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

[rainbow_smile]

^ It might've been compared to Pride, too. Tbh this comparison would've made a little more sense to me. But it was more overwhelmingly compared to marionette. Here are just a few examples:

Originally Posted by Kirshwasser

Petal reminds me of marionette, but it has different atmosphere like darker.

Originally Posted by relmy

Petal is a nice, but it does feel like the light mid-tempo soft version of tracks like Marionette, which is a bit disappointing.

Originally Posted by Heavenly

petal : it's a really good surprise ! It's like they took all the interlude of Love songs and turned them into a full song. I got that Marionette vibe, bittersweet feeling.

Originally Posted by marty

Like, I kept comparing petal to Marionette, and SAKURA to forgiveness, and Bye bye darling to identity, just like in FIVE I kept comparing Why... to It Was.

Originally Posted by Zeke.

petal is her cheapest sounding song to date. For me, it is just terrible. It is like a reject version of Marionette. The arrangement is seriously so unfortunate.

There's even this poll

And those were just some of the posts I found, there were more, but I don't want to make the post too long. I only found 4 posts comparing it to Pride, and two of them were by the same person (and 3 of them also compared it to Marionette)

I have no life

[truehappiness]

Personally I thought of SCAR iirc more than Marionette with that track.

I like all of LOVE again on some level but it is clear some tracks are better than others.

[ExodusUK]

I loved Love Again and I wasn't upset about the whole mini-album/single thing because it was painfully obvious it was going to happen the minute Avex the "5 consecutive releases for 5 months" thing. Ivy, Sweet Scar, Song 4 U, Petal, Wake Me Up, Snowy Kiss, Missing, Melody and Sakura are some of my favourites in recent years.

[DonkeyKongRemix]

Originally Posted by ExodusUK

I loved Love Again and I wasn't upset about the whole mini-album/single thing because it was painfully obvious it was going to happen the minute Avex the "5 consecutive releases for 5 months" thing. Ivy, Sweet Scar, Song 4 U, Petal, Wake Me Up, Snowy Kiss, Missing, Melody and Sakura are some of my favourites in recent years.

These were also my favorite tracks, minus Snowy Kiss and Missing (too hectic for me!). Though the quality of the songs was lacking, I found her vocals to be quite wonderful.

[truehappiness]

Some people were completely "blindsided" by it though and got unnecessarily angry over it IMO.

[truehappiness]

I dunno, I didn't particularly care too much about the mini label. They were amazing releases.

[truehappiness]

I feel a new album announcement coming in a week or so. Anyone else feel the same? So much hinting till now...

Don't think I could wait till the end of the tour for an announcement though.

[Aderianu]

seems Ayu done with her "writer-block" (or at the very end of it), so soon she'll go to studio for recording
usually we get announcement at this time

[truehappiness]

Yeah, since January she's been talking about plans for the new album. I wonder just what it'll be like.

[Aderianu]

I hope she will not stamp songs with same lyrics
I don't want more songs about how it's important to be yourself

[attractive nausea]

Originally Posted by Aderianu

I don't want more songs about how it's important to be yourself

I'd rather have that than songs about her asking her lover to let her stay by his side forever because he's her final love.

[hayasaki]

Originally Posted by attractive nausea

I'd rather have that than songs about her asking her lover to let her stay by his side forever because he's her final love.

or if she'll have one wing on her back, or if one of her wish will come true lol

[truehappiness]

I think we'll get at least two of those. And maybe one about being someone's one and only.

However, I hope for more general issues.

[Aderianu]

even if she's great lyricist, maybe that's because she has too many songs

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

The lyrics to "Catcher In The Light" and the chorus of "Sparkle" both say "If you just stand there looking at it, it'll never be yours."

She has a few other overarching concepts that come up often... a fear of the future, difficulty putting feelings into words, losing something & wondering how it would be to get it back again, reactions to people who pass by her, the imagery of flowers and in particular their ability to bloom despite their fragility, requests that someone lie consistently so she can believe it's true regardless, the finality of saying "farewell" versus saying "see ya" like it's no big deal, the differences between reality and dreams or ideals, thoughts she has while looking up at the sky, making choices & taking one's own destiny into one's hands... There are a ton of common concepts she uses to illustrate her feelings & her life.

