My copy of the live album is already in shipping process. Seems kind of early for CDJapan.

so you cant forgive ayumi for cutting a song which was too personal for her after a friend died? And you can also see why she would be more inclined to remove Return Road too with the nature of the song and what inspired the lyrics. Every time she would have to sign it, it would only bring the emotions of when she wrote them and shes been wanting to move forwards since all this bad press

If songs like RR and Sakura are so personal to her I wonder why she would choose to perform it in the first place. Maybe she ran out of emotional steam along the way. Wish those songs would be in the DVDs though :(

How could she know her friend would die? ¬¬

^ IIRC, she did perform SAKURA a couple of times after her friend died, and those who attended said she wasn't more emotional during this song than usual.

Jewel ( A BEST LIVE) radio rip

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/lpQcmJ8C9Ns/

@Aderianu
http://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/35...1f40345ba2.jpghttp://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/52...fd53663376.jpg
http://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/39...82d0584f09.jpghttp://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/46...510eb309ee.jpg
@rong-VS-ayumi (weibo)

The booklet's pics are amazing! There are even better than the cover! Love the silkscreen printing effect!

Ayu's voice is ok but the whole thing was so nostalgic!!
Never liked Jewel but the memories man....

The TA-exclusive extras are really lame next to the mu-mo extras this time... I could only afford one of each release so I went with the mu-mo bonuses here. :( Ah well. Phone stand with the TA logo woulda been ideal, but not this time I guess.

JEWEL recording is stunning. I'm so happy that she could at least do the song justice. Gorgeous. Just gorgeous.

If I remember it right there where post-death dates were she cried a lot during the song... But it's not like anyone can force her to sing a song she composed for a friend that just died.

OMG the physical album look so nice!! Tempted to get my copy!

wow the popart style!

wondering how come the album is not out for download yet..

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/DfZR5m6tINM/ that's HEAVEN. I wish someone would upload the full album already.

That booklet is amazing!! The popart style... GENIUS.

Looks like Prince Sam posted that hes been listening to the full album on ForAver Fb

hope we will get it soon

i LOVED the booklet pics *---*

I like the booklet too!

I'm so ready to order this CD, but I'm waiting for previews of the DVD to see if I don't want to get the DVD instead...

does the booklet become a poster when unfolded??

I'm a little surprised it doesn't seem to have leaked yet, to be honest. The perfomance of "JEWEL" linked on the previous page was gorgeous, though, it has always been one of my favourite songs. I'm looking forward to the live CD release.

i found a rip of teddy bear..i think its audio recorded by a fan from the 7.28 concert, but her vocals sound great!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater

No leak yet?? :thud:thud

I now it's released tomorrow but I thought it would be leaked some days before, :lech

im waiting for the leak too, surprised theres nothing yet =_=

I didn't get my cd today, and it's the tuesday before the release... which is really strange. Up to now, if ordered through mu-mo, her releases have always come one day ahead of the release day.

ABL album is now available on iTunes worldwide, cool!

Bought it on iTunes Japan!

I'm running out of storage space, so I'm just getting this on my iTunes.

is there a bigger cover for this?

I cropped this from the main wallpaper of the official website, but it can't be considered official though very similar, and it's not so big.. :(

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/1798/s03l.jpg

"Voyage" A BEST LIVE version already on my non-stop repeat mode! speechless to describe how beautiful it was! just hope they will improve the audio in the later DVD!

I've just started to listen, love the little changes in A song for, very subtle, but it's not the best performance, I still prefer A Nation 2008 and TV version of AT2008

I'm still stunned by No way to say, JEWEL and HEAVEN. They're my favourite probably, so far.
When I listened to HEAVEN I was seriously going to cry.. Finally this song has a performance in its original version~ ♥

voyage is so great and proper. Really nice song and new arrangement as the ending for the concert.

I hope the cover for the blu ray isn't the same (or similar) to the live CD cover.

