taskinson is such a great track. It needs a longer version OR an introduction to INSPIRE/Don't look back in concert ! The oriental vibe is sooo great.

I'm listening to the album, so far so good, the remastering is a good surprise it gives another approach to the songs (dreamed a dream and 23rd monster are far more pleasant to hear).

Yes I actually agree with this; I was not excited for this album, as most of the singles did nothing for me. But listening to the album as a whole, I actually enjoy it all a lot more. I still think 'オヒアの木' and 'Just the way you are' are the most generic and predictable Ayu ballads possible and I would never choose to listen to them on their own, but in the context of the album I don't mind them.

Overall, pleasantly surprised!

It's a shame about the lyric booklet but the rest of the photo shoot in the photo book is amazing. Seriously, every shot is a winner :luv2. I can't wait for full scans!

I was up with a teething toddler so only caught part of the stream and haven't listened to the album. Plan to do so today!

The stream was alright but I wish they had laid out more of a plan or schedule. I was hoping it would be like the kpop pre-release parties where they show the album contents, explain a little about the song backstories etc. I sent a chat that didn't get read out loud but some people dropped serious cash (like $100+) and were also ignored so I don't feel bad about it haha

If she does them again in a few months I hope they have a plan for how the stream will go and what it will cover. It was kind of funny with Max & ayu looking like grandparents working out facetime.

There was also Max's cat in the background, and the dogs are getting smaller. Lends possibility to my "ayu became a cat person" theory :P

I actually couldn’t listen to DaD before, something about it made me feel super anxious. The remastering has essentially fixed that and I can actually listen to it now lol.


Regarding the photo book, it kinda feels like a free TA magazine outside of the new shots, but the new shots are beautiful.

I loved this album, Ive been a fan of all its singles, especially DaD back in 2021 when I rediscovered it. Despide the poor booklet, the photobook looks amazing tho.. I felt this superhero vibe on her when using that purple outfit on that rooftop.


It's kinda sad but somehow predictable what I read about the YT Live thing..
Unfortunately I couldn't watch, is anybody with this problem too? :\

all the mess and campiness tell me that ayu is as real as she gets. nothing is "pre-planned"; everything is as she feels like doing at the moment, I admire that of her and obviously she's in a position where she can afford to this so good for her.

for me, I try not to get hyped by any external "promotions" because everything is pre-planned anyway, including questions and answers.

i am excited about the album and ayu is one of the last few artists i have offline copies of the music rather than relying completely on Spotify

i have finally played the whole album from the start to the end and i must say this album is SOLID. i might need a little more time for VIBEES (sounds like a new B&D)! particularly in love with Remember you.

Okay I listened to the album, the Nonfiction remix slaps and I love the interludes and VIBEES. That one's going to be a concert track for sure. Listening in order to the album, it feels like a NEXT LEVEL throwback to have Just the way you are at the end, kind of like Curtain Call.

It does feel weird having 23rd Monster on an album dropping a few weeks before her 25th anni (plus Haru yo, koi and Ohia no ki) but I was thinking about how ayu earlier in her career protested against A BEST and re-recorded songs to give value to the compilation. Maybe she still feels like that, reducing the exclusivity of tracks by putting them on additional releases?

Another couple of things I remembered from the stream were when someone was spamming "YOUは何しに日本へ？" (Why did you come to Japan?) which is the title of a TV Show. Ayu actually read this one out loud and was going "....uuh, I am Japanese? What is this?" and the staff were laughing at her.

When she was asked to release ayu-mi-x 8 she didn't even know we had an ayu-mi-x 7 and asked if it had come out. I don't think the staff knew what number they're up to, either.

When it started the stream didn't go live so I had to force close and reopen the app to see her, YT does seem difficult lately...

Do you guys realise, in a certain part of taskinson, where Ayu says "Zzzz" "zzz", isn't that part from Nonfiction?

anyone else realized that the promo photo for this album is the same pose and layout from LOVEppears?

