Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai - A ONE thoughts and reviews

Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai (http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/index.php)

- Ayu Chat-Room (http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=20)

- - A ONE thoughts and reviews (http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=121456)

I've been thinking...

The way the music industry is right now, I think it's harder than ever to have a "fresh" sound. The fact that what's stylish at the moment is a sound that's rather homogenous and simplistic (not from song to song, but within each individual song) makes it really really hard to develop a new sound that's actually likely to sell.

Music industry professionals are more interested in triage and stitches than growth these days, so they're less likely to hire musicians with anything new to contribute. They're gonna hire musicians with good track records, with solid past success.

Ayu doesn't have the clout she once did to bring on promising newcomers (which was by NO means a rare occurrence for her between 2000 and 2003 - it's shocking how many of her old collaborators got their start with her), and now collaborations with longtime successful musicians both within Japan and outside of it have proven relatively fruitless because those people do song styles that are nothing special in the context of the current music world, or that are outdated altogether.

Given Japan's current love for nostalgia, tribute albums, and its own music history, going with the outdated sound is a smarter move than it might outwardly appear. That sound may be outdated, but when you hear it you feel warm & fuzzy and comfortable, and those songs use melodic tropes and aural cues that make the songs easier to remember and understand.

I truly believe that the 90s melodic style that TK provides is probably the best course of action for Ayu to take until & unless avex takes chances hiring fresh blood with new production styles and songwriting ideas.

I also think Ayu does just need to, like.... listen to music again, see what gives her tingles, and try to emulate that and improve upon it. Her past work was covered in the influence of stuff like Smashing Pumpkins, Pink, Madonna, Sweetbox, and various classic rock, and I think she just needs music that she likes to inspire her again.

I'd actually love for her to ask fans & friends "What albums are you listening to these days?" to get some recommendations - maybe she'll find something that inspires her. Cuz whatever she's listening to right now, she probably enjoys it but I doubt it makes her tingly the way an influence should.

A ONE was a step in the right direction, bringing Ayu back to the sound that she's best at for sure - but it's not quite there yet, as solid a sound as it does have. I hope she realizes that she's sticking her toe into the right waters, but she needs to find some pool toys & a swimsuit that really push her to cannonball in, you know?

I'm on my third listen with A ONE but I haven't formed a real review yet. I think one has to REALLY let it sink in before you review it.
So far I like it.

@d-zer0
I agree with a lot of what you are saying. I also hope ayu brings DAI back and compose new music rather than rehashing old tunes that did not make the cut on her previous albums. They do share a special chemistry with their songs.

Why do ppl keep on insisting new sound for ayu? Ayu is known in the jpop world for lovely wintery ballads, hot sizzling summer tracks, and heart pumping pop rock songs. It has kept her on top for many many years until she tried to diverted it with pq, la, and c. Why shouldn't she focus on things she is good at? I'm not saying all albums should be the same but from I am... to love songs they all have those elements and yet they all sound completely different from each other.

A ONE is showing what makes ayu ayu. I love this album because it does mark the return to the sound she got popular with.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0 (Post 3130127)

Speaking as someone who actually reviews music, Zeke is completely right for reasons that are absolutely quantifiable with more than just sales numbers, even if he can't quite articulate it.

Granted, who gets feels from what songs and why, YES that is definitely subjective - but there are truly tangible, real reasons why many of Ayu's older "safe" ballads could easily be considered higher quality from a compositional standpoint than a ballad like "Zutto..."

First, of course, is the level of risk-taking involved in these respective tracks. Take "HANABI" for instance... nothing in its composition is risky - nothing in it could have been considered noisy or weird at the time. It's not experimental. it's still a 4/4 song, it's in a standard key and doesn't have any changes to those two aspects of its composition (unlike some great CREA tracks which routinely have key changes for the last chorus or two, and "Will" which has time changes). What HANABI does have is unconventional instrumentation - reverberating plucks of bass guitar take the lead alongside strings that only appear briefly before disappearing when Ayu sings in the verses; the music box sound at the beginning is not that of a relaxing, twinkling, wintery sound but that of a somewhat rusted and worn-out old family heirloom; the drums sound like they're being played in a rock arena very slowly, there's plenty of space between most of them which makes the whole song sound dark and empty. This gives Ayu space for her choruses to swell up, more layers of instrumentation - with added reverb and slightly increased volume on some of them - fill the empty space, and the emotion works much better thanks to the contrasting fullness between the verses and the choruses.

SEASONS took even FEWER instrumental or compositional risks, but it still had that gradual buildup from the verses to the choruses, it still had that contrast. It also had that very complete & dynamic mix that had reverb and amplification changes in all the right places, plus the fact that each instrument has its own solidly catchy melody so when you listen and, say, ONLY listen to the piano or ONLY listen to the lead guitar or ONLY listen to the bassline, that's a great standalone melody just on its own, AND it never sounds out of place or like it's interrupting the full song.

