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

[truehappiness]

They are both incredible IMO.

[xLuna&1LOVE]

They are both terrible IMO.

[Uknow!]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

They are both incredible IMO.

+1

[truehappiness]

snowy kiss' bassline sings to me, but The Show Must Go On has that amazing build up.

[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.

[DevilsClap]

At first I wasn't liking both call or Letter much, but as of late Letter is a song I listen to a lot.
It's a good song to me. I don't know why since I suck at explaining in general

[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.

[ExodusUK]

Is it true that ayu's dancers aren't allowed to sleep with each other?

[truehappiness]

It's possible. May be why some went missing for a while.

Originally Posted by Zeke.

No wonder I had an existential crisis after the release of that album. Lol.

I'm pretty sure you've had one of those after almost every release since 2009, haha.

[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]

The taint around LOVE again mostly has something to do with the LOVE -and- again releases and then coming together as LOVE again as though it was some sort of strange joke. Maro was an issue too, but I think for the most part, the Western fandom at least was rolling their eyes at the LOVE again announcement. Both minis were super strong IMO but then... that happened.

Knowing that most of the tracks were older probably didn't help, but they fit in their own weird way.

I'm thinking that mashing together the minis as LOVE again and not attempting to create a concept in any way other than "here's LOVE and again with some other tracks" left a sour taste for most people.

[Andrenekoi]

^Getting pissed off because the tracks were old was really silly... Every single musician who released more than 2 albums have several unreleased tracks either because they aren't finished yet or because they don't fit current projects. It's not that rare for some big hits to be around for years and years because the composers didn't figure out before the proper way to finish it.

[Zeke.]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

I'm pretty sure you've had one of those after almost every release since 2009, haha.

Lol, well I definitely was severely disappointed in R'n'R Circus, going into the listening experience with a fully conceptualized idea of what I thought the album's songs would be like based off all the visual teasers she had given us leading up to its release. But with PQ, I specifically avoided constructing images of what the songs would be like in my mind to avoid that pitfall. I said to myself "This is unprecedented; an Ayu album filled with never-before-heard material! Out of 14 tracks, I'm sure to love at least 4 of them." But that most definitely was not the case. I try to set my expectations low, and now I'm thankful if I get even one track that I love 100%. I just want a track that makes a monumental impact from the first listen; I've grown tired of tracks that I become partial to only with time.

Originally Posted by truehappiness

The taint around LOVE again mostly has something to do with the LOVE -and- again releases and then coming together as LOVE again as though it was some sort of strange joke.
I'm thinking that mashing together the minis as LOVE again and not attempting to create a concept in any way other than "here's LOVE and again with some other tracks" left a sour taste for most people.

At first this may have been the case, and certainly had an influence on how the album was received, but it has no bearing on the album itself in retrospect. It always comes down to the material, IMO. Had the new songs on the cumulative album been (just as) stellar, it would have softened the blow. When I look back on the album now, I completely forget that LOVE and again were marketed as "albums", and my perception of LOVE again is influenced only by the full-length's material. Going off of that, the best material on LOVE again are the tracks that were released prior (from LOVE and again), with the rest of the tracks being perceived as dull by comparison. I don't mind that she put the minis' tracks on another album; I mind the fact that she put them on an album filled with tracks that sound as if they haven't been properly finished. They sound like demo recordings you would send off to an agency for reference purpose only, before investing time and effort into polishing them up for official release.

[rainbow_smile]

I never really minded the "LOVE + again = LOVE again" fiasco that much, I personally kinda liked the idea of combining the names like that actually.

But now after some time has passed I got bored of this album pretty fast, unlike A ONE for example. I only listen to Wake me up, Ivy, untitled for her... story 2, Sweet scar and You & me on a regular basis these days. Maybe also Song 4 u.

I never understood the comparison between petal and Marionette by the way

[attractive nausea]

^ I think it was petal and Pride, not Marionette

[Andrenekoi]

^It was Petal and Marionette, and I never got that one either...

[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

[Zeke.]

Originally Posted by rainbow_smile

I only listen to Wake me up, Ivy, untitled for her... story 2

How long did it take you to come out of that coma the first time untitled for her... story 2 lulled you into it?

[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.