(M)U why do people hate it o_o

[Coelacanth]

Originally Posted by Peger

It flows really well, to the point where i never want to skip songs. I still listen to it in full once in a while.

Yes!

I was listening to the album over the weekend and realized how awesome it was from start to end, got nostalgic as hell. I can't say I agree with the album being 'all over the place'. I really like the transitions between songs. I thought the outro of 'alterna' actually went well with the intro of 'In the Corner'. I don't think it would flow as well if there was one single change in the track order. It's just perfect!

Now, 'Secret', I don't think so. 1LOVE --> It was = horrible transition. kiss o'kill --> Secret = horrible transition. Not yet and Until that day... have like the same exact opening sound LOL. And I thought the B-trilogy was a disaster, followed by a ****** interlude. This is the only Ayu album where I actually can't stand the track order.

I seem to appreciate (m)u more and more as time goes on.

EDIT: Who cares if GEO plagiarized or whatever. The songs he stole from aren't even worthy of being known. Whoever even pointed them out is weird LOL. At least his compositions had vocal bridges, instead of crappy instrumental bridges with boring guitar solos and then right off to the chorus again.

[Smart Computer]

After I read this thread several times, a lot of fans didn't like the covers and some didn't actually like the album itself...! But in my opinion, (miss)understood is one of my all time favorite album..!

[fanmail]

wow I totally love "(miss)understood"!!! It's definately one of Ayu's BEST albums!

[ayu_ready?]

I can't say it's bad,but comparing to "MY STORY" level it's rather weak
it's not one of the best, it's one of the worst with 'Secret' & 'A BEST2'

(miss)understood is all over the place. Like I said, I love all the music on the album except for "Beautiful Day". But this album is horribly incohesive, which for me is a deal breaker.

Look at these breakdowns.

A. (miss)understood
01. gospel infused funk (Bold & Delicious)
02. rock-infused digipop (STEP you)
03. total 80’s throwback (Ladies Night)
04. aggressive rock ballad (is this LOVE?)
05. digi-coustic rock ballad (miss)understood
06. experimental digi-orchestral rock (alterna)
07. American pop/R&B song (In The Corner)
08. orchestral dance-rock (tasking)
09. experimental digi-orchestral rock ballad (criminal)
10. gospel-infused R&B ballad with a swing (Pride)
11. experimental neo-Japanese digi-coustic non-pop-time-signature ballad (Will)
12. grand climactic power-orchestroballad (HEAVEN)
13. early 90’s digipop (Are You Wake Up?)
14. digi-poprock ballad (fairyland)
15. digi-coustic pop mid-tempo ballad (Beautiful Day)
16. minimal orchestral pop ballad (rainy day)

B. Secret
01. neo-digi-dancerock (Not yet)
02. neo-digi-dancerock (until that Day...)
03. rock infused digipop (Startin')
04. hip-rock (1 LOVE)
05. acoustic hip-rock (It was)
06. minimal digi-orchestral (LABYRINTH)
07. minimal piano-orchestral ballad (JEWEL)
08. piano-orchestral dancerock (momentum)
09. aggressive down-tempo rock (taskinst)
10. orchestro-poprock (Born To Be...)
11. bubblegum poprock (Beautiful Fighters)
12. orchestro-poprock (BLUE BIRD)
13. aggressive orchestro dancerock (kiss o' kill)
14. minimal piano-orchestral ballad (Secret)

In B, we see the same recurring themes and sounds unifying the entire album with one cohesive sound. In A, there are many random styles that are just out of place, and many of them are firsts for Ayu. This album was a complete cop out. It screams "I don't know what direction to take, so I'll do a bit of everything."

If you think about it, isn't that an entirely plausible reason why most people find this album so agreeable. If an album (such as B) has one consistent style, while being an artistic success, it might be a commercial flop because of it's limited appeal. But in the eye of the consumer, an album (such as A) with a bit of something for everyone is sure to have a couple highlights on it. It's a crowd-pleaser, and for that I think it is an artistic flop.

