EDIT: Whoops, didn't see the first page. Never mind. XD

The bigger cover's gorgeous! i love her expression! kind of nostalgic!

GORGEOUS! PERFECT! One of her best covers ever!!! :smitten
I love Ayu's dress and the setting!

And no fish lips! I'm so happy I could cry!

The concept is a little over-done, but its actually very pretty, and one of her best covers in a very very long time.

I love the cover.

And who's the woman in the portrait? I thought at first it is Elizabeth I...

So it's a Timmy song?

the cover is so pretty:heart and the song omg, already on repeat

I made textless cover

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...Brush-Tool.png

Wooow I love her dress!!! <3

I like the larger cover, beautiful :) Just listened to the song, I'm liking it.

It's so pretty!! Love it!!

I love the instrumental version much better than the original one :laugh
Am I alone ? lol

^ me too =) to tell the truth I don't like this song
I love singing with a breathy, but not in this time

The cover looks random and awkward. What is she doing? It's a cover, not a fashion advert. :no

There is also no cohesion at all. It feels like everything isn't planned. The lighting, settings, colors, composition... It's just poor.

I love this cover so much. It's simple and gorgeous. I personally love random stuff, so yeah lol It's random, but to me it works :yes

The song is also gorgeous.

I asked that a few pages ago but nobody responded. From the hairstyle and outfit it seems to be her but isn't the hair too dark?
It would make sense with her being the virgin queen and stuff.

I love this song!

I really like that cover... the song also is really beautiful!

love everything but from what I can see her face is a no no.


That dress is gorgeous.

Can someone let me know the full credits for this song?

I don't know where to ask this, is there lyrics for 「how beautiful you are」？

Best cover in ages ;~~; Man I love it! <3

^the lyric is very beautiful indeed.. :)

Queen Elizabeth I is usually a red head or milky brunette. I don't think it's Mary I either, kinda looks like Mary Queen of Scots.

I will find out who she is!!

Google images and wiki failed me, I've tried all possible combinations, queen paintings, queen with collar paintings, english paintings, monarchs paintings, countess paintings, tudors paintings, etc, still haven't found the painting :p

99.9% sure she isn't an English Queen or Queen Consort, I'd definitely recognise her.

Then again, this could have been shot in England, in which case she could be some aristocratic family's daughter, so unless they were really prominent we'll never know. Old estates are full of portraits.

I doubt it's anyone *that* important, otherwise it'd be in a gallery or something.

Haha, I just now saw this.
I first saw it on Tumblr and thought it was fanmade, but then I checked here, and it's real?!
Wow, she looks stunning! I really, really, really love this photo. The dress, the ladder, the background, everything. It's gorgeous!

I'm 99.9% sure I've seen her picture somewhere, and I'm also sure that I would recognize her, I agree, her hair is different (Elizabeth I) but she looks a bit like her. I need to find out! *curious*

The big cover is beautiful !!! yay!!! NO MORE FISH LIPS :)
The song is better in full, it could be a grower of course

I think it's quite a step in the right direction for Ayu.
I would love to see her have another big hit, and this song
could very well do it.
And I agree with the comments that say it's better in full.

Judging by her dress, she's 17th century. So you guys can search for 17th century portraits, narrow it down by that. Also, she does look like royality....perhaps an austrian or dutch princess or something? I've never seen this particular portrait before I think.

Aah, I just did another search, looks like some countries had that collar thing going on, even during the early 16th century. Damnit, this is like detective work!

It's such a beautiful cover. I love everything about it.

I think thats Virgin Elizabeth http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...th01b.jpg/sr=1

my friend (ayu's listener too) said exactly the same. ;x

the bigger cover, wow, I ain't even mad about the typography this time! the color doesnt match etc, but w/c, one of the best cover she ever made. i cant wait for PQ cover now, omg.

This cover is gorgeous, the best cover in a very long time for a single...too bad it will not be a physical release, I would love to own this cover.

The cover's honestly something I'd expect from a magazine featuring ayu or something...but it's still incredibly gorgeous nonetheless.

Hopefully this also means the album cover will be just as good, if not better ^.^.

me too. i'm sure that i've seen that picture somewhere and that it is relatively famous, but i just can't place it. then again, there are SO many pictures that look similar that maybe i'm just confused.

i like how pretty it looks. but dislike how they did nth to the font.. haha but oh well its a digital single so its ok..

awesome song by the way!

That cover is amazing!!

Darn you, avex, for not making this available internationally!!

I just got the single! Hoping it's good.

Incredible cover!

The cover is gorgeous, but I think I would be even more beautiful if she had long hair D:

love this cover so much, her lips not overexposed

Great to have something that has a real background, not just a huge face with fish lips LOL and maybe the painting has a story. If we get more of this series in the album booklet, we will see how it is developed. :P

And for some reason the cover overall makes me think of Renoir. Haha so random!

Many of you might not like it as much as the original, or at all, but I've made an edited cover for you to use, that's not too far from the original.

http://i.imgur.com/DotTV.jpg

Use it if you want! :)

I don't know why everyone likes her face so much, it still looks duck faced to me.

Amazing! More stunning than the original one :yes:yes
Thank you!

nice work Kanzaki88! i prefer the pink to the purple, though both are incredibly gorgeous. i wonder if this will be part of the Party Queen album shoot like how the Together When... cover was part of the GUILTY shoot. if so i'm really looking forward to more pics from this shoot!

Thank you! ^^ The purple was really pretty, but it struck me as such a muted color. I wanted it to pop.

omg its like the other one was a fake, and thats the real one :heart

I would tweet it to ayu and leslie....but......lol

I don't think she's pushing her lips out at all, they're just very large from the gloss and the way they're done which is probably why people are okay with how it looks.

