Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai - View Single Post - [Official Message] Winter single "Zutto... / Last minute / Walk" 2014.12.24 in stores III
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Old 18th December 2014, 03:44 AM
KPL KPL is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
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It's quite pointless to argue over subjectivity of "good" or "bad".
I just felt very TOUCHED by all three songs, respectively in their own ways. It's not about quality per se. It's the way she sings them.

For Zutto, it's the little notes she made during the verses that haunts (maybe that's what she meant in interview that someone thinks this song is happy while others sad).

For LM, it's the raw emotion as others have mentioned.

For Walk, it's the integration of lyrics, melody, progression, and her voice, something that speaks her insecurities and make-belief that makes the listener feel powerful and sad at the same time.

So if we want to talk about resemblance and recycling, let's NOT talk about the similarity of MELODIES per se. A song is a lot more than an arrangement of tunes and rhythms. Instead, let's talk about the feelings ayu's songs deliver as a whole. Throughout her career, especially at the beginning when a lot of people were attracted to her, Ayu establishes an image of ambiguity and contradictions: take Trauma, one of her most iconic songs - its melody and arrangement is super happy, but the lyrics are deep and a bit sad, and the singing is aloof and catchy at the same time. It's a crazy mix of emotions, and I guess that's Ayu's magic. That's probably why she can grab the heart of so many diverse listeners.

A lot of some precious ayu songs have this quality of being both sad and happy but neither-nor situation (trauma, monochrome, immature, etc). This ambiguity has gone recently, but now it comes back - I guess that's what it means really to COME BACK. And I feel touched by this sophisticated ambiguity that hardly any other artists can deliver.

Last edited by KPL; 18th December 2014 at 03:56 AM.
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