Lol no. He sounded good. Ayu kinda sound like she's in the middle of swallowing something.

I think she sounded good in the verses and lost it slightly on the chorus but still good!

I cannot listen to that guy, he sounds so painful lol and that duet is.... not good, i'm sorry. The "harmony" sounds horrible lol

So there we will have a collab.... i'm not happy at all, unless he sounds decent in studio recordings lol In general i realy don't want any bloody collaborations on the album i'm jhoping it's HIS song instead of Ayu's.

she not singing in full power because not to overcome JJ Lin...and JJ Lin sings really high...because he take higher octave than Ayu...lovely duet...

That's a cute perfomance. I think Ayu did a good job and I like how she tried to support him after he messed up the lyrics.

I quite liked it.

He doesn't know Japanese, right? His pronunciation was really good for someone who doesn't know the language.

edit: I listened to some of his songs on itunes. I usually don't like Ayu's collaborations but he has some good stuff. I'm looking forward to it. I wonder what language(s) they'll sing.

He doesn't indeed! He "only" speaks English and Chinese.

^ Thanks for the info.

I'm impressed. His pronunciation is a lot better than alan's. Knowing English probably helps.

I wonder if Ayu will write the lyrics for their collaboration.

That duet was the most awkward thing I've seen in a long time lmao. I don't think either sounded overwhelmingly good or bad or anything either way, but mannn that was awkward to watch.

Also, I hate when she collabs more than most things so meh. tbh I'm more worried for the song itself because I find most cpop compositions to be... uhhh very lacking to put it nicely lol. Maybe he will surprise me. Then again my expectations are much lower this time around than they were for Colours, since the winter ballad single was the weakest thing she's ever put out alongside LOVE again and we're basically due for Love songs pt 3 this time anyway :\

Ewwwwwwwww it will be ballad, like 100% sure ;/ Damn, 4th ballad...

Do we know if their song will be on Ayu's album or a separate release?

It's not confirmed yet but I guess it will be on her album... He's going to come to Tokyo to shoot a PV with her.
And it would fit the title "A ONE". I think the "A" stands for "Ayu" of course but also "Asia"... Since she always used to say "Asia is One".

yes I collab. I hate that she has so few of them...some songs would be really rocking with a rap or something. her m-flo and urata songs are really awsome

I really like this song!

I think somebody put it in the forum. His voice in this song sounds good and different. I hope the song he composed to Ayu is something like this. The atmosphere remember me Tell Me Why.

yeah, I like her Urata collabs (Why version with Urata is SOOO much better than JUNO one...) bcause they are upbeat...

Ugh I really dislike any collabs she does. That's so disappointing! NOOO

and the video is gone... lol

Never really liked collaborations...but let's see how it turns out to be, I hope he sings in english/japanese in the song

I libe for collabs...from any artist. i woudl dislike so much K-pop songs without one (basicaly the raps)

plus if she will have some english parts....
BRRRRR horrible idea.

mmmm... for some reason i really am not digging this guy... =/

It's more likely to be a ballad/mid-tempo sung in japanese ! I'm not very fan of duet but why not he has a pleasant voice and the fact he is the one who compose the song yes yes yes !!! at least one song made by someone new =)
I see only positive things about this collaboration for her & him ! J-Pop is well known in almost all big asian countries but I never heard of a chinese singer having a success in Japan (don't count Alan she sang in japanese) ?
Maybe they will recorded a chinese version of this song for chinese market in general including taiwan & singapore etc...

i preordered this and the blu-ray! YAY! lol

I like what you think here... A ONE
Well graphic design wise they can easily manipulate the text to form another word so I'm not ruling that out as well!.
This album release on the day ayu debuts so perhaps a throwback to LOVEppears then having ONE to look like LOVE could really work!

I'd be so happy if ayu sample her older tracks and make new songs from it..
End roll..monochrome these two are so underrated :/

Hopefully "A One" has a ,guilty, rnr, Next level, party queen feel. I dont know why but those albums suit the circus theme ayu seems to be obsessed with these days.:D

It's well-known but it's nowhere near as big as it was before. So I wouldn't be surprised if youngsters had no idea who she was or that she was still active considering K-Pop is the trend right now in Chinese-speaking countries...
If Ayu wants to expand her activities overseas this year like the media said, this collaboration is a very smart move considering JJ Lin's current popularity. And it's also good for him if he wants to make himself known to Ayu's Japanese fans as well.

