Ayu - Anything Goes Thread -XIV-
 

We're pass 500 posts in the previous one!

I'm really REALLY into Out of control these days. It's SO GOOD and it's even better when you can relate to it.

^I definitely agree with you about Out of control. It's my favorite song off of A ONE.

i agree with you both i LOVE out of control. it's the song i keep coming back to on the album.

Lately I've also been into "out of control"! I really enjoy it, I feel like there are a lot of honest emotions in it :)

I love Out of control, it was quite the grower. <3

... I still can't recall how Out of control sounds like. I always mistake it for NO FUTURE, I don't know why

NO FUTURE and Out of control are the best songs on the album.
I just love the way Out of control starts~

I have no clue how NO FUTURE and Out of control go lol I'm the Story stan type.

I love Out of Control too especially the guitar solo!

Whenever I listen to Out of control just the sound of the beginning of the song makes me think of this old song in my head instead "In the Summertime".
( Not sure if this is the title but it's a phrase in the song)

I feel you guys, it's my fav off the album too.
The lyrics describe far too well everything I've been feeling. It's nice when you can connect and relate. I cried when I listened to it for the first time.

I'm glad there are many people loving it, I recall it being not liked or generally skipped in favor of more "strong" tracks. I actually love these kinds of tracks, like "letter" or "call". To me, they don't feel like fillers at all, tho I understand why some may not like them

It's amazing the amount of people I've talked to that love trance or follow it and know/love this remix.

I haven't heard A ONE in a while so the melodies are escaping me, but I remember Out of Control being one of the songs I instantly liked.

I am a huge trance nut but always felt this remix was somewhat lacking, it's odd. I know it is held in high regards, and certainly not BAD by any means, but I felt M had better mixes, and in general I prefer other tracks on the AyuTrance albums in opposition to this one. But in regards to M, I usually rotate between the Woody van Eyden & MORPH Remix and the Tectonic Shift vs. Andre Visior Remix.

And if I had to pick one Ayu trance song that's just so absolutely delicious, it would be appears (Kyau Vs. Albert Remix). It's has this unbelievably silky smooth beat and warm liquid aura encapsulating the entire piece. I also truly adore the way they played with her vocals in this track. The method they use for the adding and subtracting of layers is sublime, especially when many of the elements are slowly removed to make room for Ayu's vocals to shine at the end of the course lines. They really cultivated an atmosphere here. It's the best Ayu trance song to play when chilling and listening with friends.

Although Depend On You (Svenson & Gielen) is my favorite remix, with Naturally (Wippenburg) coming in at a close second, I value appears (Kyau vs. Albert Remix) for different reasons, and so it's almost in a category of its own for me. Truly magnificent, and PERFECT for nighttime.

^ I love the way you describe how songs sound and such.
It's always interesting to read

I'm so bored by Ayu lately. It's partially the stale sound of the music, and also the way her releases/image has been. I feel like Avex don't know how to market her. She also needs to stop with the midtempo and ballad hell.

I LOVE this Appears remix. It is undoubtedly my favorite. I even just found my comment on the youtube video with this song where I wrote "My most favorite remix ever" or something like that.

I get pretty excited when listening to remixes of Connected. <3 Especially the "ambient mix" which was on the Connected single. that remix just gets me....Audience (Darren Tate remix) is another favorite. I feel like it turns a somewhat forgettable and boring song into something awesome, and it seriously does put me into a trance.

I've just listened to Over twice in a row, this song is SO beautiful! The instrumental is amazing and the way the song ends always makes me shiver, and the way she sings/whispers "it's over" is the most perfect way that song could end. Seriously, this song can make anyone feel a bit melancholic.

I'm sooooo pissed that I don't like Wnter Diary.... :(
I thought it could be good, but definitely, no. Not at all. I just can't "feel the love tonight"...

That's my favorite part of the song! :heart

I always listen to this remix at the gym.

I use to be in love with NO FUTURE and wondered why people like Out of Control. Mow I love Out of Control so much! Probably my favorite song from A One!

