[truehappiness]

I really don't know why people think that, it's not really true. NEXT LEVEL was a good album, but as an Ayu album it wasn't anything amazing. The most memorable tracks were the singles, the album tracks sorta fade away. Sunrise was okay, but it was ruined by it's arrangement and the verses. Sunset I wish didn't exist.... It's my opinion, at the very least. But I'm not blind enough a stan to think that NEXT LEVEL was anything but half assed.

I would say that NEXT LEVEL was muddled and scrambled up for an Ayu album, which usually have perfection across the board when it comes to arrangements and etc. but this was already explained by Ayu to be because she was having fun with the album and that there were so many options for her in terms of song choice and arrangement that she just did whatever she felt was nice at the time, or whatever, and it showed.

But I'm not blind enough a stan

I would say that the use of the words "blind" and "stan" make me question your opinion outright, because I don't really take anyone who uses those words seriously, especially when someone is talking in a NOT-blind manner. I'm sorry that my opinion doesn't line up with your views of how terrible Sunrise/NEXT LEVEL were, but I feel that it is offensive and rude to people when they are called "blind" or "stans" for standing up for what they believe it. It'd just be as applicable for me to call people who dislike Sunrise/NEXT LEVEL for idiotic reasons like being "rushed/lazy" stupid fans-who-hate-stans. But do you see me actually saying that? No.

You come across as a ridiculous stan.

You come across as a bitter person who doesn't know what he's talking about, but that's just me. I don't know what it is, but people who come across others who have conflicting opinions seem to start calling others names when they start running out of material to defend their opinions, as you can see here. I choose not to resort to this child-like name calling when discussing someone like Ayu and would rather simply have some nice conversation about the opposing sides of those who like NEXT LEVEL/Sunrise and those who don't... but, eh. You've cursed about Heidi Montag and called me a stan, which is pretty much already an indicator that this conversation will probably end here, at least with you.

It's a shame really. Though I think that this conversation could continue on if someone else got in on it...

for me im kinda offended as when peopls say that i feel i have inferior taste. oh well. over it

It doesn't really affect me all that much, as a lot of the songs that I like are the ones called "recycled" by the majority of the fandom, and it simply just feels like... "everyone's against you" or something. Like for example, Born To Be... and Life are among some of my favorite Ayu songs ever and yet they are slammed by the majority for not being "great" or something... perhaps I have different standards for Ayu, but I feel a connection that extends far beyond what I normally feel with certain songs, and it's like... those are the songs that I love. Born To Be..., ANGEL'S SONG, Life, Beautiful Day... they all have this sort of magical quality that I feel I can't find in other tracks. It's really perplexing that people are so against some of those songs for sounding "boring" or "dated"... but I usually don't let such trivial matters get in the way.