Thank you!!! I always felt that ayu should sing songs like MELL's

Ugh, if I've ever produced an album for ayu it'd probably be her best album and I could die saying I lived a good life after listening to it.

And damn, I miss MELL.

Anyway, No Future is going to be the new love of my life, I just know it lol.

well, Party Queen had only ONE typical "sappy-crying" ballad :D and it was kinda unique bcause of lack of those songs.

also when (miss)understood was realased, it only included rainy day as a new ballad track, and I can't even call it a typical sappy-ayu ballad... (mainly bcause its a cover/adaptation of sweetbox song). (miss)understood also is kinda lackish of ballads - HEAVEN was so strong, she didn't have to put another one XDDDD (ofcourse people can argue about Will/Pride/criminal but for me, these aren't ballads.)

Party Queen too!!! Tell me why, the next LOVE, and hbya are the only ones I'd really consider ballads there. And isn't FIVE basically all ballads? lol I mean the only one that isn't a ballad starts off ballad. I don't mind the midtempo stuff, it's the bloating of generic ballads that reeeally grinds my gears

^ Honestly, although I didn't like GIFT or Story much, I feel like the "generic ballad" / "midtempo" card is thrown out a bit too much. My personal sense is when you've hundreds of songs in your discography, it gets harder and harder to differentiate yourself stylistically. I think rather than dismissing certain songs because it 'sounds generic' it's worthwhile to listen out for how they are different. Sometimes you won't find much, but sometimes the payoff is quite good.

I think the Zutto/LM/Walk single is a good example of something that I was ready to write off at first listen, that I gradually grew to love with repeated listens, identifying different interesting nuances in her voice, the melody, the words.

I think it's pretty apparent that Ls is just not my cup of tea whereas you have a persistent hardon for it, so it's best that we just agree to disagree since we won't convince each other otherwise.

I think everyone is talking about ballad but giving to the word different meanings. For exemple I wouldn't consider the next LOVE a ballad. And a lot of people here is talking about ballads as "everything is slower then a rock song".

I'm not sure on what is the precise definition of ballad but for exemple for me even LOVE again have a reasonable number of ballad. On 15 tracks, I would consider real ballad just Ivy, untitled for her story 2, SAKURA and Sweet Scar (and maybe Gloria). Melody and petal for me are mid-tempo jpop songs, not ballad. The rest is defenitely not ballad at all. So it would be 5 on 15 (7 on 15 if we consider Melody and petal, still less then half), I think is an ok number. With Colours I would says just Angel and Pray. The other "slower" songs (What is forever love?, Merry-Go-Round and Hello new me) are midtempo pop song.

For A ONE we have three from the single + The GIFT and Story that is sort of an half (expecially if we consider Last Minute both rock and ballad) but for now we have still 2 unveiled songs.

All of this to say that I can't really see this overflow of ballad in Ayu's last albums. It's still less then the half and in this group of ballad there are a lot of different style (Sweet Scar, SAKURA and Angel are totally different as songs).

But maybe is just beacuse I don't really know what makes a ballad a ballad. :P

@js_surrealism: They ARE generic though lol. They're basically as by the numbers as ballads can come and tbh at this point they're all just starting to sound really contrived. It's really hard to call these anything short of generic when she has such unique or intricate ballads like RAINBOW, HANABI, Moments, etc. in her arsenal. Mind you, I'm not expecting EVERY song to be a RAINBOW/magnum opus/masterpiece, but I would really appreciate it if, if she REALLY has to release 80% ballads and only 2-3 upbeat tracks per album, they at least could be differentiated and didn't sound like they were picked out of the "how 2 basic jpop ballad!!!" guidebook. Ballads like Tell me why or even Sweet scar at least bring something a little different to her discography. But I can't think of much else in recent years that wasn't just a run of the mill strings or piano arrangement sweeping-melody contrived-empassioned chorus affair and it just gets so old.

My problem isn't ballads in general (MY STORY is my favorite album for example). It's the type of ballad and the fact that she's basically just recycling the same song over and over again. I mean, even Show Must Go On is basically literally snowy kiss. Just because she has a huge discography doesn't mean she has to release the same song over and over again, when she's already shown she can still deliver new sounds.

I feel like she's just getting too complacent and DESPERATELY needs new composers.

^and it may not be the case that the show must go on could top snowy kiss. I've been waiting for snowy kiss part 2 but now I know that some things are better left not touched (just because you can doesn't mean you should).

Wouldn't expect anyone here to be able to identify "nuance."

"The Show Must Go On" is already being mythfied in the fandom as a "snowy kiss" rehash and the full song isn't even out yet.

WARNING - It's alright; but her voice sounds awful when she does the "La-la-lai's" lol

The GIFT - zzz

NO FUTURE - Pleasant on the ears

Out of control - zzz

The Show Must Go On - This is literally snowy kiss lol

Story - zzz

From the fun and fantastic Colours to basic-ass A ONE. Meh. I'll still buy it cause I want my CD collection to be complete lol and I kind of dig Last minute so there's that.

Unless the entire rest of the song is entirely different, it's a snowy kiss rehash.

My friend is a huge fan of Bz, he told me that the new recording (ayu said: not for the album) is Bz duet. He showed me promo pic in a store with handwritten kanji, i cant post cause im on a phone, anybody know the news? Is it comfirmed?

I mean, fair enough. lol

Quite a dramatic overstatement to say the song is "literally snowy kiss" tho.

I personally can remember the entire melody in the preview of TSMGO without getting it confused with snowy kiss.

The most trouble I ever had confusing the melodies of songs was with the choruses of BALLAD and BRILLANTE, which both begin very similarly.

Girl, get out of town.

Don't do this 2 me.

I dunno i just want to get this comfirmed, the picture says "collaboration single with ayu, in april" xd maybe i missed some fake news?

Ololo I know few people who will faint just after reading news

http://i.imgur.com/USpIg5w.jpg

Mm.. it's not fake..

"And... B'z's first collaboration single partner in April... that utahime?!"

I dunno who else they call 'utahime'.

I'm always dramatic lol.

I don't think they're really that identical, but they feel similar enough that she really doesn't need both. (If we could go back in time and delete snowy kiss that'd be fine too tho.) It's a bigger issue for me because I absolutely abhor snowy kiss and never wanted to have to hear anything like it ever again.

I can't tell Walk apart from Story at all honestly...


LOL @ Ayu collabing with B'z

I cant upload the pic, arghhhh
Edit yyyyep thats the pic, thank you!

<3<3<3

I wish Ayu was shooting PVs for Warning, No Future, and The Show Must Go On. I love her ballads and all but I would rather she did PVs for uptempos...

I have some trouble clearly explaining my thoughts here (my english...). You just said everything I want to say as regards her recent work!
She also DESPERATELY needs new arrangers too. The songs sounding the same is also because of them.