It's the ultimate Ayu summer anthem.

July 1st played in my head all day long

It's probably one of her best summer themes. There is a reason it has persisted for so long at least compared to most of her other tracks, there's a bit of a timelessness to it.

It makes a whole lot more sense if you’ve ever experienced rainy season, too lol.

Back in my home town, there was a high chance of it being sunny on July 1st, so I never really felt this aspect of the lyrics—but Japanese rainy season is still in full swing, so it’s actually on the rarer side for it to be sunny and clear.

In any case, it’s one of my favorite songs haha. And a karaoke staple :)

...hence the inclusion on the Rainy Season playlist! It makes sense now.

What was this photo for?
https://music.mthai.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Ayumi.jpg

It was for Aquascutum's trench coats back in 2011. This was the second set which were awful. The first set below look much better

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_Q...Aquascutum.jpg
https://www.tokyohive.com/upload/201...10215_ayu1.jpg
http://imgcc.naver.jp/kaze/mission/U...21bfa48fcb.jpg

^ And here are the making ofs:

thank you �� I totally managed to miss this frizzy hair look from the once iconic shoot x

Completely unrelated to any of the recent posts here but this cracked me up today :roflmao

https://i.imgur.com/cIxfNSn.png

Yes, okay. Thanks, Google....... :sarclap

If they're counting that by remixes, they can add an extra 00 to that number

I wonder how it came to that number. Google has a lot of weird algorithms... it does the same lowish numbers for most Japanese artists. Utada has "29", Namie has "17".

https://109news.jp/event/20150520/25872?detail

Was looking up some old links and found this again! It's so weird that she did an English interview for a Japanese site during A ONE but it was so nice seeing some of the insights officially like that. Now if only they did that more often or even did interviews at all lately...

Funny enough the algorithm works well with Kumi and Sheena

It might be the way theirs wikipedia pages are written, it's taking info from there.

I don't think I had seen this interview before, thanks for sharing! So there's no direct mention at being lonely but there's the sense of being whole, and that's how I percieve that album pretty well. It's a wrap on herself and her live and her musical style, and to me some of her best lyrics in the later releases.

THIS.

I wonder if the song wasn’t called July 1st if it would have less of a cult following. I found myself forcing myself to listen to it on that date, but never really enjoying it. It’s noisy, and something about it makes it uncomfortable to listen to. Maybe cause she’s shouting, idk. But practically every other summer song is better than this one.

^it's one of the best tho. Can't believe that song is disliked. At least it is not bad. The title of the worst summer song obviously goes to Greatful Days.

Funnily enough, I never happen to listen to it on July 1st but all throuugh the year, So no, i don't think your theory is right. Was it even released on that day? The cult is probably coming from H being a hit single.

I really dislike it though. the verses are alright, but the chorus is just... very bad. my fave summer songs are fairyland and BLUE BIRD :heart

Best one is Glitter all the way. Glitter/fated still remains the best summer single ever released imo.
July 1st is a bit noisy for me too, but I kinda like it.

yep glitter definitely deserves a shoutout! that was a great summer single. fated is gorgeous, too.

Summer diary wins worst summer song

I wouldn't say Summer diary is the worst, it's just a forgettable song but it's not bad. Misses a bit of identity. To me her worst one is Sunrise :tired