The one thing I'm kind of excited about is that this album is being made ahead of time and so there's probably a theme for it, as opposed to just a bunch of songs that don't fit together, or an album with single songs that don't match the rest.

granted this could be very wrong. but i'm hoping at least. haha

Well there will probably won't be singles so the chances for flawed flow are lower.

Even if there are any singles, they were most likely recorded at the same time as the rest of the album. So, really, the only chances of this album being incohesive are a) if she puts songs from FIVE on it or b) if she picks random, mismatching songs for it like she did for FIVE.

I really hope we get at least one single...
Although, I must say, FIVE did just fine without one. :/

^ Yeah, at this point in her career, I don't think she really needs any singles to sell her albums. Most of her sales are from her hardcore fan base who will buy all her albums no matter what, not casual fans, so she will likely do fine without a single for this album, too. :yes

What happened with Next Level? lol i don't really keep track of her sales, as long as it debuts number one I don't care XD I though Next Level did :/

^ Nothing happened with NEXT LEVEL. I think people were referring to her current #1 streak that started with NEXT LEVEL since GUILTY only hit #2.

Oh right lol I thought it was GUILTY that stopped the streak of no.1s

^ I think that's what she meant. She was affirming that what I said was what she thought from the beginning.

It's so hard to tell what people mean from text. XD

Love songs had 3 singles and it flowed perfectly XP hehe
I really like singles thought, they give a new photo shoot and something new to add our collection xP

Well that entire album was basically Tetsuya Komuro

true XP

I thought Love songs had amazing flow at first, but now the non-TK songs stick out really awkwardly. I skip them most of the time nowadays. ;_;

The only song that I skip everytime i'm listening to LS is MOON, although i think it fits the album very well. I just get very lazy to listen to it

Yeah...I skip moon and blossom a lot. They were never my favorites.

I never skip MOON, only Aria onwards lol

I love MOON and blossom, but I skip them all the time now because they feel weird in the album and I really dislike their mixing. :P

I absolutely love this interlude! Only songs I skip are Love Song and Thank U and I do not listen to Virgin Road.

^^Love songs? I listened to it in full today, except for Thank U and Virgin Road, and SDW, simply because I just wasn't in the mood for them.

I only skip Sweet Season, blossom, and sending mail. but even those songs aren't so bad. Love Songs is filled with so many beautiful arrangements, I love it sfm.

Before I had a few I'd skip but now I don't skip any unless I want to jump to a favorite.

From Love Songs I only listen to Love Song, crossroad, Last Angel, Like a doll, and Do it again.

As a whole I think it's a good album and I can appreciate it, but I can't stand at all to listen to Sending mail or Sweet Season, November sounds like it's being played out of a plastic toy frog despite the beautiful lyrics, MOON and Virgin Road I really liked at first but got old in a matter of weeks way too quickly, Thank U is the most trite ayu song ever, and blossom never lived up to the CM I listened to 20 times a day before the song was fully released and I tried really hard to like it after [that one's my own fault].

When I think about it I only listen to half of all of Ayu's albums anyway.

^ That's how I am with most albums. I consider an album I listen to 5-6 songs off of a success. Ayu's albums are the rare exception.

^As do I. I'm always surprised when someone says they don't like 4 songs from something making it a failure.

And it's not just Ayu albums for me. I actively follow 25-30+ bands from around the world, plus a couple Jpop singers (Ayu, ayaka, Kuu, Kaela primarily) and the same thing goes for everything else. I'm just picky maybe. When I find an entire album I enjoy it's a very, very rare experience... only 4 or 5 come to mind, ever.

^ Yeah, me too.

I don't really consider it being picky exactly, it's just rare for an artist to have 10+ really repeatable songs on one album. Often it seems, to me, they'll have a few really good ones and the rest are sort of just variations of the same song.

And as I said, Ayu is one of the exceptions for me. Usually there's only 2 or so songs from each album I rarely listen to.

Oh I don't listen to SDW either. I don't really think of it as part of the album really.

