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Ayu's 2016 release will be my tenth Ayu album. I've been around since just after BLUE BIRD's release. I still remember sitting with my friend watching the first clip of Born To Be... and thinking, fuck, that's bright.
My very first song was Moments. I remember being shown the videos from (miss)understood and I didn't think them very memorable at the time. My friend asked me what I'd like to hear, and I asked how well Ayumi's ballads were. Cue "Moments". I watched the PV more than a dozen times that day. When Secret came out in November 2006, we opened up my bedroom window and blasted JEWEL and momentum. Secret was also my introduction to an Enka song, and I spent an afternoon learning about Sukiyaki from the 1960s. (Enka still isn't my thing, but there are occasional songs I think are nice.)
The last album my friend and I shared was Love songs. From what I know, he was not heard anything from FIVE, Party Queen, LOVE again, Colours, A ONE, or sixxxxxx. And the last single he celebrated with me was Sunrise / Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~.
On occasion, I call him and talk about Ayu's upcoming stuff, and he says the same generic reply about Ayu not being interesting anymore.
I bitch about Ayu's choices sometimes, but she was where J-Pop and I took off. Without Ayu, I'd have never heard of Utada, Koda, MIKA, Otsuka Ai, Nishino Kana, Namie Amuro, and the list continues on and on. Though Ayu was not the first J-Pop artist I ever heard (that was Nana Katase's TELEPATHY, which I downloaded back when Napster was still around), she's been and still remains the only non-American artist I follow regardless of whether I like her releases.
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