I think I just died.

OMG I've been waiting for ayu to do a perfect hot dance track since like forever!!! None of her songs are very dance-able, but this, this song is perfect!! :D

Reading the comments, I guess reactions are quite mixed for this song, maybe because it's too mainstream? I admit there's very little ayu flavor in it, but it's so catchy!! And I love love love the chorus. Maybe cause I like AAA's music too.

Lol, and am I the only one seeing tributes to past songs all over? There's Heartplace's chorus, and I heard the phrase "1 LOVE" XD

song grew on me a bit. now I'm impatiently waiting for PV. :D

I love AAA's music, but this doesn't really have anything to do with AAA either. This is more of what Naoya already tried to do with his debut solo album. I dunno, the chorus bothers me way too much :thud

I agree, this is much more Naoya than AAA. Very urban and R'n'B where AAA usually is more on the dance, pop and techno scale. At least at the moment, they are pretty vertasile but R'n'B is usually not their thing. I like Dream ON nonetheless. I think Naoyas voice is pretty soulful and perfect for this genre.

I dislike her vocal but I love the song

Hhaha everyone loves Ayu when she doesnt sing so low

why I don't like Dream ON:(

this. :yes

for the love of the God, please just use Auto-Tune, ayu, to remove all those silly vibratos... T_T

^
I don't hear too much vibratos on Dream ON this time D: she sounds like Rule. Much powerful and deep vocals, I guess.

i don't understand the opinions on here.

Perfect, creative, different. Love it. <3

That's why they're called opinions. You don't have to understand them...:thud

Hmm Dream On... it's okay I guess but not my genre

I would rather hear awful vocals than an auto-toned one.

I kinda like DREAM ON, It's not what I expected but that is just how awesome it is. (Or something XD), I hope her new album has songs like this, and not those ballads (Which she has 100 of).

me too. and i think she sounds just fine as she is!

i don't get fans who hate on her voice. if you hate her voice and think she needs auto-tune or her vibrato sucks, then why are you a fan? :shrug

Why would you want to hear awful vocals - if autotune makes the song sound better - more power to the autotune. If it fits the song, go for it.

I cannot even begin to express how impatient I am for more info to leak...:no

this.

You know what's funny, the vocals are reminiscent of her old vocals! The ones some people want her to go back to! :laugh

This is the first time though as a fan I find her vocals very displeasing in this song.

I think her voice sounds the best/most impressive it has in a song since Pride tbh.

It will sound even better in HQ.

No they're not. They're nothing like her old, high-pitched vocals. I'd love her to go back to either her LOVEppears or MA/MY STORY vocals and this is nothing like that.

I don't want her to use auto-tune, but I could sure live without her vibrato sometimes. She hasn't always been doing it, so it's not like it's always been there and even if it was you could barely tell she was doing it. But wanting her to sound better isn't a crime nor is Dream ON the best that she can do, as they are barely singing at all :rolleyes

Best post ever :yes :thumbsup

i like ayu's music but I don't like her voice.

I love Ayu's voice, but I can't deny the obvious straining she's doing all the time.

It sounds awful. Like you can hear the damage happening to her vocal chords.

I wouldn't mind her going back to the days when she wasnt straining for every other note.

I appreciate her not being out of key and such now, and I love the range she's singing at now and the power behind it, but, I mean, when she was younger, and she sang this way, it was like the most gorgeous thing ever.

I want that. But I know it's never going to happen. You can't repair this.

I really like her voice, but sometimes while live, i just hear it. Her voice isn't as strong as it was, and that turns out as not really clean notes and somtimes a weak voice.
But that doesn't bother me at all, it makes me just happy, because it let me know she sings live often.

I think if she would do a break for one year or a half year, and she would rest her voice a lot, it will come out stronger. And i also think it would be good for her carreer

anyway, i don't really care about autotuning her voice or not, as long as it makes a song better.

this post is kinda depressing.

Het vocals are THAT bad in this song 0_o
Yeah, they are strained at times (specifically at the end) but not as bad as some people are making out.

Besides, straining to hit notes is hardly a new thing in Ayu songs. Some of her most popular songs have some huge straining going on, her voice was just higher then.

Her voice, to me, sounds like a mix between WE WISH and Rule.

I don't mind autotune. People don't understand, it's not like it'll make her voice sound like t-pain every time. There are different degrees of autotune. People act like it'll make her sound like a vocaloid. Her voice is strained from all the singing, and having a bit of help once in a while from a program hit those notes isn't a bad thing. I don't mind it as long as it's tastefully done and not put in every song.

Besides, anyone ever try using autotune? it's hard! if she can master it to make her voice sound better, then i think that takes a lot of practice. haha

^ for me, autotune it's just a form of mixing a song, and i like it in fact. Ofcourse if it's not overtuned like Lil Wayne songs.

Yeah... It's like a combination of LOVE 'n' HATE and Madonna's song "4 Minutes" but slowed down a little.