I finally listened to the whole album and it is really hard to compared this album to any other of her album because

1- by the time of the release, we only had 2 tracks and 2 interludes to discover
2 - we have been dissecting and digesting all previous singles with peculiar attention as critical as we could be.
3- her catalog is so big it is really hard to top what she did before and don’t we love to compare even in silence.
4- when she isn’t trying to rely in her comfort zone songs, we have a habit (not necessarily bad) to just prefer a certain style she had before.

So in the end, is it a good album, yes, how it compares to the rest of her discography… I don’t know. I guess nonfiction is what seems to be lead single and it isn’t by far her strongest lead, but it is a good song.

23rd monster would be amazing… if It wasn’t that startin’ and Talkin to Myself existed and are superior.

You have (Not)Remember you which is an electronic version or WARNING.

Remember you is good, but MY STORY had WALKING PROUD and HAPPY ENDING.

The album has overall more good songs than MADE IN JAPAN or R’N’R Circus, but these releases had advantage of dropping a bunch of songs at same time and we didn’t spend months criticizing all of them, we just skipped what we didn’t

This is the first time though I don’t have a strong love at first side for a song and I r’think reason being, after 18th albums, it is hard to always outperform yourself.

BTW, anyone got the DVD/BD and checked whether DaD is a promotional short version or a studio full version?

Mess is right, but I don't know about the campiness. Like, I can't be the only person, who's actually majorly pissed about that whole YT Live thing and I say that as someone, who doesn't spend half the day complaining about every minute thing, writing cynical comments or talking about Illuminati. Not only was it complete amateur hour - at least explain things to her beforehand ffs - her attitude was downright infuriating. She didn't want to answer boring questions, didn't want to talk about the album, because that's only for TA, didn't want to talk about things she likes, because "TA knows". Like, are fans who're not TA second-class fans? And that after she basically wrote that TA made her hate Hamasaki Ayumi? They're not special for paying a fee once a year. I guess it was supposed to be album promotion, but the only thing she promoted was the lipstick she wore.
People spent a bunch of money on Super Chats she didn't even read. Where does the money even go? Again, amateur hour. Even though they said it'd be only her, I thought they'd have someone help her at least.



I don't really have an opinion on the album yet, because there're just way too many old songs on it, so I see it less as an album yet, more as a bunch of old songs in the way to get to the new songs. lol I've only listened to the whole album once so far and like (NOT) Remember you and VIBEES the most from the new-ish songs.
Funnily enough, I read VIBEES like vibe + bees and was like "Now I got used to that reading", then that's actually how you read it. ^^; I guess since an employee is someone who's employed, VIBEES are people who vibe or something? lol

On a side note, I don't understand why she, or anyone really, has to outperform herself. With that attitude, you likely won't be satisfied.
I have to say though, I'd really like her to get more arrangers, especially for ballads, since Nakano seems just too predictable at times. I personally would like CMJK to come back too. I thought they had a falling-out or something, but then he rearranged songs for the 21st anniversary concert. 10+ years seems too long for a mere scheduling issue though.

It definitely felt completely unplanned, but TA did kind of warn us of that I suppose. Still, they absolutely should have turned off super chats. Or at least announce that they’re donating it or something. No one should’ve been pocketing money from that, IMO. Particularly since most weren’t even answered lol.

But yeah it was kind of a pointless stream. But she never answers questions with these things, so I wasn’t particularly hopeful. She’s exceptionally private now, which makes sense when she said she doesn’t really feel like saying as much now in her lyrics as she used to.

^ Yeah, she said that in the past she had a great desire to get her thoughts/feelings out, but nowadays there's more stuff she want to keep private in her lyrics.

And Ayu actually said "I'll wait for a better question" after the time machine question :laugh such a savage.

~~

I posted a translation of VIBEES in the lyrics thread.

Yes, in the follow up question to her not having any dreams/not “fighting” for anything at the moment, they asked how she’ll go about writing her lyrics, and “in comparison to the past, do you ever feel like you’ve run out of things to write about?” She responded with “I don’t feel like I’ve written everything I have” but while she still has things to write about, her feeling of not wanting talk about things has increased. In the past, she had the feeling of wanting to express/talk about certain things, things she wants people to understand, the “screams” she held inside, but…. And then Max cut her off and mentioned how she never used English phrases before, and now she does.