You know whats weird? Avex could have totally made this 5-release thing amazing without changing much at all.

If they had done something like this;

1st release 「Song 4 U / You & Me」"Big songs that are not ballads" single.
2nd release 「Wake me Up / Snowy Kiss」Dance/Techno single.
3rd release 「Ivy / Gloria」Ballad single
4th release 「A CLASSICAL」However, without any songs from the other releases + a poll that asked about which song do you want in orchestra version. Not just your favorite song. And a real cover please.
5th release 「LOVE AGAIN 」Full Album~!

Instead of 2 minis there could be 3 singles, 6 songs instead of 8. In addition, singles are more accepted as WE KNOW they will end up on an album. HSL DVD would have been released anyway...

I still don't know why they won't release singles...
Even namie won't.

Avex is afraid they'll sell badly probably. If a mini-album with so many songs only sell 55k(again), how much would a 2-song single sell? 20k?

She might start releasing singles if she becomes popular again?
At the moment, they'll just lose money it seems. :/

It hurts to say it, but I doubt Ayus popularity will ever increase again. At least not without a hiatus.....

Edit:
Oh god I just love the Duty (love mix) so, SO SO much. Holy **** I forgot how much I love eurobeat remixes. It's just too good. TOO GOOD. Like Monochrome (ayu-ro extended remix). I love eurobeat.

well, singles are kinda dying out, with the weird exception, of AKB and some boy bands, so by calling them mini's there is a chance that some people will buy that that wouldnt have... but they cant play that game again... people will be more careful next time.

work up to the prettiest sounding song... and I cant remember ehat ayumi song it was... lol

My favourite Eurobeat mix is AUDIENCE (Euro-Power Mix). :D

It's also my favourite rendition of AUDIENCE.

Prettiest Hamasaki Ayumi song?
It really depends on how you define 'pretty'.

I would class JEWEL and forgiveness as 'beautiful' rather than pretty, so that takes them out of the equation for me. :D
For me, the prettiest would have to be a tie between Will, End Roll, SCAR, teddy bear, no more words and Sweet Season.

EDIT: I just remembered HAPPY ENDING. That one takes the cake for being the prettiest of them all. <3

"Prettiest"/most beautiful songs:

SCAR, JEWEL, walking proud, together when, untitled for her, M, part of me, a song or xx 030213 session #2, monochrome, green... Oh God, I could go on forever...

pretty... hm... It was all chimmie and stuff...
Come to think of it, I don't think it was ayumi.. lol... but the sailor moon song every time she gets a power up, lol... you know... the 'la la la la la la...." lol... with all the chimes..

I guess my brain was still sleepy and heard the la's as ayumi...

So curious for tour plans this year~ should have been announced a month ago really.

Are the tour dates announced really early?

I dont think so.
I dont think we even had tour plans for 2012 till around march with Party Queen

EDIT:
We got a title announcement in December when they announced all the CDL stuff, but I think the only reason why it was so early was because they were reusing the theme.
We didnt get any dates or anything till the end of January.

Yeah, it is quite surprising. We'll probably get them very soon though. :D

I'm thinking sometime during next month we should be getting some stuff...
OR
she might be planning a tour that spans two years like she did back in 2003-2004 where it was later in the year and spanned into the next year...

Whatever it is, I think it'll be huge. :O

well, she till say it would be!
I'm happy that im gonna be in japan when this nis happening. I jsut hope Ill be able to go to the shows that I want to go to.

I don't get the "AT12 would be released anyway"... The only thing that (maybe) wouldn't be released anyway was A Classical... or do people believe Ayu will start to release albums and singles only during her anniversaries?

Because we might not have gotten an album at before summer if it was not for the 15th anniversary thing. But no matter what, we WOULD have gotten the HSL DVD.

And we WOULD get her usual yearly album, unless she was retiring or something or starting a hiatus.

The only unnusual release was A Classical... unnusual and overly hated.

Why is it that the my story concept so interesting yet the album itself doesnt work as a whole?

because it could have been better, lol.

so sad
i need to change up the songs
but im gonna keep these ones:
- happy ending
-liar
-walking proud
-honey
-inspire
-humming 7/4

ah, GAME, hello!!!
lol

Because the ballads and mid-tempos sound all uninspired and the same :P

RAINBOW - Memorial Address - MY STORY seems like it was kind funny (in terms of how they flowed).