I prefer purple, but I like how you've changed the letters :)

fonts looks so much better
It's nice, but I prefer blue skirt

It's kind of relevant to the release so I'm putting this here. Timmy's posting at another J-Pop forum now that the digital single came out. I think there's a possibility that he may come here.

That cover is awe-inspiring :heart

^^ Wow, haha. There could be quite a large possibility that he signs up here then...

Will the album follow the same art direction?

wow. if you're here too, Tim, please, answer ;)

^oh no %) I hope he will never come here

Yes! Tim! He'll be our Ayu-insider!

don't want ayu's staff to see Downloads section %)

Lol they'll be stupid to think we don't have one.

They already know about Ayu China always

And I'm sure...Dave(?) (do it again composer) saw it when he came by a while back.

^it's a shame anyway %)

I don't think he'd care about that anyway. He just wants feedback on the new releases and isn't around to patrol for Ayu/avex.

MTE, poor guy would be devastated by the negativity on this forum, not nescessarily the download section xD

What Jpop forum did he join??

^jpopcentral =)

you're right %) I forgot about endless holy war in twitter thread

http://jpopcentral.yuku.com/topic/11...D-POWE?page=31

Cover is great, but the song itself is even better. it's so SO amazing! <3

I hate her voice in this. It has become way too apparent that she struggles to sing. I thought she was getting vocal training now?

Anyway, I will probably get PQ since I have all her other albums, but I am glad I am getting the CD+DVD version this time, so I can listen to the previews first.

I really love her voice in this song. I can't wait to hear previews for other tracks.

Does somebody know the two fonts on the cover? ^^

Whenever people say her voice is bad on this(or any FIVE song but progress) I just laugh by now. The ONE thing that can be 100% objectively said about her current era is that her vocals are much better than they have been from 2006-2010 and her vocal technique is the best of her career(she used to use completely wrong vocal technique, even in the eras she sounded good in, now she uses correct vocal technique)

Also, the song is up to #3 on iTunes, both the overall and J-Pop Charts. Just to compare: Madonna's new single is at #19 and she is getting lots of promotion on iTunes itself while Ayumi has a small thumbnail and is getting banner promo in the J-Pop category only.

actually...i kind of don't think timmy would join ahs.

sure, david reitz joined and posted here, but he isn't an avex employee. timmy actually works for ayu/avex and thus i don't think it would look good to them if he were posting on a forum where there are downloads. i think to avex it would be like taking part in something that hurts their business and they would not be happy about it.

Yeah I thought that. But if it were Elizabeth I that would work very well as a reference to Virgin Road and the queen's gentleness(compared to other monarchs of that time that is) and her love for art.
I guess it's someone random then though :/

This is lovely!! ^_^

AHS would probably be the first place he would come. Maybe he reads the forums but hasn't signed up yet?

And, since Timmy is under Ayu's wing, I would think he'd have more freedom to talk on her releases than a regular desk employee - Ayu's staff tend to do a lot of networking stuff. It'd be like them saying that Peco can't have a link to her CD on her blog because she's Ayu's backup dancer. I think Ayu's staff would have a lot of freedom, actually...

Thanks for the edit kanzaki! It looks way better. And lol, Timmy might be joining AHS? Someone clean up the download section ASAP! lol no don't. :P (How are we sure that the guy was lucky to get his username to 'timwellard'? It might be a troll.) edit NEVER mind, he tweeted about it.

So is this ayu's 51's single?

Cant stop listening to How Beautiful You are

My new favorite songs.....

I love the cover!

Kanzaki88, wow the fanmade alternative cover is very nice, coz it;s pink! hehe~~ thanks for sharing!

so true!

Oh my....
This cover is just....stunning!

She looks absolutely beautiful! Gorgeous cover!

I love this cover! I wish it is a physical released... :(

this single is very promising! hope the album doesn't disappoint.

I wish this was a physical release as well, most of all because I would be DYING to see that booklet! :O

We saw pics from Together when... photoshoot in GUILTY booklet,didn't we?So,why people are dying for a physical copy?I'm sure we'll see more pics in Party Queen booklet/photobook

^ I also think we'll see more. such a gorgeous photoshoot can't be used only once oO

ummm JPC has a DL section,not as active as the one here and you have to have 10 posts to see it

anyway hbya has grew on me a lot, by the time the album comes I will like!
though I think her vocals on it are gorgeous

yes hopefully

they do? i thought they didn't for some reason. maybe timmy doesn't know, haha.

i just think it would be strange for an avex employee to frequent a place that shares his employer's work for free. :shrug

i wonder when recochoku chart will be updated?
I believe Ayu will get number one...

Yes I love your ava.

She's still at #3 on iTunes...but maybe she'll do even better on recochoku :)

If her photobook has the same features as this pic,i'd definitely like to purchase it.

I still can't believe she released this cover. o.o

I still have to listen again the song to give an objective opinion, but in general terms i like the song, the message is lovely and positive. :)

Btw, i don't think the portrait is Elizabeth I,unless is a portrait of an early age,because if she already appears as a queen she should have all the symbols that recognize her as a governor,like the crown or the sphere (i think a snake is also a part of these symbols, i dont remember) anyway for me the crown confirms ayu intended to suggest Elizabeth,even if the portrait is not necesarily her.

absolutely not true

this is what absolutely true :yes

Yes it is, her control has greatly increased, as has her range. Her tone has gotten clearer and her vibrato isn't all over the place anymore. Liking it or not is another thing, her vocals have increased like crazy lately. Fact.

I don't think the picture has a meaning in the cover.
Unless they say what it means which probably wont happen.