LOVE CLASSICS in stores 2015.01.28
 

LOVE CLAhttp://i.imgur.com/IwE5v6l.gifSSICS
in stores 2015.01.28

Ayu upcoming album will include mashups between her already released love songs and famous classical pieces. The album is said to feature performances from orchestra members who play in classical concerts.

¥3,240
AVCD-93059A

Cover illustration: Aki Miyajima
Includes poster (24cm x 36cm)

http://i.imgur.com/621NTsy.jpg
■ CD
01. Voyage [Johann Pachelbel: Canon in D major]
02. SEASONS [Antonin Dvorak: Going hHome (Symphony No.9 in E minor "From the New World"<>]
03. Days [Antonio Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in F Minor, Op.8, No.4, RV 297, L'inverno" (Winter); II.Largo]
04. TO BE [Johann Sebastian Bach: The Well Tempered Clavier Book 1, Prelude No.1 in C m<>]
05. YOU [Christian Petzold, attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach: Minuet in G major]
06. Virgin Road [Frederic Chopin: Prelude in D flat major, Op.28-15 "Raindrop"]
07. Dearest [Antonin Dvorak: Humoresque No. 7 in G flat major]
08. HONEY [Georg Friedrich Handel: Oratorio "Messiah"; Hallelujah]
09. winding road [Claude Debussy: Preludes Book 1, No.8 "La fille aux cheveux de lin"]
10. Who... [Edward Elgar: Salut d'amour (Love's Greeting)]

■ TA / mu-mo special gifts
[mu-mo shop] : A5 clear file (1)
http://i.imgur.com/mehyDUk.jpg
[TeamAyu official shop] : Magnet sheet (1) or A5 clear file (1)
http://i.imgur.com/dfU2eXh.jpg


■ preorder links
TeamAyu Official shop
TeamAyu Official shop for international shipping
mu-mo shop
mu-mo shop for international shipping

COVER 1200x1200


PREVIEW

To Be, and Dearest! The two tracks I'm most excited for!!!

I'm looking forward to winding road and YOU! I love Dearest, SEASONS, and Voyage but they've been done so many times.

I just listened to Pachelbel's Canon and I think it fits Voyager quite well. Can't wait to hear both Songs mixed together. Maybe I'll buy this album

I'm not impressed by the tracklist, but it will be interesting for sure, and OMG Virgin Road and Winding Road *___*
So, the cover will be a drawing, right? No original photoshoot for this album... u_u

I'm excited on how this will turned out!

Couple of neat surprises, couple of "omg-not-again" songs. Wait, I just noticed that there's "LOVE" again in the title LOL.

This is going to be flawless! I wish she'd do a mini tour with this and other songs in the same way...

interesting mix...can't wait

This sounds like a really interesting idea! Excited for all of the songs actually (even Voyage, mainly because Pachelbel's Canon is one of my favorite classical pieces)

I really don't know what to think about this... I was quite excited when they announced this album... But the tracklist is not interesting at all... Always the same songs... Where are the new songs like Angel?

I just looked up Aki Miyajima illustrations and now I'm excited for the cover! Might just preorder this for the poster itself. Would make a great art piece to frame.

I dont mind the tracklist. It is after all suppose to be a romantic album and really, her back catalog doesn't have that much love songs at all now that I think about it. These are good choices :)

TO BE, YOU and winding road :heart

I'm very surprised that winding Road made it to the tracklist, it's one of my faves. I really wish she had chosen newer songs as well

winding road! So underrated!

TO BE and winding road already make it worth for me, as I wasn't expecting a track list full of underrated songs. And even if I did get bored at the others already, what they propose on doing in this album may lift my interests up on the songs, like I was surprised with You & Me on A CLASSICAL

Oh, look--Dearest, SEASONS, and Voyage. Shocking.

I'm surprised to see HONEY and winding road on there. But going through and listening to the classical pieces on youtube, I have no idea how they're going to pull this off. I'm dying to hear previews...

I wish more than anything she would re-record the vocals for this album.

^ aww me too. But I don't think she will...
Even though her current voice would suit the classical pieces a lot more imho!

Interesting! Can't wait to hear how all these will turn out :)

"Honey" mixed with the Hallelujah Chorus ... um, okay.

The "Days"/"Four Seasons" - "Winter" mashup kinda makes me think of ThePianoGuys' mashup of "Let It Go" (from Frozen) and "The Four Seasons" - "Winter". Interested in seeing how this turns out.

My God... another album with the word "LOVE" on it. I´m not really into this, so many new songs she can do like reminds me or Gloria.