I actually re-arranged RAINBOW's tracklist order the other day. I now see why the original tracklist for it was chosen; there are only two types of songs present really. Mega-ballads and upbeat summer tracks. If you put the two together like I did, it flows very much like MY STORY. This is what I came up with:

RAINBOW (I also added this A BALLADS exclusive hehe)
everlasting dream
WE WISH
everywhere nowhere
independent
July 1st
+
taskinillusion
Real me
Voyage
neverending dream
Over
Dolls
Free & Easy
Heartplace
HANABI
Close to you

This version flows too well. I can see why the original tracklist was actually chosen. It blends really, really well. Saying that, I prefer this smoothly flowing setlist. Putting July 1st together with independent, and WE WISH with everywhere nowhere just feels 'right' in terms of their subject matter...

Now I'm going to see if I can give MY STORY a more rickety setlist. :D

Dang. I wouldn't be able to keep track.

You're probably right lol.

I wanna see it :)

that would be nice...
i never thought about doing that myself... it might be fun!

Let me try:

Catcher In The Light
About You
Game
walking proud
Replace
Moments
WONDERLAND
Liar
HOPE or PAIN
HAPPY ENDING
Kaleidoscope
INSPIRE
my name's WOMEN
HONEY
winding road
Humming 7/4


this tracklist is hell on earth
you have no idea how long it took to make this (5 minutes ><)

Ill have to listen to it the first way and then your way and see which i like better...
i really want to make a definitive ayumi album... something that spans everything, like 15-16 tracks... maybe 17...
hardness.

You gotta have JEWEL, forgiveness, and a few others on that album. I'd love to put together like an A BALLAD BEST... maybe I will do a bootleg or something like that.

I hope it makes a difference
I also want it to be good
many people complained of the Liar-Carols part of 30ish minutes of the same crap. its true, its a DRAG. but i couldnt split liar, hope or pain, or happy ending....

After around two hours of listening, I think I've finally come up with a MY STORY setlist that isn't too much of a drag. xD

HAPPY ENDING
Kaleidoscope
INSPIRE
walking proud
my name's WOMEN
Replace
HOPE or PAIN
WONDERLAND
GAME
Moments
CAROLS
HONEY
Catcher In The Light
About You
Liar
winding road
Humming 7/4

It makes no sense at all. But, I think aside from About You and Liar, every other song is next to another that is not majorly related musically, creating a real rickety effect. Saying that however, this still flows decently.

I love the HAPPY ENDING - Kaleidoscope pairing/opening. I love how AT05 opened with HAPPY ENDING. You can't get more epic than that.

I dreamt that ayu had announced a new single for April 8th, it was called "SACRED" and there were two b-sides, one whose name doesnt come up to my mind anymore and the other one was poker face ~episode II~ :love There were four versions as well

the tour was announced!
YAY!

.... yay....

lol, you dont seem very happy about it.

I'm a bit worried about it myself.

I don't like the idea of fans voting.

I dont like that idea either... I mean, that just happened and we got A Classical.

I'm hoping its more of vote to give me ideas, not this is gonna be the set list no matter what.

^ Me too.

But alternatively, I think, imagine how godly the setlist could be?
Possibilities:

A Song for XX
Fly High
Trauma
Boys & Girls
appears (this received quite a big reaction at HLS?)
Who...
SURREAL
AUDIENCE
SEASONS
teddy bear?
evolution
UNITE
M (if there is a god, Ayu will choose the HAL's progress mix from A BALLADS).
Dearest (I'd die if I saw Dearest. It's one song I want to be able to say I've seen live).
Real me
independent
Free & Easy
Voyage
HANABI?
Greatful Days
forgiveness?
Memorial Address
walking proud
GAME?
INSPIRE?
Bold & Delicious?
fairyland
HEAVEN?
STEP YOU
Ladies Night
JEWEL
BLUE BIRD
glitter
Together when...?
MY ALL
Mirrorcle World
Rule
GREEN
Days
Microphone?
Sunrise/Sunset
RED LINE ~for TA~
Last Angel?
Sweet Season
Virgin Road
progress
Return Road
how beautiful you are
Song 4 u
Sweet scar (an EDIT: she hasn't performed this yet).
Gloria
SAKURA

i would love a nice mix of old and new.
I also wouldn''t mind her picking her set list from A best 1/2 A ballads and a good mixture of the newer stuff!

^ I think without a doubt that Gloria/Song 4 u/SAKURA/maybe Sweet scar? will make appearances.

I'm hoping for Dearest. I know that she really overdid it in the early days, but man, I love the arrangement where she mixes the acoustic and original mix.

It would be completely weird if she didnt sing any songs from her current album...
it will be like A Classical. The votes plus whatever she wants.

Time to listen to ASfXX all day.

Someone had a great idea about fans choosing the songs for the new Tour. Maybe they should only allow us to vote for songs from (miss)understood album tracks or even Secret onwards. And then they will be also able to pick the songs for A BEST 3! Dandy ain't it.