^ Hun if I could, I would give you a big hug. :yes

It's quite hilarious that people feel so damn high and mighty that they can judge other people's level of fandom. If folks don't like the song or her vocals then so damn be it. Just go on about your day and don't worry about it.
Ya feel me?

Hmm...

I think this is a new kind of sound, refreshing in a way, at first I thought it was catchy but some other parts of the song don't get me as excited as I wish they would of.

I think I'll give it some time, hopefully the PV makes me like it more.

You know what, Ayu wrote both the melody and the lyrics for this song, meaning she produced the entire song from scratch. o_o

ayu_19980408 ayumi hamasaki
Of courseー♪( ´▽｀)RT @1nami2: @ayu_19980408 Dream ON (I dunno how can I translate bachiko-n,, it's like sound of a big hit or something). Did Ayu compose the song and make the lyrics??

i dont know... i didnt grow up in me yet.. ill wait for the hd ver. to comment.

What?
Is CREA returned? O__O

no wonder it's so amazing!

omg it'd be fking amazing if Ayu produced this song with her own songs.. cos it's so freaking amazing good song :heart

Perhaps she was only referring to the lyrics part? Don't get me wrong, I'm hoping CREA's back, but it happens so rarely, that it seems unlikely.

She didn't compose the single...I'm sure we'd know about it by now if she did.

Dream on is good, but not my favorite. Regardless, I can't wait to see the PV.

this song is so... Kuu-chan-ish

The person who asked her the question specifically asked if she COMPOSED （作曲）and WROTE (作詞) the lyrics.

If she didn't compose, she would have just said that she wrote the lyrics. But instead, she said yes to both.

^^we'll see if CREA is credited anywhere. I'm betting she won't be.

what if it's credited to ayumi hamasaki? I'm sure she could have just done it with her real name.

^^you have a point. I guess we'll wait and see.

really guys?
Dream ON composed by ayu? written by her?
if produced by also mean composed?
i don't have the knowledge of all this~

wait, I thought I read from somewhere (truehappiness's post I think) that Dream ON was composed by the same guy who did Marionette??

I guess this is how baby rumors are born. To quote the article (http://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/5103770/):
Kazuhiro Hara composed Dream ON. I think it's going to have "Produced by ayumi hamasaki" where Ayu usually has "Produced by max matsuura". And WOW, the album was announced a little more than a month ago... and it's done!

I suppose that she was answering the first part of the user's question and ignored the second part. She seems to do that a lot. Like someone would ask her something on Twitter and then she would be like "Yes!" to the first part and it's like... what about the question after that?

^ I see. you're right, she does do that lol.

She has done it to me quite often xD

Does anyone think there's a possibility that, aside from the singles, this album won't have any tie-ups?... haha, I mean, it's kind of late... And considering she doesn't really have Panasonic anymore, the CMs seem most likely to just be music.jp and mu-mo, or something like that...

I am still hoping she'll put some rendition of ただの雨 on it, if she does she'll have one at least... xD

They might've gotten tie-ups for the PV songs and may be announced as soon as they release song titles.

I mean, it's pretty hard to get a tie-up if you haven't finished the album, you know? Now that she's done it... I kinda wonder what they'll do. Another Honda CM? Another news show ending a la Last Links? Or nothing at all?

If it's the latter, would it be her first album to not have album-track tie-ups since ASFXX? Also, this is the shortest amount of time ever between Ayu albums. 8 months and a week... she probably really wanted to reset her album schedule back to December, haha.

I actually like the idea of setting the release time back to December :).

What are you referring to ? Did I miss something from RNRC promotion ? o_o

Last Links had a tie-in with a news show that previously used either Hikki's song (either This is Love or Fight the Blues, can't recall).

Well, it wasn't really a CM... but Last Links was played at the end of this one news show
"報道特集" which is a news program like "60 Minutes" here in the states apparently. It played for about 5 months, from April to September before being replaced by an instrumental piece by some other Japanese artist.

Oh I didn't know!Thank you both !

I like the setting in December. New Ayu album + Christmas = makes it more magic for me.

Everyone has their own opinions lets not try to force them to change it jeez. You can't blame someone who says that the song is horrible, It's their taste of music. I agree that this isn't as awesome as I thought it was going to be, actually I'm kinda disappointed, but that is just me. ^3^

*I'm referring to the 8th page.

Except the question wasn't in two parts.

She asked 作詞作曲したの？ or something like this (See page 8), so it is 100% impossible to ignore the "Second part" because actually writing the lyrics and composing the song was asked in the same question, in the same part, together. No one can make this mistake and just answer about the lyrics part, you will have to be a kind of very stupid LOL.

I read again the Yahoo site, and it does list kazuhiro as the composer, but if you look at Ayu or Naoya's sites, they do not list the composer. In the first Yahoo article posted, it said that Ayu offered a piece of music to Naoya, but that article has since been deleted､and replaced with the Barks article. As of now, Barks is the only website reporting kazuhiro as the composer...

