Lovely but then the words 'how beautiful you are' can be better i guess

the more I look at this the more I like it!
This could have been an amazing album cover too

I'm hoping that CREA will make a return on this album, though that's kinda useless to hope for. :/ For the album cover I'd have ayu all diva-ish :love.

how come vocal has increased if she can't hit high notes in HBYA second part of the song in its peak, aka starting 4:19?

She can't or the song wasn't written that way? :P

Because the song was not written specifically for her vocals. Timmy said himself that before writing for Ayu, he has not listened to her back catalogue, he didn't know exactly what she can do with her voice. And she can hit them. Not very well but she can. A handful years ago she would have done it much worse.
Also, vocal control is not all about pitch. It's about tone, dynamics, even vibrato...things she has gained a whole lot control over.
While pitch is the aspect influenced by her hearing. And her hearing hasn't gotten better obviously. It can't get better. She learned to deal with it better though.

Learn more about vocals before you continue please, you have yet to bring a valid argument aside "she can't hit the notes in this specific song we have never heard her sing before her vocals changed well".

I would hope for this as well!!

you didn't reply to my question, I understand about vocal/singing control, but you said her vocal has increased, in which I understand that her voice has become more powerful. it might not sound as strained as earlier, but how come the voice is stronger when it's not?
in the song the music & sound starting 4:19 seems to cover Ayu voice and Ayu can't sing it over. I do not know and I don't think anyone else knows if it is intentional or is because of her incapability. then I do not understand why even record the song she's incapable of singing?
of course it might not be important but I guess I personally would have liked this song much more if during it's peak after 4:19 she would have made it bloom with the power of her voice. to me this is what made the song dissapointing to a certain extent

+1 :yes

it's been a while........

So, is it safe to say that Timmy wasn't an Ayu fan previous to working with her?

Honestly I'm just not sure what you're talking about in some parts of this. What exactly are you talking about? The vocals being overpowered by the instrumental?
She's not incapable of singing the melody, she hits the notes clearly, they are quite high for her and there's a gigantic jump up to them, making it much harder to sing them, it's a rather hard melody in the last minute so there is a bit of straining but it's not nearly as bad as the straining she had for similarily hard parts before. Her vocals clearly improved, the song just gets hard for a mezzo in the end parts. I'm comparing her vocals to how they were BEFORE, I'm not overall judging them. Ayumi is still a mediocre singer, she's just much better than she was before.

yes, the vocals being much overpowered :yes

That's more often the arrangement than the vocals themselves. Mariah Carey and Celine Dion are overpowered by their instrumentals all the time.
Ayumi sings the melody well, the instrumental is just so full and loud it overpowers her for a moment there.

if u are talking aboy the studio version i think this is a cause of bad mixing job after everything was recorded...

lol her vocals are obviously better.

End of story.

^This :laugh

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btw, here's my HBYA cover remake :

(thanks to Aderianu for the textless cover ♥)

this happens so many times in Celine songs and I have to tell you she does not have a weak voice!

ditto!

@Heavenly
I don't like the choice of font but it's a lot better than the other fan-edited cover in this thread.

My thoughts on the song have changed. I liked it at first but now it reminds me of meaning of Love.

That was my whole point? Celine and Mariah are amazing vocalists, yet they are so often overpowered by their arrangements.

then i do not approve of studio mixing or whatever it might be! :laugh
because it really ruined the song for me:)

for everyone it might be different, but I'm not a big fan of her vocals after GUILTY, live or recorded. 2012 doesn't make a difference for me either.:shrug

anyway, I'm really neutral to the song. I'm eager to listen to the vocal on other songs and most of all live :)