wow oh no she didn't!

:laugh

I like them. They're proper Japanese covers aren't they~

he puts his hand under her shirt j/s

So cute!

Also lol at people up in here being so dramatic. Stop thinking so hard on things that barely matter~

LOLOLOL! XD

aah, ayu, now your new relationship definitely feels like a PR move...

wonder if she will ever regret putting her lovers in music videos and covers?
history has proven it to be bad mojo for relationships :p

lol that hand buged me...i was like what is it? how is that supposed to work there? where exactly is it going because i can't see it at all xD

Aw those are really nice covers :heart.

I love how mature & simple her covers have looked lately. I really like that style. That said, I like again's covers. :)

Personally, I think Ayu's going through some giant midlife crisis or something. She doesn't seem to know who she is or what she wants anymore. It's like she's just going through the motions at this point and doing whatever makes her the most happy at that moment. Which is cool, she can do whatever she wants.

To me, though, it seems like she's almost flailing at times. Like this. I don't personally buy this whole relationship with Maro thing. I don't question that she feels something for him, but like...wtf. Where on earth did this relationship come from? And I just don't personally think putting your new BF on your album cover is a smart move, but what do I know.

As for the covers, I think they're okay... I agree with the few people that said they're sick of the LOVE theme, and by that I mean the way all the covers and PVs look the same, like they were all made with instagram or something. :laugh And yeah, we get it: you're in love. Again. And again. Thought your love life was going to stay separate from your professional life? Oh well...morals change.

And as for the people who say 'who cares? It's her music that matters.' I care. I don't follow her anymore for her music. I follow her because I idolized her for half of my life. But in the last 2 years she's been contradicting so many things that I came to idolize her for. Maybe that's her changing with time, but I don't have to be a fan of the change.

Gawd, I have no clue which cover I should take for my MP3 rip D:

Well said. :yes

Uuhm, ok. Mmmh..yeah...ok. There have been worse covers, but these make me feel uncomfortable. :(

I really like covers and I don't mind Maro being there. Not like he's overused or anything. People wanted simple & natural covers, here you go. When she gives you diva photo-shot w/tons of make-up and editing people will complain again. It's not Ayu who doesn't know what she wants, but people just don't like anything she does nowadays.

Party queen - too experimental, LOVE - too generic. Okay.

This pretty much sums up how I feel about the whole thing, but the last part as I feel a little bit different.

I've always `idolized` Ayu for her music, performances, PVs and lyrics. Her private life was never of any interest to me and atm I'm trying not to think about the whole thing, but when she was with Tomoya at least he wasn't in her PVs and live performances.

She did keep her private and stage lives separate and now I can hardly say the same thing. Her husbands/boyfriends are practically thrown into our faces. Sure we can all say crap like "She is doing what she wants and I am all happy for her" and she might as well be, but in case she does want to keep her fans she should reconsider some things from other perspectives as well. I don't care who she dates really as long as that person doesn't become a mandatory ingredient of "ayumi hamasaki" the singer's career. We all bring our personal lives to work at times, but doing it occasionally and doing it constantly are two different things and imo Ayu's been doing it way too often lately. Yes she is an artist and her songs are a reflection who she is. I just wish some things could've been done in a more subtle way...

And what about those? :laugh

lol That's what bugs me about them because they all have the same look and it's not even a particularly good look.

People keep saying that Ayu would feel weird for putting Maro on the covers if they break up, but what I think would be more weird is having to work with him after. I don't think she could fire him, I don't know if that would count as proper grounds, but I suppose he could quit.

I think that these days she just gets excited by the people in her life and keeps throwing them into the picture. Like Timmy, for example. Its whatever she's hopped up on at the moment.

For haters about ayu using her private life as PR, I ll copy what I would like to share in another thread:

I mean, she is really right in appears/return road lyrics that we audience can actually never know the true/whole stories. But that is exactly the whole point of all these, given this being part of true relationship or PR, or both.

She is 34, and personally I do not think she is stupid, so all the public/fan reactions now, including negative ones, should be what she and her company can foresee. I should say, at this moment, "hamasaki ayumi" is a divided image, due to its longevity and maturity, inevitably; there is not one "simple and innocent ayu" who wrote Poker face anymore, and even she herself has been saying at the very beginning: hamasaki ayumi is a product.

So I think in order to the fans themselves to be more comfortable, it is crucial to not take EVERYTHING about ayu too seriously and naively. She is much more complicated than what the fans can dream about. All these little things, big events, craziness, imperfections if you would say, just make ayu more real.

^ Party Queen experimental? It was way too nudy (but I'm not the one to moan about it, her body is sexey~~) but experimental? It was fun. I think that's why I realllly like that album. Diversity in music, not focusing on "medium/ballad" love songs... Even the PV's for NaNaNa and Shake it was lame, I still prefer them than lovey dovey theme.

true, true.
I personally wasn't EVER into her private life. I don't know a single fact about her relation with Tomoya, I maybe saw 2 pics with her and him. This is just too much for me.


(and her break-up music is always better, haha)

H and again have basically the same theme, but drastically different art/composition though. hahah

I prefer H btw.

We can blame era of smartphones and twitters :P