You seriously don't have to listen to a song in earplugs in order to review it. I agree you need focusing and mayhbe time in order to review something but listening to a song blasting on your stereo can be enough in order for you to fully enjoy a song without blasting it only to the ears. Seriously.:laugh Some songs are cool because you can feel the waves "energizing" your skin, a feeling that gets lost with earplugs. That's like saying in order to review a dish you necessarily have to close your eyes and nose and just let your tongue taste it, which is ridiculous, because tasting a dish is not just about what your tongue feels, but much more complex than that.

^If u want to listen to the arragment details, It makes way easier...

Sorry, but this is the same as ordering a pizza, removing the toppings at home and them saying it was the best/worst pizza ever made. :P You can review the photography of movie only, but this is not a movie review, this is a photography review.

And even if it's only an opinion, what I agree (being a good professional review an opinion gave by a specialist), I believe we should ever try to be as much aware of the subject as we can before opinating it... even more if this is going to be avaliable to everyone to see.

^ you miss the point of the movie comment.
I'm talking about visuals, locations, what they put into production. How is the make-up, the looks, actually acting abilities. You dont need to understand what is being said to review the production values of the movie.

And the pizza is a really good example. You can remove what you dont like and then review what you liked.

if i dont like olives on a pizza but forget to tell them not to put them on a pizza, I can still review the pizza without the olives.

You know how olives taste... How can you review a pizza if you don't know how the topping taste with the rest, and removes it anyway? Them, again, you are not reviewing a movie, but it's production value

^ Im not following you.
You can review part of something and not the whole thing.
For the pizza: Just because I take the olives off doesn't mean I can't review the pizza. It means I can review the pizza minus olives, you shouldn't even mention the olives.
Olives dont make or break the pizza.

Also for movies or music. You can review parts. If someone doesn't understand the language of the movie or the music, you can review everything else but what is being said. There is so much that goes into each subject one reviewer probably cant even mention everything.

The lyrics are a big part on music, and the text is even a bigger part of a movie... You can review parts of it, but you have to make it clear it's a "this and that part review", not a review of the music or the movie.

She is not reviewing the songs, she is reviewing the melody and the arrangment...

But... what is wrong with that? I think lyrics are a part of a song, not a big part of it. You obviously prefer lyrics, but what is wrong with reviewing what she can review?

Geez, I think that's being too nitpicky imo. The title of the thread already says "unprofessional". You can dislike the way she described the songs if her reviews lacked much insight, but it's weird to demand her to have done the review with professional equipment dissecting the whole song as a dead frog in a bio class (even doing that in a bio class, a lot of the frog goes to waste because not everybody will dissect the parts and check every single tissue and cell over the microscope or doing all physiologic and pharmacologic studies while the frog is still alive but unconscious).

Something interesting I sometimes like to chat about with some friends is the instrument Bass. Bass usualy play is a back up for music, not often being the main lead instrument. A whole lot of songs have bass instrumentation, but sometimes it plays so low that you barely pay much attention to it. I sometimes make some fun play on listening ot a couple songs I like and just try paying attention to the bass playing and then I figure "wow, there's a whole different music inside this song if I specifically single out bass. It's impossible to make every single reviews by specifically paying attention to every and each instrument that necessarily doesn't stand out in a song. Sometimes they are there just to make it as a whole with a cooler experience but it can sound somewhat different if you single out what specifically is in the song that you want to pay attention to. The pizza comment is understandable but what if I make it more comples? So the guy ordered pizza and ketchup came as an option. You can either taste the pizza with ketchup or not, but it doesn't mean you can't review the pizza just because you skipped to use catchup. The same goes for music reviewing. I can put a song to play on earplugs and completely mess with the synth options, lowering treble and mastering bass. This gives infinity options to review something if someone tries to be so nitpicky about details.

@ImpactBreaker
It's not like the the lyrics come on a different cd and you have to play it together with the instrumental to get the whole thing... It's not like ketchup :P and I'm not bashing the girl or something, but our opinions were asked, I'm giving mine xD

Still... parte de mim admite que só tá nessa discussão for fun. :B Don't take me too seriously on this thread. :P

I know me too....falta de threads interessantes no forum, é bom ter uma discussão acirrada sem ofensas em um que permite isso hehe :yes

Eu imaginei mesmo :P

Well, TeamAyu2004, Internet is a nasty place and Ayu fandom is even nastier (not AHS), so, getting the most information and impressions about the reviewed album can help your friend in the case some crazy fan starts the bashing... This is something that tends to be a concern of mine when putting my own thoughts online, at least (I'm far more relaxed over here, as we are all family <3)

^ Lol... okay.
I see what your saying, but I just have to disagree. Sorry
I agree with ImpactBreaker and the dissecting. She did it for fun...

I do think however that she should give the lyrics a look over. But this was meant to just be fun and her own thoughts on the music itself since she doesnt really listen to ayumi as a hardcore fan. She is more causal if you will. (actually i think I make her listen to it most of the time.. lol)

Poor girl! :P

^ I know! lol.. its pure torture.. lol

^So this friend fo yours is not a member of AHS, or did you make an account for her? ;) (joking)

^ nope, she is not a member.

I have hopefully productive comments!! As a former j-music reviewer I feel I can be helpful.

1) It's actually refreshing to hear someone enjoying "A Song for XX" WITHOUT knowing the lyrics. Everyone keeps talking about how crap the album is (because, yes, her vocals are flat, the instrumentation is simplistic and synthetic, and the album is very dated sounding overall, even for 1999) that we often ignore how strong some of the melodies are, and we LOVE to criticize the album so we never just have fun with listening to it. Watching your friend sing & dance along to "Hana" was fun!

2) I don't recommend listening to an album for review purposes in a car, and I REALLY don't recommend doing a video of said review in the car. It makes the video harder to watch than necessary, and it makes it too hard to hear the album to properly review it.

3) And I DO think your friend has good review potential - she's trying very hard to articulate what she's hearing, and she's clearly listening carefully. That's more than many reviewers do. But have her learn some music terminology and have her read music reviews that AREN'T by jpop fans - she really needs to steer clear of words like "pretty" and "ethereal" (a catch-all term for "pretty" that anime fangirls tend to use to sound smarter and it drives me nuts cuz it's rarely properly used, although your friend seems to have used it correctly here). And comments like "I feel like I'm playing Zelda" are VERY descriptive, but only for people who are familiar with Zelda music. Like to me, I know EXACTLY what she means, but not everyone else is gonna get that.

There's potential here for her thoughts on this album to be VERY interesting specifically because she doesn't know the lyrics, and the rest of us have really only learned to appreciate ASFXX because we've looked up what Ayu's saying. So I would encourage the review of the album to continue, but not in a car, and only after a rudimentary music-review-explanation vocabulary lesson.

^ cool! thanks for all the insight! I'll pass that along!

LOL @ the Zelda comment. So true. I imagine little pixel Ayu slashing a sword at the evil avex bosses to save pixel Princess Kuu!