I'm really liking guilty these days
Maybe because it fits my mood

I wouldn't like that because I know for a fact that it'll be a tour flushed with boys and girls, evolution, trauma, flower garden, Independent and same old same old.

For the PCDL wasn't it TA members who have choosen the setlist ? If it's the case this setlist was very good so don't be worried before the show start lol

^ If that is true, then they chose Naturally, And then, Over, SCAR, too late, End of the World, Heartplace, Hana, and Will. :O

That's pretty impressive. And gives me hope. xD

They were asked to chose rare and never performed songs

I really hope that since this is "15th Anniversary" it isn't going to be the LOVE again tour with 90% of the tracklist being LOVE again

I mean with the "HOTEL Love songs" we had the Party queen tour since most of the tracklist was Party queen (and only one song from Love songs -_-)

Perfume's new international fanclub costs only 1500JPY for the first year - why can't Team Ayu have an online-only component that is comparable so OS fans can read the Diaries, send messages, vote etc but doesn't include ticket ballots, TA Mag, PV or special event invites and all that? Just the online stuff so we can actually label ourselves as official fans?

Being an OS fan can really suck since most of us can't take advantage of the extras easily, mags shipped via Tenso adds extra price, you can't get to the concerts easily.....aah, I don't know but I'm disappointed at how Avex doesn't do something for OS fans, even having an "Avex club" that lets you link all their artists if they think Ayu alone wouldn't be popular.

Ayu's Twitter, Weibo, LINE etc means that she or Avex cares about keeping us interested at least somewhat but after all these years I just want to be grouped as "Team Ayu", not just some cockroach foreigner who can't justify ~$100/p.a. to get a couple of magazines I can't really read, a keychain, some random goodies from the shop when the good bonuses haven't been all that good, a ticket ballot I can't use and all that =__=

Just disappointed that I joined PERFUME's official fanclub before I joined Ayu's :(

EDIT: So many "all that"s in this post lol

TA costs 100usd a year??

Yeah, I've also wanted to join TA for a while, but my Japanese just isn't good enough.
It's amazing that they haven't made it more available.
I mean, don't most official fan clubs have other language options?

It's so bizarre.

Though, saying that...
How many TA members are there at the moment I wonder?
That may be another reason as to why they've been hesitant to 'branch out' so to speak.
If she's not popular in Japan, she's virtually an unknown to the rest of the world.

i would love to join TA, but I just dont wanna take them time to look up how, lol.

6 days until LOVE again until comes out and I haven't even listened to A Classical through. How annoying is that. Where's my Ayu mood? :(

^ I havent listened to A Classical since the day it was leaked... lol.
I should go back and give it a lsiten.

I cant wait for love again... I plan to rip that album UP!
lol.

Me too but it's because I'm not interested I prefer original mix ^^ In this album it's like the My story classical ! the voice doesn't coincides with the instruments. It's strange imo

I only listened to like 30 seconds of each song lol
Not enough to give an opinion like I did, but I just can't force myself to listen to it

Listening to Ayu makes me feel so much better
I was panicking and anxious and nauseous yesterday and I put on love destiny an I felt cleansed.

Just a general question
As you all know Ayu has had some quite expensive PVs, and five of them are actually on the list of the most expensive music videos ever.

And these are:
Fairyland - $2,000,000
Jewel - $1,100,000
Virgin Road - $1,000,000
Green - $1,600,000
My name's women - $2,000,000

..

My name's women? How the hell can that video have cost 2 milion dollars?!!

^ they had to pay her. lol...

I need to get back into listening to ayumi daily... I havent done it all week!!!
But her new album is coming out this week... SOOOOO...

Whaat? you think that Ayu's salery is what made that video expensive? >.< That doesn't make sense.. That means every PV of hers are supposed to cost 2 mil usd

No... but you do have to think about all the people they had to pay. (and ayumi was most likely the most expensive)
Plus factor in taxes and what not. The dance moves, the bar thing was probably rented out (meaning it wasnt a set which cost extra money).
Usually videos that are filmed inside the country are more expensive then videos filmed outside of the country and I dont see a reason why the would film this outside the country.

I would guess that 1LOVE, STEP you, Ladies Night, Blue Bird, Part of me and Mirrorcle World would be way expensive than my name's WOMEN.
I just can't wrap my mind around that my name's women cost the same as fairyland, where they burned down a hut.. @_@

Im so happy about the new songs!
we have 3 new full songs!!
SAKURA is the best, of course. Bye bye darling... blah.. I give it a quick listen but didnt really pay attention...
untitled part 2 seems such a drag... its on the verge of being interesting, but not quite...
I would say it gives melody a run for its money, but it doesn't.
there's my melody hate that I seem to be able to post EVERYWHERE!... i wonder how that happens.
=)

what is everyone elses thoughts on the new music!