Actually you won't hear about a Chinese/Taiwanese/Singaporean etc singer who made it in Japan because they don't feel the need to expand overseas. That's why lol China is big enough for them. Some Taiwanese singers like Show Luo or Vanness Wu released Japanese albums in Japan though.

Yes of course I think so too ^^
Japan don't feel the need too, it's the second music market in the world and in the case of Ayumi she never tried to become popular for exemple in china with songs sang in chinese you know what I mean ? Japan market seems so unreachable for other Asian countries the only way to make it is to sing in Japanese and most of the time it fails, even K-Pop singers sang their songs in Japanese to make it ... it's a mystery XD

Interesting development in re collaboration with JJ. I don't know his music but he sounded good in the clip. ayu did too, for her standard! :laugh

Is the new song/video with JJ inclusive in the 11 tracks or is this like a *new* development i.e. that the total song is now 12 and the video 10? :O

I would like that oh Lord please make that happen

P.S.
truehappiness thank you for the LOVE again notes! From these songs I only like Wake me up. Gloria and SAKURA are such drab (especially Gloria).

Not really... lol

But even if big J-Pop acts don't promote their stuff in Taiwan, China or other places, their songs are airing on radio (I guess it's the same for their PVs on TV), and Chinese and Taiwanese versions of their albums are being released... Even if they don't really try to make it there they try to sell their stuff there. That's not the case for C-Pop artists. If you want to buy their albums in Japan it will be import versions, their songs are not heard on radio and their MVs not aired on TV.

^
You are right maybe one day there will be a C-pop fever like J-pop and K-pop x)

Worldwide you mean? That would be nice, it would be less harder to find news and translations for songs lol

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to their collaboration! I hope it won't be as boring as the one he did with G.E.M though >_<
Here's the collaborations he released in his latest album Genesis if anyone is interested:
I'm Alive feat. Jason Mraz (lyrics and music by JJ Lin)

Beautiful feat. G.E.M (music by JJ Lin)

Yonghwa from CNBLUE - Checkmate feat. JJ Lin (released on Yonghwa's first album and in JJ Lin's repackage, music and lyrics by JJ Lin and Yonghwa)

Economy power and influence is what dictates international music market.

Beyoncé or Britney don't need to sing in French to sell in France, neither need to appear on brazilian TV shows to sell in Brazil... It's the same with japanese music over all the countries of that region. And even with making almost no effort, they will be seen as top acts and the local acts will some times be negatively compared to them on their own countries, even if they have the same qualities.

A French or a Brazilian or any other non anglophone act, on the other hand, has barely a chance of selling in the USA. And when they do, they will need to be the exotic act or something like that, even if they sing in perfect English. A chinese act in Japan would need to be something like that (and that's what they tried to do with alan, that never really sold all that much)

Some latin@ stars have change of making it big over there (like Shakira, Rick Martin, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj), but only if they sing in English. It's what happens to South Korean acts in Japan right now... And even so, they won't be regarded at the same status as the local acts, even if they sell the same or even more.

I think it's the other way around tbh.

Japan, like the US, just isn't interested in non-native music (English music being an obvious, still minor exception in Japan, of course). They also have the 2nd biggest music industry in the world, so they really don't need to import music from other countries. There simply isn't a market for cpop in Japan; otherwise, they'd sell cpop there, and it would be absolutely stupid not to. It's not really a matter of whether or not China is big enough, because the fact of the matter is that Japan's music industry is almost 50 times bigger than China's.

In short, it has more to do with the fact that Japan just doesn't really want or need it than anything else. Hence why even kpop, as ridiculously popular as it is now, doesn't really have much of a market in Japan unless it's remade in Japanese.

Edit: Andrenekoi explained it better lol

JJ Lin is great and extremely talented. Honestly if I were to picture Ayu collaborating with a famous C-Pop male singer it would've been him or Wang Leehom.

I look forward to hearing more about the collaboration!! Exciting news!