I do like Out of Control but NO FUTURE has been in pretty much all my playlists this year (except my winter ballad one!). There's something about NO FUTURE that reminds me of LOVEppears. I have it in a playlist followed by And Then and I really like those two songs together.

youtube sometimes makes a good find on the recommendations list....

^IMO, that ruined the song for me almost instantly...


Someone mentioned the song Over and I remember how back in ~07 I used to hate that song more than ANGEL'S SONG x) Now it's not so bad... :)

today is "M" 15th birthday

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CWHSmTuUYAElbyT.jpg

^ holy moly I feel ancient :tired

Cheers to the song of one of the most quoted Ayu lyric ever! 'Beginnings come at random, but endings always have a reason'

That's honestly one of my favorite lines of hers, ever. (avex's translation on the TA tour goods be damned)

+++++++++++++

I was almost 6 when M was released so I shouldn't get melancholic vibe from it. But when I watch old performances of it it kinda makes me nostalgic lol

Back when she had some seriously stellar creative direction.

What is this funny showwwwwww :roflmao:roflmao:roflmao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHQC_41Jwr4

Can you explain what I'm watching? :D

He/she copied this performance :D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMX0AE5LWc

I re-watched the Sparkle PV today. I wish she would experiment a bit more with her PVs now, as she did back then. They were so interesting, and if they weren't that, they were at least aesthetically pleasing.

The shame of the Japanese music industry, AKB48 broke Ayu's consecutive number 1 single streak...

^ Well well :// that sucks but hey it was inevitable

A minute of silence for Oricon lame way of counting copies sold pls

The only thing that we can think about to reinsure ourselves, is that it's clearly NOT the quality of the music that allowed AKB48 to reach the top :
it's easy to have a 50,000+ girls-band-members and release 25 editions of the same f*cking CD.... The basic pop they release pleases the basic people who buy everything, and POOF! it's magical ! They sell 50,000,000 of copies and get #1....

At least Ayu still holds the record of solo artist with the most consecutive #1 singles, right?

^ Well, if you look it that way, she does indeed :yes

Sad thing that such an amazing record was broken by a group whose sales are mostly due to gimmicks. If it wasn't that I would honestly praise them for managing to achieve this, but the way they do it just doesn't feel legit...

Hey, maybe when Ayu has her 20 year anniversary tribute album, AKB48 will do a cover. :laugh

^ That would be sonically disastrous but would probably make the album sell better than any of her studio albums since Party Queen :P :tbiggrin

I was listening to Many Classic Moments and wondered if that RedOne they advertised for sixxxxxx at first (baaaack when we only knew about SbS) was ever recorded, and if it was, if it'll ever see the light of day...

^ I had totally forgotten about that lol

i feel you

Apparently, Jennifer Lawrence and Ayu are using the same car,the black Cadilac Escalade SUV :D

^ I thought Ayu doesn't have a car anymore... ?
I know that she used to have a Bentley Continental, and a Ford Mustang before that, but if I reckon correctly, she said somewhere that she didn't want to have a car anymore.

haha i just can't imagine ayu driving like we normal people do :D think about ayu behind the wheel in traffic lol

yea we can see her driving Bentley in AT07 documentary. That Ford was when shes in LA. Yea you are right,she said in an interview that she didnt want to drive anymore because of the strict traffic rules in Japan haha

http://i.imgur.com/7UOoN8ql.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/QEMbfJyl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WBDAf8tl.jpg

this is her current SUV, you can see it in CDL13-14 documentary part,it's part of the ending credit; Also in Cirque de Minuit documentary we can see her coming out of her car

I wonder what the strict traffic rules are that made her not wanting to drive anymore.

Quite a weird reason to stop driving... Traffic in Japan is great, in some other countries in Asia it's a chaos, while in Japan people respect the rules and it's a lot better, so whatever strict rules they use, it works.

But then again, if I had money I would much rather have someone drive me to places haha

girl have you seen Shibuya 109 during rush hour? lol smh

But.... Is she actually driving ?

^ I can only see a man driving the car, to be honest.

I didnt say she is driving the car in the first place. I said shes now using the Cadilac. I know Ayu always got her driver with her to get going to places

Summer Diary 1 million views

http://i.imgur.com/tTUQFpp.png

M 9 million views

http://i.imgur.com/9OIn7zY.png

M's power never dies.

