A ROCK needs to happen.

These days, I think high digital sales will be the best predictor of what songs make A BEST 3.

It's kind of a no-brainer IMO. ASFXX's rockish version on A BALLADS ended up great! She'd really have to be into the idea though and have the band at all the recording sessions. No one programming drums or anything, please. I wonder what tracks they'd choose to give a rock edge. (Beautiful Fighters, I am looking at you)

ASFXX on A BALLADS gives me LIFE!

:banana1

Beautiful Fighters would be great. Didn't she say ANGEL'S SONG was originally supposed to be a rock number? I wonder if there's an alternate arrangement floating around.

Would also be nice to see WHATEVER/kanariya/monochrome in rock form.

Ayu singing M with a guitar in front of the HOLLYWOOD sign, lol. (Wait, that'd actually been pretty cool, I messed up)
Ayu did a great job with A BALLADS and A BEST 2! A SUMMER BEST was very good too. She always did good bests (yes, I'm talking about A BEST the infamous first too, lol).

I think so. It was mentioned in the beatfreak for Memorial address.

(translated by Delirium-Zer0)

I miss Yukumi... :(

I wonder if he was part of the great exile of 2010 when a bunch of her team just vanished.

After Yukumi and H/\L left, it pretty much became the CMJK/Yuta show with maybe one or two other composers.

:luv2 I have to say I enjoy her rock tracks the most, ayu is good at that shiz. Aside from her ballads I mean.

I agree. I first became an Ayu fan because of "is this LOVE?". I loved and still love this song so much. I would be so happy to get a new song with a similar sound, I can't really describe it but compared to "1LOVE" and "microphone" "is this LOVE?" sounds raw and different arrangement and composition wise.

Anyway, I'm really curious as to how this album will sound like. I don't care about which producers she worked with although it'll be interesting for me to see what kind of song they did for ayu compared to other artists they worked with.

Yeah is this love is very unique. I love it a lot. It does have a kind of rawness. It's kind of a controlled chaos. And that instrument bridge is her best ever as far as rock. Then when the chorus comes in so subtle and quiet, then escalates into one final POW of a chorus. Sooooo good.

Yeah, where's Tetsuya Yukumi? I miss him so much!!!

Imagine End of the World! Because of You! Alterna! Is this love? (miss)understood! 1LOVE! Talkin 2 myself! Decision! Microphone etc are in one Disc! OMG... that's an explosive one!

If she were to do an A ROCK album, I'd love to see stuff re-arranged as otherwise the compilation has no value to me.

^She could include PoM's M in there! Ooh that would be awesome! and the rock version of ANGEL'S SONG!

I don't care how weird her song titles are... I am so excited for this album!

The best rock re-mix track by far is Ladies Night~another night~. Period.

I find that to be pretty generic rock sounding. There's nothing unique about it unlike Ayu's songs that she makes to be rock songs those are awesome!

Well..there is the mini ep FIVE..so if ayu wants to play with numbers again
The album could really be NOW & 4EVA or.. 4EVA love...once more and at this point I don't know what to think about the track titles...

XOXO (gossip girls?)
:D

Amen!!! is this LOVE and Because of You are my top two ayu rock sounds..

It somewhat reminded me of the rock version of Fly high tbh.

The thought just crossed my mind... what if she names the album "MARRIED again"?

what rock version of fly high?

Magnificent.

there is a rock version on her fly high single... cant remember the name right now.

Fly high "Saturation Remix" :D

^ Holy crap I didn't know, going to give it a listen right now!

https://twitter.com/tkwyoung/status/467885906188582912

Just tweet about A ROCK best album and hope she will reply.

^ A ROCK two CD set or the point is lost
Is it wrong to count Green as a rock title

^GREEN is far from being a rock song imo lol
While I made my own A ROCK playlist, I became confused of Ayu's song appropriate to be called rock songs. evolution, UNITE!. is this LOVE?, Because of You, Rule and such are rock songs but what about things like kiss o' kill, Return Road, fated, Life, Letter and others which have that rock feeling in it but not as rock as those previous songs? :laugh

Masashi Muto directed one of the PV's??

https://twitter.com/MasashiMuto/stat...01589666897921

"Ayuchan, thank you very much for today, I enjoyed a lot! Good luck with live tomorrow(???) Muto"

See that's my point
You can't count those songs like ballads exactly but they are not "rock" either
For as long as Ayu delays the A ROCK best of album I still use that A BEST2 black + i add a load of other rock tracks and of course GREEN
It fits really :yes

we all want rock ayu, but the world want it.. i don't think so.

It's possible he directed a video for a song, or even an interlude movie for the tour. Either way his twists are usually good. Granted the videos don't tend to be very exciting... To me at least. He's the Don't look back, sweet season guy right?

