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Originally Posted by Jester
As long as she re-sing all the song with the orchestra band it will be fine, not just uses the acapella and mix with the new instrumental like she usually did, and I think it will happen again.
Why can't she does like Kylie in The Abbey Road Sessions.
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Unfortunately, they normally mention in the descriptions if new vocals are involved, which in this case is -NOT- the case, so we'll probably get old vocal tracks like with MY STORY Classical.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Uemarasan
^It's just really frustrating as a longtime fan because I know what she is capable of: incredible, game-changing music. Why hasn't she reached this level in such a long while? Her sound and image are indistinguishable and unremarkable in the current musical landscape. I actually think she should scrap her whole musical template and start from scratch. Ayu should start looking beyond the small circle of friends and collaborators that she has formed and which is now suffocating her aesthetically. The same boring old music, boring old photos, boring old makeup, boring old nails, boring old hair, boring old fashion, boring old concerts. She should stop living in her glorious past and fossilizing herself.
Yes, many of these artists won't mesh well with Ayu. That is why I think that is something that she needs. Some dissonance in her discography, some chaos in her complacent approach to music. Make videos with Mika Ninagawa. Have photobooks by Rinko Kawauchi. Have album covers by Miwa Yanagi, Ai Yazawa. Have concerts actually choreographed by a real choreographer (Rino Nakasone, for example). There is such a wealth of artists and designers in Japan I don't know why she can't manage to find them.
Personally, I found again "pleasant". But I don't want "pleasant" anymore. I want something great. It's still too early in her career to let retrospective ideas and fantasies of being a future legend dominate her work. She should wait until she's been around as long as Mr. Children, B'z, Southern All Stars, or Yumi Matsutoya before she can rest, take it easy, and be "lazy".
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I think she's fine doing things the way she wants, really. If she's changing 'just to be different' or to forcefully shake things up, it'd go against her 'code' as an artist. From the very beginning, she's just done what she wanted and that's been enough. Even now, imo, though it's a bit less well received than say, her work in the early to mid 2000s.
It's not simply a matter of "will they mesh with Ayu" I think, but also... will they even do it? Does she even want to? In this case, I think first and foremost, she has to have an interest in venturing into those other genres or other 'people' first compared to right now she has a team that 'works' with her style and what she wants. In the realm of her directors/photographers/etc., I don't see her ever really breaking away from the ones that she has like what she did in 2003 though that would be great. (for those who don't know, in 2003, she kind of took 3 new directors/filmmakers and had them make PVs for &.) It would be nice to have new anything really, but with the way Ayu works, I don't think she or her team are actively pursuing something like that unless they are approached first. Choreography-wise, I don't believe she really needs to have that done since well... she doesn't really 'dance'. But most choreography is handled by her own dancers which isn't too out of the ordinary for pop stars and it's not as though Ayu's music is very dance-oriented to begin with.
Designer-wise, I would say that she's never had an 'amazing' or even a forward thinking design team that does more than just enough to get by unlike a lot of acts. I would hope she could collaborate with Yellow Brain aka Kouki Tange's creative team or the people behind Perfume's normally flawless 'look/feel' but I feel the chance of her ever not using Takuma Noriage or someone from that 'old' team is slim to none. There's an awful lot of 'I want this and I want that' imo when it comes to Ayu fans and I feel like you have to just let things go if you're a fan of her, especially recently because you can't really always get what you want even though you ~know~ it would be good for her. There is talent in Japan, but I believe Ayu probably thinks her current situation is okay (barring that post-2009 staff thing where people got shifted around and RICE MOMOYA suddenly disappeared but perhaps was renamed brg) and she will be fine with what she has which is why it's gone on for so long.
I think we've gotten great from her in the last few years, it's just difficult to gauge and compared considering that her past works were on a different level, or at least judged in a different way. I wonder if many of her tracks or covers that are so loved from 'back then; came out today, would they still be loved or would people sneer at them the way they do with almost everything they do nowadays?