NEXT LEVEL album thoughts

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by Lady_Eowyn

Yeah right. I understand you want to be positive but the only truth is that the economy in Japan (it's actually a worldwide recession) is awful, from every perspective you want to see it, so saying the albums (even huge sellers like KAT-TUN) are not doing bad is a bit delusional. We can only hope the economy is gonna improve in the next months, so the sales on the musical charts will get better as well.

They are doing really bad considering how sales were in the past years, but are doing good considering how everyone is selling today, that's what I mean... 350k is far from being huge, but still on top 10, what would be impossible in May some years ago... So:

compared with past years: BAD
compared with how everyone is selling today: GOOD

It will not outsell GUILTY, but no many people will outsell GUILTY this year =) New times, new parameters

[ayumixfan]

Originally Posted by Lady_Eowyn

Thank you sweetie



And the million album thing about (m)u, that's just the oricon's approximation. Oricon never gives the exact numbers. Avex and the Riaj reported a million copies for (m)u. I am informed so i guess that does qualifies me to be an ayu stan. Honestly, i don't give a s/h/i/t.

And i have no desire to waste my time giving huge explanations to my argument, so i'm gonna make it short:

.- Your comment really bothered me, Ayumixfan, that's why i replied that way.
.- I apologize if i offended you,
.- However, i didn't twist anything you said. i wrote my argument according with what you wrote. I think that basically everything you are saying are excuses to defend Utada's sales. I don't believe you are close enough to Utada to make the affirmations you are doing right now, so i think that what you are saying is pretty much especulation. I could make a longer argument to support what i'm saying but i don't want to flame up the Utada/Ayu discussion more than i already did.





Yeah right. I understand you want to be positive but the only truth is that the economy in Japan (it's actually a worldwide recession) is awful, from every perspective you want to see it, so saying the albums (even huge sellers like KAT-TUN) are not doing bad is a bit delusional. We can only hope the economy is gonna improve in the next months, so the sales on the musical charts will get better as well.

I don't know how I can make this more clear for you : ) Avex sales and RIAJ count shipments as in what stores will buy and try to sell to the people. The albums might still be in stores and not bought which is probably the case because the album is very old. Thats why oricon is trusted as the sales because it is counted from people's purchases. if you want to say she shipped a million or sold a million to stores fine, but the population did not buy a million copies : )

And for the utada thing, I'm not making it up. She stated it in her interview. Since i know you're not too big on hikki you probably don't watch her interviews. I'm sorry if you don't believe me and you are probably not willing to watch her interviews, but thats what she actually said and I just posted according to it. I personally thought it was pretty obvious exodus was experimental releasing electropop which wasnt very popular in the US at the time, but hey this is just my opinion here. On top of this I love how you say "You don't know utada enough to say this about her" but you don't know ayu enough to say she's really making music to be an artist and doesn't care about sales. For all we know, she could be releasing electropop trying to ride Perfume's wave of resurrecting the genre, so she was hoping to gain sales from this. She might be releasing rock because Mr Children releases rock and still sells! We don't know any of this. At least Utada stated the things I wrote in a bunch of interviews.

Third of all, I never said her music is bad because her sales is bad. I said I expected lower sales compared to her other albums because i think her music was bad. Thats why I'm not surprised. It would nice of you to read my posts if you are going to reply to them : ). But hey if you want to reply without reading then thats fine with me : D Honestly the sales for Next Level arent that bad. People just think so horrendously of it and get too defensive about it :S And like I stated earlier, if I based my music on sales I think I'd be listening to artists like EXILE and JE over ai otsuka and aiko. You mis-intepreted my words, which I understand so its ok : ) I just think you should drop the idea that your post is the same as what I wrote because it really isn't. I know I said I expected these sales because i thought the album was bad, but hey that doesn't mean I said the sales suck, but they are a drop from her previous release. And plus I said I expected these sales, when secret came out I didn't expect it to sell that much, I expected more. Its just my expectations of sales from my opinion of the music. Its not the other way around : ) ~! I didn't expect Love Leter to sell as well as Love Piece but I still think it a good album. Like I said its just my personal standards for an album. It was jsut a coincedence Next Level hit my guessed amount of sales. Even if it sold millions, that won't make me think the album is now good.

