[2008] H/\L minus two members = worthless?

[truehappiness]

Yes, I said it.

I think some people have noticed that H/\L, as arrangers for Ayu since like 1999/2000, have started to slack off like woah, and it's kind of obvious why. Like, in 2001 and 2003, H/\L lost two big members of their team, Yuta Nakano and Atsushi Sato who is also known as ats-. It is my belief that they were what made H/\L the team that they were.. like, when Ayu used to have really good arrangements and we'd be like "Wow, these songs are amazing!"

Examples of their tracks before Yuta's departure:
Fly high
immature (album version)
appears (album version)
Far away
SURREAL
AUDIENCE
M
evolution
UNITE! [might be overthinking it since Yuta left around this point.]

Examples of tracks before Atsushi's departure:
Daybreak's H/\L's mix
Free&Easy
Over
WE WISH
Dolls
neverending dream
Greatful days
No way to say
Because of You
ANGEL'S SONG [might stretching this since he left in 2003]

And afterwards they've had tracks like all of Ayu's summer songs since fairyland, Kaleidoscope/LABYRINTH/reBiRTH.. etc.

A more complete list under the spoiler with bolded songs being the ones that most people think sound like something else:

Spoiler:

INSPIRE
GAME
my name's WOMEN
Kaleidoscope
HONEY
Replace
is this LOVE?
fairyland
BLUE BIRD
1 LOVE
LABYRINTH
momentum
part of Me
(don't) Leave me alone
talkin' 2 myself
glitter
MY ALL
reBiRTH

It's like, the soul was sucked out of them when these two people left the group. Just so you know, Yuta Nakano recently started more work with Ayu and its been fantastic [arrangement starting with HEAVEN and rainy day, both AMAZING!!!! and compositions starting with talkin' 2 myself which was worked on with H/\L.. hilariously enough, his old teammates, who he probably bossed around while making the arrangement ahahahahahaha]... and ats- has done a lot of amazing work with random avex artists and others.. a standout is his work on Yuna Ito's ENDLESS STORY. [though H/\L did arrange ENDLESS STORY, but I guess that's a different story.]

Sort of surprising to me that every single one of Ayu's similar-sounding-songs has been done by the bumbling duo that is H/\L today. It's just.. astounding. What do you think? Should she just stop using them? I personally think so, as that would be a lot better for Ayu and uh, better for us.

Next time you think that the summer songs or H/\L interludes all sound the same, don't blame Ayu. It's basically all H/\L's fault for being so LAZY.