I rather want to hear Walking proud than Winding road. Hoping for Secret or Rainy day...

ahahahahaha..haaaa~ :laugh

First off, reminds me is not a love song. Gloria's status is debatable. If you had to pick ten or eleven of Ayu's love songs for a Valentine's-themed album, I can guarantee you there would be better choices than those. :rolleyes

I just can't wait to hear 1998-voice of Ayu on classical records....
Such a slaughter in perspective.
Another great concept, but not well thought at all.
We'll see if they can mash up well.

"reminds me" definitely does not fit the theme of the album.

I think people are forgetting that this album is to celebrate Valentines. I wouldn't want a snowy kiss or Terminal mash-up playing to celebrate my love for someone lol

edit:

what she said :laugh

"Reminds me" can be a love song, for me is when you lose someone you love, even if is sad, the feelings is you can´t forget the love of your life (there´re plenty pf people in valentines who feel that) But I understand what all of you mean :) Sorry for the mistake

She could have included BRILLANTE easily, IMO.
Such a beautiful piece it would have become.

I can sort of see where you're coming from, but there's a difference between 'love songs' and songs about love, imo. For this project, it wouldn't have made sense for her to choose anything BUT her standard, mostly positive-sounding love songs.

What for heaven's sake keeps Avex from remixing all the songs that have never been remixed before? Thus the tracklist is simply atrocious once again. Wasn't "ayu-mi-x 7" not enough of a waste of given opportunities? Then "A Classical", another pointless remix attempt with heaps of dusty already remixed songs and now this... Not looking forward to this release at all.

Virgin Road is the only track I'll check out. (Because of Chopin)

HONEY and winding road...so unneccesary considering the classical version of MY STORY. Would have liked to seen a song like RAINBOW, JEWEL, meaning of love or Sunset... in their place.

I'm only excited about Virgin Road. Best song on the list.

Not sure how I feel about this release tbh. The tracklist is shit; I need more recent stuff (and only looking forward to Days) but I'm in love with the concept and looking forward to previews.

Would be interesting to have this concept with more upbeat and poppy songs..this TVXQ song uses the song that Voyage is paired with...
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xtx...hoshinki_music

Works really well!

So she is featurig classic musicians and composers...
Bach, Handel, Dvorak, the Raindrops of Chopin I love so much.

I am excited and really, really scared. Seriously, it is not even funny. I listen to classical music a lot, know all these musicians/composers and most of the classics featuring on this LOVE CLASSICS complication. I just hope it is really good, because this is a dangerous risk she is taking. One does not simply mashup legendary masterpieces from music history.

I will definetely scream if this turns out ugly. For now I will pray for a good result.
Eventhough I am scared to death. Ok, gonna try to chill now.

I'm a bit dissapointed about the tracklist. She has SOOOOOOOOOOOOO many songs and they keep releasing the same songs again and again... I'm sure it's going to be really interesting, but they should have use diferent songs, like 1LOVE, GAME, do it again, last angel... I don't know... I want to be impressed by changing a song's style.

I'm still waiting for a ballad "evolution" like the one she started singing in one of her tours... T_T

HONEY again? are you FUCKING kidding me?

Yes avex, yes. We all want to hear her helium voice with the Hallelujah Chorus :tired

This is a LOVE SONG REMIX ALBUM.

I understand that people want other songs. But this is not the album for those.

Yes there maybe other love songs, but they're obviously going to use her biggest hits for the majority of the tracks. That's just business.

It's a lovey dovey happy cute concept. Not some dark moody release.

i have no expectation for this one really.
i don't like when background music have different musical chords than the original song :/
maybe with dance remixes that could work,

This. Not only is that song the first one that sticks out to me as fitting very well with classical music, I have since the song's release been eagerly awaiting a remix, regardless of what kind, as long as it takes the awesomeness of the original song in a good direction.
And the setlist as a whole is... uninspiring. "SEASONS", "Voyage", "Days" AND "Dearest" again!? Plus "HONEY" and "winding road"!? 10 songs and 60% of them have already been featured on a classical album; I understand that the classical remixing will be quite different this time around, and that some of them are big hits of hers that casual listeners might be drawn in by, but still! This album might be great (and I will gladly swallow these words should that turn out to be true) but at this point it just feels like avex is finding new ways to get money.
By the way, I don't get why people are saying some songs can't be included because they aren't "love song" enough, when "SEASONS" and "winding road" feel much too vague in their lyrics to count as proper "love songs" for me. Hell, "winding road" doesn't even make mention of a second person from what I can remember.