Overall I like that CD. Ayu's voice is amazing. You clearly hear that she improved her vocal a lot. In No way to say, I have the feeling that her voice was the same as before 2008. It's one of my favourite song with a song for xx, key & teddy bear.
I'm just a bit sad for Tell All. The beginning is amazing but after there are a lot of wrong notes >.<

I can't believe how great she sounds in No Way To Say! Was that really live?

mmm....i need new music =/

Let me assure you that she sounds even better when you are actually there~

JEWEL is deffo my fave from this album, followed by ASFXX, Voyage and No way to say.

yes <3 I was very impressed when I went to the concert. <3

HEAVEN is my favourite song ever. I was at the first concert so I had no idea about the tracklist, you can imagine how I was crying while the performance of this awesome song xD


I think this tour has nothing really special, not big props or something we are used to, but has great vocals, great choice of traklist (some are overplayed, but are Ayu's trademark). In the end, this is what really matters.

Memorial address, No way to say, JEWEL, Key ~eternal tie ver. & teddy bear are my faves but A song for XX, M, Heaven and Voyage are really good too =)
So now I want the Bluray :ybiggrin

Btw the news arrangment for Voyage reminds me of those for Progress !!!

:yes

Wow, there's even a proper page with a layout. And there is not just Guilty here in France anymore! Great.

Her live vocals are quite strong on teddy bear! Keep up the good work!

edit: 16€ for a digital cd... Are they crazy?

Getting my copy tomorrow! So excited!

yay gonna buy it on iTunes Brazil :3 this is actually the very first time i buy ayu stuff on iTunes.. *-*

Voyage really amazes me! like many people said, its new arrangement is very progress which is very nice!

by the way, what are the the english lyrics she sang? " we're on the journey, looking for love..." (can't tell the rest) wondering if it's added by Timmy.

yes its all live! hahahha
gosh listening to this CD just brings back all the memories. The utter shock when she first appeared on stage and I'm right there watching my idol finally.

And HEAVEN, that song just blew me away. Wait till you guys watch the performance.

I don't think we can really trust people's opinions from live experience. When I saw Ayu, I thought she sounded so bad-ass and nothing was wrong with the performances. Mind you, this was during her 2008 10th Anniversary Tour, and I believe many people have complained about vocals during that live extravaganza. You get so lost in the moment, it's hard to make a proper judgement on voice alone, when there are so many elements building up your experience at the them.

I think her singing became really great. It seems that for this tour she really changed her technic she sang somehow different, without screaming and threw the long vibratos and wailings away (even though I liked them at fit times). She will never be "Mariah Carey" but she does have a good voice and she's singing good.

I feel that I might be the only person on this forum who really can't stand the new Voyage-wanna-be-a-Disney-musical-arrangment. Couldn't stand it in Saitama, nor in Yokohama, neither in my memory. Good thing that the rest of the album is slayer.

im so impressed and happy with what she did with No Way To say and Voyage! no nasal voice she got her voice well controlled.

and gosh key sounds so amazing! i love her powerful here *_*

I'll wait until I receive my copy to listen to this *.* And yay it's even available in iTunes Store Russia!

Isn't this what they always sing in the background in the studio version?

Ah that's so great to hear! I'm really proud of her improvement in her live vocals. She sounded awesome on this live album.

You're right ^^ Timmy has nothing to do with this sentence lol

I love the poker face arrangement!!! But is it really that short?

poker face~Fly high was a medley that's why they are so short. Their length together are of one song (4:41).

Can anyone fill in the English lyrics for Voyage?

This is all I can hear... but there's one phrase right before "meant to be happy"

"we're on a/the journey
looking for love

meant to be happy"

YES!!! in the water pool. omg

I don't think so. I mean I went to the concert two days in a row. I know these vocals are the vocals I heard on the final day. :love :innocent

Oh my God, I thought it was horrid. Lol.

her chorus sing:
we're on the journey looking for love, we will grow up and to be happy

she sing: i'm on the journey looking for love

and the song end with:
bokutachi wa kono nagai tabiji no (at the end of this long journey)
i believe... anything anywhere anytime anyone

Ohhhh and to be happy! haha ok thank you!

Can't wait for the DVD release! I'll definitely have one! Her voice was so mature now.

