Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai

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hidekirby 5th February 2013 01:30 AM

I listened to it a couple of times.
All I can say is that I'm totally unimpressed. This album is full of nice ballads that almost sound the same. She seems to use the same oooold recipe again and again. This album doesn't give me something new, something to look for. I don't even feel the need to listen to it once again, like I'm already bored by the full thing.
It has been compared to Love songs a lot. Love songs was more diverse and inventive. All the tracks were quite different from each other. It is not the case here.
I will only keep Bye Bye darling/Wake me up/Missing/petal/Sweet scar in mind.
Wake up wake up ayu.

TeamAyu2004 5th February 2013 01:32 AM

loving it so far.
My only REAL problem is the complete uselessness that is Melody and the somewhat boring untitled.

pimenta 5th February 2013 01:40 AM

I quite enjoy it <3

Not among my top favorites, but definitely not among my least favorites as well. It's somewhere in the middle, alongside with those albuns that I love to listen to the songs randomly, but not as a whole album.

I really like the new songs, specially Bye-bye darling, petal and Gloria, and I already loved the singles' mini-albums' ones, so I'm happy ^^ (I didn't really care for these new interludes though D: )

After all, Ayu already gave me two full albuns in a row that went directly top my top 4 with Love songs and Party Queen, I don't expect all her releases to do that... As long as the songs are nice (and for me all songs in LOVE again are, except for the interludes), I'm happy with it :)

Delicious n Bold 5th February 2013 01:49 AM

It's all good
The midtempos drag a bit
The interludes are REALLY great
8.5/10

Maemi 5th February 2013 02:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hidekirby (Post 2971600)
I listened to it a couple of times.
All I can say is that I'm totally unimpressed. This album is full of nice ballads that almost sound the same. She seems to use the same oooold recipe again and again. This album doesn't give me something new, something to look for. I don't even feel the need to listen to it once again, like I'm already bored by the full thing.
It has been compared to Love songs a lot. Love songs was more diverse and inventive. All the tracks were quite different from each other. It is not the case here.
I will only keep Bye Bye darling/Wake me up/Missing/petal/Sweet scar in mind.
Wake up wake up ayu.

indeed ;)

MeyChan 5th February 2013 02:07 AM

I can say that I'm in love with this album.
9/10

Zeke. 5th February 2013 02:13 AM

I think I'm gonna take the songs I like and create a new playlist/album in my iPod: LOVE songs: again. or LOVE (songs) again

I do agree they sound very similar. To the point where when one is stuck in my head and before I know it I'm singing parts of another song off the album! (SAKURA and Gloria and Ivy)

My favorite is Gloria and it sucks because that's the one preview I listened to (back when that clip surfaced at CDL). I usually allow myself one preview from the album, and the least exciting one at that as to set the bar low. When I heard the Gloria clip, I thought "well this sounds quite nice! A sweet little listen. If that's how basic the album will get and there's better, I will be happy!" But Gloria ended up being the best new track...

I also agree this album sounds pretty basic as far as arrangement goes (as FL Studio was mentioned and Garage Band).

Honestly, it is quite different than Love songs... but it's the most likely contender to use as comparison. There are similarities. And really, LOVE again is what Love songs would have sounded like if it wasn't very good... So to revisit that formula, and lower the standard while doing so, is quite a mistake.

I really don't get the love for petal. It has so many similarities to Pride and Marionette, although both previously released songs are MUCH better... Ayu has done similar songs in the past, yet made them completely different (winter ballads for example; No way to say, momentum, Days) and people complain then about "recycling" and honestly petal offers NOTHING new and sounds piss poor compared to the previously released songs it is trying to imitate.

AYUCREA 5th February 2013 02:23 AM

I really LOVE this album!!!!!
All songs are so great!!!!!!!!!!!! I enjoy every single song form minis, and all new songs are amazing esp petal, Bye-bye Darling and SAKURA. Her voice is better than previous releases as well. This album is one of her best relreses in my opinion.

However I don't satisfied with PVs this time......maro appears here 3 times, the concepts of some PVs are kind of boring......
And if LOVE and again two minis can be released as singles, this promotion will be better.

Overall 9/10

Larisa-chan 5th February 2013 02:30 AM

Good lord. This album is incredibly boring and bland. It now ranks as my second least favorite album Ayu has ever released (the worst being A Song for XX).

Albums/mini-albums I don't care for:
-A Song for XX
-LOVE again
-FIVE
-RAINBOW
-Rock'n'Roll Circus

Delirium-Zer0 5th February 2013 02:34 AM

uuuugggh this album is so FRUSTRATING! The melodies are really, really nice, but the arrangements & mixing are such a disaster! Bland, bland, bland!! This could have been a really fantastic, reflective, dark & melancholy-but-optimistic album - EXACTLY what Ayu is usually best at - but the arrangements are so flat and lazy and do the melodies no justice at all.

