I definitely see where you're coming from, but usually with CMs that end up having a lot of talking, that's what happens. (And everyone jumps on that fact and says people shouldn't like it because how inaudible the clip is) If the song does turn out like that in the end, that would be a bit surprising to me. Usually her voice is pretty crystal clear in studio versions...

Just watched a You Were CDTV...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5GOLMWshF4
I can see what you mean by the "yelling" in the chorus. It's not so bad, but only if you compare it to the younger performance, you can hear the difference.

I loved the way the new song sounded. (:
Although it is a very LQ preview.. when I heard Sparkle masked by the talking, I loved it as well.

^ And this You were... performance is much better than the others (she is really shouting in the others and easily off-pitch).

can you show me some of the others? xD

^ All the You were... performances are up for download throughout the forum, I believe. :yes (Sorry, I don't have direct links...)
But again - I know I've said this many times, but it's true - don't provide "proof" of her "constant" yelling based on the You were... lives. That song takes a lot of support, especially for somebody with a deep voice (which now applies to Ayumi). Also, it's probably that much harder for somebody who has trouble in that area to begin with, such as Ayu... It's not that she's screaming, it's that she literally has to put everything into it. It doesn't seem like it, but You were... isn't exactly her easiest song.
Also, I just want to point out (again) that sometimes when she's yelling, it's because she's really excited and getting into it, hah. Like, I think it was the last performance of Rule she did, she started to almost scream it, but it's because she was having so much fun.... This also applies to nearly every evolution, Trauma, Boy & Girls, etc. performances, hah.

I was an Ayu fan since 2001 and her voice is what drew me to her, then I found out she's also a good lyricist. Those were the days. lol I'm one of the few who liked her 98-01 voice and Duty.

I considered this possibility only recently. I have no problem whatsoever singing her older songs, or using my head voice. My range singing this way is actually greater and doesn't sound as nasally as hers. When it comes to singing in my chest and singing "correctly" I experience some of the same problems as Ayu now does. It takes way more control, breath, and effort with my voice sounding flat. It could be because its hard for me to sing lower notes, as my voice will cut off if trying to go too low. :/ For me singing through my nose is easy, but through my diaphram is way harder.

Hopefully that snippet wasn't the final version of the song. I think they'll probably do a bit of editing before the actual release. From what I could hear, it wasn't that bad.

sorry, a bit off topic but i see discussion about you were and vibrato

ayu doesn't know how to control her hands. Not only is her vibrato out of control during almost every song, but her hands don't know how to keep to her sides. There's no problem with wanting to stand there and sing into a microphone.
http://s171.photobucket.com/albums/u...aFamilyGuy.flv

ok not that bad but you get the idea of the hand/vibrato thing.

actually her voice didn't make me like her at all. I liked dearest and no more words and all (without knowing who she was) but when I first intentionally heard a song by her "is this love" I thought she had the worst voice ever. I hated that "Hey hey yeaaaaaaah yeaaaah lalala lalai lalalalalai yeah yeah yeaaaaaaaaH" It sounded super 80s to me. lol Which is why I came to love the karaoke version of it. :D

I would say that her vibrato is under control after CDL09-10... she barely did anything of the typical "aaaaAaaaAAaas or IiiIIiiiiiiiiiiiiIIiis" which is an improvement. As for her hands, I think it's just something she does because that's how she rehearses certain songs, and also because it's boring as hell when artists don't move. I've watched all of her making of documentary things and she almost always does some sort of diva hand flourish when singing ballads. Other artists are rather guilty of this too... I'm looking at you, Ken Hirai.

^ken hirai is one big snore factor for me. I've seen a few lives and haven't really seen him do it. but again I"m not a fan of him so I don't pay attention.

Maybe she does it out of habit but if an artist's voice is amazing enough they shouldn't have to waver themselves around stage. I think it looks very classy and proper to be able to stand there and belt out all those notes instead of being over this side of the stage with your body while your hands are on that side of the stage.

A singer will move their bodies around (specifically, the hands, of course) for different reasons. Like you pointed out with Christina Aguilera (lol at the clip, by the way XP), many singers use their hands as an outlet of focus when trying to hit really high or low notes, or when needing to hold a note for a good length. But a lot of singers also just move around due to emotion. I believe this is Ayumi's case. She's a very emotional person in general, so that's brought over into her singing, of course. She....flails [lol] about only because she's getting into, not because it's a vocal technique....... It doesn't look like it is, anyhow.

And I agree, I think she's definitely working to improve on that vibrato... Thank goodness. >_>'

She used to just stand there in some of her earlier performances, and then the hand/vibrato combo came along. It's probably done out of habit by now.

Those songs were my firsts for Ayumi, it brings back memories... Inuyasha. lol I didn't know those were by her at the time either, but I knew I liked them. A friend had shown me a picture of her and I thought she was really pretty, but I couldn't remember the name, just the face. So I hear this beautiful song on Inuyasha and I look it up online, and it turns out to be the girl I'd been looking for--Ayu! I've been a fan ever since.

I've only recently began to like "Is this love" a tinge.

Yeah, I don't remember which interview it was but one in 2009 she said something about how it's hard to control her screaming sometimes because she gets so excited on stage, lol

I'd say to watch the "because of you" performance at CDL 09-10 to hear how bad her vocals can be. But she does not sound like that all the time now and even her worst performances lately aren't as vocally bad as CDL 07-08 tv version or most of AT08 so I'm not sure why people think she's getting worse live, as I see a bit of an improvement in her voice. :S It just seems like she used to be lost in a sea of vibrato and it made her voice sound awful, but lately she has toned it down and when she does use her vibrato it actually sounds nice, not like HEAVEN @ AT06 or Dearest @ AT08 lol.

Also I loved all of the You were... lives and thought she sang most of them very nicely. I originally expected way way worse and for her to not be able to reach any of the notes. She wound up only having a couple of messups, and one of the lives sounded almost identical to the original recording.

Talking about the hand move movements, it can be used to help a singer keep in tune too. Chihiro Onitsuka does it, a lot.

Boku taaaaaaachiiiiiiii waaaaaaaaa *sway sway sway* lol

Oddly enough, Is This Love is one of my favorites just for that part you didn't like!
& lol at the clip...

re the hands: It's especially very common in Japan for female singers, which isn't surprising because hands are historically considered very "sexy". I haven't seen many performances by any female artist where hands aren't moved constantly to some extent.

Oh my gawd, the HEAVEN performance...... I remember the first time I saw that, I totally started busting up laughing. :laugh She unhinges her jaw like a freakin' snake and lets out this wave of aaAAAHhhhaaAAAAHHHhhhhAAAaaahhhhhhhh, and it's like WHOA!!!!! :thud Totally made me giggle...

:roflmao


And man, everybody keeps talking like the newest Because of You performance was super-terrible, eh heh....... That makes me very sad. D:

It's not super terrible, but it was by far one of her worst vocal performances of the night. Because of You is a kind of hard song to sing well anyway... so I forgive her for it.

The hand thing is one of my ultimate pet peeves. :) But not with Ayu though because she is on the low end of offenders when it comes to that.

As for the You Were and Rule performances being "good." Are they considered good because she sounds similar to how the recording does? Because imo, that just means that her studio vocals have problems too. Both songs are very shouty and choppy sounding in their studio versions and they sound that way live too. I love the melody and music of both songs but her vocals are the weak point of the those tracks for me.