Wow this is rly a rip-off to sell something for that price that was free for FC members (and is on yahoo for 5$)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ayumi-Hamasa...kAAOSwPcVVucfG

I get what you mean. I've been on and off with her music recently. But it does make me appreciate her older music even more now. For some reason, I've never fully listened to Colours. Idk, the singles from that, You & Me and Merry-go-round, just wasn't a good preview for me so I never bothered to check it out. Went straight to A ONE and I actually quite enjoy it.

omg that's really crazy... But I actually noticed that you can get a lot of items cheaper on YAJ than on eBay, even when you consider the middleman service fees and shipping.


I had a dream that I went to CDL and they sold a new table calendar there as a venue-limited promotion. Dammit I miss her calendars anyway, but now I'm really sad haha Even though it was kinda like the ABL pamphlet: there was not only Ayu, but also the dancers.

Yeah I miss her calendars too ._.
Especially the Desk Versions with the little Ayupans.

Maybe we should spam her on TA about the calendars? XD

I always love watching Ayuready and her old performances like No Way To Say around this time of the year <3 missing her 2003 voice much!

I guess stopping the calendars was an avex deal cause Kuu stopped doing hers on the same year as ayu :( I do miss them

Tbh I don't care about those calendars. The 2010 ayu calendar has some awful tacky pics. If I remember correctly, calendars were shooted in the previous year and 2009 has so many plastic photoshoots of ayu. Thank God that period is over. Now she looks natural and beautiful all over again.

I just noticed that Kaleidoscope sounds like it could have been in My Neighbor Totoro. :D

I got My Story for Christmas, which was a very, very pleasant surprise. I am now discovering that I love this album way more than I realized.

Speaking of enjoying My Story, Winding Road is a really great song. It may have been one her only songs ever I just never gave a chance. Listening to it now after listening to the rest of the album, it's wonderful. It is so mellow but the drums are perfect. :O I just love the mood of it and the melody coming from the keyboard. It's not bursting with energy or even that exciting, but I tend to really enjoy those songs from her.

I was never a fan of Ayu's calendars... I mean there are a handful of calendar photos that are REALLY great, but there are a few calendars that are just like "WHY DOES THIS EXIST!?!" the entire way through. =\ For the most part the shots are either really boring slice-of-life, poolside, living room, backyard type shots, or they're so over-photoshopped she doesn't even look like herself (I mean WTF is up with January/February 2005?!?!).

So I just read over at aramajapan that ayu will or taking part in this year's kohaku. Anyone can confirm?

I don't miss the calendars at all. The photos (particularly in recent years) were always so tacky and "surreal"/uncanny valley with the photoshopping/makeup.

Nah it's false. http://www.nhk.or.jp/kouhaku/artists/

^ it did seem too strange. Too bad. Thanks!

Why do people say that when FIVE and Love Songs came after NEXT LEVEL (both better than NEXT LEVEL IMO) I also don't get the hate on LOVE again sure it's a mess that they put it together from 2 mini-albums/singles whatever and added some interludes and You & Me but overall there are a lot of songs on there that I really enjoy a lot

I think FIVE was better than NEXT LEVEL, but Love songs was a mess. But I enjoyed RnRC a great deal.

LOVE again's problem in part is that all the best parts of the album were released before the album was, so when the album came out it was hard to really enjoy it. The album-only tracks have the worst mixing, the least inspired melodies, and the most generally unprofessional, demo-esque sound. It's not a bad album, but it's not a very good one either, and everyone here knows Ayu can do better (and WAS able to do better at that exact moment in time, as "Tell All" proved to us).

I agree that FIVE was better than NEXT LEVEL but Love songs was really good to me as well.
I personally like all of her latest ones If I had to choose a "less" favorite it would probably one of the earlier works..

I'm in the same boat as Jackie. I stopped following Ayu religiously during the Party Queen era (but my interest in J-Pop as a whole was dwindling at this time) and I always harshly judged all her albums from NEXT LEVEL onwards. But then I splurged and bought all her albums to complete my collection and took the time to really "listen" to them and I grew to appreciate them. But LOVE again was definitely a messy era lol

I bought a couple of remixes from the first Ayu-mi-x the other day after reading the discussion about it on this forum. I don't know if it's because I don't listen to the ASFXX album that much (although I do enjoy it) but it never occurred to me to look into her first remix album before.

From the Acoustic Orchestra I bought:

Poker Face
A Song for XX (Dub's Loverdub Remix)

...and I am really enjoying them!

The remix of Poker Face on the other disc is also AWESOME.