and I find myself constantly replaying these albums: GUILTY, NEXT LEVEL and I am...

I quickly grew out of Party Queen which is weird because, I LOVED everything in the album except for ESM and tnL. The only songs I like are reminds me and Return Road, whereas in other albums I only have 2 songs I dislike.

I think that she might release something AWESOME SOON /capslock. Her photoshoots were awful, but now they're GREAT. She delivered a great concept with Party Queen and she sounds AMAZING live. I wouldn't be surprised if she would go all out sometime soon with a single, it would be awesome!

Luckily I fell in love with Shoko Nakagawa otherwise I would have been so disappointed in ayu.

[ayu_ready?]

^ I grew out of PQ pretty fast too. maybe still because it does lack in quality at a certain point, huh. like, I'll never get bored listening to Duty, RAINBOW, Voyage etc, but RR & Tell me Why got off my playlist pretty fast,although they were my ultimate favs

[jewelbox]

^ I agree 100%

[mecury2511]

I'm being a fan at the age of 13 and now I'm 19. I never get tired of her music, she always make new things & make me surprise. When I happy, I listen to her happy/catchy/rock songs, when I'm in bad mood I listen to her ballad/dark songs. Even though I make myself listen to other artist like Koda Kumi, Utada, Namie, .... & some Kpop artists, NO ONE has such a GREAT INTEREST to me like ayu does. I feel bored at those artists within 1 week ( sorry!)
About Party Queen, at first, I didnt like any tracks of this album & thought that the cover was ugly as hell, the songs were boring,... but after that, I shuffled them on my music playlists ( from ASFXX to PQ ) and I fell in love with it @@ Cant believe that I love allmost the tracks ( except ESM & the interlude - I'm not a fan of her interlude =)) )

[SKYia]

About the age, I started to love her when I was 21 and now I'm 28 so I guess it's not like I graduated from her music. I still wait for and buy her albums. Even though I regret buying Party Queen I may still preorder her next album because she is one of the most amazing artists in the world despite what she's been doing for the last few years.

Originally Posted by ayu_ready?

Ayu aims at the young and Kuu aims at mature audience

This is so true. I always thought I prefer Kuu recently because she gives more of herself but that may not be it.

I get older, so is Ayu, however, I feel like we're not getting older together. She keeps wearing bows, appears plastic in overphotoshopped photos, I get so sick of that, it's unflattering to her.

I feel like she can do such an amazing job with her voice and look right now but she has chosen some weird style instead. I hope it won't last long.

It's like drinking the best wine in the world from a plastic cup.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by SKYia

This is so true. I always thought I prefer Kuu recently because she gives more of herself but that may not be it.

I get older, so is Ayu, however, I feel like we're not getting older together. She keeps wearing bows, appears plastic in overphotoshopped photos, I get so sick of that, it's unflattering to her.

I feel like she can do such an amazing job with her voice and look right now but she has chosen some weird style instead. I hope it won't last long.

It's like drinking the best wine in the world from a plastic cup.

I need to disagree here... Even if her fashion shots aim to an young audience (what is normal considering the magazines that feat her more frequently) and sometimes she has more young looking live appearances (mostly the big bows during 2010, that some people said was just overall fashionable at the time on Japan) and the recent PQ appearances (most likelly because people were too shocked at the PQ covers , so, a way to soft her image), her musical releases and PVs are pretty much being adult in nature for a while now (I would say since MS if we ignore the summer/winter singles and since RNRC album if we count the overall release).

Her main releases are being pretty much aimed to 25+ years old for a while now IMO, what also reflects her last years tie-ins...

[SKYia]

Her music releases were always mature except for songs that were made purely for fun, I kinda think I would enjoy her pvs and lives more if she changed her style, it's just very much not my cup of tea recently .___.

[Andrenekoi]

^Just wait until the next album... she changes her image every year anyway xD

[Maemi]

Originally Posted by Mintkisses

I haven't been on this board in forever

It's frustrating.. I miss how epic and bad@$$ Ayu used to be. I mean, I still love her to death and I am happy to see she's still doing okay. These releases though..have been awful. I don't know what she's thinking anymore. I want to keep following her and such but some songs on Party Queen make me

So I need to be inspired by her again. I've been waiting ever since Love songs for Ayu to release something that is totally like !@#!#%#$^#%&^&#$%# (well, her pink hair is freakin awesome)

Can AHS explain some new releases to me? Like why you like a certain song on Party Queen, or why so and so has a great PV, etc. I would love to hear about anything!

It's not as if she's the only artist in the world and now you're a lost soul, just turn to the other artists, explore some other music genres Maybe you'll like her next release, or maybe not. But it's not as if this is now the end of the world...

[Zeke.]

Yes there are other artists but I feel the same way. That feeling that Ayu gives you when she releases something great is on a whole different level compared to the other artists that I like. It's not fair to just say "go listen to something else" - I completely understand where Mintkisses is coming from.

[Miidoriness]

Hun, Ayu is going through a lot at the moment and I truly believe Ayu is still Ayu. She just simple wants to write what she wish or want to write at the moment. I think "remind me", "Return Road" and "Tell me why" is very AYU! ^^

[yatsudamf]

I have ups and downs when it comes to Ayu's new releases. I really like the fact that she's experimenting, although sometimes I like the result, and sometimes I don't. That's okay, as long as she keeps on coming up with something interesting. I still haven't listened to FIVE (I got it on its release date, LOL), probably because I was in a slump when it was released.

With PQ, which I like, and the new tour (to which I have tickets), I'm getting all excited again.

But who knows how I'll be feeling about Ayu around December, LOL!

[Mintkisses]

Originally Posted by happiholic★

I've found that since Ayu's marriage I've been more critical of her. RnRC was the start of the downfall. At the time I had started to get into other singers more heavily, like Koda Kumi, who was just blowing me away. I liked some songs on RnRC, but overall I wasn't feeling it, the way I was with other singers. Then Love Songs came out, which I didn't like at all, save for maybe 2 or 3 songs. Plus, her shocking marriage. It was the first time I realized that I thought she was doing something really... weird. Not to mention her live voice was horrid at the time. I watched a performance of Love Song, and I was just embarrassed. FIVE was underwhelming, but I do LOVE Brilliante, so that restored my faith some. PQ is okay, but I'm not in love with it. But, I love the PoM Tour, so I'm getting back into her. But the title of my favorite singer is now Kuu's. I don't see Ayu going to a direction that will make me love her the way I did, but I still hope and keep listening. I'll never stop liking her, because I still LOVE her older stuff. Not to mention I've changed, as well as what I look for in a singer, and Ayu has never been those things, so I think my love for Kuu is going to be around for a while.

Yes to all of this

[alternarist]

dont u think BRILLANTE is epic enough? as for me, I know that Party Queen is slightly lacklustre, but its better than nothing. ayu's life is not epic forever. she doesnt have much epic experiences to write into an epic song everyday? she just went thru a divorce. and we are getting songs like Party Queen after a divorce, we are lucky. It could be a sad album like GUILTY.

Add on: i do have to admit that i am venturing out of ayu to other singers. but ayu's music is something i will always support.

[Tony G]

reminds me - return road - tell me why

badass ayu is still there. enough said.