tbh I feel the winter, Christmas and miracle New Year touch in this song :) aaah I hope it will be success and Japanese will love it :heart

Not what? There are others who have mentioned they dislike it as well, annoyed by it, and not as ecstatic as others. What is the point of saying "wow finally a new single!" as well? What's the point of anything for the matter? Can you honestly say that this is how you imagined her comeback to the world of single releases? I wasn't sure if it was going to happen, but if it ever did, I felt it would be a situation where they could really utilize it in such an extravagant way if they played their cards right.

What is life?

I can be picky with edm, but I really like this song so far. It has a light mood but one that isnt too bright and it's easy to listen to. I will enjoy it in winter.

Idk about the m-flo song lol. But we'll see.

I got so excited when I came onto the forum and saw this lol

I love it. I'm so happy. Thanks ayumi <3

I think this was probably the best choice of track for her 'comeback' single. A song similar to her last big hit which was You & Me. Though this one is a bit better imo.

Unexpected! Looking forward to this.

For a comeback single I had envisioned something grand with a large tie in. Possibly that Pray song if it were good. Or an overhaul in her image; polish her up, return to sophistication. Possibly a divine CREA track or two.

I'm not gonna get too bent outta shape about the what-could-have-beens, because like it or not, this is how it's happening. I miss when everything that ayu released had a special kind of aura surrounding the material and everything that went along with it. I just don't see the big picture anymore, or a foundation to be built upon. It seems it's just "here's a song" "and here's another". Thee Hamasaki Ayumi image just isn't as mystical or extravagant anymore.

Namie at least as an image and an attitude, even if her music is vastly overrated.

With her, I'm not 100% sure how much of it is her and how much of it is her production team. Ayu on the other hand, even if she's being boring or whatever to people, she's always herself.

But ayu used to have a very strong image, so much so that it seemed as if she was creating the soundtrack to the character that is Hamasaki Ayumi, and everything that came with those songs, including PVs and coverart, played a part in this "movie" that the Hamasaki Ayumi 'character' starred in. There was a subtle mystery to her in a way it seemed, without her having to be cold or impersonal as just "ayu". She had a strong grasp on that and the line that she walked was almost an artform. That image has almost completely disappeared.

It used to seem as if each era ushered in something new, but always felt like a progression of sorts. Although she is still releasing music, lately I don't feel that form of progression in her eras. Even if she's trying new things that she hadn't on the past, that's not what I mean by progression. I mean, for the longest time it was as if she was constantly trudging uphill, but now it's as if she's strolling along a flat slope, and has been for quite some time.

If you read her interviews, she has stopped trying to be perfect because it was a way for her to 'feel safe', but it made her feel 'incomplete' and 'lonely'. I would rather her feel good and release music like this than have to force an image because she's afraid of what would happen if she didn't.

I personally think that most fans need to begin looking forward and not remember the past. The Ayu that sang Secret and made albums in the years past no longer exists, she's said as much. Much has changed in the last 5+ years when it comes to Ayu and her contact with fans among other things, but I feel like at the very least she has always been "Hamasaki Ayumi" and the two characters of "Ayu" that we see publicly and "Hamasaki Ayumi" that used to be 'private' have merged into one. (or was it the other way around?)

I don't really care how she was before, honestly, as long as she is happy doing what she's doing. She's made mistakes recently, but I think she's learnt from them.

Translated by Misa-chan:

If you read the last interviews that she gave you will notice that she changed her mind a lot in the last years.
She doesn't feel that she has to prove anything to anyone anymore. The image of Ayumi Hamasaki is turning to be just Ayu for a long time. She choose this path.
Of course she appears like a Diva-style now and then, particularly this is one of the images that I most like, but you can see now that she's not struggling to be something that she doesn't feel anymore. I feel happy for her.
It took a long time to her to free herself.
She's much more mature nowadays and knows what she really wants to express.

YES! THE QUEEN IS GIVING ME LIFE WITH THIS SONG!

I can't stop dancing to it!

:banana1

Merry-go-around will probably be coming in a bit. Next week around this time maybe?

I wish it came out today. I'm so excited for this single!

One of the whole reasons I started to like Ayumi Hamasaki when she first came out is because she didn't sound like those Komuro people, like Amuro Namie and GLOBE. TRF was okay, but like... I couldn't stand Tomomi Kahala either.