As expected, She chose classical pieces that are the most famous because of their over-use in movies, cms, dramas, animes, ... I think we can assume that she isn't a classical music fan. He would have been great to see others less famous/used pieces that would have shown her personal tastes. But this tracklist reveals a commercial side more than a musical side.

However I'm waiting to hear that album. Honey and Handel...I really wonder how it'll sound. And how every songs'll sound.

It's funny; For the first Saint Cecil Mass's concert, the young musicians of our wind orchestra performed the second movement of the Symphony From the New World.

I checked Aki Miyajima's works and they're nice. How will she decorates with flowes Ayu? Eager :)

I understand some may be upset by ayu's tracklist (I myself don't have any interest for most of the songs here) but remember very few will be left of those original songs (only the vocals if I understood the concept).
As this release is anything but a way to make easy money, a great use of ayu's hits was predictable.

For the moment I'm still seeing this release as a dumb move -on an artistic point of view- (HONEY... really... why not THANK U while we're at it :rolleyes).
May be some surprises but after A Classical's disaster (IMO) I'm not having any expectation.

Good, no, Zutto... / Last Minute / Walk in the list.

Surprised, I totally forget a song called winding road

Can't wait, I love TO BE.

But,,, Another LOVE title album... Is there any other word instead of Love?

She can use "MY DEAREST CLASSICS" LOL

Boy, a classical version of Dearest, what a surprise.

I was excited because winding road and Honey are there which aren't ballads, but then I remembered they both already have classical versions.

Someone should tell her about the word "Adore".

AYUMI HAMASAKI "~A~DORE U" NEW ALBUM NOW ON SALE~*

I actually liked the title, making a pun (?) on a classical album consistend of her classic songs :P This is not a studio album, I can deal with a not-deep-mysterious-omg title

AYUMI HAMASAKI Last minute Walk with Zutto... again ON SALE NOW

ok why the hell in the universe HONEY is doing there?! :dead

Tracklist not impressive, but these are songs I'm OK with at worst, so it's a good thing. I'm more curious with the mashup arrangement.

And I have a gut feeling that tells me to start being disappointed at the cover right now.

^actually I also googled the artist that is supposed to do the cover. Some or her stuff is just plain well done minimalistic portraits, but some illustrations are really lovelly and involves quite a bit of colour and interest. If they go for the later type, we might get a rather pretty thing for a cover. She is very good in what se's doing though. So i wouldn't start judging before we see the actual thing.

Also LOL at people who expected something out of teh title of the album. It's not an original studio album, people....lol And the tracklist was so predictible, well i've already left my reaction on that in a first page lol

Yeah this. This isn't just another classical album with the purpose of only being a classical album. If it were, then we'd probably get different songs. But it's not.

Disappointed that JEWEL isn't part of it. But...

Agreed. JEWEL was pretty much underrated. I'm not sure if I'm going to dive in though...

I don't think she'd choose obscure classical pieces because then no one would recognise them—I think the point of the album is for people to distinctly recognise the mashups and appreciate the different flavour of the new arrangement.

In terms of track list, yeah it's not groundbreaking by any means, but as Japanese music fans we all know artists are known by their "representative songs," or songs which can be immediately recognised as a certain artist's. "Dearest," "Voyage," and "SEASONS" are all classic examples for Ayu—we do it to other artists we don't know much about, too. Sure some of these songs are way overdone, have classical arrangements, or may not even be explicitly love songs, but I think it's an expected track list for an artist whose prime is in the past now. Don't get me wrong, I still like her, but I don't think she's anywhere near as relevant as she was a few years ago.

HONEY is a big risk considering there isn't a studio rerecording of it, but there's a chance the rerecordings of TO BE, Who..., and YOU could be used. A very slim chance, but a chance nonetheless.

OK, but since WHEN are HONEY, Winding Road, TO BE, and YOU considered to be her biggest hits...?

I would rather her use the originals, tbh. I think her voice sounded pretty rough when she released the re-recordings in 08-09.

Honey, You, and To be all made that A Best Live top 50 list or whatever it was lol. Also the latter two are classics.

This is such an interesting concept. Don't care about the sales, I'm excited to hear it as soon as possible!

...I'd still prefer ayu trance 5 a billion times more than this. No matter how great it may turn out to be.

Maybe once Japan overturns that ridiculous dance law ayu can churn out more trance albums. Until then, we have Terminal.... lol.

what dance law?

Wasn't that law around for the previous trance albums tho?