Highly surprised by teddy bear, Key, No way to say and HEAVEN. A Song for XX sounded horrible imo, but the arrangement was nice. Voyage's new arrangement is horrible

wow thanks for the lyrics! after listening to the ori studio version, i shockingly realized that there indeed are these English lines at the background (not to know it for years omg)

Lol I didn't like the new arrangement of Voyage either. Soo cheesy :P Even though she did sound great.

i also just realize after you mention those line are in original version, now i more love when ayu did this "a best live" ver

No wonder she released this live CD, her vocals are a AMAZING! :blove
Can't wait to watch this tour in blu-ray!

i adore the new arrangement of Voyage!

It's not only the arrangement - Ayu had hard time hitting the notes in this song and screamed instead of singing refrain. That's why it's my least favourite number of this tour. It sounded bad live.

I really liked the new Voyage arrangement, I normally can't stand that song, but it was really beautiful on the cd.

The girl on the left looks like overdone surgery.

I think poker face is prerecording, Fly high too...
i compared between CD ver. and Real live rips.
maybe HEAVEN is not full live. i think it has part of prerecording
JEWEL is live.
but i can't assure M and No way to say are full live
maybe No way to say has part of prerecording. M is full live

Nops. Her voice is just edited.

i know they edited a lot.. autotunes

but the poker face and Fly high 'CD ver.' are almost same with 'Real live ver.' / the sound is exactly same

you can download also you can listen.

i give you the Link

http://www.general-files.org/files-a...r-a-best-live/

Download : 03 poker face - 09 BLUE BIRD.wav
10 JEWEL + 11 HEAVEN + 12 SAKURA + ever free.wav

bottom part you can see

Tbh I don't care, I don't have time for this lol

The live album is surprisingly good

Isn't she the one who used to be a man? Back in 2002 or something she was dancing with Ayu and she recently had gender reassignment surgery?

she looks like Miss Piggy

^
Me too! Dont care about it! I really like the album!!!

I don't know if this is the right place but it's themed for the a best live, but oh my god this phone case is sooo gorgeous

http://shop.mu-mo.net/a/st/event/ayu1309/

I asked my japanese friend if she could order it for me and I could just give her the money <: but then I won't get it before I meet her, which isn't before MARCH. UUUGGHH T__T

If you're desperate, I imagine someone here can make a similar graphic/image in Photoshop and you can get it printed onto a case for £5 from one of those websites or you can go to ASDA and they can make a case from an image for like £10 I think ^_^

omg this phone case looks fabulous *-*

I know <: But I want to support Ayu and it just feels better when it's "real", if you know what I mean? I've had a few of those where you make your own, they're usually pretty cheap in quality :/

That was a really nice live album! Personally, I didn't see this much of a vocal improvement, but then for me Ayu has been pretty much on the same level for many, many years (she always surprises me, in a good or a bad way: sometimes she sings awfully and in the next song she just sounds perfect, and then she's voiceless again. It kind of depends, lol.) But she always puts a lot of emotions and effort in singing, so it's always nice to listen to her, she's a real entertainer.
I almost never buy Live CDs unless, let's say, they're from singers with versatile and truly powerful voices, like Kuu or Celine Dion, but I was really tempted with amazing stuff such as JEWEL. Damn, she was flawless! But, in the end, I know I want to see her, she's just that amazing visually. So, I'm not purchasing this and I'll wait for the DVD, but it was really nice for Ayu standards. Lots of emotion, and nice arrangements and stuff.

The cut-off at the end of Blue Bird is really bugging me... I think I need to edit the song myself...

I know right? The ending was about changing to You&Me.

Tbh, BLUE BIRD can be the track before Tell All. I know they want to make it in order, but the album does not flow well between M, No Way To Say, Blue Bird, Jewel, Heaven, and Tell All.

^ You & Me was performed before BLUE BIRD.
I think what's after BLUE BIRD is another DJ 2-Yan interlude :P

Please. Don't you ever ever ever ever ever ever compare Celine to Koda vocal-wise again. x_x

you know i just realized that whatever songs she will release Memorial Address is always going to beat them all....because i will forever remember that young woman in a giantic red dress with a big bow that managed to snatch my heart in an instant i saw how powerful this petitte figure can be, and how much emotion she can get throught that song. It's gonna always be "the best live" for me. ♥ and i love the ABL version just as much ♥ everytime she just puls that song perfectly.