[YumeHamasaki]

i think M(U) makes sense to be all over the place...mayeb she's tryign to say "you guys won't be able to figure out the reason for these different genres i'm doing in this one album...that's why i'm misunderstood. Maybe she didnt' want us to understand...

[extepan]

the covers are terrible, and the opening track is appalling.

[Coelacanth]

I definitely see where you're coming from evolusean. Even lyrically, 'Secret' stayed consistent. The lyrics of 'until that Day...' and 'Secret' definitely had a connection. Sadly, I don't think the album is an artistic success. The whole "Everyone has a secret, you will find your Secret on this album", I think was completely pulled from her ass to create some sort of symbolism for the album. She spoke about the album like it was so deep, and it was a real turn off. Especially with two filler tracks (momentum and It was) that had the most trite/typical lyrics from her. She never insisted (miss)understood was something deep, nor did she directly speak about the overall theme of the album. I think she expressed her exact thoughts on the album with the booklet's cover and the B&D PV. (m)u was created out of inspiration that she had. She was inspired by the music of Sweetbox combined with NYC and gospel choirs, all that stuff. I think she made the biggest progression in her rock genre on this album as well. She experimented with all types of sounds on (m)u that IMO paved the way for all of the songs on Secret.

STEP you / Ladies Night ----> until that Day...
is this LOVE? ----> 1LOVE
criminal ----> kiss o' kill
Will ----> Secret
Use of gospel choirs on B&D/Pride ----> Born to Be...

And fairyland - this song has pretty much been the precedent for all her summer songs since. (BLUE BIRD / glitter)

'Secret' sold less than (m)u because it wasn't an inspired album. She wrote about her aging career, girl power, never wanting to follow others, following your dreams, summer memories, and past loves. She's done this all in past songs, some of them being very recent.

I don't think I can ever think of 'Secret' as having its own distinguished era either. It's too early to tell, but I think she's hardly grown as a songwriter, composer (considering the fact she didn't compose anything on the album), as an artist in general. It's a step up from (m)u in that she found one unified theme for the album, yes. She also found a new vocal style in 1LOVE and Startin' (Then again, I like to consider Startin'/Born to Be... still part of the (m)u era.)

So, basically I just can't consider 'Secret' an artistic success with its seemingly lack of inspiration. I think the PV's for the album further support my claim.

I like the album but I don't find myself listening to it as much as "Duty" or "I am..." For some people, I think it has to do with how long they've been an Ayu fan and what kind of music phase each person is in. If people don't like it, they might actually just not like the music.

[truehappiness]

devilayu brings up a good point.

Many new fans of Ayu swear that (m)u is one of her best works yet, and tend to ignore the earlier albums. I think that many fans fall into this category, as there are many more newbies to the Ayu fandom than there are oldies to say the least. This brings up the fact that the generation of Ayu that a fan was brought up in also plays a part in which albums they'll like.

Early fans of Ayu that became fans pre-Memorial address swear that I am... or Duty was her best work in the world and probably ever. They try to compare each and every song she creates to the "masterpieces" she created then. Then there are the people who simply ADORE Ayu in the now, while the fans of Ayu in the early 2000s despise her style/taste/music being released now..

I think of myself as a fan that's pretty much in the middle. I enjoy the old stuff and I enjoy the new stuff. I don't really have a preference, but since the new stuff is in the present, I find myself listening to it a lot more than the older material, you know?


I'm in your forums, not making any sense in your posts~ lol


Oh, by the way. I LOVE Beautiful Day like no one's business. It's one of my favorite album tracks from Ayu~ :O

[ALPHY]

(miss)understood is love. I really enjoyed B&D. I guess some fans couldn't take it. XD

[Lee_Hamasaki]

I love heaven step You/Is this love. it is a great album but there are better album of ayu (secret, duty, my story)..

[thinkingoutloud89]

I love M (U) ..one of her best albums...but too much single songs on it...even koda had less XD

EdIT:

Originally Posted by Coelacanth

'Secret' sold less than (m)u because it wasn't an inspired album. She wrote about her aging career, girl power, never wanting to follow others, following your dreams, summer memories, and past loves. She's done this all in past songs, some of them being very recent.