Rock Ayu is the Ayu I prefer :love

That tweet is from 2013, lol.

I love "Wataru Takeishi"'s style better ...
Jewel, sweet scar, fairyland,... all of them are pretty good

Lmao if you're gonna count UNITE! as rock then kiss o kill totally counts.

Ahahaha
Woops :-p

And oh. 2013.

Okay UNITE! is more poppish-dancey then? lol I don't even know what Im talking about since JPop kinda mixed everything

honestly i can't wait.

It's not wrong to count UNITE ! as a rock song imo the structure is poppish but you can't deny that the arrangements are rock influenced ... just like Evolution !

My point was that kiss o kill is way more rock so if you're doubting kiss o kill's validity then it's certain that unites would be doubted before kiss o kills. Lol.

^
Ahhh Yes excuse me I didn't read correctly lol I agree with you ^^

Same for me.
I'm really excited about the new PVs for Feel the love and Merry-go-round! Can't wait to see if they can improve Feel the love, it'd be one of the greatest gift from Ayu ever.

Covers pleaseeee!!! I'm desesperate xD

I've really grown to love "Feel the love" and "Merry-go-round"! I just wish her shows would become normal again and less freak-show.

Stop with the A ROCK thing, I want A WINTER BEST first

^
Nooooo, don't ask for it!!
Avex is gonna release a stupid I-Tunes Winter playlist and then never return on the matter again, if they hear you.

^LOL
A WINTER BEST


and i have a cover for a rock best as well xD

Wow! Kudos to that! They are gorgeous!
They look so pro.
You should send this to ayu!

Oh artcika they are gorgeous <3

A ROCK, A WINTER ?? I prefer a compilation for her anime and videogames songs

artcika only you can pull this off :luv2

I think Japanese market is more for dancing than rock songs.

Look at talkin' 2 myself / decision sales..

It is a rock single.

i wonder what the title of the album will be..itano tomomi's debut album that is being released the same day as ayu is called S×W×A×G :no

Maybe Ayu's gonna name it XOXO.

I would like a title like "LOVE YA B!TCHES".

screw all of that, ayu trance 5 lol

Then Ayu's should be YOLO.

rock ballad no no no, Microphone 2.0 plz

lol, hopefully her new album won't sound like a remix album, and, ayu-ro 5 plz come 1st :D

With all these producers, it sounds like a promising album!

Then Ayu's album needs to be S×W×A×G×G×I×E×R :laugh

Scuse me for being off topic but that Itano girl has no swag whatsoever

She's cute but I agree

YES!! Ayu and trance are the best thing ever! Such unique sounds! Or at least the way they organize them for her.

Is anyone else not looking forward to RedOne being a producer? His works have been pretty below par as of late. Idk how Lady Gaga managed to make the songs he produced decent, but other than those and that one J-Lo song, they have been pretty blahful (that's blah and awful btw).

TBH I'd like an album composed by TK and CREAT, arranged by Yuta Nakano, with at least one Ferry Corsten track. Don't care about any of these producers and only really looking forward to Armin's track and the rock track she mentioned.

YES!!!!

Nooooo thank you, Yuta has lost his flare and TK has already been on multiple albums. I'm glad something fresh is finally happening.

DAISHI DANCE is a pretty amazing collaborator, I think. His HEAVEN remix was one of the standouts on ayu-mi-x 6. Other than Armin, the others are sort of up in the air for me. I wonder if the tracks are going to be more of a marriage between Ayu + their styles and not just some old demos that Ayu so happened to get.

A big fat yes to the album being called Y※O※L※O if Itano's album is SxWxAxG

As much as I love hip hop culture, ayu can stay tf away from that lol.

Unless she actually went pretty hard and pulled it off. Which I highly doubt.

I can't believe Itano named her album that...

Watch her calling it Ayu/Ayumi/Ayumi Hamasaki. It seems to be a trend everywhere, so I wouldn't be surprised if she was as original lol

Hell yes, I'm up for both! Especially if they're done as well as A Ballads (and Namie's Love Enhanced!)

i will buy both just because of the covers. esp A ROCK!

anyway with those US producers, i hope the new album won't turn out to be a EDM-style album. and no to rap song too.

I am 2.0 :D

Well , Armin can do a decent job and i am having high hopes for that DAISHI DANCE song ( HEAVEN remix from Ayumix 6 i guess was good:yes )

Don't have so high spectations about the album's name, I'm quite sure it's going to be "Feel the Love"

And I'll hate Ayu for that... T_T

Another title might be "Hello new me"

Still holding back my expectations as I reckon that we'll end up with dubstep madness eventually. It's likely to be the case, indeed...

@channy Shake it had dubstep and it wasn't too prevalent, but it wasn't that great if a song to begin with either.

