the quality may alter her voice....but the melody and the arrangement's still gonna be the same

im tno saying i dont liek this album tho..i think it rules..:-P

*pets*

good point Jimmy

Get the torches its time to go get Ayu XD

When reading posts of most actual users (and even staff members)... I kinda wonder where have the Ayu-loving-people-gathering-forum gone?

I understand that people like me, who love onnly her and worship her and her music may be boring with their "excellent" comments after each new song... that's why I rarely post in the threads saying "(new song) - thoughts"

But I noticed that SO MANY people write only "trash, crap" (especially one staff member :/ )

Isn't that even worse? I know all of You can have Your opinion and You can say the new song isn't really good... but this Ayu-loving-forum is more and more changing into an Ayu-bashing-forum. And that's something I don't really like and for some time I really don't feel good here.... I miss old days when I was really curious about all the people here - who shared the same love I did...

Tell me, if Ayu is realeasing such crap after "I am..." album - why are You still here? If I would thought every new song by my favourite artist is crap I would lost interest in that artist and it would be pointless for me to still listen to that artist only to comment on the forum "crap, crap"

Maybe some of you didn't like what I wrote here - but that's wwhat I feel.

I love Ayu! I worship her! And I will keep buying her every new CD, Single, DVD and whatever... because I love what she is doing and I think no artist can reach her.

I'm still waiting for my CD...

:shrug There are lots of songs and groups that I disliked at first but that I love now.

All the people who constantly complain and whine and nag need to get their head out of whatever dark hole they have it stuck in. If Ayu "sucks" lately, why don't you move onto something else? There's many many artists out there. I was sick of Ayu for a while, and so far from what I've heard of the new album, it rocks. A little criticism is fine, but when you end up bashing over and over, you just kill it. Ayu's trying, I don't see the people complaining going out and selling a bunch of CDs and having a huge ass fanbase.

Now you are seriously wrong here, excuse me for saying this. (mind, I was aiming towards Shiso's post here)

First off, you're confusing saying what one's thinking with, if what's said is negative, bashing. When one listens to a new song, dislikes it, and then shares the fact that he or she dislikes it, how can this be considered bashing? Bashing is a negative thing - unfair to begin with, it's mindlessly trying to beat down the person in question at all points; relentlessly and without any respect for the artist, actor, etcetera. What's happening here? We, who are ALL as much Ayu-fans as one another, all listen to the new songs. Some of us love them, some of us don't. That doesn't make us any less or more Ayu-fans - we still appreciate Ayu, like her, love her. However, being a fan does not mean that we should blindlessly follow her!

This discussion is an old one - it's been held ten times already, twenty times, thirty times maybe. However, there's always some people who mistake honest criticism from Ayu-fans for mindless bashing. That's terribly wrong, and offensive to the fans who just don't happen to like a new song, release, or whatever.

As for AHS being an 'Ayu-loving-people-gathering' forum - we all still love Ayu. If I didn't, I would've been long gone already. I wouldn't have listened to the new songs. I wouldn't go and buy the new album still. AHS is not changing into an Ayu-bashing forum. If that's your perception - well, by all means, perceive it like that, but do keep in mind that it's a wrong perception.

I can honestly see what you mean, skal, I really do. However, I hate to say this, but a bunch of the new songs just seem below standard to me. I don't expect my musical taste to worsen so much all of a sudden that I will eventually like them.

I sooo agree! REally! Thank You for this post y2687-san!

I didn't hesitate to spend $40 on the album and have not regretted it. I eagerly await my CD in the mail.

Ayu's styles will always be ever changing.....I personally think her new stuff is great along with the rest of her stuff from the past.

[QUOTE][B]Posted By: ShisoI agree with you, and I stand by your opinion!!
I mean, I only came here recently, over this past summer, but it wasnt so "bash this, bash that!". Now I read about how everything is crap, and it kinda confuses me. This is a "Fan" forum, so whats happening to the "Fans"?

Same here. I look forward to it!

$40 is expensive, but so worth it :yes

I'm waiting too :) I think about buying the normal edition too :) to have at least two different covers :)

I was trying to express that tastes are very subjective and everyone experiences music differently.

Maybe everyone can try being a bit less judgemental of other's musical preferences and a bit more tolerant of dissenting views.

First of all- do you wish this forum to be a gathering place for all the fanboys/ fangirls(NO OFFENSE TO ANYONE, really)??? For people with the attitude like
- OMG!!! NEW AYU SONG!!! I LOVE IT!!!
- Hey, haven't you noticed that this song has no music nor vocals? It's just silence!
-Oh really? Oh, WTF I still love it cuz it's AYU!!!

