Two interesting things I bumped into yesterday.
Armin van Buuren played M remix during his recent livestream as the answer to sb's request. Timestamp 1:50:11


And the 2nd video is Arena 09 interlude that originally used "Load of the shugyo" but here it was made to fit "Love'n'hate"
https://www.bilibili.com/video/av487...48826547913188

Armin van Buuren is always playing Ayu songs (M and Terminal) on his "State of Trance" episodes! he seems to genuinely like her.

I saw that too! He plays her songs every once and a while. He seems to know them by heart whenever he plays them. Armin van Buuren is the best.:heart

omg I love the PV. it has a simple premise but executed very well. it's just her doing a faux-making-of video but I like everything about it: the non-sloppy camera movements, slo-mos (I'm a sucker for super dramatisch slo-mos), and the VFX don't look dated at all, even now.

also, instead of looking sad, I see ayu as looking somewhat dignified(?) here. there's no overacting and she looks to me just the way she would when actually performing the song live in concert.

tl;dr I guess iconic is in the eyes of the beholder but gotdamn I love evolution

This year anniversary of releases

5 A ONE
5 Step by step
5 sixxxxxx
10 Rock'n'Roll Circus
10 MOON/blossom
10 crossroad
10 L
10 Love songs
15 Step you/is this Love?
15 fairyland
15 Heaven
15 Bold & Delicious / Pride
20 Fly High
20 vogue
20 Far Away
20 SEASONS
20 Surreal
20 Duty
20 Audience
20 M

it's going to be ten whole years after Rock'n'Roll Circus and Love songs. holy fuck I feel old.

^ I felt the same for 15 years of (miss)understood‘s Singles haha :D

I know I'm weird on this forum because I love Audience and the GIFT. I loooove Audience , mostly because it's very nostalgic for me. I really want to see more live performances of it.

^I don't like the GIFT but AUDIENCE is great. Since I listened to it for the first time, it makes me smile and happy.

^ I really hate the GIFT, but AUDIENCE (especially the Dave Ford Mix) is great! I‘m a huuuge fan of UNITE! which also seems to get more hate than love...

I really love The GIFT. The video is gorgeous too.

9/10 years from now "it's the 10 year anniversary of nothing"

^ lmao stop, this is so sad :dead2

Gotta say, jpop as a whole DELIVERED in 2010. ayu gave us two fuckintastic full albums and videos like Microphone, Sexy little things, Don't look back, Virgin Road... AND ROCKNROLL CIRCUS TOUR!! Up to date it's still on my top 3 fav tours of hers.
Hikki released her second best and the new tracks imo were all great, Kuu held her 10th anniversary with amazing concerts, namie was holding P<F Tour, and so many more stuff from other soloists... Gosh, I know the scene in the Japanese market has changed a lot, and to each one their taste, but the difference in the amount of activity that the female soloists were involved in back then versus now is just sad.

Lmao

Let me hug you. It's great to have compny!!

I like The GIFT but I do think it is one of the safest songs she ever released. It's a nice pleasant ballad but it felt a bit bland for Ayu. But AUDIENCE I simply love. I never get tired of it. It's so fun and full of energy.;)
As for the 10 year anniversary of Ayu's 2010 activities, I also feel so old. The whole 2020 new year, new decade has me feeling mind blown about how much time has gone by.

I again had a dream of ayu releasing new songs lol
As part of her tour she sang a new song as a surprise called "you", it was also confirmed that there was a new song called "me" that would be released after "you" lol Dream me forgot there was already a song called YOU in her discography

Well she has had "Hana" then "FLOWER" way later so... anything is possible. I could see her doing a song called Me & You one day, lol.

And with the 'anniversary of nothing', that is a lot of people's careers in general, it's sort of insane that Ayu kept going as long as she did with new releases.

Congrats. You just made me feel way old too :tired