Now this song just sounds like it was extracted from that time and copied and pasted into 2013, with no updates. This is definitely not an Ayumi Hamasaki song. It's OKAY, but it's not what I was expecting.

And before anyone says "Oh it's good she's doing something unexpected," there's always good surprise and then there's the "Oh, crap" surprise. haha.

Agree about the Namie Amuro bit by Coelacanth. Played Spotlight (TOKYO) for one of my english speaking friends, they laughed and tried to figure out if she was singing in English or in a made up language. Yeah, she's cool sometimes, but recently she's trying way to hard to be western with her english songs.

I really don't want Ayu to become that. I tolerated You & Me. It's a good song, the production is modern.

This is just a nightmare on 90s street.

There's not much that's different between this and You & Me imo. This has a catchier chorus though.

yeah she is gone, and back with some weak stuff, i'd rather have a rock Ayu back than this...aghem lol i ust have a bad feeling about this whole single, like, it is not gonna do good....=/

oh and i can almost bet that Feel the love is gonna have a party themed video....i can see it...

oh and from A ver club

"Both songs turned out so cool!!

I'm gonna upload「Merry-go-round」on YouTube at some point, so stay tuned!"
from Ayu's LINE

Really? I think this song has a VERY good chance of doing well if you know what the listening habits of the Japanese public are and the fact that her last big song with them was You & Me... and before that, like... Sunrise.

omg finally a new single!! i can't wait :D i missed her christmas singles too.

Well put, I definitely agree with you. I've always felt this way ever since I became a part of the AHS community. Too often I hear people say that Ayu will "never create another masterpiece like I am..." or that she's lost her spark or something. There's no point in glorifying the past; it (probably) wasn't as awesome as you remember and right now isn't as bad as you think it is.

Exactly what I was going to say, "You & Me" turned out to be a summer anthem for her japanese audience.

And yeah, I remember myself complaining a lot about "glitter", "part of Me" and, believe it, "Days", back then. Today I totally love those songs but I don't wish she could go back in time and re-do that, I just want her to keep going foward with her music and bringing us surprises like this. We'll always have a new ayu.

Finally a single! I think I'll save money and buy the Japanese version from YesAsia to help her on Oricon sales.

And btw, I have a feeling that she will start gaining more popularity and sales.

So far I'm just okay with Feel the love, but I'm certain that it'll grow on me (if Bold & Delicious can, -anything- can).

I'm just very happy about this new single! I hope we get to hear from her soon regarding her reasons behind the three-year single vacuum.

Day 1 - I hate Feel the love

Day 2 - Ok. The song is not bad.............

Trust me, with a song like this, the Japanese public is already laughing at her. One look at the 2channel and other forums, and they're already heating up with blasting her.

Some prominent (And, unfortunately, funny) comments are :
"This is the 21st Century, right?"
"Amuro works with Zedd. Ayumi Hamasaki works with DJ Hello Kitty and Komuro. LOL"
"Wow, Amuro wants to try EDM so maybe Babasaki thought she might be desperate to try as well."
"Ayu's enka singing style with this 90s garbage song? Wow, I've heard everything."

I'm so disappointed. This came out of no where, and it's like she's trying to capture the success of recent, and now outdated, electronic waves.

She should have came back with a ballad. I know you guys don't want ballads right now, but if she wanted to release a single as a comeback, she should have released a nice ballad and sang it perfectly on TV and then everyone would hail the return of Hamasaki Ayumi.

This is just garbage, you guys. I'm flipping my table.
Even Na Na Na and Shake It are better than this, and I absolutely hate those songs.

Tbh, the fact this not only isn't a winter ballad, but it isn't winter related at all (thus, Ayu surprising me one more time, as usual) may be one of the main reasons I love this preview so much.
It's just that Ayu always seems the most predictable person ever, only to always caught you off guard. I may not like some things she releases, but they're never what I expect. And I'm all "The hell, Ayu, how can you seem, like, the most predictable human being ever, and then come out with this?!". Every. Single. Time. I love it! I cant' believe it when someone says she's always the same.