There is a clear border between the PERSON and his/hers MUSIC!!! I don't judge ayu but her new songs. And I don't intend to justify any of her bad songs just because it's she who sings them. And the other way around- if she released a great song and at the same time announced that she hates all the people in the world and comitted countless crimes i still would like that song:P:P:P

And all the people are still here, even if ayumi releases crap, because they love/like/admire her as a PERSON. And at the sime time they're able to keep their feelings for her from distorting their opinions on her MUSIC.

I dunno...I listen to zillion of different artists, I put a lot of expectations on ayu's new stuff, but I don't really feel let down when she releases something new. I particularly find interestingly funny that people get all surprised that ayu is using recycled melodies and generic pop as if it is her very first time doing that. I mean, I ALWAYS knew that, what was LOVE~Destiny~ and the whole lot of offsprings it has? What about POWDER SNOW and PSII? evolution and UNITE! were so originally different from each other, yeah right. What was Real me if I may ask, wasn't it generic pop? apears is a pretty generic song imo. Wasn't Trauma and several other songs from her kinda JPOPish? She always was a JPOP artist but I'm afraid people have put ayu in a pedestal of being some rocker or non-commercial singer and constructed a whole different insight about her. One funny thing is that a lot of people , including me just discovered ayu when she released Duty or a bit right after that. OMG at that time everything was fresh and new. Ayu had released enough material in a way that if you disliked something you could just turn to another greatest hit of her. That's kinda how it happened to me, I didn't really like a lot of the Duty songs the first time I listened to them (teddy bear was extremely boring, AUDIENCE was VERY generic and SCAR was not anything super) but since ayu was new for me I had TO BE, SURREAL, M, evolution, A Song for XX, YOU and all those greatest songs by my side to enjoy. That of course made me think ayu was a goddess of perfection because there were too many hits to be enjoyed because she already had way too many albums released. With time even the songs I disliked would by force of the other great songs and specially because of the remixes making me try to appreciate them and love them as much. That's what greatly made albums like: ASfXX, LOVEppears, Duty and I am... pretty much consolidate as being extremely pleasant albums. By the time RAINBOW was released ayu was definitely not a new artist to me anymore. That kinda made me get way too much expectations on RAINBOW in order to compensate the fact there was not anything new from ayu anymore to be appreciated at all. When I listened to each of the songs I hated as much songs on it as I had hated on the Duty album the first time I listened. However Duty was already set in my mind as one of her best because of the impact of how ayu was fresh and new and by the hundreds of songs I had already listened to bak in the day. Later on after RAINBOW was released I went through an ayu hiatus - I decided to not listen to her (not because I was angry or disappointed or anything) because I thought i was time to listen to different material. I got to discover so many japanese artists my artists list grew from just ayu to the huge list you can see in my profile (there was still no space to put all artist) and most of those I have listened to at average 70% of the discography of most of them. That helped me to get off the anxiety of awaiting mega huge productions from hamasaki, i actually found out a lot of artists had a bell shape curve at their discographies too, started averagely in the middle started producing amazing stuff and nowadays are releasing regular to mediocre stuff. When ayu released & followed by a ballad single I was sure the ideas were starting to run out (A, H, &... 3, 4 a-side singles with a simmilar pattern of songs), I actually think people had the intelligence to notice that too which surprises me that the bomb is just exploding now because it was something that could be realized one year ago. Moments was quite of a shock to me though because I had in mind ayu wuld still release good stuff but not be able to impress me as much as when everything from her was fresh new but that song actually surprised me a lot. I have kinda gotten used as to what ayumi is trying to take her lead. I don't really mind, I was never the kind of person to get way too attached to technical stuff and whatever because none of the ayu's songs have never been technically perfect. I actually really love her imperfections. i like how she ventures through different genres even generic pop but for me ayu was always the queen of JPOP and yep JPOP is JPOP and isn't an underground genre or some experimental, classical or something. It follows trends, and by the current trends the artists kinda shape themselves. It's kinda clear that the latest trends in Japan are indeed generic pop explaining why artists like BoA got such an uprise over these years while some of the long time JROCK bands have been disbanding and losing their strength. That was something I got preapared over tyhese years and I guess that's why I really agree with what Corybory said, I still think ayu IS ayu, I still can appreciate each one of her works and that's not being blind, its because the melodies, her voice they still flow n my ears and they still get stuck on my mind. I kinda find there is way too much overreaction not just by people who "OMG THAT'S THE GREATEST SONG EVA!!!!111" but isn't listening to previews and bad quality tracks and making a full review of the actual thing overreacting too?