I just wanna hear remakes of nearly every track. The stuff on "again" was great, leave that alone, but pretty much everything else needs SERIOUS updating. :(

Tom Punks 5th February 2013 02:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0 (Post 2971637)
uuuugggh this album is so FRUSTRATING! The melodies are really, really nice, but the arrangements & mixing are such a disaster! Bland, bland, bland!!

yeah dis

I feel like her vocals are mixed way too loud on the album tracks :\

channy 5th February 2013 03:33 AM

I had to delete "Melody" for my playlist, so basically the album now consists of 14 tracks instead of 15. As for "Melody", it's like "BALLAD", "meaning of Love", "beloved", "how beautiful you are" and the like; I simply do not need these songs :D

After my small modification, I must say, that's a beautiful album to listen to!

Akutenshi 5th February 2013 03:43 AM

I blame Yuta Nakano's arrangements for the blandness of this album. Ballads are his weakest point 9 times out of 10 and he arranged every single ballad on here. She needs to keep him on the weird/innovative tracks and get others to do her ballads because his arrangements just aren't cutting it anymore.

Zeke. 5th February 2013 04:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by channy (Post 2971654)
I had to delete "Melody" for my playlist, so basically the album now consists of 14 tracks instead of 15. As for "Melody", it's like "BALLAD", "meaning of Love", "beloved", "how beautiful you are" and the like; I simply do not need these songs :D

After my small modification, I must say, that's a beautiful album to listen to!

OMG! I used to think BALLAD was bland, but not too long ago I was utterly obsessed! It's so gorgeous and all the details. I just adore when the music gets all calm before the last chorus and when the piano just accompanies Ayu's voice, and there's that part where the piano stops and it's silent and then Ayu starts back in and then the piano follows. I live for that part!

Back to LOVE again though, and Gloria: I love the song, it is my favorite as mentioned. Someone brought up how it has an "optimistic" feeling to it and that's exactly it! It gives off the feeling of "despite this, I will try with all my might to be happy. I know there are things I cannot control but I will walk forward with a smile" during the chorus. I have never gotten this feeling of "optimism" from an Ayu song before and that's why it sounds the most fresh out of the album tracks. However, her voice in the verses is horrid. If I hadn't known what the chorus sounded like before-hand thanks to that preview I would have been thinking "wtf is this crap" during the first verse. Her voice sounds really great when she can belt it out, but it seems so hoarse now-a-days when she tries to sing softer.

SURREAL__RAINBOW 5th February 2013 04:51 AM

SAKURA gives me the same feelings that I got from all her new classics... I got chills omg.

susiowong 5th February 2013 04:52 AM

It's not terrible by far, but I just don't enjoy it. Best way to describe it is just... boring. Nothing sticks out, with the exception of Wake me up.

so very bland

SURREAL__RAINBOW 5th February 2013 05:31 AM

Finished listening!

Such a perfect album. Just what I needed right now, something soft, gentle, tender but still very powerful. It's just so beautiful. Thanks ayu.

My Rainbow 5th February 2013 06:15 AM

I LOVE IT!! Such a mellow and tender album. Nothing new, but that doesn't mean it's worse for that. It's cohesive and round. I took out You & Me and left it in A SUMMER BEST since Ivy it's the perfect ending for it.

sesshy 5th February 2013 07:17 AM

The album is nice. Though it isn't something I would listen to over & over.
But I want an extended version of glasses. I really like it hahaha

Jason 5th February 2013 07:54 AM

After many listens my opinion hasn't really changed. Maybe because I didn't really listen to the mini albums? I mean, I had Ivy on repeat when again came out but that's about it :P

I still love this album, though. The onslaught of ballads doesnt bother me in the slightest as I've always preferred them as opposed to her more up tempo songs. Missing, SAKURA, Sweet scar, petal, untitled for her 2, Gloria and Ivy = I could listen to on repeat all freakin' day! I adore the melodies and I can't wait to read the translations :). And as someone mentioned earlier, untitled for her 2's melody DOES sound extremely similar to Tears by X Japan. I knew it sounded familiar the minute I heard the chorus.

The up tempo tracks are good. Wake me up and Bye-bye darling are addictive as hell. snowy kiss has amazing build up verses that lead to slightly disappointing choruses and a minute or two could have been knocked from it. And You & Me ruins what could have been a perfect ending with Ivy :P

This is definitely in my top 3 Ayu albums of all time.


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