And I agree with Andre. Why are we comparing her sales from YEARS ago like I am and Rainbow :S when the market was different. :S The parameters should at least be set to closer times. Like even if you compare her sales now to (Miss)undersstood times, it would be counted as a decent sale. Aiko's Kanojo only sold 400k and it was a success! Sure her sales have dropped, but I think she's still doing well. Personally I think she could be doing better, but she's still doing well! Thats why i always state decent over good. Maybe people just expect more out of her because she ususally does astonishingly well or are comparing her to artists like mr. Children who are still able to sell over a million. But hey different things happen to different artists right? XD OH well its all opinions anyways : ) ~! Thats just my two cents.

P.S. Lady_Eowyn, I don't have anything against you, but i do think you defend ayu too much. I think I stated this earlier. I'm allowed to have my own expectations for the album. I might think an album is good, but I can still expect bad sales from it like Love Letter, and I might expect an album I don't like to sell good like Best First things from kuu. I think you jsut made implications about that line from what I thought about the album, which was obviously not good. I just set my standards for this album lower than Secret because I think her popularity is on a decline and I personally don't like the album, so I expected the sales not to be as high :S It doesn't mean I based quality of music on sales. Like I said, I never said Next Level is a bad album, I said I didn't like the album. What I didnt like about your post is that you had to bring up another artist and start this whole comparison thing, and then say thats its my standards. Thats just silly. You don't know what I'm thinking : ) ~!

[AyuRox]

Bridge to the sky-Pretty cool. I like it towards the end where the synth comes in. The rest is good too. 4/5

NEXT LEVEL-I like this one, like, the style is really cool. Its upbeat and relaxing at the same time. There's a simplicity about the instrumentation that really gets to me. idk, its hard to describe. The scenery in the MV is really beautiful, too. 5/5

Disco-munication-This is very likely my fave ayu interlude. (of the few I've heard) I just really like the electronic thing it has going on. OMGLOL. The first time I heard the siren, I though there was a fire, or the cops were coming to arrest me or something. It scared the crap outta me. 5/5

EnergizE-This is probably my favorite song from NEXT LEVEL! Whenever I hear it, I can't help but smile. It puts me in such a great mood! Plus dance and swing together are awesome! I love that little triplet thing at the beginning and the end. (if anyone knows what I'm talking about) 5/5

Sparkle-I like Sparkle, but its lost some of its luster since I first heard it. It seems a tad repetative, and the chorus is on the same few notes over and over again. The bridge is a little lacking, but it does have a mysterious feel to it. 4/5

rollin'-This one's pretty awesome. Its all electronic and its just really cool. The effects during the chorus are really cool, too. The part that comes after the chorus is really *insert synonym of "cool" here*. (I need a bigger vocabulary) 5/5

GREEN-I agree that it feels out of place. Its like, random chinese sounding pop interjected in the middle of dance music. The song itself is good, regardless. Musically, its a little bizarre that the vocals are in swing, but the instrumentation is in even eighths. The end is a little reminicent of M. It gets all powerful, and then just before the end, it gets all calm again and repeats the verse. I like that. Not the best song, but I like it. 4/5

Load of the SHUGO-It starts off sounding like its gonna be electronic/dance, and then, electric guitar! I like the rock feel of it, but ist really repetative. 3/5

identity-I really like this one. While not my favorite, its close. The one thing about it is that right before the chorus, there's a split second of silence, which is just kinda weird, and makes the song sound like the music was spliced together. The song is really edgy, and I love it. the bridge is awesome. It sounds almost hip-hop-ish and then it goes into an awesome guitar solo. 5/5

Rule-like Sparkle, its lost some of its luster. At least it doesn't feel out of place, like GREEN... (If I could copy and paste from iTunes, I totally would) But yeah, its really rock based. The chorus is somewhat lackluster. The bridge and the parts right before the chorus are really calm and melodic, which offers a nice contrast from the rest of the song. 4/5

LOVE 'n' HATE-This song is really cool. Like, identity, its really edgy. The percussion in this song is pretty interesting. The beginning is cool, the way it starts with the violins. I like the verse a lot, and the synth in the backgroiund adds a nice touch. The bridge is more melodic, which contrasts the rest of the song. 5/5

Pieces of SEVEN-Starts off really melodic, but then it switches to that characteristic HAL sound. I like the end more than the beginning. 5/5

Days-one of my fave Ayu ballads. It makes me feel like Christmas. This song is just so beautiful and emational. Idk ehat else to say. Its just an awesome song. 'nuff said.

Curtain Call-Does the very beginning before the vocals remind anyone else of "Without You" by Mariah Carey? I hate to make that comparison, but yeah. This song is so calm and emotional! I love it. Throughout the song it gains movement and then just before the end, it calms down. 5/5