You explained it well too ^^
Actually I know that, that's what I was implying by saying that it was not really a mystery as to why Japan's market was "unreachable" for foreign singers. But I didn't know how to put it in words, both you and Andrenekoi did it very well!

About the thing "China is big enough", I was just saying what I've seen in interviews given by Taiwanese artists (I know, they're not representing all C-Pop singers but still), that they had no intention to debut overseas (as in the U.S) since China was a market big enough for them >_<

Madonna and Ayumi releasing an album so close in time is HEAVEN for me. I'm so excited about this! I already love 3 songs from that album. 11 more to come! :D

This article confirms that The Gift will be in A ONE.
http://udn.com/news/story/7263/71098...93%AD%E4%BA%86

Promo pic
http://i.imgur.com/6dRF5Je.jpg

Sorry for spamming the thread with JJ Lin stuff XD I'm really looking forward to this collaboration.

If we're mentioning albums released in April, marinara and the diamonds and ai otsuka are releasing too.
It's a busy busy busy month.

If the song composed for Ayu is anything like "I'm alive" I'm sold, really

Another feat but without Urata Naoya sounds well
And I don't understand why was Urata in Colours xD

This particular source also says that JJ will not be singing the song. He will only be in the PV.
"兩人沒合唱，僅會合拍MV。"

^
interesting so no duet ?

Oh... I saw that but didn't say anything since I wasn't sure at all of the translation...
I'm already less excited lol But it's still great that she also invited him in the PV. Thank you for pointing this out!!!

Well, I hope they fix the mixing of her voice on this album. Her last few albums have sounded like trash in part because her singing isn't well-mixed with the production. Seriously... listen to albums like Secret vs something like Colours. She just sounds more disconnected from the backing track on Colours, which makes the songs seem less inviting.

China is also not completely free to express artistic expression to some extent. Also look at what ayu has to do when she tours over there last. She had to censor some of her screeners.

I didn't expect this title but I love the mystery comes with it.

Oh....well....that's a good thing lol I hope it isn't blossom pt.2 where she's not even in the actual video. it wasn't bad, though...i mean Jaejoong...it can't be bad lol

Maybe its more of a sign of quality of music america does. Colours was done mainly in and by american composers and Secret was all done in and by Japanese composers. But Colours had a lot of input from the US. A ONE is back to using her good Japanese composers, so it should show in this album. But she is an artist continently evolving her music. She will never have a same exactly sounding album to what shed already done in the past

I think she had fun with Colours and it showed. (PVs were just her and dancers really, produced by A group or something) She made some nice tracks for it and now she's going back to what she usually does.

if A somehow means Asia, then Ayu may have more collab with other artists from Asia?
can't wait to listen to The Gift and see the PV~!

i don't enjoy JJ's voice at all. their performance was kinda painful to watch :no

iirc wasn't there rumors about 'The Gift' when we were waiting track list for Zutto... / Last minute / Walk?

Still, without a duet, I'm sure it will be a ballad ~_~
ew.

Omg and I had a dream that this album had 3-4 remixed tracks from Colours and only 3 new songs and everyone was like EWWWWWWWWW. And 2 PV's was also from Colours XD Terminal and Hello new me XD

I think we should all celebrate the fact that the PV is going to be in Tokyo.

@ayuangel_news : Ayu is recording "A Gift" a song composed by JJ Lin! あゆ、JJの台北公演でコラボ曲の製作を発表
@ayu_19980408 : It's called ' The GIFT ' RT

^ Lmaooooooooooo

I spit out my coffee when I saw my mistake, I'm so obsessed with "A" something! it's seems I'm really tired this week (and that I give you a stick to beat me with haha=D)

So one of the 2 new PV is The GIFT?

Yep.

so there is gonna be limited package for TA members according to TA mail, CD and CDL together?

God bless ayu for TA versions release

I always wonder how Ayu notices the tweets posted by AyuAngel since she doesn't follow the account... :shakehead Twitter notification maybe?

It was mentioned before. She has a list of Twitters she looks at. It used to be public... not sure about now.

