Wow this is a neat little thread
.
I honestly can't completely remember how it went but I'll wing it from what I can recall!
Dearest
Well this was the first song I had ever heard from Ayu. I remember waaay back in my 7th grade year I was friends with these two people (one is actually AyUta, and the other is not on here) that were really into anime, especially Inuyasha. I started to take an interest so one of my friends (the one that's not on here lol) burned me a copy of Inuyasha ending songs. I remember thinking Dearest was just meh, as I thought the song was sort of nice, but I hated the way the girl's voice sounded really strained in the chorus parts. I didn't know the name of the song until later when I bought an Inuyasha ending themes album. Sometimes even now, I still can't believe it's Ayu who sang this song. And of course, I don't dislike it anymore...
no more words
Now this song was beautiful to me. I thought the female's voice was really lovely in this song. I was shocked to find it was the same female that had sang Dearest (it was all in kanji and hiragana so I couldn't read the names in the booklet). Looking back, I still remember how peaceful and at ease this song made me feel when I would listen to it.
Now this is when it got tricky...because I got into her trance remixes...so this may not be in order........
Appears 'Armin Van Burren remix'
I'll never forget I was going through Myspace music profiles when I discovered Ayu's trance. I had been just starting my Japanese music craze and was not really familiar with the artists yet. I had somehow found the identity of Ayu and had tried looking her up before, but her music was always just godawful to me lol. Well, I was bored one summer afternoon (I was going into my sophomore year, this was 2006) and decided to give her music another whirl. Coincidentally, all of the Ayu music profiles had Ayu trance on them for some reason. So this was one of the songs I found and it was instant love
. That was also when Myspace would let you download them so I was able to grab them.
M 'Above and Beyond Mix'
God this song was just amazing! I loved it so much...It brings back such good memories of my fragile teen years. This, of course, was one of the songs I found on the Myspace music profiles.
Fly High 'Voodoo & Serano remix'
This was my most favorite remix/song I found of Ayu's on those Myspace remix profiles. I used to blast this song all the time, and my mom even liked it when I showed it to her. I still see it as being a legendary trance remix.
Depend on You 'Svenson and Gielen remix'
This one always filled me with such excitement. I loved it dearly.
Trauma 'Jam X & De Leon's DuMonde remix'
I always wanted to dance when I would listen to this one.
Boys & Girls 'Push remix'
LOL for the longest time I always thought this song was called 'Boys & Girls Push' because of this remix. Me and AyUta would always make nasty jokes about the title of this song
. I can't say I was entirely inlove with this song, but it was kind of cool.
Real me 'Megara vs DJ Lee remix'
This one blew me away. It came in second in my favorites, just behind Fly High.
Naturally 'Wippenberg remix'
Man this one was amazing too...I always felt like I was in another world when I'd listened to it. It was just so surreal sounding.
...So most of my favorite trance remixes came from the entire first Ayu trance album (I didn't list them all because it would take too long), and from there I started to wonder what her other music was like when I realized she wasn't all trance...
STEP you
I remember this was a really catchy song for me. I liked it almost instantly. It was hard for me to get used to the original mixes of the trance remixes I heard. They sounded slow and lazy lol.
1 LOVE
I didn't know it at the time but this song was brand new when I heard it. It was my most favorite Ayu song for a long time.
.........So I can't remember how it happened exactly after discovering the trance remixes. I know that I didn't listen by album, but more like found songs floating around and grabbed 'em whenever I could. From then on, Ayu quickly became my most favorite Japanese artist to date.