Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai - View Single Post - New song:『Pray for you』
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Old 16th January 2021, 05:51 PM
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njanjayrp njanjayrp is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2006
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Quote:
Originally Posted by !Lawi! View Post
^Let's normalise using Ayu gifs and this one in particular!

As much as I think the statement is too extreme, I think I understand where Akutenshi is coming from because I had the exact same reaction - bored to death thinking 'welp, that's an Ayu ballad all right' and when the horns came in I actually started paying attention.

Obviously it's all a matter of taste and I am in NO WAY qualified as a musician, but to me Pray for you does sound like Pray, Anything for you, Zutto, WORDS or Walk to quote a few. And apart from Walk, none of those actually appeal to me unfortunately.

While being of... varying quality let's say, I feel like the other ones in njanjyarp's list have something 'special' that made me remember them - the dry guitar in Shape of love, the 'etheral' instruments in You are the only one + break at the end, the relative simplicity of Sweet Scar, the change of tone in Last minute, ...

So yeah, while I disagree that Pray for you sounds like all her ballads in the last 7 years because she's had some KILLER ballads, I can't see it becoming one of my favourite based on the instrumental version. But then again, I would have said the same listening to the instrumental version of Walk and yet I was obsessed when it came out.

I guess I'm just secretly hoping for November part II
The issue I have in particular is with the 7-year and “almost every other”, as while you could say there is something that defines a generic ayu ballad i.e. Close to you, meaning of Love, Days, Anything for you, Winter diary, The Way I am and Ohia no Ki for example those are definitely in minority and even the majority of those while not shining brightest arrangement/composition-wise have at least had meaningful and well/written lyrics. Not every ballad will sound as grand as BRILLANTE. I have a feeling we tend to plaster the “generic” sticker to everything plain-sounding.

You did mention WORDS and while musically it’s kind of a simpler song I think the way it progresses and the lyrics just separate it from the batch.
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