It's definitely the other way around lol. Not all, but a RIDICULOUS portion of Japanese music has god awful mixing. Lookin' at AKB groups, Johnny's, almost any no-name flop I can think of off the top of my head, and now it's gotten to Namie, Kuu, Ayu, etc. too. American music is tippity top in production most of the time. I mean that's basically the main focus of pop here for the past few years >_>

Hopefully that version will be available on siteconcert venue too :grumpy

It still is:
https://twitter.com/ayu_19980408/lists

"Friends by ayumi hamasaki
dont follow it"

LMAOOOOOOOOOO

omggggggg why am I laughing so hard :roflmao

Ayu... please.

lol she doesn't want us to follow the list? what? AHAH ayuuu

Ayu used to have some of the best mixing in the business. Her top-notch works and higher quality productions have some of the best mixing I have ever heard in my life.

The reason for this, is because the mixing process seemed to be a bit more meticulous. They would take the time to adjust the levels in the layers as well as their positioning between the speakers. This created an effect where at every possible angle, a different layer was highlighted. It's like if you think of the sound as a 360 degree environment. 60% of one layer may be in the right channel, 90% of another layer may be in the opposite channel. Etc. Now, everything is so flat and kind of just coming at you head on.

Listen to No way to say or some of the tracks that were re-mastered for A BEST 2. No way to say has that really wicked syncopated/vibrating guitar in the left channel, which basically carries the entire track. Meanwhile, in the right channel, more of the focus is place on the gentle and warm strum of the stringed instrument(s). The tension that arises pre-chorus kind of travels across the entire soundscape leading up to an explosion of everything in unison. This was always a key strength for much of Ayu's songs - you could listen to them time and time and time again, and focus your attention between all the different layers of sound and get a different experience each time.

Another example of absolutely wonderful mixing, as well as composition and the way it was arranged is walking proud. Regardless of whether or not you like the song, listen to how absolutely LUSH and LAYERED everything is. Each layer is highlighted even before she begins to sing! Listen to how they all roll so smoothly right into each other. It's miraculous how all those layers just build into each other and transition so smoothly, working so HARMONIOUSLY. It was truly well-planned out and you can tell that a lot of time and effort went into tweaking those details.

The poor mixing in her recent works give the pieces less of a replay value. You listen to the song and there's not as much to discover. The song is taken at surface value because that's all that it has to show you. It's all right there in the center.

I wish I could have a listening party with Ayu fans and really sit and converse over the intricacies within her music. To pick apart and highlight the layers together.

One day before my birthday!
Completely okay with this :3

She simply doesn't follow the list closely as in "I don't follow it". :rolleyes

She probably still gets notifications when people mention her.

That twitter account is not owned by ayu at all. It is owned by avex. That's why she can't follow anyone and created that list.

^she is in fact following a handful of people. Her mom's salon (or whatever it is) is on that list together with Max, Alvin Goh, her TA leader and JJ Lin.

lets get conspiracy theories rolling lol

Yep, you're preaching to the choir. Literally three hours ago I was chatting with GRACE (if anyone still remembers him here lol) and pretty much said, "Literally all I want from this album is for it to be well mixed." I don't care if she gives us the best compositions in the world. If they're produced like Last minute, I'm going to scream.

Honestly I'd settle for acceptable, nothing particularly remarkable mixing like on Colours. But FOR THE LOVE OF GOD no more mixing like on R'n'RC, Party Queen, LOVE again, etc.

Please, Ayu. No.

And I just find it really sad that this has become such a big problem in her releases in the past few years that all I can really ask for is the music to sound like it was mixed and mastered by, you know, working professionals. :(

Memorial address and MY STORY seriously had her most well-made songs ever tho. I even used the same word, "lush", describing it to GRACE lol:

1:02 PM - sark: I guess being made like MY STORY
1:02 PM - sark: implies they're really lush

Creating a list =/= following someone on Twitter...

Maybe she has her own way to use Twitter. #Weird.

She can't follow lady gaga xD I need a feat with ayu and gaga xD

I am so stupid when it comes to twitter, because I barely understand how to read some posts, like retweets or replies on replies... for me it is confusing. But I have seen Ayu's account which says she is following 3 people. What is that list anyway, some black list? You cannot even peek to see who's on that. Could also be a group of friends she does not want to get bothered with fans adding anyone she is befriended with, right?

