Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai - View Single Post - ayumi hamasaki ARENA TOUR 2018 ~POWER of MUSIC 20th Anniversary ~ [III]
View Single Post
  #331  
Old 12th May 2018, 05:13 PM
SunshineSlayer's Avatar
SunshineSlayer SunshineSlayer is offline
walking proud Initiate
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Japan/USA
Posts: 7,019
Quote:
Originally Posted by voltron View Post
She sounded great 95% of the night, with very few exceptions. To her vocal critics - I know she has better and worse performances, but I do think she takes her vocals seriously. I saw Namie, Koda Kumi, and Ayu in this trip and Ayu is really the only one that relies on background singers and doesn't use a significant backing track. Honestly at times you could barely hear Namie over her backing track, and during some songs when it poked through it was sour notes (other slower songs where she used less of a track were great though). Koda Kumi also uses one heavily and while she has really strong belts and a versatile voice, she also has her share of misses. I was really impressed with her overall.
Yep. I always go into Ayu the last several years with measured expectations; I know she isn't going to sound completely amazing anymore, but what I am always impressed with is that she is indeed live most of the time.

We were at the same Namie show. And yeah, the backing track was pretty strong (stronger than usual because I've seen her many times as well), and she did indeed struggle with the higher notes, particularly, of her older songs like Don't Wanna Cry, You're My Sunshine etc.