Wow! I wouldn't have thought that a really recent song like Summer diary would reach 1M views already! I'm pleasantly surprised!

Out of curiosity i downloaded concert of TM Network Final Mission and I am so impressed with sound, songs, like totally O_O. It it really Tetsuya Komuro doing music with so much sound and...soul? Where is it in Ayu's compositions? I am not saying her songs are shallow but it's so much different from what i can hear even in his solos. I am pretty sure it's just because she wants her songs to have particular sound but i wouldn't mind more of Komura from TM network ^_^ And really i am not complaining on Ayu's songs cause i really love them ;-)

M has 9.061.484 views now. Who is listening to this song???

now 9.075.308 : )))))
At this rate, it would probably reach the 10 million mark in a few weeks.

pvs that finally reached 1m:
my name's WOMEN - 1.022.742 views
Fly High - 1.065.884 views
Don't Look Back - 1.022.193 views

Maybe it's the arrangement which makes TK songs sound "flat"?

The first ayu-mi-x AOV is SO GOOD y'all. I just listened to the whole album again after a really long time and woah.

I think "Wishing" may be one of the greatest AO versions she's ever released as far as making me feel more than the original song did. The lyrics hint at a certain "What if I lose my friend when she falls in love?" anxiety that the instrumentation doesn't bring out enough IMHO, but the AO version does.

The Prologue and POWDER SNOW acoustic orchestra versions are my favorites from the first release.

Well, here's another remix album from ayu I've never listened but now feel the urge to hahahaha

I love her first remix album... <3

"M" never really rang a bell for me. Am I a bad fan? lol.
I like it, but it's definetely NOT one of my favourite songs from her.

No, I feel you. For example I love the hal's progress version because it gives an ethereal vibe to it and I love ambiental stuff. But it took me loooong time before I got into the original mix. Same with many of her older works at the beggining of my fandom. And I still don.t like Unite. I never liked it and I probably never will. Her voice is absolutely unbereable into the chorus. The perfect example of an un-melodic track.

^ Unite! Is such a subpar song, I can never get into it because of how ...lackluster it is, especially in a period where her singles were very strong.

The song I'll never be into is evolution. I don't like it and it's extremely grating to me! Unless it's sang in a concert I don't listen to it at all.

^Yeah, I have to agree with you on UNITE! I don't hate it, but it's definitely not her best from that period. I feel the same about NEVER EVER too tbh.

somehow this morning I had a very unexpected dream about Ayu!

In my dream, I met her at a mall,at that time I was at this booth that sells Hello kityy stuffs haha anndd suddenly Ayu walked into the mall and stopped by the booth! No one recognized her! I quickly realized that it was Ayumi Hamasaki even though she was wearing simple outfit with shades haha. Somehow however I tried to call her my voice didnt came out >.< and I so she bought the HK pillow and walked away heading to the entrance door to her car. I followed her and I saw her entered an old BMW car, inside her best friend Natsuki was waiting for her. Ayu drove the car and parked in parking lot. From there I could see shes having chit chat with Natsuki and on their dahsboard got a pretty big screen playing vid, and for my surprise Ayu and Natsuki were smoking in the car! From my view I saw Ayu was smoking clearly,she didnt care about the people outside who could see her! xDD so surreal that I woke up thinking that was real xDDD

No Ayu on the upcoming MSSL, and no Ayu on the Kouhaku, so from an Ayu fan's perspective...now we can comfortably relax and concentrate on the CDL.

I do miss seeing Ayu on these two big, annual music J-pop shows though. :(

It's my free time now, and I'm creating "Ayu Library" app :D

http://i.imgur.com/XLRfqXU.png

^ what's that? LOVING IT!

I wonder whos Ayu's manager and PA now? always see her staffs in the vid but not sure which one are they

After NEXT LEVEL I always felt that her music went way downhill but recently I've been
listening to her albums. I'm going back and forth listening to Secret and (m)u and I'm
appreciating her music more and more. I'm going to listen to her recent albums with an
open mind, she's one of the artists that I really cared about so I can't brush her music off
just like I have done in the past.

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.