Yeah, I'm wondering what specific law that is...

There was/is a law which prohibited dancing in clubs past midnight.

I used to break the law trying to stay warm if I missed the shūden in the fall, haha.

@chocopockymaster: YOU on A BALLADS may be a good vocal track to use, but yeah, the rest were a little too rough for this concept.

hahaha I tried to tell my boyfriend about that law when we went to Tokyo, but he did not believe me! We didn't get to go to any clubs though, so it's all good! :P

Now I get the reason for Ayumi going into a club to dance so early in XOXO PV (Even if she is in L.A) LOL

I don't get that law. Makes no sense at all.

a little disappointed in the track list... but Im still gonna buy it!

The track list is great, I just wish for more songs.

Oh I looked up the illustrator, Aki Miyajima. His work is beautiful

Yeah I looked it up too!
Way more interesting than the lame A Classical art. :no

It's funny because one piece looks exactly like ayu (it reminds me of a 2001 photoshoot). I don't know if it's really her though...

^ Maybe i'm the only one, but i tought this was her:

http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thin...l&tid=13853591

My sister told me the same when I was googling the artist :D

Aww... why can't they choose newer songs from the recent years. :(

Is not the same guy who do the cover for utada tribute album?

In fact I thought about this one:
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...908/vQOf4o.jpg

She had a photoshoot which (almost) exactly looked like this one.

Oh wow I am actually digging that style. It looks really great.
Hopefully the cover will be this great as well.

um i think i've seen of some jvloger channel that they actually took down the dance law just recently...>_>

I just realized we're getting 4 out of the 10 tracks from A Classical. I just hope they don't sound too similar...

I'm disappointed that so many of the songs on the track list have already been on past classical albums (SEASONS, Dearest, Voyage, Winding Road, HONEY). i get that the concept behind LOVE CLASSICS (ugh, that title) is a bit different and I understand that these songs will be combined with famous classical pieces, but I wish she would've chosen some different songs. One of the things that, for me, made MY STORY Classical such a great album was that many of the song choices (GAME, for example) were unexpected on a classical album. Also, HONEY and the Hallelujah chorus? Um...

Does the news say whether the cover's going to be like A Classical? As in, a drawn illustration of an existing cover? I hope it's an original drawing :(

fingers crossed and hopefully no 'its basically already been released'. But it should be different. Though I wish the list was a little more fresh but maybe this will be like my story classics or whatever the title was for that album, but come to think of it, ayu would of probably have to re record songs if she didn't use this list. This album is probably more of an avex money grab than an ayu idea. I think she should of used songs only from LOVE again onwards

Google Aki Miyajima. Her drawing style is pretty consistent, but it will definitely be uniquie among Ayu's album covers. Even if it's a redraw, it won't be like A Classical's album cover, where at first, I thought Avex put the LOVE cover through a bad photoshop filter. Lol

that thingie on the background must the cover right?

^c'mon, that's fanmade pic

^But the cover will be like this type of artwork maybe.
I wasn't know this is a fanmade sorry u.u' but I like the font :)

:love

Saw this from AyuAngel FB

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...493a9a94a9f000

Voyage:

■ TA / mu-mo special gifts
[mu-mo shop] : A5 clear file (1)
http://i.imgur.com/mehyDUk.jpg
[TeamAyu official shop] : Magnet sheet (1) or A5 clear file (1)
http://i.imgur.com/dfU2eXh.jpg

1200x1200 cover

http://i.imgur.com/9oiCg8zl.jpg

The cover is really nice.

I love the style of the cover, the artist did a great job with it.

Voyage sounds good too! Can't wait to hear previews for the other tracks.

The cover is butt. Hardly looks like Ayu. But I think it's due to that awkward facial expression. Also, her face is too pointy.

Regarding the track, it's lovely. I think it may be the best version of Voyage yet. For some reason, Voyage has always been rather annoying. But this softens it up quite a bit and makes it sound enjoyable.

I know that the pattern has been to use reinterpretations of previous covers for ~classical albums (MY STORY -> MY STORY CLASSICAL, LOVE -> A CLASSICAL) but this time around it seems silly to me because none of the A-sides from Z/Lm/W are actually on this album. :shakehead

As annoyed as we all were when A CLASSICAL's cover was revealed to be just a drawing of LOVE, at least 1/5 of A CLASSICAL's tracklist came from that single, you know? (And you will never convince me that LOVE is a 'mini album', and should be referred to as a 'single' until the end of time)

i'm excited to see how her melodies play over these famous songs..the voyage preview was intriguing ;)