Zutto sounds like it was automatically generated by comparison. Each individual instrument sounds like it's sticking close to a single note all through the chorus or all through the verses, but it's otherwise sort of improvising, hovering around its target note like a drunk bumblebee. The bridge between the verses has a TINY bit of a swell but its restraint makes it sound old-fashioned and conservative rather than pleasant and inoffensive which was probably the goal. The chorus isn't big enough compared to the verses because there are the same fill-in strings in the song as a constant presence the whole way through and the volume of the strings is just amplified to a miniscule level - the flavor of the chorus doesn't change despite the key shift from the verses which is just kind of sad. Add that to the relatively constant drum track - they don't change much from one part of the song to the next. The whole song feels like a blurry beige mass rather than the colorful journey up & down green hills and flowery fields and autumn leaves that you get from ballads like "SEASONS," "Dearest," and "Days."

And for the record I think LOVE~Destiny~ is in the same camp as Zutto... so this certainly isn't nostalgia talking. I've never really liked LOVE~Destiny~, though I'm glad it happened because it helped boost Ayu's reputation as a relatable lyricist.

Well said! Exactly what I was trying to convey, especially the part of how each individual layer has its own melody which is pleasing to the war on its own. That's what makes those tracks so enjoyable is that you can constantly bounce between the layers which are constructed from simple melodies but somehow interrelate to one another.

I think the difference between the tracks of yesteryear that are referred to as "safe" and today's tracks that are referred to as "safe" is that the former weren't "BASIC." Her newer realm of ballads and/or concept of "safe" is just that - "basic."

A ONE really only has 3 tracks I can see myself going out of my way to listen to: WARNING, NO FUTURE, and The Show Must Go On. I might listen to Last minute and Anything for You, but I certainly won't open the album folder to listen to those tracks initially. I might stay in the folder and listen to them after listening to the 3 that brought me there.

It's a step up from CoLOURS because I only go to that album to listen to Lelio.

I think DAI's ship sailed a while ago. I would guess every new DAI track we've had since 2007 onward has been an old one that he made before he went indie.

I've listened to this album so much in the past week that I can now sing along and honestly I feel like such a QUEEN singing along to the entirety of the album lol

NO FUTURE, Anything for You, and Out of control are my favourite album tracks.

Bring me MORE Komuro and Yukumi compositions tbh

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarukaKamiya (Post 3130966)

YESSS! I'm glad someone else loves out of control as much as me! Loving that track! I don't know why so many people think it's so basic! I also don't think it sounds anything like call or letter (although I do love both of those tracks as well).

Yukumi is the secret sauce.

Out of control has nice guitars

omg, no seriously, when .33 seconds came in I was lost listening to "Out of Control".

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbrat2219 (Post 3130612)

Anything for you

After NO FUTURE, I had high expectations for this song but once the preview came out on YouTube came out, I realized it didn’t meet those expectations. I liked the song a lot first listen but it just didn’t grab me like NO FUTURE or any of his previous works. However, when the full song came out I went through a sequence of thoughts: at first I’m like “zzzzZZZZzzz” then the chorus kicked in and then repeated in true TK fashion and I’m like “Well, it’s really pretty! But will this turn into another snowy kiss where the song never ends and drags on for forever?”

But the ending…. (excuse my language) fucking makes the song. I may be going overboard but I think it was brilliant. It took the song from a dark atmosphere to an optimistic one in one key change. Just when I was getting a bit bored with the song, they key change literally lifted my head up and made me pay attention to the song. And I felt it. I felt the song. Just like that it became one of my favorites on the album. This song is really well done. And the fact that it’s not overdone with grand sweeping gestures makes the song great. You get to feel it without much distraction. ------- 9/10

Walk

I didn’t hear Walk in full until the A ONE. I avoided it on Zutto… and I only listened to the preview once. I call myself holding out until the album but I had no excuse, this song is everything lol. A lot of people make comparisons to Anything for you, and at first I heard it too. But after listening to both songs in full I can’t hear it anymore for some reason lol. They’re both so distinct to me now that even though the chorus progression is exactly the same, one doesn’t come to mind when I hear the other. I don’t know what happened to be honest. All I know is that both songs are great, but Walk is better in my opinion. When she hits those high notes I feel my soul lift. I do have to admit, when I hear the very beginning, I start singing Virgin Road… I’m like wtf?! :laugh ------- 10/10

Sooooooooooo glad I'm not the only one I was beginning to feel like something was wrong with me. Music is very subjective as we have all said, however I found it hard to believe that pretty much no one liked these songs. The build up and layers are too good. I respect everyone's opinion I am just glad I'm not alone on this :love These are beautiful ballads Anything for you is like Who... ~episode II~ only better and Walk is like crossroad ~episode II~ maybe not better than crossroad but just as good. These songs are so gorgeous and heart warming.

