5. A song you first disliked but now love:
Dreamed a Dream. I was so excited for the vocal track. I can't remember when I last felt so excited about something Ayu related. But I immediately thought that it's a pretty bad idea to make it part of the remix challenge before the song was even out. There were two mixes I especially loved and obsessed over. They had this 2000's J-Pop feeling and brought back all of the memories of discovering J-Pop for the first time back in 2002. It simply couldn't get better than that.
So even though I still loved her vocals, the melody and the lyrics, I couldn't stand the arrangement and was so disappointed with the final result. I really wished she wouldn't have done this remix competition before releasing the song. I would have probably felt very differently about the original mix then.
I can't say I "love" Dreamed a Dream now, but I like it and listen to it from time to time.
Spoiler:
1. A song Ayu should sing more often:
This one is hard, but I think I'll go with Connected. Connected stands out a lot from her discography and it has an amazing atmosphere, which is even more beautiful when visualised on stage. I would love to be able to see this one live one day!
@Teppei-chan: And then is also a great choice, a segment with both songs would be perfect. <3
2. A song remix that surpasses the original version:
Wake me up (Remo-con remix), followed by snowy kiss (Shouhei Matsumoto remix). Both songs are ok in their original versions, but something is missing and the remixes are just so much better. I only ever listen to the remixes.
3. A song that reminds you of wintertime:
Sice this is about a song that reminds you of winter and not an actual winter ballad/christmas song of hers, I'll go with kiss o' kill. Secret was released at the end of November in 2006 and from all the songs that we hadn't listened to yet, I was especially addicted to kiss o' kill. I listened to it during the Christmas season a lot and I have very fond memories of listening to it via my mp3 player over and over again while strolling over the Christmas market when it was snowing. <3
4. A song with a PV you love:
As a teenager I spent whole days watching her PVs. I especially loved and still love the vogue~Far away~Seasons triology, M, ourselves, GAME, About you, Moments, alterna, fairyland, Startin', talkin' 2 myself, Rule, the list goes on.
My initial thought was to go with HEAVEN. The song itself is already so beautiful and I think it's a great PV how she is just sitting there, time passing symbolised by the trains passing. When I first watched the PV when it came out I just started crying. I still have a hard time not to cry when watching it. lol
But from Love songs onwards I wasn't too fond of her PVs, actually I think most are very very very very horrible. There are only two which stood out to me. Last minute and flower. Since we already had Last minute, I'll go with flower.
I simply love how she is sitting there, all beautiful, and then suddenly all her anger bursts out and you can see how angry and disappointed she is in her facial expression. I love that. Anger is such a rare emotion for women to show that I think this deserves to be mentioned especially. I could watch this scene over and over again.