Wasn't the tie in for hbya a great one?
And with the (local) promotion she's doing now, the sales might stabilize.

July 1st is easily the best summer song, fairyland is amazing too. The rest just seem a bit rehash-y.

Am I the only one who thinks of INSPIRE as a summer song?

I've never thought of INSPIRE as a summer song. It just doesnt feel as happy or as fun as her other summer singles.

The PV is kind of summer-ish, though. :P

whaaaaa, I thought everyone had clear that INSPIRE is a summer song :laugh

I've always seen it that way :shrug

I think of it as one, but it's not like...a happier...or cuter summer song I guess. although I guess fairyland isnt "happy" or cute...idk.

considering shes making public appearances now they might boost up her sales...

i dunno if this is mentioned before, that there are some similarities in between the 2 albums that broke the consecutive number 1 record, GUILTY and Party queen:

-both have the "-TY" as album title.
-both have leopard print
-both were outsold by an album with 4-digit number as title
-both have 14 tracks
-both have iTunes leak
added
-both have digital single before the album release
-both were released after ayu broke up with her boyfriend/husband

Good find! that is so freaky!

both had digital singles
both were after she broke up with her boyfriend/husband

I really think a sharp decline of album sales shows a signal that there's something wrong with the album. I'm not going to repeat the reasons as people in AHS have done it brilliantly. But the decrease in sales doesn't mean her career is over. She still can grab a position in the industry, like touring I think? Though I don't care about the sales I am hoping for her insane promotion she mentioned.

Honestly I have mixed feelings about the covers, but they don't matter at all (thinking of terrible NL), I love the lyrics in which ayu is genuinely confessing her agonies and solitude after her sudden divorce. "I'm a lonely QUEEN." This album deserves praise despite the moderate(I don't think "small" would suit with 100k) commercial success.

I wonder how her next album will do...

^Probly another cycle. If GUILTY is a premonition of PQ, probly we'll have a NL-type album, which I prefer over GUILTY :P.

And dun you guys remember that Boys & Girls was the very first summer song from ayu? :P

PS: Party Queen is back to no. 5 today :D.

3rd Day
Position: #5

thanks, back to top 5 is even better than top 10. :)

#3 sold 9,400, I wonder if Party Queen did 6,000+ today.

I most certainly hope so :D

Looking good :) Thanks for the update!

thats cool, back in the top 5...
I really hope this album as a long shelf life.
the more interviews she does and spreads them out, I think the longer this will be in the top 10.

I don't know if this has been asked before but; why don't Oricon show the sales for albums past the top 3?

Anyway, it's nice to see a chart boost. :)

YAY happy for ayu!
it's gonna back to snatch no. 2 again...or even better no. 1!
please~~~

glad to see that the album is back at no.5 again =)

I hate to be the downer, but it it NOT going to get #1 this week lol The album at #1 outsold PQ in A DAY.

...and the only connection between GUILTY and Party Queen in them being break up albums. I don't think that has anything to do with sales. GUILTY was the double week and PQ is lack of promotion and lack of interest.

I'm hesitant to say lack of promo even, because NO WAY would Avex have scheduled Acid Black Cherry on the same day if they thought Ayu would lose, I'm sure her marketing team are way more shocked than some people here.

I wonder if Ayu is pissed at them, lol. I mean, everyone says she doesn't care about sales but come on, you know it probably feels good to have that #1 album. Especially considering the darker place she is in right now, I'm sure it hits hard to think "wow, I'm only selling this much now. wow, I lost out to a fellow label mate..." etc.

1. I find Inspire to be a year-round epic track. It feels summery but I listened to it all winter and it made my day just a bit more epic lol.

2. I hope Ayu releases something like Next Level. In all honesty, it's her not her best album but I LOVEEE it. Even the covers, believe it or not. The photoshopped tattoo thing doesn't bother me. Even the placement of tracks didn't bother me. Maybe it's because I love electronic songs as well as ballads to bits.

3. The comparison between GUILTY and Party Queen unfortunately suggests that people may not like leopard print. :(

the promotion did works!!!
at least she ahead of ABC now...

I'm a total sucker for leopard print so I'm loving it on the CD covers. :heart

and that when Duty was released, everybody LOVED leopard print.

and now only Ayu does :(

I think she must be...I remember she said during a RnRC interview that she'd love to have another million seller and big hit

Same here, I love leopard print and that's why I also like Party Queen's covers. It's too bad that 2 of the 3 CDs that feature leopard print aren't as successful as ayu's other albums. I tend to notice that ayu gets serious when she wears her leopard print XD

Top 5 again. 'Tis a good day for humanity.