If I would listen to Love songs (or any album I would listen as an album) I wouldn't skip anything lol.
If I don't like an album so I just listen to some songs from it.

Ayu.... !!!!!

I never skip anything when I listen to love songs it just flows so perfectly

I assume that I'm the only one who selects one track and keep it on repeat the whole time, and when I grow bored of it changing to another song. I should listen to full albums!

^ Ayu isn't the type of artist who makes repeatable songs for me. She makes lots of amazing songs, but I can't listen to them more than once at a time. I did repeat MOON, blossom, Virgin Road, and Love song a lot when they came out though.

When MOON first came out, I played it 200+ times. I still think it's a good song.

For me a lot of Ayu's songs are great but most aren't really made to be catchy and put on repeat. Listening to her songs is like indulging in a slice of rich chocolate mousse cake, they're so good I only really need one every once in a while to satisfy me.

^ Exactly this. :yes

Ayu posted on Twitter a little earlier that "RAINY GIRL was stuck on traffic"

and it was a reply to Leslie Kee saying that he was in for an amazing recording or filming or something like that... So I guess today/tonight they are filming or shooting a PV together?

^ RAINY GIRL? Why specifically those words? lol I would love for that to be a new song's title... @_@

Leslie kee wrote:

Ayu replied:

Lol So I guess maybe they have some kind of inside joke/story going there?

^
isn't it that in japan some people are said to bring rain? i think ayu and leslie often joked that ayu is a girl that brings rain and it's difficult for outdoor shootings because of this

Booooo. Oh well. :P

Yes, they have been talking like that since a while ago. In fact, I remember when they were going to shoot beloved pv, they needed a sunny day, and as Ayu is supposed to attract rainy weather (lol...) they were afraid and asked the fans to send photos with their... how do you call that rag doll you hang on your window...?

Not really excited about him shooting her videos, pics are another thing...

But maybe it's not a pv...? He said "shooting" ^^

this is exactly how I feel too and the only reason why I keep preordering ayu's albums without having heard a single song, or just one or two single tracks. I usually like or realy enjoy 50% or more of the music on her albums, I that's exceptional and never happened with any other artist of such a long period of time and with so many songs. Love Songs was the first album of hers in a while that came close to 100% ;-) The only two songs I don't really like off that album is sweet season and seven days war, but I quite like the classical remix of the latter anyways.

I'll preorder this album as soon as the links come up on CDJapan. But I wonder if I can stop myself from listening to previews or reading leak reviews. Doubt it :P

Guess 1/1 is getting less and less of a possibility. Maybe 2/1

Teru teru bozu~!

it would be almost impossible for a 1/1 release... stuff like this usually takes months of recording and photos and all that other stuff
I'm still thinking a late spring early summer release

i also think it won't be 1/1 because thats the day of the clip box. it just seems like it'd be kinda crappy to release a complete clip box on the same day as a new album, effectively making your clip box incomplete. -_-

I used to wonder about singers. Can't they record the vocal tracks for the album in a day or two? They get through a 3-hour concert in one go.

yeah, but sometimes they do more than one take of the song and sing it over and over... I know some american artist record a new album in 3 months, but I think that includes all the extra stuff they do for it...

1/1 with a Clip Box would be funny. I think it's even possible.

The album won't be released on January 1st. It's already December 2nd and it's not even announced.

I'm still holding out for a single, so I'm hoping for a release in March or so.

Leslie also posted photo
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9356/7ltl.th.jpg
can't wait to see photoshoot *_*

Ayu can take a week or so to lay down a song or two vocally. I don't think she ever does songs in one take with the exception of Secret and a few others maybe.

hmm seems like it may be an outdoor shoot!! I'm just wishing its a Jan release. I cant wait !!

Right. Let's hope you're right.

1.1. is far from possible, the album seems to be in late stages of production which will prolly take a few more weeks and we might not even get an official announcement before January.