^
^i feel NaNaNa is worse, if you want to compare... (maybe because of the rap and i dislike that song as well, sorry to say that)

I know you're disappointed , but I'd never relate to 2ch or forums to know what japanese people thinks about Ayu. It seems like, no matter what, they still dislike her because she's "old" the and not so talented.

Let's all be honest.

Ayu can't release -anything- without people talking badly about it.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Like seriously.

She could release a ballad. A rock song. A dance song. A mid tempo song. And she'd always be labeled as sounding old. Looking old. Out dated. Boring. Predictable. A mess. Tired. Screechy. Shouty.

So whatever. *shrug*

You kind of have to roll with the punches at this point.

Would people really be defending this track if it was by anyone else? If anything, I expect some idol debut to sound this dated, not somebody whose worked in the industry for 15 years.

What's worse is that this track isn't out of the blue, it sounds like a b-side version of You and Me. I hoped she'd go more Tell All than... this. I'm not a huge fan of Tell All either but at least she sounded like she wanted to be making music on that track.

It doesn't matter what others think. If you still support her, then do it. But if you don't want to support her due to these comments, it's up to you. Everyone can do whatever they want. Even if Ayu release a ballad/rock/mid-tempo/pop, everyone will go and bash her. :innocent:innocent

Let's wait for the full version of "Feel the love", then we can comment about it :)

Even if she would release the best damn song ever, they would still be talking crap about her. She has released a number of ballads and sang them well. Didn't work. If this song is going to kill her career then let's get over with it.

I agreed with you, most ppl think that she's "old, outdated and not talented". Even one of my friends said, 'She's old and she's still singing??". We, AHS, have been following her since the very beginning (I started to follow her from RAINBOW :lech), We saw her trouble life, her deafness, her vocal improvement, her love life and more...we know better than those guys who calling her old and untalented. I guess I started to get immune to those kind of comments when it comes to Ayu.

Let's support her!!! :luv2:luv2

I bought the single yesterday when I found out about the release!! I was panicking:yes:yes and quickly open up CDJapan, and pre-ordered the CDs...HAHAHAHA

yeah, I'm totally glad I'm enjoying every little thing about this single and just feel like dancing and jumping to Feel the love, because I definitely feel it :D

I hope this song grows on you, guys.

If Namie had sung this new song everyone that bashed Ayu would say that Namie is amazing, she slays etc. I hate the song, but I would hate it regardless of the singer

So much truth to this post.

It's funny, but I'm actually glad the song sounds kind of dated... I don't know, it makes me feel that even if she's following a trend, she doesn't care for doing what's more popular right now just because it's popular (which is what most artists seem to be trying to do and I'm getting tired of it), she's just releasing whatever she want's to release... Yes, it's a trendy style, but it still kind of have that Ayu touch of always being a bit different than what the majority is doing, because she just releases whatever she wants to :)

With Ayu I have the feeling that we always get something that reflects herself, what she feels like doing, what music style she's into at the moment, what she wants to do not and not what someone else wants her to do, no matter if it's in a good or a bad way... I like how it always feels like herself and not something controlled by the media/company/public opinion :D

This is so true. It's so annoying, specially considering that probably in a few years from now people will be complaining about the future new releases saying she should do something like what she's doing now, like if they didn't complain about it as well...

Yasssss!!! EXPOSE them!
once u're a has-been, everything u touch turns out to be oudated!:)))
I gave up of reading Japanese' comments on Ayu! seriously, they're rude as ****!

THIS IS SO TRUE!

^Yes it's true but it was easier to defend her to friends and acquaintances who were haters before when her songs sounded like musical masterpieces, had deep lyrics and she was at least singing in pitch.

I can only care about this song because it's by Ayu and it shouldn't come to this. But as someone mentioned maybe this is what Ayu liked and is really into ATM so power to her. But I seriously don't think it's helping the cause for a comeback.

Comeback? She never went anywhere in the first place :laugh

^ Your signature makes me die laughing :roflmao

What exactly makes the Japanese public beacons of good taste, anyway?

This is a country where Avril Lavigne is still relevant.

I don't think that ever happened... Go home, you're drunk!

Good point. I mean to be popular again. But then I just had another thought. When she released Love (not)mini-album, it had such decent conventional songs and IMO a lovely cover and it couldn't even sell 100k on oricon. Maybe she's better off just doing what she wants to do.