Someone should ask her to clear up this miscommunication, because even on Mixi now, many people think she is composing this song.

Anyways, I think it's a good song. I love her voice, and I love the "Ha!" It's great.

this :yes

Maybe she was really tired when she answered? But yeah, a bunch of people are thinking CREA composed this song on 2ch too. She really should clear it up...

If Ayu composed it, the media would have been all over her writing a song for someone.

I dont see why they would have just said that instead of "produced".


I think it was her "team" that wrote the song, and she had input. Hopefully she'll get it cleared up, cause if she did actually write it, that would be great.

Is it bad that I kind of actually want this? *__*

23 days!

^That's hilarious.

^ i love your profile pic :D yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmyyyy!!!!!!

Who doesn't love paella?

The song is definitely catchy! I don't like the chorus though :no
I guess ayu's voice is super low to contrast with Naoya? Since this is his song, he sings the higher octave whereas she harmonizes with him, so her melody is underneath his, to bring out the potential of the whole song.
Haha, I don't know if I make sense or not :P

i gotta a feeling that in a week we'll got the covers released *-*

Ayu is definitely stepping into dangerous waters now...

Now it's actually the first time I want the covers and new information very badly for this album^^

The only thing I don't like is the title LOVE SONGS for an usual studio album.
It sounds like a collection album.

how so?

yep, this title sounds like a compilation album, but look, MY STORY also seems like a name for a compilation album and it's one of her best works ever (imo), so i guess we dont have to worry about it... =)

the only thing im worrying right now is the covers, im kinda afraid of what we'll see in the next days...

You're rigth MY STORY iy a good example that it will or can be great anyways^^

Why are u afraid of the covers?

why?

we will know if Ayu's the composer to Dream ON when the single gets released.. like a month later lol

Well ayu is back in Japan already (she posted in twitter that she arrived Narita airport) so we should get everything soon/this week I think.

I'm not sure if it's the way avex are marketing this album but with only a little over three weeks until release, I'm feeling slightly anxious for the little lady.

Hmm well. They used the same strategy for L single. And I believe the sales weren't that bad?

Marketing is going to be low scale, like it has been for a while now. We're lucky to get some TV performances given she's concentrating on countdown live rehearsals now.

I don't like that to be honest.
It gives me the felling that she's "too" famous like Mariah Carey etc. and so she doesn't need to do that anymore...

It's not the reason though.

The real reason is that she prefers to invest more time in CDL's rehearsals rather than promote a lot the album, since she wants to deliver a great live and there is nothing wrong with it.

Funny you say that; I thought MY STORY was a compilation album so I didn't buy it when I was in Japan (>_<). Which makes no sense as I bought A BEST instead.

It's funny how everyone is always sounding like they know stuff about the marketing and sales of the music industry, that the rest of us don't.

It's by Hamasaki Ayumi, and it's titled Love Songs. I think the japanese are going to eat that stuff up, late announcements or not.

:) <- smiley insterted to make me sound like I'm not pissed, because I looked through what I wrote, and I do sound a bit grumpy, but I'm not.

That's arguable, as it depends more on what avex wants, rather than what she wants. Yes she can decide whether she'll perform on TV and do the mag shoots or not, but avex should be capable of using other means of advertising - tie-ins, CMs, billboards, radio and such. I mean, Utada didn't promote SCV2 on TV, yet all of her new songs got quite strong tie-ups ^^ avex should be better at finding ways to get her songs out there.

After staying for 1 month at l'Ermitage maybe Avex doesn't have enough money to proote the album :P

Joke xD No but really... Ayu does her work, doing some mags and TV promo, she did a lot of mag promo for L&crossroad... But I really think avex should work a bit more with Tie-ins and advertising in Tokyo...

Back in October Utada was everywhere in the metro with the pepsi adv, and L'hymme a l'amour was paying really often in Shibuya streets... Even If I didn't wanted I had utada in my mind XDD

So I hope Avex would do sth simmilar with her =)

Anyway... as we are 3 weeks before the release, I hope we get tracklist and covers soon ^^

Please some info this week, at leats Dream ON covers or PV...

I lol'd so hard !!

She'd perform on TV or whatever if she didn't have so much going on right now.

I'm curious for covers, BUT they are not important for me. I'm freaking curious for the tracklist. Give me please :<

Can someone link me to the a-nation perfs? I really wanna see crossroad (:heart) and the Microphone perf!

Thank you!

Microphone was a great intro, and the dancers with the rainbow feathers looked so gay... :laugh
I loved the summer medley too. Watching crossroad now~

a-nation was great :3
I can't believe there's only 3 weeks to go and virtually no info. This has to be a record of some sort.

I'm getting a sinking feeling we'll get a postponement soon...