Now I really enjoyed Blue Bird, JEWEL...actually i enjoyed a lot of them. And Voyage was really nice too, i love the arrangement, but then again i'm a sucker for arangements like that ♥

She sounds very very good, I really like her vocals.

I am probably in the minority here but this live album was a huge let down for me. I mean, there are really only 2 reasons to buy a live album - 1) new songs being performed, and/or 2) high performance quality (production, vocal performance, etc).

The set list was uninspired. I am sure watching the show live would have been great for any ayu fan. But to have an entire album of old music was disappointing. The only new track Tell all also added absolutely nothing to her arsenal; I might as well just listen to the vastly superior studio version. New arrangements were minimal. I really wish she had done the live album idea for the Power of Music tour instead.

And what takes the cake is just how awful and cheap sounding the production is! I am really surprised no one has made a bigger deal out of this but honestly, listen to this and then go listen to Tokyo Jihen's live album (Tokyo Collection) and you will know what I mean. The music here sounds muddled, her voice is forced. She had one chance to really make it work in the opening (A Song for xx) and she squandered it. The whole thing just sounds like a fan-recorded effort.

I have been a huge fan of the stuff she's put out in the last 5 years (Party Queen I loved, Love again was decent, You & Me I thought was fantastic), but this is just a let down on so many levels. I will no doubt still look forward to the DVD and hope the visual spectacle gives me something to be impressed by, but I'd just much rather wish she didn't allow something so obviously sub-standard to be released in the first place.

^ Well, I guess we have different opinions about live albums. For me having new songs is the last thing I care for a live album.

Also, I think you're being way too overdramatic saying this album sounds like fan-recorded. I do agree the recording quality isn't great (even her later studio albums haven't been recorded with perfect quality, LOVE again is far from having the best recording quality), but to say it sounds like fan-recording is forcing things way too much.


All I know is that I bought this album and I don't regret not even a bit, this tour's vocals sound amazing, better than her vocals for the past 5 tours imo.

Oh! Thanks for correcting me.

But still, Blue Bird makes the album like cutting off

^ Yeah, I know. >_>

Anyway, the total length of the CD is ~67 minutes.. which means there are other 12-13 minutes.. which means.. two/three other songs, maybe?
I wanted HONEY and You & Me too.. :cry

The whole point of the 15th Anni. tour was to celebrate some of her biggest hits and not create something new and different. Don't expect a visual spectacle as the only new thing is the pool, so it's mostly the stuff we've seen.

Poker face, Fligh high and Honey were pre-recorded for this tour, only these 3 songs. The rest is live.
And I don't know why people complain about the vocals, she sounds WAY better that in Power of music for example. I personally can not listen to Power of music, except for bonus songs.

I think ayu2001 was trying say that those track were not from the last date recording but from other tour dates. Which means it's live and not recorded. Totally different from what you're implying here. I don't really like this live CD too. Not her vocals but the quality of the recording wasn't up to standard. It sounds too soft and somethig which we can do when we get the blu ray/DVD with the exception of the extra track.

The point is, whether you like it or not, the audio quality on this album is -objectively- bad. It's great that you enjoyed your purchase but to expect people to shell out 3000~4000 yen on something that sounds like a fan recording (yes I don't mince my words, and you would agree with me if you've heard any other live album; feel free to call me overdramatic) is ridiculous. Fans put up with the obvious rip off that was "Love, again" because the music was actually good and I am afraid I cannot say the same for this release when all I hear is what sounds like her singing to a pre-recorded track (seriously, that "M" performance, the backing track was disgraceful).

By "new" material I wasn't referring to brand new songs per se. Even some of her less popular hits would have been a refreshing change. At the very least, maybe new arrangements of her hits. I just refuse to be happy with this release when she has been capable of much better e.g. in PCDL, PoM, even the RnRC tour.

I actually don't really like what I've heard so far for this Live. I absolutely adored her vocals on HLS but this seems like she's regressing back to the forced, chopped up syllables kind of singing. Maybe it helps her hear herself better to sing that way but doesn't make for a great listening experience for me. Still, can't wait for the concert DVD!