But the main problem now is that most of those who always complain about her music are her own fans...

lol you don't like something? fine...you move on...i'm not a fan of the direction she's going but whatever goes for her.. i'm hoping somethign better for my taste will come after... as of now, i've gotta say the goddarn chorus is stuck in my head all day, the melody is too simple and i dunno...i've only listened to it like 2 times lol if it will be stuck for longer it is gonna get annoying and i won't ever give the song an other chance...lol maybe it's good that it's so easy to remember people will get brainwashed faster and get the single, cuz sometimes it happens that when the song is playing in your head often from annoying you become addicted to it haha

She really is, she's made some of the best music in her career (in my opinion of course) from Love songs onward and it is STILL not enough to satisfy the haters fans. So why not make the kind of music she wants? Even if it's happy and cheesy, as long as I can groove to it she won't get any complaints from me. I liked You & Me because it was upbeat and I could dance to it not because it was deep and inspiring :laugh Sometimes I just wanna let loose and have a good time and enjoy the music.

I'm happy to see that there are at least some people who love Feel the love and are excited about the single as well!

She already explained that in one of the interviews. Iirc, it was in Numero Tokyo.

when did the views of 2chan = views of the japanese public?

That's an interesting perspective... Usually when songs are catchy and keep playing on my head it makes me like them more and want to listen to them more, I usually consider it as a good thing, not annoying :laugh
I'm hopping japanese people will hear the song on the radio or wherever and become addicted to it, because this one so catchy :D

good. i'm happy she isn't going with a classic winter song, such as a ballad.

i'm pretty sure the only thing meant to be "Christmas" about this single is the release date. :laugh

And the fact that she's gifting us with a single after all these years!

I personally don't care what format the new songs come in as long as she continues to sing, I will continue to support her :)

If someone looks about public opinion from somewhere like 2chan, please.
It's just a place for anonymous scumbacks to be pissed and angry about everything.
It's not relevant to any public opinion in any way. Same with 4chan an such.
Sites like 2chan have the idiots of internet combined in one place, to be aggressive and acting like middle-schoolers without showing their face.

exactly.
she wouldn't release something she wasn't happy with.
as long as she's happy, i'm happy. :D

Honestly, I think Ayu did a good job with Feel the love. When I saw the EDM word in the description I was afraid because every songs I have heard nowadays all sound the same & boring. However her song is really fresh compared to others singers/bands' EDM songs even if there are a lot of basic sounds. Ayu managed to bring her personnal touch in that song.
I feel a daydreaming atmosphere when I'm listening this song. When I close my eyes, I see people taking a lot of pleasure while they're dancing. The scene's speed isn't fast, so you can see everyone's smile in their face. They like dancing, they like dancing together! The verse is really soft, "slow"..so.you can breathe before to jump in the chorus. With that kind of break you can dance all the night without being tired as you would be with a more dynamic song. The arrangement is quite good too. Sometimes I hear water sounds & I love the funny sounds (don't know how to call it) that we can hear after the first chorus & at the end of the preview. The melody is nice too. Even if it's her best song, I really like to listening to Feel the love. It's relaxing.

maikaru, these people have never had anything nice to say about Ayu even when she was popular so it's not like it's a surprise that they said these things. You go to the Yahoo!Japan articles or 2ch threads and it's always the same thing. You only really see positive comments at Ayu-centric BBSes or threads and even then, some of the other people find their way in. It even happens with Amuro/any other act that's remotely popular. If anything, the presence of these idiots only reinforces her popularity since they don't even talk about other acts because of how irrelevant they are.

Well, I'm going to flip the table in celebration. Even though I might be criticized as a blind Ayu fan, I've genuinely eventually loved everything that Ayu's put out at some point. I don't really care if it makes me look bad to believe in her even when no one else does because I think I'm always going to support her especially in light of recent interviews and such.

IMO, she is not trying to do anything other than replicate what she had with You & Me and so far she seems to be successful. Do the words "You & Me was her last big hit (with 3.2 million YouTube views)" not mean anything to you?