I posted my opinions on the Love again thread; but quick summarized
I'm so tired of ballads I can't even listen to them, so SAKURA and Untitled for her pt2 goes out. (Sakura has very nice vocals though, untitled is VERY BORING)

I liked bye-bye darling, but I wish it was more verse and less chorus, the song is too repetitive, aka I'm gonna go bored within 40 listens.

I want to attend Saitama's and Yoyogi's shows... Hmm... But also thinking about going to Fukuoka during The Golden Week... hmmm what should I do

Yoyogi usually had the biggest BAM concerts! But I heard from a friend that went to Fukuoka that it's extra special, since its Ayus hometown, like how she talks in Fukuoka dialect when she's there and how she bonds more with the audience. It sounds so sweet~! I would have gone to Fukuoka

ohhhh... I wonder if it would be fun to go there!!
Ill have golden week off from work, so I could make that one of the shows im gonna go to!!

its my first concert so i plan to go to a lot of shows... I know she changes it up here and there, so im hopping to catch some of the differetn stuff!!

my name's WOMEN is longer than her usual videos, and this alone makes it more expensive than usual, as you spend more time producing it, needs to pay more hours to the staff and extras, etc.

Like I said before, I was only able to listen to Sakura

LOVED IT

you still cant listen to the others?!
on facebook petal is up!

Sakura, petal and bye bye darling are up for download in the download section!

My friend is picking up her review of ayumis music from a song for xx to current soon!!!! Yay.

Ayu looks like a dollfie on the March issue of SCawaii. o_o;

I thought I read somewhere that it was because they had to build the club set specifically for the PV.

mi|kshake~

I dont know why virgin road made me cry...
i'm turning into a SAP
ughhhh

I think it's 50 000 JPY for membership, then if you don't live in Japan, you need to pay a place like TENSO to hold and post your goods to you. Maybe their prices went down a bit but to Australia they were pretty pricey when I bought an album from them via YAJ. I just can't justify the cost when Perfume is so cheap lol

It's 6000 yen for the A membership with the TeamAyu website (and all the stuff that comes with B) and 4000 yen for the B membership for only the magazines and tickets and gifts and stuff. ^^

http://fc.avex.jp/ayu/index.html

LOVE again leaked and there's no slightest sign of Ayu mood in me. What is going on? Did I really listen to her music too much last year after Party Queen came out? Interesting. Oh well, now I know what I should NOT do; force myself to listen so I won't get pissed off like I did with NEXT LEVEL. Seriously, I still can't listen that album so much so I'm definitely not going to repeat that mistake (=listening when I'm not in the mood) again. :D

I find the album to be very cute and stuff
Can't wait to have the physical album with me

i liked it, I cant wait for my copy!!

It's only a matter of time
I woke up today, and I was in love with the new songs

Also people keep saying that petal has already been done.
What songs? Marionette? I think that song is boring and gimmicky. Petal>>>

An I agree that the minis ruined the album
It would be even better if only 1-2 songs were promotional
The promotion trucks in Tokyo only play song 4 u and wake me up, so I think those should have been the only songs released early.
Imagine if we got 11 new song instead of 5. Holy ****. The album would be in much higher regards.

i think people are saying vogue for petal or something like that...
who knows... I dont listen read what half the people in here say anyways, lol.

the minis Im happy with. Although i wish they were billed for what they actually are... singles, but thats another matter all together. and then just 2 songs on each would have made the listening to LOVE again much cooler because we would have had more new stuff...
but oh well, lol.

You read my mind.:yes

Compare vogue to petal?
How... Well... Yeah.
I dont think that's the best comparison but I see why they did so.

Interview (with subs) with the gay kissing couple from How Beautiful You Are

^ They're actually pretty cute, not gonna lie.

isnt one of thos guys the gay porn star (the one that was in HBYR and i think one of the SUPER books)

I really love LOVE again, but I wish she had went all out and did videos for the five new songs...
they could have totally sucked, but I want them, lol.

Yes, the one on the right

nuff said. lol ;p

snowy kiss seems so much better on the album for some reason, coming right after by by darling... it... is just great.

and petal makes sense coming after sweet scar
in sweet scar, ayu talks to plants and then goes into a backyard because she wants to pick flowers

lol... so simple and so true!!!
man, we think she is SO deep, but its just her wanting to pick a petal...

I really want lyrics, because I find it odd that she has sakura and petal on the same album... sakura is a flower, which is made up of petals... I wonder if there is supposed to be a connection?

We need new thread soon - and it needs to be STICKY until the thread closes!!!

it's already up!!
I made it last night: ^_^
http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=117125