Ayu ~Anything Goes~ XV (AHS' Ayumi Hamasaki General Discussion Thread)

[mi|kshake]

Yeah for me HBYA is just kinda bleurgh for lack of a better word! It's a cringe worthy ballad in the vein of Christina's Beautiful which is the kind of song I dislike.

In other news I notice Miccie is releasing a mini-album and a song called End Roll is featured. Is it a cover? I hope so as I loved his live version of it!

[Zeke.]

Oh good Lord, call and Letter most definitely are also in the same barrel of reject tracks as hbya for me. 3 of my top 5 worst tracks right there and they all appear on one album. No wonder I had an existential crisis after the release of that album. Lol.

[NintendoHTF1242]

Originally Posted by Zeke.

Oh good Lord, call and Letter most definitely are also in the same barrel of reject tracks as hbya for me. 3 of my top 5 worst tracks right there and they all appear on one album. No wonder I had an existential crisis after the release of that album. Lol.

LOL for me the best songs on PQ are reminds me, call, and Letter.

[Zeke.]

Originally Posted by NintendoHTF1242

LOL for me the best songs on PQ are reminds me, call, and Letter.

reminds me is hands down the best. The intro alone paints such a vivid picture of emotions. I'd love to write a review of the track one day. That opening portion is so honest, so raw and tender. I think it might be the most hard-hitting segment in her entire discography. Usually when I listen to the song I replay that part 2 or 3 times before I get on with the rest of the track. The composer and arranger really captured something very precise there.

[MessiahofSilence]

Originally Posted by Zeke.

Oh good Lord, call and Letter most definitely are also in the same barrel of reject tracks as hbya for me. 3 of my top 5 worst tracks right there and they all appear on one album. No wonder I had an existential crisis after the release of that album. Lol.

Thank you for mentioning this, those songs are terrible for me as well along with reminds me. I just don't think Party Queen is an album that goes with my tastes, though it has alot of the elements that I like to hear in Ayu's music. Bad cover aside, the music just doesn't do it for me. The musical/jazz parts are honestly the best things on the album and everything else just feels like a watered down retread of other songs for me.
Even Love again is more enjoyable to me, because for every insipid tracks there's at least 2 gems to make up for it. That album doesn't get the respect it deserves. Sure, it's demos but songs like Song 4 U (that damn title xD), Missing, Sweet Scar, Melody and Ivy are so solid -or at least they are to me. Is it more that people associate the era with the mini album ripoff and the herbivore?

[truehappiness]

How funny that a song about not knowing how beautiful you are generates so much ugliness.

[koumori]

I think it's just the song they're talking about disliking, not the message of it. Unless I missed something in the last page of posts.
Personally HBYA isn't a song I would seek out to listen to from Ayu, but I am proud she made it. It represents a lot about who she is a person and what she finds important to say in present day.

[MessiahofSilence]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

How funny that a song about not knowing how beautiful you are generates so much ugliness.

Way to be passive aggressive

[mi|kshake]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

How funny that a song about not knowing how beautiful you are generates so much ugliness.

Haha - you have a point there!

[truehappiness]

Oh, I get that, it's just a little funny to me that it generates what it does when people hear it.

Like "kyou mo ichinichi..." starts and then blood just boils. Then then "YOU DON'T KNOW YOU DON'T KNOW" kicks in and the song is just deleted at that point.

[rainbow_smile]

I was looking at the Heartplace lyrics and the translation from Divine Ayu says "Maybe I keep on fighting against freedom". But doesn't "kitto" mean "surely"?

Also, I found some other translation that says "Surely the fight for freedom will continue"

But then misa-chan's translation also says "Surely, this fight with freedom will continue on".

So now I'm curious. Which one is Ayu actually talking about: fight for freedom or against it?

[truehappiness]

They should probably add that masa takes some liberties with his translation, so it's not going to be 100%, but he is also a native Japanese speaker who has an interesting way of dealing with her lyrics.

Looking at the kana:

きっと自由との戦いは続いてくんだろう
Kitto jiyū to no tatakai wa tsudzuitekundarou

Literally, I think it means..

Surely (kitto)
alongside/with freedom (jiyu to no)
fight will (tatakai wa)
continue on (tsudzuitekundarou)

Judging from the context, to me, it seems like "freedom" is something that you look for but once you have it, it's a bit of a struggle despite having "complete freedom", so the fight continues on. I don't think it was intended to read as her fighting against freedom as in "not wanting independence" but the difficulties of dealing with it after you get it. I kinda hoped the beatfreak liner notes would elaborate more about this song but instead we just got some stories about her recording it.

Perhaps a magazine from that era talks more about Heartplace.

[ExodusUK]

Ayu would never fight against freedom. One of the main motifs of her lyrics is freedom/independence.

[Andrenekoi]

She herself once said freedom requires responsability... I think she means being on control and being free means you must make your life work totally by yourself, and this by itself is a struggle.

[truehappiness]

The song seems to progress like...

During the search for freedom we have hurt others
- - >
I've obtained the freedom I was looking for
- - >
I can do anything I want
- - >
But that freedom isn't what I hoped it was at all
- - >
So the fight/internal struggle continues on

Seems like thoughts to me that you would only ever think about in your "heartplace".

[truehappiness]

Well, it's pretty direct. I don't think I'm being passive aggressive at all since it's pretty accurate, is it not? A song that (I know it's not the reason why) for the most part tells you that you are more beautiful than you give yourself credit for creating such negative emotions in people. I'm not trying to single anyone out or be unnecessarily aggressive, but it's just an observation after seeing so many people jump on that train.

[MessiahofSilence]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Well, it's pretty direct. I don't think I'm being passive aggressive at all since it's pretty accurate, is it not? A song that (I know it's not the reason why) for the most part tells you that you are more beautiful than you give yourself credit for creating such negative emotions in people. I'm not trying to single anyone out or be unnecessarily aggressive, but it's just an observation after seeing so many people jump on that train.

It's because it's a bad song, plain and simple. But what you're doing is generalizing that others hate it for X reason in order to make a snappy one liner. People just don't like the song, be it the melody or cheesy English, or the way her voice sounds, or for whatever other reason. THAT is not bandwagoning, it's just a shared sentiment.

[ExodusUK]

Ayu thinks we are all beautiful even when we bash her.

[jiarongisme]

Originally Posted by ExodusUK

Ayu thinks we are all beautiful even when we bash her.

I understand the dislike for the song, but I love it when it's live. The arrangement in the HOTEL Love songs AT was great. And it was really touching when I saw it live in a-nation Singapore too.

'I want you all, to proud of yourself.'

[oaristos]

Originally Posted by ExodusUK

Ayu thinks we are all beautiful even when we bash her.

That's be best interpretation of the song that I've ever read