I agree, I have only had the urge to play "walking proud" "About you" and "my name's WOMEN" over and over, other than that, this album is beginning to suck really bad, Humming 7/4 is not even good enough for a PV AT ALL!! It's beginning to piss me off. But lets be honest, true Ayu fans love all of Ayu's music even the really crappy stuff, this album will grow on everyone.

And you're absolutely right. As far as I know though, I haven't been bashing other people's musical tastes - I simply expressed my own sentiments regarding music. If I have - by all means, I didn't mean to.

Amen!

I've been listening to her material since ASFXX and LOVEppears. I was a little dismayed, really, when the songs were coming out for RAINBOW and even for some of the songs from I am... I think I'm in the minority when I say that I don't think I am... is her best work. That said, I think that everyone has their own tastes as to what music they like and because she bridges so many styles, Ayu is going to take criticism for jumping genres. I think that the new music is better than anything she released last year and probably even the year before that. I had some real favourites from the past two years, but overall, this new stuff is more impressive to me. I didn't dislike anything from the Memorial Address and RAINBOW period, but I was not thrilled by much of it, either.

I do, however, really admire that she is continuing to reinvent herself and trying to send different things our way. I am glad that the people of this BBS are willing to say, "Hey, I don't like that." I just hope that we can continue to give the new stuff a chance because, as someone mentioned, it certainly affects vocal and instrumental quality when ripping from a PV and so on.

Ayu's lyrics are what first drew me to her and they haven't really declined in their ability to be brilliant yet simple. I do have to say that I was sort of disappointed with those of CAROLS (I didn't much care for the song, truth be told) because it seemed a repeat of several other songs that she has released. However, I think that she releases with such consistency that really, I can't gripe. We get a new album once a year when most other artists I listen to only release once every few years.

As to loving things just because IT'S AYU, I don't think that I would say this is true for me. I like her as a person but I was first attracted to her because of her lyrics, so that's not a huge stretch (lyrics are influenced by the person's life, after all) but I also admire her music. I like to listen to her stuff, genuinely. I listen to different stuff on different days, but most days I listen to something by her. It's not uncommon for me to listen to UTADA in the morning, Every Little Thing during the afternoon and some sort of Ayu while I'm working out and before I go to sleep. It's no exaggeration to say that she's probably the only artist (besides Onitsuka Chihiro) that gets daily play in my CD players and DVD player. I just like her stuff and I haven't been turned off by many of her songs. So, even though it may seem highly unlikely, I really have liked pretty much everything she's released. That's why she's the only artist who has BBSs dedicated to her that I will join. I joined this one because I was interested to talk to other fans and read news if it came along. I hope that this is the reason why most of you joined, too. If that's the case, I don't think that we have to be worried about differences of opinions. At the end of the day, we all like her to some degree or another, right? ^_^ I hope so!

Amen.

p.s. As a staff member I didn't realize I wasn't allowed an opinion.

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to offend anyone, nor is it meant to be targetted at any individual. This is just my opinion.

It is a little disheartening to see every other post bashing Ayu. Although I'm sure it's not intended, it does feel like a personal blow to my tastes when somebody calls something I happen to like "complete and utter crap". Yes of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion and I respect that. But it's one thing to say "I didn't like this song," but it's another to say "This is crap! How can anyone like this?!?". And I've seen posts like that. Now it just seems trite. They're so abundant that it seems like they're trying to force their opinion down your throat. So...let's just summarize it to personal taste.

What annoys me even more that all this complaining has just made a huge circle and now it seems hypocritical. For example...it's funny to see people complaining about Humming 7/4. "omgwtf! Humming 7/4 sounds like independent+ and flower garden!!111one *automatic hate*" Personally, I don't think they sound anything alike, but they do elicit the same feelings of enthusiasm. I thought she needed another song like this for her fans to go nuts during her concerts. But then again...these would be the same people that complain that she always sings said songs in concerts. She tries something new and she's bashed for it. She just can't win it seems like.

Ayu's trying something new. It's obvious that not everyone is going to like it. But all this comparing to previous albums is a bit excessive. And I completely agree with Rainmaker on this. If she did create another I am... people would still complain that it's the same old thing...been there, done that. When you hold something in such a high standard, it's expected that you're going to find that anything else as sub-par. All I can say is try to keep an open mind.

I'm loving this album so far and I can't wait until it comes out! I think it's nice and balanced. It has its harder, edgier parts, beautiful ballads, and it's feel-good songs. I appreciate her efforts.

:yes That's what nearly all the bashing related fights come down to. So please try to express your opinions in a way that isn't degrading to a person who disagrees.