Honestly? Probably not. But that goes for any artist really. Since this is an Ayumi Hamasaki-centric forum, Ayu isn't exactly just 'any other artist'. (**I am not saying that you have to like everything to be a fan, just saying I'm not going to be surprised if people actually like what Ayu put out regardless of what it is or if you personally think it's trash**)

This nonsense about this song not being music is sort of offensive to Ayu and anyone who worked on it, tbh.

ayu doesnt need to always release ballads to be known as queen and be hailed at every time by every single person. :innocent

Love Again was FULL of ballads, was that not enough? xD

They weren't the right kind of ballads.

-rolls eyes-

One thing that never ceases to infuriate me about this fandom is that Ayu is never doing anything 'right' according to individual expectations when that's not really the way to go about it, at least for me. She's going to change with every release and there's no doubt that she'll eventually go on to make more upbeat tracks or more epic ballads, but doing them all at once just doesn't seem to be possible now (at least not until the singles came back) like it was during (miss)understood and certain other albums.

In related news...
Both Merry-go-round and Feel the love are intended to be 'part of the world of dance music' so do not expect it to be a ballad.

I'm just so happy with this new song, it is a happy song, why are you all so bitter?? Y'all keep calling her a grandma here and in other websites and shit but YOU seem to be the only old and bitter ones in here.

Ayu seems to be one of those honest people that get shit for giving everything they can, she was never Bethoven, she never had the vocals of Mariah in the 90s, Boys & Girls wasn't much different to this song, seriously...

Anyway, I'm not too worried, let's just get this single to #1, I'm going to preorder it as soon as I can :D

I like that Ayu's releasing such an untypical song on Christmas. The only thing that I don't like is that we're hearing an almost-full version of the song two months prior to it's release date. I guess by her doing this it keeps from others leaking the song a month early (like t2m, MOON, Sunrise, etc).

I think it's funny how the "short ver" on youtube is over 4 minutes long, that's probably longer than the majority of songs released in the US.

Overall I like the song it seems fun and it's simple and catchy, is it the best she's ever released, no, but I think it's still really good. It reminds me of "you & me" in that while it may not be deep and meaningful it's still enjoyable. I think songs like this are fun to watch live, like "you & me" at a-nation this year with her and the dancers just having a good time while singing an upbeat happy song.

I think I may buy this single, I haven't bought anything, mostly for financial reasons, since "love songs" but I'm kinda excited for a new single.

I think she's trying to promote through youtube a lot more lately and I think it can work eventually if they keep doing it! If you look at other western artists they release the full songs through youtube before the music videos come out~.

I just hope people just buy the single when it comes out, they need to add a little special gift or something to it!

Lyric videos are big in the US lately, right? Not surprised if that is what she's trying to do with Feel the love.

I hope the bridge is surprising. I think that You & Me had a pretty crazy one that we didn't see in the first 'short version' but then when we heard it in the full track, it was like WHAAATTT?

coolness. m-flo.
love it.
I wish we had more tracks though.

I'm not crazy about what we've heard so far but i'm not freaking out or anything, it's no big deal really. I'm just glad she's releasing a single again, i wouldn't call her out until we've heard Merry-Go-Round either. It might save the single, either way we'll have Pray to look forward to next year.

And replaying to one of the past comments, i would not have liked Namie to do this song lol. I'd prob be hella biased at first and defend it like hell, but overall just trying to hide my disappointment. It was like that with the Big Boys Cry/Beautiful single (BBC which i now love thankfully, but that's why i'm also giving this a chance of course)

I'm just asking for her to not venture too much into this sound and then i'll be fine, i might appreciate it for being a stand out track on the new album, you never know.

it's like this for every artist in the history of music that has more than like, 50 fans tho. even more so for artists like ayu who are extremely versatile. it goes both ways to me. "fans" that are too overtly critical/just waiting to bash her are just as bad as the ones who blindly worship every single thing she does.


i don't think feel the love is a strong enough to be a lead A-side. i liked it on first listen but it actually becomes a bit worse the more i listen to it lol. i hope the full studio ver is more polished

This is an old post now....buuuttt this is a problem for me, with new Ayu.

I mean, regardless if I personally like the songs or not, it's not the issue for me. And I'm happy that she's experimenting, and putting herself out there. I've been wanting her to work with new people, and she's doing that.

But. Her production has not been up to the standards that SHE set, with her own music. And I just don't understand why.

Namie music < Ayu music.

Namie production >>> Ayu production. (lately) And you can replace that Namie with a lot of things, like a lot of Kpop, for example.