I'm excited about DAISHI DANCE and Armin too. But, like Njan, I would be perfectly happy if TK came back Crea decided to make a reappearance. Love songs is one I my favorite albums and I love groups like globe and TRF and TK's works with Namie Amuro and Tomomi Kalhala. But it would be really fitting for Ayu's "new direction" if she were to be Crea again. I am... was a major transition and new ideas, and I feel like this album will be too. I'd like to see it come full circle.

On The Floor, Dance Again, Live It Up, Papi, and songs from album "LOVE?": Invading My Mind, Hypnotico, Charge Me Up; minus Pitbull stupid rap, basically all the songs he produce for JLo are insanely good!

after "Britney Jean" by Britney Spears, "Avril Lavigne" by Avril Lavigne, "BEYONCÉ" by Beyoncé, "Shakira." by Shakira ...... too many for trend, so plz NO, but the playful idea like "MDNA" by Madonna is good.

and plz, no acronym for album title plzzz, i still can't stand "A.K.A." by JLo

i prefer she use back her A logo for album title like R[A]INBOW ...

Diaishi Dance was never my style. Didn't they work with Mika Nakashima too? And that song sucked. Maybe because of her horrid vocals.

Armins track I hope is great. I fantasizes years ago what it would be like of he produced a track for her but never even imagined it as a real possibility. But, his original works lately haven't been up to par with some of his better material.

RedOne I think has potential to be the most "fun" track. He worked on Nicole Scherzingers album and I loved all the tracks he produced, even if the album was a flop.

Rodney Jerkins I am writing off as a dud track. Looking at the shit he's produced on wiki, like Nelly Furtados "Big Hoops" and some other trash material, his track as the most potential to be my worst nightmare when it comes to the direction he may take ayu in.

Just called this album BAE

I'm not too sure but I think Daishi Dance worked on Big Bang's "Haru Haru" and that is one of my all time favorite tracks from them. And also on "heaven" I think, both songs are really great in my opinion.
I personally think a composer can work on great and bad songs, a old good or bad song doesn't say much about the material they'll give a different artist so I'm basically just waiting for the songs to be released.

This may sound like a stupid question, but does anybody know where in Japan can I go to buy this album?
I just checked online with the Tsutaya near the place I'm staying and they don't sell CDs. Now that I think about it, I never really wondered about where CDs could be bought in Japan...

Daishi Dance should be interesting. Worked with MUCC for this one single I think and I liked it. So I'd be interested to see what happens with Ayu

I find it somewhat intriguing to see how many fans praise DAISHI DANCE for their remix of "HEAVEN" when it is actually Chieko Kinbara that made this remix stand out. Just my personal opinion, though.

A.Y.U.

HMV or Tower Records.

Not for me. Chieko Kinbara's violin was icing on the cake, yeah, but the remix stands on its own merits.

Then again, I like DAISHI DANCE stuff in general, always have. It's a good fusion of pretty, soft sounds & house beats. He has a distinctive style.

Too many remixers go for dissonance (or sound like they're remixing a different song entirely... or they just suck). Melody & harmony don't really seem to be a part of the planning process for a lot of remixers, and the result to me is just this dull droning cacophonic mess that to me has no merit at all. So I'll enjoy ANY producer with a good sense of melody & harmony, even if their stuff is thinly arranged or not my taste. Make your style distinct from anyone else's, especially in a simple way, and you DEFINITELY have my favor. DAISHI DANCE has always accomplished all of the above IMHO.

Maybe the album will follow the NEXT LEVEL structure, flowing from a soft but up-lifting start to intense EDM tracks, and ending with a ballad.

01. hello new me
02. Armin / RedOne/ DAISHI DANCE / etc...
10. Pray

Some interludes will be great actually.

You're a monster.

I had to log in and say lul @ NOW & 4EVA


Terminal... eh, could be interesting.

I just hope for covers better than these titles..

Yeah those were nice too. As were some if the songs in Nichole Scherzinger's album. I guess I can't see Ayu singing any if those songs haha. Now if RedOne were to do something like what he did for Mylene Farmer's Lonely Lisa, I think that would work.

It would feel very "final" if she used her name as the title lol

I kinda expect something silly ala "We can dance all night" or something.

End of the day , I hope her new album will be better as LOVE again is my least fave album from her (so far)

On that note , her new album wouldn't get #1 on the 1st week of release . I will be surprised if it were to happen

i would like "AYU" as the album title actually. "AH" would be cool too.
she had "A" single, so why not?

tbh I will be pleased with anything that don't include word LOVE.

I wouldn't mind "Ayu" as an album title but I don't think it should be for this one. I keep getting a fierce, upbeat feeling from the details we do know.

I can imagine the CM dub guy says,
"ayumi hamasaki....Ah~~~ in stores now" :laugh

And yes, please no more LOVE titles :\

I think we'll all be surprised in the end, knowing Ayu.