No, it's studio mixing/mastering. Actual trend in music industry is to making music less and less dynamic but more and more lauder. Such music sound "better" on your smartphone or mp3 player but when you put the CD to decent audio system it will hurt your ears. Turn on "GUILTY" album - it sounds like wall of sound (instruments are flat and mixed together - not separated from each other giving you feeling of space and air between them) and it's the worse (technically) album of Ayu (shame, because songs are good).

Install Foobar2000 and add Dynamic Range Meter to it - check some of your CDs and you'll see the problem (or here's some reference for Ayu recordings: http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/li...ayumi+hamasaki). Tracks from "M(A)DE IN JAPAN" are dynamic on level 6-8 (most of songs 7). Most of tracks from "A One" has level 4-5 (the only track with level 8 is "The GIFT"). A good level is 14+ but you can forget about it in modern mainstream pop - anything with level bigger than 7 should make us happy nowadays.

Wow, thanks for the insight! I don't really know much about mixing/mastering.

^ Check out this movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7mUKbi8CEg - it explains whole subject.

The same problem is with remastering of CDs (like Ayu's BEST) - it doesn't make records sound better, after "cleaning" they sound louder and less dynamic. Example: original "No way to say" from "Memorial address" - 7, remastered version from "A BEST II" and "A COMPLETE" - 5. It's the same with other songs - they lost 1-2 levels down after "remaster". I'm surprised "A BEST -15th Anniversary Edition-" is a postitive exception (dynamic of some songs leveled up comparing to their original versions, like "M": original - 7, "A COMPLETE" - 5, "A BEST -15th anni-" - 8).

When I first heard the music videos on youtube, I felt like the sound was a bit better than the rips from the streaming service. I think they sound kind of harsh with not much space or air in the sound. But still good overall. In the videos Ayu's voice also sounds less loud. What Baernash is saying is all true. I have come to expect that there will always be a chance that a new album might end up loud and flat.:no
I wish Ayu would have continued releasing her albums on HDCDs after RAINBOW. I love the sound those offer.:luv2♫

As others have mentioned, she got a new mixer around the time of Party Queen and it is super noticeable on both Love Again and A One. My main complaint about both of those albums was always that they both sounded flat. Like, pancake flat. I just don't understand how her sound took such an obvious downturn in quality. I wouldn't be surprised if Made in Japan has a different mixer.

Mad World full PV http://v.yinyuetai.com/video/2603518

I didn't notice any changes during Party Queen, but it is super noticeable during LOVE again and A ONE.

To be honest I will never understand why people listen to music on their smartphones. It sounds horrible. I have a sony walkman (I'm pretty satiesfied for a mp3 player) for when I'm not home and sometimes I forget to charge it and have to use my phone. Everything suddenly sounds like a bunch of noise instead of music.
But it's no wonder that a lot of people don't hear a difference in quality regarding mixing/mastering when they just listen to their music through their phone and also use cheap headphones.

"Not available in your region because of copyright matters."
:headache

I know what you feel but nowadays a lot of people listening on smartphones only - sometimes on laptops. Market has changed and young generation don't give a sh** about quality - they not even buying CDs (just downloading mp3s or buying on iTunes because it's handy for them). If you are an audiophile than you have a problem because music industry don't care anymore to give you "quality" music.

I uploaded it to MEGA:

MAD WORLD (full PV)

Thank you !
I really liked it, and they actually cut the middle part for the short version.
I'm a little disappointed that the black ink wasn't more "used" : it just appears and Ayu does 1 o 2 slaps and that's all. The beginning is quite long.

It is interesting that the black ink would not be on her face when she smashes it..

^ she doesn't seem to touch her face tho and the ink seems to be something see through

^^ It seems to be too thick to that.

If you don't want to DL Mad World here it is on streaming!

https://www.facebook.com/24854211883...4935267253835/

that ink looks like blood on her hands

^ I think that was the idea. It could be pretty cool if they would make it red while leaving the rest black and white.

Yinyuetai banner of M(A)DE IN JAPAN

^ what is yinyuetai? It's is nothing official right? Because this looks... I don't even want to say fanmade, because even fans do much better jobs.

It's like youtube but for chinese people, I think.

http://www.yinyuetai.com/

By the way, Ayu is doing good in japanese top videos.

http://i63.tinypic.com/m7ylhk.png