I'm happy she's back to the top 5 <3

Some of my favorite Ayu albums are Duty, GUILTY, and Party Queen. It must be the leopard print. :)

Leopard print instantly ups the overall quality. and it's f'ing sexy

THIS. :yes

I think that the SURREAL cover is the best usage of ayu's leopard print.
I mean, what's not fun about a sexy cat girl singing about her love?
The single cover also gives you this 'what-does-she-look-like-from-head-to-toe-in-that-get-up feel' while Duty and the SURREAL PV DVD(?) give it away:P It's just the sexy mystery of leopard print in SURREAL's case.

it must be quite frustrating for her. i can tell she really did put a lot of effort into this album and then to see it not reach the top... it must be tough. especially because i don't think the lack of sales necessarily has anything to do with the music itself.

having said that, as a fan, i am still proud that it managed to get to #2 without any physical singles released beforehand.

Hm. I don't dislike leopard prints; I think they look great on SURREAL (because it's BW it's somehow more kickass for me), Duty and GUILTY, but on Party Queen it's an eyesore. Pink-yellow-brown leopard print don't...fit, methinks (neither do pink and yellow for me, so there you go).

I'm pretty sure any artist would love that though lol.

WOW! That's really freaky!

she kinda HAS to say it as well.

I mean, if she goes around saying she doesn't care about sales and stuff...it's not really the best thing :/ It might be the truth, but idk it's a tad disrespectful lol


Anyway, I do think it's weird that Avex would release both of these albums on the same day, unless there was just, not another week to release :shrug

At first I was sad about the fact that PQ only got to number 2 but honestly the album is so good that I coulnd't care less and am just enjoying it :)

maybe avex underestimated & didn't expect ABC's 2012 to sell even better than ayumi ? :O

Don't forget , avex also released AAA's 1st B-side compilation Another Side of #AAABest on the same week as Party Queen & 2012 . AAA is obviously not a threat to ayumi in any single bit but I do think for ABC's case , it was a scenerio of underestimating how unusually well 2012 would overtake if not oversell Party Queen down the line

Let alone , the 1st week sales of 2012 has outsold the whole total sales of ABC's 2009 album Q.E.D. too :O

I still think that if Party Queen were to get released in April , it would have gotten #1 easily with 0 promotion since there're no big major artistes putting out albums next month , well not that I know of

I think the reason why they did all three was because it was the end of the year from them...
So avex stocks when no matter what. And thats all they really care about, how much money they make.

if sold 1 week ahead, still can get #1 too.. dunno why Avex chose 21 mar..

This is basically how I feel now.
Who cares if people buy it or not, it only matters if you enjoy it.
The album is actually quite good.

On another note, I personally believe that Party Queen will be remembered as the underrated gem among Ayu's albums.

thats what I was thinking...but I thought it was at the end of april so I thought maybe she still had time...guess not lol

yeah someone mentioned about that before regarding the financial year end since in Japan , Japanese companies's financial year end is in March & not in Dec

I know that cos my mum's working in a Japanese bank so xD

you mean Party Queen should have gotten released on 28th March ?

even if so , it doesn't stand a chance in getting #1 due to Kis-My-Ft2's debut album Kis-My-Ft . Their 1st day sales outsold Party Queen's 1st week sales X.X by close to 1.5 times of the sales Party Queen obtained D:

if Party Queen were to be released in March , somewhere in the beginning of March would have been feasible . I don't mind for it to get released in the same week as Akanishi Jin's JAPONICANA . Heck ayumi can kick Akanishi's butt for all I care :laugh & why not since JAPONICANA failed to get #1

For an album without any lead physical singles, I have to say she did pretty damn well. Even the West likes to promote at least one song from a new album before it's released, but for her to go basically blind (I don't think HBYA's tie-up helped that much) and still land at least #2 with that big a gap between #2 and #3 is fine with me.

Of course as a fan I'm disappointed she debuted with a #2 when she normally has #1 secured within the first few days, but I'm still confident in her ability. She's still producing magical songs (such as Return Road), so not all is lost. :)

woah? really? can you give a link or the name of the interview because i can't imagine ayu saying that. Kinda shocked and sad for her.

It means that she does really care about results.

3rd Day
Position: #5
Sales: 2,881
Total Sales: 107,282

4th Day
Position: #7

Man, I hope next album will have at least one physical single. I mean physical singles still do sell pretty decent. I'm sure Ayu can still sell more than 50k. I wonder if we r not getting 51th single 'cause avex/Ayu is afraid of breaking her singles streak.
-both have her with short blond hair on the cover.

^honestly all they need to do is get Ayu some decent promotion and her getting another number 1 single is not that hard... T___T just get her to do lives and radio shows and performances and places.

