[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by Zeke.

"Seasons, Dearest, No Way to Say, Hanabi, Moments, Carols, Days"

The thing is, there is a clear distinction between these tracks, and her recent trend of watered down ballads. The former, although easily palletable, I honestly don't feel are "run-of-the-mill" by any means. Everyone who tries to sell this argent always says "they could have been released by anyone" but you know what? they weren't. They were released by ayumi hamasaki, and I honestly have never heard anyone release such easily palettable yet strong, impactful, catchy, and enjoyable tracks on par with them. It just doesn't happen. It's like you want her to release shit that's difficult to get into. Like releasing tracks that aren't aren't catchy or enjoyable makes her a real and unique artist.

That's not why I came to like her. I came to like ayu cause she was able to release tracks that were SO easily like-able and powerful.

She has gone from releasing songs (or ballads) that are both TIMELESS and CAPTIVATING, to releasing songs that are neither of the two.

The feeling I get with most all of my favorite and most enjoyable ayu track is "dang, even if you weren't a fan of ayu, and/or you did not know who she was/is, how could you not enjoy this track?", similar to the earlier post of "I could show this to my friends and they'd have to agree." But in recent years, I don't feel that way, even about the tracks I like.

You know that everytime you talk about the Zeke's Seal for Epic Awesomeness by Zeke, you always describe the material you love and the material you hate on a very subjective way, right? It's not like you are talking about technical aspects of the songs, but about how you feel about them, something that is very personal and that only you can trully understand. Most of the songs you point that you love are well crafted innofensive pop songs, most of them very easy on the ears, to the point that most of them being released on key moments were every big jpop star releases their safer works... and that's not wrong with that.