Too high expectations? Maybe. Whatever.


Anyway, is merry go round out then. I'll have to come back.

I think it's worse to have fans that are overly critical. What's so bad about having a blind fan who loves everything anyway? Isn't it nicer to have people who are positive around? And honestly, I don't know if there are many 'blind love' Ayu fans out there, but there are a lot that enjoy what she does. It's not like I don't have criticisms, but I'm not going to let that get in the way of enjoying her works.

I will say that I am COMPLETELY sick of having this discussion every time anything new comes out and I'm pretty tired of it (seven+ times?!) and the outcome is always relatively the same with the exact same people having the exact same criticisms of Ayu no matter what type of song or image she has.

I'm thinking...what the kind of cd case will use avex for this release? the usual case of the cd+dvd or the normal 2cd case like LOVE and again?

and yes the signature of @jbrat2219 makes me laught too xD I love it!!

it's been so long since ayu released a new single, so i'm very happy about this new single! :) "Feel the love" sounds really awesome so far, i can't wait to hear the full song. "Merry-go-round" is a nice title & i can't wait to hear it, too.

Haha, my signature expresses exactly how I feel about Feel the love lol.

I totally get where you're coming from, but personally i prefer fans that are natural, not overly critical but not as you say "blind" either. I'd like to discuss an artist without being delusional, that's why i'm not really "stanning" anyone anymore cause i'd much rather have a honest discussion. Namie is my queen, but i'm going to be real when i don't like something, it might not look that way right now but that's cause her material is really strong for me atm.

Ayu's fans seems to be overly critical, she can't catch a break. She could do anything under the sun and someone would still loathe it. And with an artist like Kuu they all seem to be overly positive, i can hardly form an opinion with that fandom (The only real criticism i've seen was for Ai Wo Tomenaide lol)

My point is that it's a shame we don't have a "in-between" of critical and positive, but that would probably be asking too much of the world anyway :P

Not sure really. Maybe they'll do the thin CD+DVD case? It's been 3 years so... anything is possible.

I think there is, but it's drowned out by any overwhelming negative or positive opinion.

so how the japanese fans take Feel the love so far? they like it?
i personally think Feel the love is better than You & Me.

Every time I refresh the video on youtube it gets another 3k views so I'm guessing people are loving/liking it lol

I just can't with people comparing the epic Boys & Girls to this... this s*** can't even be called music. I don't hate EDM, I hate it when it's not done right. Tommy february6 released one of the best albums of the year and it's full of EDM, ayu is the one to blame.

^Funny enough I find this song to be pretty good and the studio version of B&G a piece of shit...

Tastes... how to explain them?

covers need to be fantastic!! I can't wait them to be revealed

Look, this is not about criticizing everything Ayu does and puts out just for the sake of criticizing.

If this song had the production value of say, Zedd's Clarity, or David Guetta's Titanium, I'd be ecstatic.
But it's not. It's Komuro Tetsuya, and this song is a copy and paste from Japanese music history, circa 1996.

Ayu can work with this sound, but it's just bringing her down working with this guy. His day is over.
Give us something new, not something I was dancing to when I was 5.

I would not expect ZEDD, Avicii, David Guetta, or even Daishi Dance levels from DJ Hello Kitty's first foray into production. This song is fun and catchy, and honestly that's all that matters imo.

I'm aware it's 'not just for the sake of criticizing' but in the long run, I find it's better to just take things as they come. When it comes to Ayu, I don't think she really needs more people telling her that everything she releases is shit when practically everyone who isn't a fan already does that. (and even some fans to be blunt)

In this year we got ballads, a rock song and now an EDM single, and i can't understand some people. Now that we got something different they prefer a winter ballad, other a rock song. I'm so confused.

i get really picky about production but the song imo is not that bad in production
lol i have heard worse :shakehead

If this is DJ Hello Kitty's first foray into Production, it shouldn't have been Ayu's "comeback" single. Make it a B-side until the cat has figured out where its paws go on the mixing board.

Obviously she needs this. I don't want her making "catchy" and "fun" songs at the expense of production value and just plain song value.

I remember the first time she put out Whatever, and even Naturally and Connected. These songs were soooo cool. They sounded mysterious, they sounded new, and they sounded modern. The lyrics were so good, and I still continue to love every single thing about these songs.