I actually just read some horrible comments made about PoM and her voice by some Japanese, they said things like, "not deteriorated enough to be told" (I'm pretty sure they referred to her voice :()

So at this point of time, I don't know if TV lives will actually benefit her or play against her :shrug

I'd love her to promote her album with TV lives, but they should be re-recorded so they can be edited or done again if she doesn't like them or something.

honestly, I didn't care that much for her vocals in PoM either...but...I didn't think they were THAT bad...

btw...did we have an opinion thread for it yet? I was gonna post my crazy ramblings...and I wanted to see what everyone else thought. I didn't bother watching the USTREAM, so this was my first time seeing it...

and wow at the setlist~~


Anyways...I think if she's going to do TV lives, she should do them the way like, Namie does them. With the loud backing tracks so she can dance or something at the same time.

er...maybe...idk. Maybe she should just stick to the interviews and stuff and not go on any of those music shows...

150k becomes a far away dream..

im still glad at what this album did with no singles and no lives or anything...
pretty darn good!

I don't blame (japanese people) for hating PoM vocals, she sounds SO different, and some songs I don't find pleasant to listen either. In some songs she's more like shouting than singing , and when she tries to sing with that soft voice she once had it doesn't sound the same. (comparison: Secret and HBYA)

I would say with these album sales, releasing a single doesn't seem like such a bad idea. I know it was sort of a special case with the 50th single and all, but the singles leading up to Love Songs combines sold about as much as the album itself. I really want singles again as well. =)

I think that in her next single she should make a pv for one song in Party Queen chosen by the fans :P I'd love a pv for reminds me or Tell me why *o*

She kinda deserved it... I don't think it was as great as some of her other albums have been, but that's just my personal opinion TBH :\

Party Queen stays put at #7

http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/ja/d/2012-03-30/more/2/

Thank you Karen :)

saaaad it is :thud

Whatever, the album rocks, and I'm over the sales now. Ayu will always be #1 for me.

she still may get 150k...
sad...

^^MAYBE, by the end. We'll see.

^ Im hoping so anyways...
Next Im waiting for her new single (hopes for one soon!)

^^SUMMER SINGLE PLEASEEEEE IN JULY!!

^YES,YES,YES,YES!Awwwwwwwwwwww,i want a new hit D:

I do care about sales, but I'm not too upset over Party Queen only reaching #2. There was pretty much zero promotion and she still sold almost 100,000 copies in a week. If she promotes her next album right - she'll get another #1 album hopefully.

I'm salivating thinking about it. LOL

Something like "blossom" would be fabulous. :D

I'd really like another "fierce" song like INSPIRE :P

^^BOOOO hell no to blossom, but hell YESSSS to INSPIRE!

6th Day
Position: #6

The album went up!!
Go Party Queen :-D

I hope the sales will steady up and she'll be on the top 10 for, like, a couple or more weeks. Is that, and the possibility of her getting the number 1 spot, unlikely now?

^ i dont think she will get number one... but I like the idea of staying in the top 10 for awhile!

I guess it is possible though for this album to have longevity on the charts. Here's hoping!

It'll probably sell 2k a week for a little while I think.

Yeah, only around ~50k to make 150k total. I guess it's possible, with prayers and lots of longevity. lol

if those interviews are spread out right, it might just make this album stay in the charts for awhile!

^^Good point. If they strategize properly, it may have a chance...

yeah... and maybe a live or two avex... lol

^^Pshhh yeah right. Those bastards.

I want a live but I can't imagine Ayu performing NaNaNa or Shake It on Music Station...

^^I think she would do Party queen or hbya. Possibly Return Road.

HBYR or party queen for sure...
she might even do NaNaNa because of Timmy.

^^I would be SO disappointed lol

I'd love to hear a live 'Letter' tbh

im thinking about +\-15k copies sold this week (=

Yesterday's position for Party Queen - #7

http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/ja/d/2012-04-01/more/2/

i hope she will perform return road or hbya on music station

^ Yes! RR please!

Maybe we should tell her to perform RR on MS through twitter lol

Tomorrow we'll see how has been that week, I think that the total sales will be like 115k for this week. I'm sure PQ will sell 150k

250 seems like a forgotten dream...
ohwell, if she sells another album this year combined she will get the 250!

Well, at least it's not a huge letdown (chart-wise) like GUILTY was. I remember how crushed we all were when that hit #2

^Well GUILTY was different since it actually got #1 it's first week but because of holidays Oricon didn't start count it until week two and well, it got #2. And #2 for an Ayu album the second week is actually good so.

Too bad only official stuff counts.

2nd Week
Position: #6
Official Sales: 18,101
Official Total Sales: 115,792

Yay :) Expecting 125k soon!

Thanks for the update

Well,i hope it sells 150k at the end...Thanks for the update!