Me too! I feel I would learn to hear Ayu songs differently! Maybe we need a thread on this?

The mixer of Rnrc is the same as My story ! So what ? you mean he lowered his standards ? (just a question ^^)

If that's what that means, then yes lol

Most of R'n'RC is more or less fine, just not quite as stellar as her previous standards. Some of the tracks though... like Last Links and You were... shudders.

I have thought about creating a chatroom topic to highlight the "intricacies" of Ayu's music. The subtle elements that may only last a second or two but that you look forward to with each and every listen. But, it's so very difficult to express in text form and to point out what part I'm trying to highlight, etc, that it's just too much of a commitment. You can only communicate so much through the message boards. But to be able to sit and experience together and converse about/highlight the different elements as they occur would be such a wonderful thing.

It's a public list. I can view it. Maybe you can't on mobile twitter app - I'm using internet browser.

The arrangements on R'n'RC were bizarre too. To have no session musicians and programmed drums instead on the rockier tracks (count down/Last Links) was a huuuuge crime imo.

NEXT LEVEL was mixed wonderfully, I thought.

the bass on identity > Rule > LOVE 'n' HATE, holy moly. polished as phuck.

I wonder if you can tell which tracks she did in the UK by the production values on certain tracks in Rock'n'Roll Circus. Still good tracks but would have been even better with a similar setup to Memorial address (the song) or ASFXX from A BALLADS.

I think she's been rushing her team for certain albums / tracks recently and it shows that they weren't able to perfect things like they had up until like 2008. Since then, I think Love songs and FIVE only really haven't had mixing issues IMO.

WOOT.

:D

The bass can be attributed to mastering more so than mixing.

Generally agree with the mixing situation although I'd say that Microphone sounded great, even though RnRC is probably up there on my list of least favourite Ayu albums.

Memorial address for me is the most deliciously produced record of hers so far.

I personally love (miss)understood's production.

Mee too, except for beautiful day though, that song sounded a bit cheesy and not as high quality as the rest.:yes

Beautiful Day is one of my favorites by her. It's perfect for those days when the sky is clear and the sun shines bright! I think it's lovely.

I'll also say, microphone had good mixing. But in general the R'n'R mixing was all over the place.

I'm not really picky when it comes to mastering. It's one of my weakest too whenever I create songs but I think the welness of mastering of a certin song might depend on the quality of speakers/headphones/earphones or whatever one may be using IMO. Anyway, I think Love Songs, Next Level and Colours had got some well mastered tracks :)

Beautiful Day's mix was fine, but the song itself divides people. I love it personally. One of my favorite sets of album closers. Beautiful Day and rainy day are a perfect pair.

I think when it comes to her mixes, you can tell the ones she did overseas may suffer slightly compared to others. Thinking about it, it seems like you can tell which tracks could have been rushed due to running out of time or were done super late into the night.

Party Queen and Rock'n'Roll Circus probably have the weakest mixing of any of her albums IMO.

LOVE again's album tracks had some of the worst mixing of her entire career. Everything was so flat, dead, and bland. No dynamic to most of it whatsoever.

The mini album tracks make up for the weaker mixing on the album tracks on LOVE again for me.

Everything is based on opinion and how a person sees and feel songs and arrangements overall. This same feeling you have towards love again's mixing is exactly what i feel with beautiful day. Miss understood's mixing was awesome except for the one song that ruined the whole picture for me.:shakehead It might sound perfect for some though but for me.......

I don't know if someone already posted a confirmation on the "will JJ Lin sing in The Gift?" matter, but a barks.jp article (retweeted by ayu) seems to suggest that JJ Lin only wrote the song (i.e. no singing). The song is already done. He will feature in the PV.

I will always say that Microphone is perfect (technically) but it ALWAYS bugs me when she is singing "Tell me why, I don't know". It sound so cheeesy, it doesn't fit epicness of the song :<
I just don't get it. Her english ruins songs pretty bad sometimes, how beautiful you are is amazing technically but her chorus ruins it. There is a tons of examples so I won't be listing them right now...

Love again gets polluted by her old lover. That's why it has a poorly done mixing.

:P