I don't think I can ever think of 'Secret' as having its own distinguished era either. It's too early to tell, but I think she's hardly grown as a songwriter, composer (considering the fact she didn't compose anything on the album), as an artist in general. It's a step up from (m)u in that she found one unified theme for the album, yes. She also found a new vocal style in 1LOVE and Startin' (Then again, I like to consider Startin'/Born to Be... still part of the (m)u era.)

So, basically I just can't consider 'Secret' an artistic success with its seemingly lack of inspiration. I think the PV's for the album further support my claim.

I also consider Startin/Born to be... more to be part of (m) u era...since startin was made around the time of rainy day...I think thats why...it also has this simmilar American Style that a big part of m (u) gives us..or am I totally wrong^^

Both albums rock but in ym eyes m(u) has the better songs

I don't understand why people don't like it either. I love the album, it's eclectic and fun. I can listen to it over and over. I think the covers are gorgeous b/c ayu has one of the prettiest smiles I've ever seen. GEO's work doesn't really bother me, In The Corner is a hot song that should've been a single. Plus, this was my first Ayu album. My older brother bought it for me for my 14th birthday. It's special to me and it sucks when people bash it.

[qwerty]

Originally Posted by evolusean

I hate (miss)understood as an album, but I like most of the music. In other words, it is a very poorly put together album, and certainly Ayu's least cohesive. It was really just all over the place. However, I like all of the tracks as stand-alone songs with the exception of "Beautiful Day".

In fact, I think (miss)understood had some amazingly significant pieces (alterna, HEAVEN, and Will in particular). It's just that the album sounded... like pieces. Previous albums, while still pulling from different composers and different producers, had a theme or sound that made the tracks seem right at home with one another. (miss)understood failed at that, even more than MY STORY did. Fortunately, Secret saved the day.

This pretty much sums it up. The album as a whole is incredibly vague and has no specific theme. Ayu's other albums had specific themes with songs that were produced in the same style. (miss)understood felt more like an outlet for her to do anything she wanted. The songs were just all over the place and weren't really united that well. Every single track on the album (except Beautiful Day), though, was really nice to listen to.

Also, the styles of a few of the songs were extremely different from any style that Ayumi had ever done before. Bold & Delicious, for example, was the first time Ayumi had used gospel in her music. This basically alienated a lot of her fans and most likely caused people not to like (miss)understood as much as they liked other albums of hers.

I am glad that Ayu used a better song order and used a specific style with Secret. It's better to listen to as an album than (miss)understood was. Makes me want to buy a copy of the album.

[CatGirl]

Yeah, I totally agree with you guys who say (m)u was all over the place, because it really was xD Unlike previous albums, there was nothing to tie it all together ><; Even though it was my 2nd Ayu album, I absolutely HATED it when I first heard it! As an album, I don't think it's very good, but when you listen to the tracks individually, it's a LOT better, imo.

Plus, this album seemed to be kinda "unAyuish" to me, mainly because of GEO >_>

[ayu_ready?]

well,Ayu herself said (m)u was an experiment...
it was risky...

GEO doesn't make it so unAyuish for me
the songs themselves are not bad...but they're just nothing comparing to MY STORY for exmpl,which many ppl hated too,although it's one of the best albums so far

[Ayumi~moments]

Why does an album have to have a theme its not a story its music? I think your forgetting whats ke here. SINGERS LIKE TO EXPERIMENT. Its a key point. They need to try things new becuase if not then its OH ANOTHER THEMED ALBUM WOHOOO. You can't do that in this business. I'll tell you a reason why people hated Miss was because she took someone elses songs and mixed them. Which i mean yeah thats not what you should do but at least she tried something new. You can't beat her down for that. I loved miss i liked how she wrote her own lyrics to another song and then added new songs to the album. I have a feeling she wanted to break America at this point and back down because Max got scared and was like we can't do that yet we need to get into Asia first like China and get them all on our sides. Hence now why with her secret album she has had the Asia tour.

[Raleigh]

Matter of taste, I guess.

[ayumisrael]

^I think that (miss)understood's concept and story was the experimenting different things, and the songs are different themselves xD.
That's why the album's all over is pretty (miss)understood.