Usually we have an announcement 6-8 weeks in advance with covers appearing 4 weeks in advance, no?

news / album / release / time
2009.2.13 / "NEXT LEVEL" / 2009.3.25 / 6 weeks
2010.3.5 / "Rock'n'Roll Circus" / 2010.4.14 / 6 weeks
2010.10.28 / "Love songs" / 2010.12.22 / 7 weeks

so.... 18-25 January if she announce it next week

Or maybe she'll release it without announcing. Haha Jk :laugh

^ Delayed? I don't remember that...

I hope it will be a great album!! :DDD~
And she is not going to release a single though?

I don't think ayu will release a single..

Hope this album will be great..

I don't think so either. She's going to release this a complete new body of work - so exciting, first time in her career.

It might be a shorter album as a result though. Somehow I don't see her making 12-13 original songs plus interludes.

^ I hope for interludes :laugh Tasuku is involved, so may be we can expect new tasking/taskinlude

^OMG yes, I hadn't thought of it ! A new tasuku interlude would be great !

Hopefully not too many interludes though the ones by Tasuku are my favs. Just 1-2 total surrounded by amazing new songs by Ayu! I don't know how long my patience will last until this album is released. My excitement grows each day.

As long as he composes his own music and doesn't rip off other songs (i.e. taskinst, tasking) ....

I think we're going to be surprised about the release date...

Studio recordings are supposed to be perfect, lines are repeated until every tiny detail is the way they wanted them. That goes as far as the timbre on specific notes or how fast the vibrato on a short word is. So recording a song can end up taking from hours to days.
Some producers are so much of a perfectionist they have singers record songs line for line, word for word or even syllable for syllable, so that takes even longer.
The same thing applies to instruments that are important in songs, the lines are often played many times until they are perfect.
While live vocals don't have to be perfect, the song is sung once, there's imperfections there, it's not the same kind of vocal quality you would get from a studio recording crafted to perfection.

I don't want 2/1. Please. Ayaka's making a comeback there and it would spoil either Ayu or Ayaka if both released on that date (because only one could be #1).

Maybe she'll leave her body of work as 50 singles forever and keep making albums. That way she can't collapse her own streak!
I kid.

And maybe she already had some songs written BEFORE going to london...

no doubt the woman writes all the time... I mean what was the time frame between the announcement of FIVE and the actual release...
For that matter we knew about progress (not the name, but that she was working on a song) a little over half a year before it was released

I wouldn't mind that at all. If she concentrated more on the artistic aspect of her work.

I couldn't care less if someone else is releasing the same day. There is nothing Ayumi Hamasaki needs to prove anymore. And I am hoping that her management will drop the silly streak idea. ayaka has her own label now which means she is an indie artist if I'm correct which means there prolly won't be that many copies available and that she'll concentrate on digital sales.

I keep logging in to AHS in hopes of some new news but sadly no.

me too xD I need an official announcement by her official website and a release date >_<

I hope the album isn't released any later than February. :weep Her album releases just aren't magical for me if they're not in the winter.

it sounds good,waiting!

I think she will release the new album on march or April..

Maybe Ayu will use 4 interludes as usual, but actually i dont really care about how many interludes in the album as long Ayu will not release an album with full of interludes... :D

^ Her usual amount of interludes is three. There have only been two albums with four interludes, thankfully.

Opps sorry my bad... :D

Yes her usual number of interludes is 3.... Maybe this new album will have around 3-4 interludes and 10 new songs....

Reallly cant wait to see the news... Hope they will release the information soon....

I hate interludes. I always skip them. I don't feel the need for them. Ayu doesn't write them, they can go away lol. (just adding my dislike here lol)

I love interludes. If someone doesn't like them he/she can just skip them. Fact is interludes mean more music on an album so I rather take more music I might or might not enjoy over not having it at all.
10 tracks + 3 interludes >>> 10 tracks.

I love her interludes, I just hate when she sandwiches songs between them or puts them in weird places that they don't really fit (like Pieces of SEVEN).