I LOVE how bittersweet Story sounds! I think it's the best mid tempo on the album tbh.
So I don't have much time to write a deep analysis/review but I can say that the only song I'm meh about is still zutto. Anything for you is like walk and even though it's a stale ballad it's extremely sappy and I love it. the gift is the ultimate sappy ballad and its just as good. Warning is kick ass. no future is a lil jam. TSMGO is ok… a poor man's snowy kiss. last minute still holds up even though the mixing is terrible. out of control has nice guitars but that's about it. MOWY is nice too. I mean I'd give it like a 7/10. But i have to keep listening.

Plain and simple. Ayumi is back. I'm so excited. This album breathed life into me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Punks (Post 3128700)

I agree, and it scares me a little that AHS loves this so much because it's just... such a bland direction to encourage Ayu in? I guess I just don't get why everyone is praising it SO much, I mean do we REALLY want her to continue in this direction of albums bloated to the brim with schmaltzy soundalike ballads and rehashes of that one non-ballad track from Love songs for the umpteenth time?

I just saw this now. While I like A ONE, if Ayu were to ask me directly about how I felt, I would call it trash. The album is like Mac n cheese. I like it but I'll tell the chef never to make it again and if they never make it again and then move onto brighter and bigger things I'll be ok. I don't want to encourage her to keep making mac n cheese. It's boring. Where's the deep fried and breaded chicken.

I really can't explain why this album jumped to the top 5 of my album rankings so quickly other than it touched me in some way and gave me happiness at the same time my boyfriend and I made it official after I was wandering around feeling worthless for so long? It probably won't take much for A ONE to be knocked down along the rankings when her next full-length comes out, but eh. I dunno. To each their own, yeah?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delicious n Bold (Post 3133467)

Colours was seafood gumbo and people didn't want that so she had to go back to mac and cheese.

"Trash" is a little rough... maybe bland is a better term since you like it but uh... yeah? I think as far as Colours -> A ONE goes, one was totally out of the box for her while the other is very 'safe' in a good way. She may end up going in a completely different direction yet again with the mini album since it sounds like it's all upbeat stuff.

time to write ^^
I really like this album. I think it became my most favorite after Guilty. I like music, lyrics, video, and cover with booklet. It can't be better. Some boring song, but all album has them.
I would prefer "a Bell" to be become more upbeat at the end, to flow into next song better. Warning, Last minute and Anything for You are perfect. I can listen them on repeat all day. Story and The Gift are so-so, and all other are nice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kilyk (Post 3133168)

Plain and simple. Ayumi is back. I'm so excited. This album breathed life into me.

I feel the same way, it has literally lifted me from my mild depression that I've had these past few months, I feel like a teen hearing Ayu for the first time :D

My own personal copy of A ONE finally arrived! I’m gonna listen to it again (the last time I listened to it was through Mediafire cause I didn’t have WinRAR LOL).

a Bell - Yup; still flawless!

WARNING - This song sounds so much better in HQ! The instrumentation has a lot going for it. I still don’t like Ayu’s shrilly “la la la’s” though.

NO FUTURE - Not as bad as I thought when I first listened to it. It reminds me too much of sending mail though, and sending mail is the superior song.

Anything for You - Someone mentioned how even though this song is so long, there is just so much emotion going on in Ayu’s voice and the instrumentation that it doesn’t feel like a 7 minute song. I have to agree. I am pleasantly surprised.

Last minute - Still slays me to do this day. Just wish the mixing wasn’t so awful.

Zutto… - I have always liked this song, actually lol It’s a really beautiful song; and that chorus is killer!

Out of control - Once again, much better in HQ. The guitars are really good.

Story - I loved this song when I first heard it and I still love it. It’s SO powerful.

The GIFT - The intro makes it sound so promising, but this song is so boring.

The Show Must Go On - snowy kiss pt. 2 and I didn’t like snowy kiss lol I don’t feel anything from this song at all.

Walk - Does absolutely nothing for me. It’s okay, but that’s it.

Movin’ on without you - I’m glad avex threw this on as a bonus track. Love this. More plz Ayu.

Overall, not a bad album. It's super generic among Ayu's discography, but Ayu's always made good music. There were probably only two or three songs on here I didn't enjoy at all; but Story, Last minute, Zutto..., Movin' on without you, and a Bell save it for me.

I have to say that I really like this album a lot. Especially after reading her interview about A ONE, I really appreciate it even more now.

My favourites are Out of Control, Story, Walk, Last minute, and Movin' on without you.

I actually like most of the songs. The GIFT has grown on me A LOT!

My least favourite would probably be The Show Must Go On. I know it's an unpopular opinion.