I have to say though, in terms of RAINBOW, it has the worst tracklist order in the history of Ayu releases.

Having Free & Easy straight after Real Me is like an Ayu sin. :no

well I always thought RAINBOW has the coldest atmosphere from her albums.
Maybe because of her harsh vocal? And bad tracklisting xD;;

At least LOVE again seems to have continuity... never mind that I can't figure out the theme (is milking money a theme?)

Rainbow is pretty haphazard. It's like she did whatever she wanted for the singles then decided on a completely different sound for the other tracks, thus the polarized album. Still it has such perfect songs. If I listen to them it's individually anyway.

I think this kind of counts for NEXT LEVEL and Rock 'n' Roll Circus too.
I remember a bit of a backlash because when NEXT LEVEL was released, it was kind of promoted as Ayu's 'electro' album, whilst Rock 'n' Roll Circus was promoted as rock, but only contained a few rock songs. :thud

LOVE again ~pay again~ :3

I just hope not all the 5 new songs will stay in "lovey dovey" atmosphere. (like CD cover). Because the 1st preview sounds very "cute and dandy". Because it will become Love songs ~part II~ album for me (good album to fall asleep ~part II~) Since there is Wake me up, Song 4 u and snowy kiss (that aren't cute and dandy) I hope there will be something besides "medium Ayu fillers" :) But well, technically the structure reminds me so of Love songs...

Wake me up == Love song /up tempo opening track/
snowy kiss == Last angel or do it again or sending mail /experimental electronic track/
Missing == MOON /power ballad/
Melody == Thank U /boring filler/
Ivy == November or Like a doll /good medium track filler/

sth like that.

Rock'n'Roll Circus wasn't really promoted as a rock album, I think. The title says 'rock' but her interviews about the album said it was kind of like a mixed bag of everything.

NEXT LEVEL was pretty electro... except the singles. I think this is probably why Ayu could benefit from rearranged "album versions" but then that sort of forces people to get the singles if they want 'originals'.

Seriously, I'm pretty sure that 'discussion' stopped a while ago for a reason.

^ I think a lot of people just assumed that it would be a bit 'rock' influenced 'cause of the name too. I remember it being a discussion though, or more so a hope-ends-in-disappoint result as it was hoped that it would contain a few more rock songs as Ayu's rock songs seem to be pretty popular here! :)

(though, this happens with every Ayu release doesn't it?)

I think LOVE again will be a great album. We know at least seven of the tracks will be great. ;)

I really don't want her to re-record any of her past works as the majority of the tracks would prolly sound chopped and not really good. YOU and Depend on you had awesome arrangements, but her vocal style deffo did not suit those tracks and I fear the same would happen with the majority of her older songs.

I'm not going into the wahhrespectmyopinion mode so ubiquitous on this forum, lol. But you don't need to police me. :shrug

Honestly, there's really no reason to bring up the "'ripoff'-ish" nature of this album so many times. I understand why people think this, but once is enough after literally dozens if not a hundred or more posts about it.

Yes, the songs from LOVE and again are on here. Yes, You & Me is on here. So what?

We're getting a new album with these songs and seven (five) new ones. She literally had new news a week or two after the previous release and this is happening four times (well, we have one release left left) consecutively. We never get things like this so I'm going to enjoy this constant flow of news and quick information before we have to go back to the usual "wait 4 months before Ayu records anything and releases a new CD/whatever while AHS becomes a bit of a ghost town" pattern that we tend to go through in these last few years.

If not rerecorded, at least rearranged slightly? Simply remastering probably won't satisfy people because they could barely hear the difference! Or in the case of M on A COMPLETE, they really noticed because an entire layer of music was missing at one point.

I just want a rock epic track *Puss in boots reaction face*

^ I didn't like what they've done with M. A BEST 3 shouldn't be meant for only fans to enjoy, but they should try and appeal to the listeners who have abandoned Ayu and who haven't listened to many of her recent songs. Therefore I think that adding a new track or two and a bonus DVD featuring a concert would satisfy me just enough :)

If people think this release is a rip-off then simply don't purchase it. It's been a month, get over it already. I am not happy with the minis being treated as singles, but what's done is done and complaining on AHS isn't going to change anything.

Unfortunately, given the tracklist at the moment, your only hope is Bye-bye darling which could be a promising rock track. The rest seem to be slow ballad-y types. It's also in the prime spot for her 'weird' tracks aka the middle of the album.

M ~PoW vers.~ (Studio mix) needs to happen!

I do wonder if the next release will be A BEST 3. I mean, nobody expected A CLASSICAL.

I don't think March will be the end of releases for this year though, I have a feeling something will pop up at the end of the year.

I've been enjoying Ayu's ballads lately, so it won't upset me if LOVE again is just one huge ballad fest. :D

Something will probably happen on April 8th. Most likely a concert, but maybe something else along with it?

Also maybe once she's done touring, another album will pop up in November/December?

I never really got that hate of old Ayu stuff. everything's pretty iconic, like, you cannot touch that

So... I was just notified that there's a possibility that the serial number cards x 5 from these releases might be exchangeable only in Japan for a physical item of some sort. I hear that the serial number cards are also included in the HK/Taiwan editions so you can get those instead of the Japan versions and it'd still be fine.

However, what do you do when you get all five and you don't live in Japan/HK/Taiwan? I'm hoping it's not actually for a physical good or anything because I've never heard of a campaign like this since usually that involves mailing items in. However, it appears that avex taiwan and HK have the information on hand about it being at stores only...

Ehhhhhhhh if it is a box to hold everything in. It's so odd considering that her last シリアルナンバー入りアクセスカード/serial number access cards were all for digital contents.

Why it should be the end? ...

Hopefully it can be done through TA at least, I dunno.

Well when the LIVE Clip box came out, how did that work? You had to be in Japan in order to receive the extra DVD, no?