She's in a different place as far as her career goes.

At the time when she was a perfectionist workaholic, she was also barely eating right or taking care of herself. If she is healthy and happy, I don't have any issue really with the images she wants to produce now.

^ in the end it is really only up to her. obviously she is happy with the visuals she is putting out there, I am just stating my opinion. because: forum.

she could be eating right, taking care of herself and still make photoshoots like she used to. just saying as an artist her ealier visual work had huge appeal to me and was very inspiring. it's a pity; but obviously she doesn't owe us anything either, I do understand that ;)

yea at the end of the day she'll do what she wants, and we either like it or we don't.

she's definitely lost her edge as a visual artist though, but I think that's not what she's going for now. you don't always have to be an innovator to be a popular well-selling pop artist. being vanilla works as well, especially if you've been around forever.

indeed

I always hear praise for I am... but I think it's one of her worst covers, along with (miss)understood and Love songs lol. I don't even think she has had all that many good covers in the past. Just serviceable.

Japanesee fans loved the TA cover. our taste is really different lol

https://www.facebook.com/ayuangel.ne...type=3&theater

It's possible to see who voted on twitter polls? Or is it a function only available to accounts with a lot of followers?

japanese taste really confuses me lol XD
I wish I could sit together with japanese fans and have a discussion about photoshoots/cover design so I can understand why they prefer (in my opinion) bland beauty shots to something that involves an interesting concept / something more to look at than just a face XD I'm really interested! :D

so this proves that Ayu is right on the money.

Lol i agree, but at least there was a concept behind it, and an ambition, though it's not necessarily to my taste?

It feels like since Love songs (maybe even earlier? I'm not sure), it's just close up shots with variations in styling, which is a little static.

I actually think Duty and Rainbow are some of her best covers ever.

Because tastes differ and some people prefer something that they like to look at and that looks pretty on their shelves to something with meaning. In fact, even a lot of Western fans don't care about the meaning and concept if the cover doesn't look pretty (Party queen). Besides, not everyone agrees that these covers have a meaning, some people think it's just a pic with a rope, so yeah. That's why everyone's opinion is different :D

I think she looks super pretty in the PQ shots! (again, taste differs)

^ Well, a lot of fans hate it because it looks trashy, that's what I meant to say

PQ covers are not the definition of something pretty to put on my shelf xD

I quite like it when she toes the line between trashy and pretty, because that's kind of what her music is like nowadays. It demonstrates a certain level of self awareness that feels intelligent, in control, and empowered to me. But I definitely understand why many people dislike it. It's not my favourite cover, but there was, for me, at least an idea behind the shoot that was coherent to the album theme.

I think it isn't THAT surprising because this type of pictures also gets the most likes on her instagram.

I hate party queen because it looks half assed. And also, her image was never a party queen. Like, ever.

She was never a Lindsay or Paris or Britney.

So to try to play up the "media portrayal" of her, it doesn't work--she wasn't portrayed that way.

She's portrayed as a diva, but that's not the same as what's being expressed on PQ. So yeah, that's what makes me hate that cover lol.

I really like the Party Queen covers but tokyojapanfan, yeah, you've got a point.

^^ I also wonder why she thought the public / media had the image of her being a party queen (if I remember correctly she said that in an interview) where did that idea come from? it's not like she was constantly partying or caught wasted a la lohan so the whole concept was really weird to me... :/

I don't mind Party Queen too much, particularly if that shoot was a reflection of how Ayu felt at the time.

I think my primary issue with Ayu's recent shoots isn't her expression/photoshop as I commented upon before, but perhaps the lack of 'interesting' environment in her shoots? Like, I wouldn't even mind if they are beauty shots if they were more like Memorial Address or MY STORY, I think I just want to see environment objects other than a plain bed (i.e. A ONE and LOVE again). That is what is interesting about this shoot - there is actually rope, and I hope it appears in the booklet also so that the concept is fleshed out and explained/supported.

I agree so much. I can't help the feeling that she was a drama queen while she came up with the concept and pitying herself.