I don't think I'll be disappointed if this album pulls a GUILTY/NL and is only 10 songs with 4 interludes since they're all new songs anyways~

interludes kind of make me mad lol. I'm always thinking about how they would make awesome kickass full songs.

not sure if anyone here has seen those pics?

if not, i just post it here

http://s11.postimage.org/7ftxrlren/1...4e241f583e.jpg

http://s11.postimage.org/7tzv4y0vz/4...a1cc112a3e.jpg

http://s11.postimage.org/6szmftjwf/5...8b451028c8.jpg

http://s11.postimage.org/i6m5r0uf3/8...3dfadc55c8.jpg

http://s11.postimage.org/53qj7r473/1...0737fa35c8.jpg

http://s11.postimage.org/xhvyrmrr3/e...0f49fb05c8.jpg

http://s11.postimage.org/e1b953wn3/e...eef11f7a3e.jpg

http://s11.postimage.org/efcl4pgqn/e...c27f1e25c8.jpg

http://s11.postimage.org/x8ye1peyn/f...d8be3e42c8.jpg

im not sure about your first comment, but i wouldnt think all producers are that meticulous when creating a song. Anyway, as far as i know, Ayumi makes several versions of a single song and she decides which one is her favourite in the end. Also, i read recently Amy Winehouse made her new song "between the cheats" in two hours or three, so it wasnt neccesary so much detail imho :shrug

And about the other thing, i disagree with you, a cd version is not always better than a live one, in that case, that might apply perfectly for singers who cant sing *coughcoughbritneycoughcoughmadonna*
but a live version can be even better than a recorded one if the artist/band actually knows how to perform live.

I really would like to have a whole new cd;if its possible im pretty sure its going to be a wonderful surprise whatever we get, a completely cohesive album would be great :love :yes. :yes

edit: Ayumi is photoshopped again on the upper pics lol :roflmao

If the interludes are 'extra tracks' then I don't mind them, but if they were to be replacing 'tracks with vocals in it' then I simply would dislike it in this album. :).

Most producers are. It's their job. Of course recording line for line or even more is rare, but at least verse for verse recording is the NORMAL procedure. If the song is hard they sometimes recording single lines, words or notes over and over.
Some singers sing from beginning until end in one go but that is rare and mostly only done by really, really good vocalists. And even then several recordings are often mixed together for the final thing. The chorus from the first recording, the bridge from the 3rd... Ayumi has done that exactly once as far as we know, for Secret. That song was recorded in one take and that one take was used. But she had to try many, many times before, it took her 2 days I think.
Amy Winehouse can record her songs faster because they aren't mainstream pop songs, there's jazz, soul, indie influences. All music genres that don't strive for perfection but rather raw emotion.

From the technical side, live performances in almost every single case are not as good as studio recordings. Even good singers like Beyonce have max 1 or 2 performances in their career that are actually technically better than their studio recordings. Personally preferring them because there is, for example, more emotion in a singer's voice is another thing. I prefer most of Ayumi's live performances over her studio ones, but there have been times when she belonged to the worst pop singers there are and even now she's never perfect, she has NO live performance that is sung better than her studio recordings(except maybe Countdown at AT10, but only because the studio vocals are quite bad for it and she used another vocal style live), she has never had perfect vocals live. You are confusing those two I think.

And thinking Madonna and Britney can't sing live are just a proof of your ignorance. Both have proven they can very well perform live, Madonna even has some very good vocal performances. While Britney isn't a GREAT singer but she can sing most of her own songs live well enough.

Where did those photos come from??? and is that the stylist from B&D/Pride?

Thanks for sharing them btw!

Thiiis a thousand times. Fair enough saying not everyone is a good singer, but I hate it when popular, high-selling, western acts get pulled up. I mean seriously, Madonna is probably the artist most similar to Ayu. Most things that apply to her, also apply to Ayu. :S

where are these from? :luv2
I'm so happy she will realease an album but I'm dying waiting for an official date. hope no later than march... and I'm pretty curious about which formats this album will be. cd, cd+dvd and also a blu-ray vers? want to know how much money she will make her fans spend XD

those pics are from TA

Sorry, but I NEED to do that:











Not Celine Dion or Mariah Carey... Still more solid than a good amount of jpop lives anyway^^

The notes she hits in Ray of Light are actually quite impressive.