I want her to make something new, of course. But I want her to make something good, not just fun or catchy. Because that's the kind of artist she is, and that's the standard she put out throughout her entire career.

And before anyone tells me "oh, catchy and fun can be good too. You know she doesn't have to make a masterpiece every time she makes a song," ... that is the music equivalent of telling Picasso that he doesn't have to paint using his full effort, or telling an architect to build a building half-assed. Throw some stain glass onto an unstable building, at least it'll look pretty.

Because that's exactly what she's doing with this Komuro infested song. Gahhhhhh.

I hope merry-go-round is better. I just can't. My table is still flipping.

The effect making the vibrato turning into a fast, high pitched whirr at the beginning of the song (the Night and Day part) should be a crime against humanity.

Catchy and plain is what worked for her before (You & Me) and I see this as a way to make that work for the 'comeback' single. I wonder what's in store for the next single if we get one... two ballads maybe?

It's obvious you're not pleased, but I think you're completely overreacting.

I feel as though you're sticking Ayu in a bit of a box, and that's not what she's about at all.

Boys & Girls, AUDIENCE, Unite!, July 1st, Greatful Days (ARGH!), Fairyland, Blue Bird, Sunrise ~LOVE is ALL~... Catchy and plain worked for her before kind a lot. Actually, most of her biggest hits are just that, catchy and plain stupid and generic pop music. Most of her biggest hits that aren't like that are generic melodramatic ballads.

I never thought Greatful days was all that great, tbh. It's catchy, but I think I played way more of ourselves and HANABI ~episode II~ (AND THEME OF A-nATION AHDAHHAHAAAHGHHH).

I wish she would make some type of club for her international fans. Every time I read something like this feels like a stab in the back from ayu. Its like she taunts her international fans. And that whole tento thing is crap and annoying. How hard is it to create a international fan site. She's in LA enough so why not a international fan site. Its even not that hard to send something to another country either with the whole no JP address or make a special international shop at her website for international customers, its not that hard

It's actually very hard, especially with physical goods. (you know how much shipping would be, right?) Enough people probably have to bring it to her attention for her to get someone on top of that on Twitter or something.

Have you never been exposed to exaggerations being used as a device for comedy? I'm trying to inject comedic relief into my rant.

If I truly wanted that effect to be a crime against humanity, I'd be crazy. Jeez.

Some people.

Anyways. About that "box?" Yeah. I'm not sure how wanting her to be a great artist is putting her into a box. Like our friend just posted above us, lots of her songs, like July 1st and Fairyland, are catchy, fun, but the lyrics are great, and the production of the songs are perfect, top notch (Don't get me started on Sunrise, though. I still hate this song too.) The bass is perfect, the synths are in place, and the effects used are neither annoying nor useless. July 1st is a freakin' Mona Lisa, okay. It's my jam. So is INSPIRE, GAME, Boys & Girls, I am..., progress, Song 4 U, Missing, A song for..., etc. The list goes on. I absolutely LOVE Love Again. It's almost perfect for me. Even You & Me has its place.

Praying for a miracle with merry-go-round. Except I kind of hate Verbal. God, this single is not for me. (I guess I should insert the LOL here to illustrate my comedic relief here too, right?)

Comic relief is obviously not your thing. A LOL would only serve to make your post look confusing. I feel like any further commenting about this song or even this single is just going to be more of the same. (She's done fun/whatever before and it was better than this!, I want her to be like she was before!)

I also think it's really insulting to people who like the track (Ayu herself? Fans? People who made it?) to talk about it like this, but maybe that's just me.

I think the production is perfect. I loved the arrangement from when I saw the first TA video. I'm glad they polished it and didn't change it too much.

Still dancing to this song :banana1

Yeah, still looping it and playing it on my iPod when I'm not at the PC, mmhmm~

What's strange is that this song has made me appreciate You & Me more. I forgot how fun that song was lol. I've been listening to You & Me, Wake Me Up and Feel the love in one giant loop!

I feel like it really is an answer track to You & Me of sorts... I hope she has a few more tracks like this on the upcoming album!

I hope that all the photoshoots for this are fun and colorful~~


NO REGRETS WE DANCE ALL NIGHT

I hope in the video she's in the club Lady Dynamite meets Fly high style! <3