^ I agree. GUILTY for me was the album that did NOTHING for me. I never go back to listen to it. I remember first getting the (dont)leave me alone PV and just being over it haha. (Sucks because I love Glitter/Fated) so much.

For this album, I am not getting that POWER that is in all of her other albums. In Love Songs, there was Do it Again and in RnRC there was Microphone that caught my attention right away.

Hopefully Brillante does that?

I'll just say what I said in the ANother Song thread...
lol @ people totally getting their panties in a twist about this entire release. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the reason most of the songs are quite simple and calm is because of all that's been happening in Japan this year. It's sort of been her theme, and I think if she bought out a bunch of Microphones or Sparkles it'd be a bit weird....
Is it the best release ever? No. But people are overreacting, as usual.

interesting way to look at it, you could be right.

but i think people are still forgetting progress when calling this whole release bland... there's nothing simple or bland about that song. I hope BRILLANTE is the same.

Someone hold out their arms, I may faint! I can't handle this. Hand me a drink! :drunk

I love GUILTY.

:yes

Progress is one of those amazing standout tracks.
Personally I think the PVs will be amazing. The cover art is already gorgeous. The inside scans will be sooo good, I can just feel it.
I'm not a massive fan of the other songs, but not a hater either.

They'll probably grow on me like GUILTY did. Ok whoever dissed that...
:no it's such a great album.

Wondering why I'm spending $75 on this.

Guess I should look at this as a progress/beloved/BRILLIANTE triple A side single.

I don't mean to be rude, please try not to take this the wrong way, but you wrote something similar in another thread. You don't seem to know what 'general state of opinion' means. Also, you don't know if GUILTY or NEXT LEVEL have as much admirers as they do critics. Are you making an assumption? Given your choice words, it seems like it. Don't forget you are an internet user too.

I'm more embarrassed by the fact people are writing long ass paragraphs about how they're disappointed. Like...sh--t....they're just songs. Don't like them, don't listen to them :shrug

ANother song isn't even that bad :\ It's just that their voices do not mesh well which makes me not appreciate it as much.

Now I also want to throw in my two cents:

To be honest I will never get this kind of negative reactions about every Ayu release.
I think it's natural that more people seem to complain and don't like a new release because if you didn't liked something you feel the need to say so more than if you liked something. What would be the reason why more people say they don't like the new release than people who say they like it.
Furthermore it's just normal that not everyone likes everything Ayu releases, of course there are also songs from Ayu I don't mind to listen to.
It doesn't annoy me in any way if people on ahs say "I don't like this", "I can't stand this at all" or "for me it's her worst release ever". This are just personal opinions.
But what bothers me is all the drama over here and people acting as if it is a fact that Ayu just releases lousy music the last few years. Maybe some people might don't like anything of the recent stuff, but there is no need to state a personal opinion as fact.
Besides if you don't like an artist anymore than move on and listen to someone else. Of course it's not easy to accept that your favourite artist isn't making music you like anymore, but that's life. And of course even if you don't like Ayu's new stuff you can listen to every new release and say you also don't like it. But keep in mind that your opinion isn't a fact. We're just talking about music here and there are thousands of other artists and I'm sure there are a few out there you will like.
Maybe Armageddon is near, I mean next year is 2012:P, but don't liking a new release won't bring the end any closer.

I decided that this is a topic, for which no one really can tell what is fact or not. I even deleted the post you were quoting but it seems I haven't been fast enough with that xD

Let me just put is this way:

Of course I am an internet user myself and I sure do post my opinions like other people use to do as well, but the point I start to be intolerant is, when there are statements coming up that try to make clear, what a specific group of people is said to think or feel.

The similar text I, like you mentioned, posted in another thread, was about a user who tried to tell us what the japanese public thinks about Ayumi Hamasaki or her recent image (I cannot even remember it clearly now).

Now: I for one strongly believe that it is not possible to make reliable assumptions for people's opinion about something. I don't see a possibility to do that. So if someone says "Man, FIVE gets so much hate, but it's not even close at the disappointment people faced with [INSERT ALBUM NAME]" I just think "How can he/she tell?".

Show me polls of 130 million Japanese that voted for Ayu' best/worst album and I might give it a chance in the future. Otherwise it's just pure theory and simply not reliable statements.

I am really disappointed in Ayu, this seems to be a really substandard release. The sooner this release is done with, the better..

I removed my reply as soon as I saw that you deleted your comment. Don't feel pressured to argue. I restored my reply in case other people want to read it.

Anyway, are you saying you need the entire Japanese population to vote in order to satisfy a 'general opinon'? Instead of wishing upon something impossible, take a look at her sales. If you can't trust the words of people at AHS who live in Japan then her sale records are the best thing you have.

You were wrong to make the assumption that GUILTY and NEXT LEVEL share an equal amount of like and dislike among listeners. Our forum friends who are living in Japan did not make any assumptions. They made sure to ask their Japanese friends, co-workers or whoever before writing a comment. Remember, we are talking about the general opinion.

It's an error take the sales as an argument.
If so, Ayumi Hamasaki is still the best female solo artist for many, many years and her popularity hasn't decreased a little.
We know that this isn't true.

Therefore, the sales has decreased to ALL artists.
------------------
Imo, Ayu is and will always be an icon in japanese music industry, people can say she's not attracting any new listeners, she's someone from the past. But no one can ignore her achievements and all her influence over these years.
I'm not living in Japan, and even if was the case, I wouldn't take opinions from a bunch of people as facts. If this was the absolute truth, I couldn't believe in how she still manage to sold out many concerts.
Everything don't surpass the mere supposition.

Anyway, I hope people don't think that because an album is less sold, it's more hatred and stuff. "NEXT LEVEL" for me it's one of her best albums to date.

THIS. And the two collabs could be considered as bonus lol.

But ANother song is not that bad. Comparing the two collabs, I think I like ANother song more for the time being. Maybe part of the reason is that ANother song has higher quality than Why...

I am surprised that BRILLANTE's composer is not a Japanese.

Thats the triple A-side she should have released!!! And the other two songs could be released later... ANother song as Urata's single and Why... maybe as an album track or bonus track on triple A-side.

I agree 100%. I can't believe the complains about promotion and it's been that way since NEXT LEVEL era. We ayu fans are spoiled

also I bet no one will be able to answer your last question lol

I disagree. It is not an error. I don't mean overall sales either. That should have been obvious. Ayumi releases new CD's much more often than say, Utada or Namie. Ayumi's sales consistently goes down but Utada and Namie's sales fluctuate.

You're not suppose to take opinions as facts. I'm glad you don't. However, observations are not opinions. Like other people here, you are thinking about yourself and not the general crowd. I would hope you still enjoy her music despite lower sales. I loved NEXT LEVEL, by the way.

Like I said, I am still keeping an open mind about this release. As I have heard, everyone is saying "Why..." is very Jpop-ish, which I love. So I have faith but I am not expecting anything. I don't do that with Ayu releases anymore. All of my rants (if you want to call them that) and opinions regarding this release is just based off of the information I have compiled while reading comments and reactions to the leaks, coupled with the promotion and the current state of her popularity/career. Therefore I am not complaining much since this has little to do with my opinion regarding this release. It has just been my input and how I feel this release will affect her career and what type of foreshadowing I am getting from this...

That's a very strange way of doing it since the people who are most dissatisfied tend to be the most vocal about their disappointment with the release each and every time. Very rarely will you find more people saying "I LOVE THIS." except during some exceptions.