[November4]

Originally Posted by LUOYUXIANG

If you remember the interviews around the release of Pray, ayu had started the new album long before Pray with a clear concept of EDM-themed album. Then Pray came up, and she decided to change the concept and blend in some old-ayu, hence NOW & 4EVA...

That's exactly what I said. She changed the concept last minute to add in some J-Pop because halfway through production she got positive reception to Pray, thus resulting in an incohesive album.

Releasing the covers late does not mean the making of covers is last-minute. Who says the covers have to be out the moment it's done?

Because it's called proper marketing? Are you seriously defending the decision to officially "leak" all the songs and releasing the cover 2 weeks before the album? It's illogical, there's no hype, it will show in the sales next month. Sure, the covers could've been shot a year ago but it certainly doesn't seem that way from her TA diary. She's not Beyoncé, if that's what they were expecting by releasing the songs out of nowhere.

It's a lot easier to follow a normal path if you want to do everything last-minute (especially for someone who has released albums for more than 10 times) than to design a marketing strategy that is different, interesting, shocking. Whether or not it works depends on the audience, but as a fan I personally see ayu put some work into Colours, certainly way more than into LOVE again.

Actually, it's pretty much opposite. Now we don't know if everything was done last-minute, true, but releasing everything randomly and out of order is actually a sign of doing things last minute instead of doing them in proper order. With Namie her covers tend to get released, what, 2-3 months before the album? A concept is established, she takes time to record everything. Doing things in order means you have to plan and work ahead, it's not a sign of doing anything last-minute. That logic is reversed.

Here it feels like she started with an EDM concept, decided to put in J-Pop songs halfway, did some quick PVs in LA then flew back to Japan for concerts and slapped on some easily photoshopped covers from a previous photoshoot. And by "her" I'm referring to the product/team ayumi hamasaki. I have no idea what Ayu was personally doing/wanted, but saying she has more control over her career now than before indicates that she herself is the issue with the bad timing of this release. In no way is this a proper marketing strategy. What incentive do people have to be excited about the album until its release date? Who would still buy it? The hardcore fans only. Although perhaps her hardcore fans would buy it anyway AND buy the songs from TA in which case this is just another $$$ scheme.

We'll see with the Angel and XOXO PVs but so far it seems like she put more effort in making LOVE again than making Colours. Deciding to do a different genre and hiring some western producers isn't a sign of being more serious or doing more work. If anything it feels like she was less involved with the recording process than usual. Instead of CREA we get some demos from high budget western producers.