『A BALLADS 2』on sale 2021.03.12

[thinkingoutloud89]

^uhm excuse me, Tales of is huge. Its third to FF and DQ + Xillia is probably one of the most known outside of Japan.

Thats said, I meant exactly that. One should may compare Seikos early days to her 25th year - it may gives an indication. But you can basically count any Diva worldwide to this. In the end, it is individual tho. Namie was to japan more like Beyonce is to the world where as Ayumi is more like, lets say, Madonna or Kylie who are still strong but don't move much CDs anymore.

Lastly, you can't just say "she needs to release a hit single" because its not up to her what becomes a hit. She did it all, she did her sound her liking and that what japanese listeners would usually eat up and nothing really worked in her favor these last few years.

It doesn't really help that the quality of her singing declined these last few years. Not her fault - she gave her all for the audience that started to turn their backs towards her.

She is still doing fine and I think she is, personally seen, in a very good place right now. At least that is what i want to believe atm.

I really just want some surprises on this collection and I#m actually curious to see if she does decent with it.

[Evan Odinson]

Originally Posted by thinkingoutloud89

^uhm excuse me, Tales of is huge. Its third to FF and DQ + Xillia is probably one of the most known outside of Japan.

I'm a huge Tales Of fan and I know it's pretty popular but really far to be as popular as FF, KH or DQ. Even people that are not really into gaming know about FF and KH but, at least for the comments and stuff I see from people outside of Japan, you have to be into RPGs to know about the Tales Of, if you check the openings on YouTube there are hundred of recent comments asking "is this an anime?" so yep, definetely not as popular as FF or KH

But I agree with everything else you said, a hit single could come in many different ways at this point and it's not up to her what people will like.

[j.graziano]

Originally Posted by Evan Odinson

Also Hikki and Namie both have collaborations with huge anime/series such as Evangelion, One Piece and Kingdom Hearts that are popular not only in Japan but world-wide, you can't convice me that doesn't help in sales/streams, Ayu's last big collaboration was with the Tales Of Series but tbh it's not that popular outside of Japan. Hikki and Namie's songs are great on their own but if you add those big anime/games names to them, of course they're going to sell more, at least that's what I think.

🍵

[the3ye]

Avex pushed the release to April 8th, 2021 "due to production related circumstances". On Feb. 20 (Sat) at 7:00 pm (JST) they will release a video on YouTube to announce a portion of the tracks that will be featured on the album.

Spoiler:

Update regarding release date changes for ayumi hamasaki's "A BALLADS 2"

Thank you for your continued support of ayumi hamasaki.

The ballads album "A BALLADS 2", which was scheduled to be released on March 12th, 2021 (Fri), will now have a different release date due to production related circumstances.
We would like to sincerely apologize to everyone that is eagerly awaiting this release.

The new release date will be April 8th, 2021 (Thu).

Also, track listing details and other content related info for this album still haven't been announced yet, but on Feb. 20 (Sat) at 7:00pm a video will be premiering on the official ayumi hamasaki YouTube channel to announce a portion of the tracks that will be featured on the album.
Be sure to check it out.

I want to ensure that everyone loves the album, so we are working nonstop for maximum quality.
I'm truly delighted by everyone's excitement and anticipation.

All ayumi hamasaki staff

[RealLight]

Oh, darn production related? What could it be? Remastering? Photoshoot? Covers editing?

But hey, at least we'll have something on the 20th

[voguehoney]

If production related，please seriously to re-recording (or new mix) some hit songs

[Gustavopc]

I wonder if ayu's pregnancy made then push it back. Or maybe someone in the team got sick. I think it is great to know they delayed it rather than rush its release in a dangerous or short scenario. On the other hand I am so effin curious lol

[Aderianu]

How can anything production related prevents from posting tracklist? They lost master tape and don't know if they'll find it and if it will be included to album?

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

Hmm... interesting.

I’d love to say this means it’ll be something special but I’m used to Ayu’s tricks by now lol.
I’ll patiently wait and see what it means.

[Toniayu123]

I hate them. Since Japan is closed, maybe the production issue is with the material providers for physical copies (?) Or Ayu Finally decided to record something more

[~angel*ayumi~]

Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan

Hmm... interesting.

I’d love to say this means it’ll be something special but I’m used to Ayu’s tricks by now lol.
I’ll patiently wait and see what it means.

Yeah, maybe in the end it´s only a a broken machine and they just need a bit longer to print the Booklet, the CD whatever xD

[RealLight]

I just noticed it's gonna be released right on April 8th, could she give us something else special?

Or is it just convenient to drop it on that day? lol

[thinkingoutloud89]

Vinyls are getting pushed back because there is monomer producing and pressing them atm. There probably just some distributors that don’t work on the normal capacity. Chill.

[Sim']

Good that they pushed it back, now they don't have the time excuse to fail us, and it can also be considered as her 23rd anniversary release

Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan

I’d love to say this means it’ll be something special but I’m used to Ayu’s tricks by now lol.

LMAO same here, I ain't fallin' for that "It'll be wonderful" trick xD
But still excited for the tracklist...

[Deep snow]

while I, too, would like to be optimistic after reading her message—thinking she's working on song rearrangements—I must confess that I'm feeling just as cautious as a lot of you. it's most likely a technical production and distribution issue, which is to be expected in such a difficult time as this.

still hoping we'd get to see part of an excellent track list on Saturday, with new songs (plural), but I also know in my heart of hearts that it could simply include nine tracks of Days (Original Mix) and a worse mastering of æternal

[Evan Odinson]

The possibilities are infinite, technical issues, someone in the team got covid, re-recording or re-mixing some tracks, distribution issues or maybe she went into labor during the cover photoshoot lol (no seriously, maybe she gave birth or she's about to do it so they want to wait a little longer)

[Deep snow]

just dawned on me: since they're release part of the track list on a video, this could mean we're likely going to see the cover art in that video on Saturday too, right? (I imagine it would be in the same style as a "COMINGU SOON" promo CM, so it would make sense to have the cover(s) ready)

[Earth_maiden]

I'm happy, I need to save more money for the release haha.

[!Lawi!]

Originally Posted by Deep snow

just dawned on me: since they're release part of the track list on a video, this could mean we're likely going to see the cover art in that video on Saturday too, right? (I imagine it would be in the same style as a "COMINGU SOON" promo CM, so it would make sense to have the cover(s) ready)

You'd think so but I suppose they could also just pull a regular title font on a black screen and call it a day.

In fact, I don't know how long in advance they shoot anything but couldn't 'production' reasons just mean Ayu needs to rest / can't attend a photoshoot for any reason? Or are we fairly sure it's related to the mixing, or even the recording.

[maxikot]

^ production can be literally anything so everything is pure speculation I'm curious about the video, maybe we get a snippet of pray for you ^^