[280301]

I always find it interesting reading about how other people's perceptions of albums change over time. I feel like I've come to appreciate GUILTY more in recent years, it is ~so~ underrated in her discography imo. I feel like the quality of the album-only tracks is on par (if not greater) than the single tracks (aside from fated because that song is perf). It's probably not the album that I would recommend to somebody who was interested in checking out Ayu, but I think it is still a solid album with overarching themes and concepts that are lyrically unique and common to Ayu's overall body of work, and the production, whilst not comparable to work released in her peak, is still quality (particularly in comparison to now).

[Zeke.]

Originally Posted by 280301

I always find it interesting reading about how other people's perceptions of albums change over time. I feel like I've come to appreciate GUILTY more in recent years, it is ~so~ underrated in her discography imo. I feel like the quality of the album-only tracks is on par (if not greater) than the single tracks (aside from fated because that song is perf). It's probably not the album that I would recommend to somebody who was interested in checking out Ayu, but I think it is still a solid album with overarching themes and concepts that are lyrically unique and common to Ayu's overall body of work, and the production, whilst not comparable to work released in her peak, is still quality (particularly in comparison to now).

Totally. I adore GUILTY. I feel like it is so true to the Hamasaki Ayumi image and sound, brand, quality of music and style. I think it was the last album to feel like that in a complete fashion, from head to toe. It's very representative of practically every portion of her catalogue.

[ExodusUK]

The title track is my favourite song from GUILTY, it's lovely.

[oaristos]

Originally Posted by ExodusUK

The title track is my favourite song from GUILTY, it's lovely.

I absolutely love GUILTY (the track, not a big fan of the whole album).

[Gustavopc]

GUILTY had just been released when I came across ayu and along with Duty made me fall in love with her. The album is just so... complete, I'd say. A shame it wasn't supported properly by a tour, I feel like the album is a whole story and the raw emotions in it would be amazing to be set in a tour.

[truehappiness]

IMO, Love songs was her last complete package (maybe Party Queen as well) and since then she'd sort of been making things because she felt she had to without conceptualizing the release ahead of time or make releases for the sake of making releases. GUILTY had a strange unfortunate creation in that she seemed to be suffering from writer's block and had to force herself to create that album when she really didn't want to write and that might be kinda why that album never got a proper tour, like she felt guilty for the album's birth somehow.

From her debut to MY STORY to (miss)understood to Secret to GUILTY though, she was creating album after album of the SIGNATURE Ayumi Hamasaki sound, but then after that it seemed like she was lost. Loved NEXT LEVEL but that is where things started to feel off and you could tell from just about every release that came after.

Thinking about it and linking it with interviews throughout the years, I get the sense that she started to get a bit of fatigue around the time of the 1st and 2nd ASIA TOUR and was pushing herself to her breaking point.

However, despite all this, I think she is coming back in full force as the Ayumi Hamasaki we knew after A ONE and sixxxxxx as much as people disagree about those albums.

Originally Posted by Aderianu

even if she's great lyricist, maybe that's because she has too many songs

I think she's had some amazing lyrics lately like in A ONE or sixxxxxx, so I think there's still some good stuff coming! I'd just like a bit more general stuff that is all encompassing like some of the tracks on I am... that had lyrics that were more than just "love" but they were about humanity, you know? I know Ayu has something to say about these topics but I guess she may be wary of bringing it to her music.

From Misa-chan's blog:

With the crazy schedule of the 5-month consecutive release project, there’s not much time to spend reflecting on the 15th Anniversary too (laugh). Shall we leave that to the end, and talk about “petal” first?
“It’s a mysterious song, like “marionette”. The song and lyrics are different from ayu’s usual style, so much so that the production staff were amazed. However, the lyrics are not strange for the sake of being strange. When I heard the song, things just fell into place, and I managed to pen the lyrics almost immediately.”

I would say that it is more SCAR-like than Marionette, but it does have that vibe.