[Koda Kumi] The 179th Summer Thread with Love

[Minttulatte]

^Last album by Kuu I sang along to was JAPONESQUE. After that I just lost interest in the whole singing hobby, lol. I got my passion for writing fiction back. It's so much more productive than trying to sing. But singing along is fun too. I used to spend hours doing that. I even lost my voice once because I was stupid enough to do that when I was sick as hell. :'D

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

Listening to the magnum opus that is Black Cherry.

I miss the variety (and production value) that this album contains. Sigh.

[jiarongisme]

Ugh Black Cherry is SO GOOD. That's the first Kuu album I started with, and it's still my favorite Kuu album till now.

[Gustavopc]

To me Black Cherry is highly overrated hahahah The album is a mess and the best tracks are the singles imo :/ But I understand people who love it, I juat prefer Kingdom over it

[NintendoHTF1242]

^ I also find Black Cherry to be highly overrated. Extremely messy album. My favorite Kuu album has to be JAPONESQUE. I was so obsessed with it when it first came out. I would jam to V.I.P. during passing time at school and then proceed to walk home jamming out to Everyday and IN THE AIR lol. Man, good times.

[KarenPang]

Black Cherry was the 1st Kuu album I bought/listened . I remembered when I 1st started listening to JPop , I was really memorised by the cover artwork of the album as Kuu looked amazing

And I know people have divided opinions on her albums post Black Cherry . For me , I actually disliked Kingdom but I surprisingly enjoyed TRICK

I think so far the only album that I dislike a lot up to now is probably UNIVERSE as I didn't liked the way the album was marketed together with BEST～third universe～

But I did enjoyed JAPONESQUE , Bon Voyage a great deal and WALK OF MY LIFE was good despite the rather generic sounding song titles

[ayumisrael]

I think that JAPONESQUE is kuu's best album post Black Cherry.

[Miduhyo]

^^ I hatttted how UNIVERSE was marketed. It was just so unnecessary.

And I'm one of those that also think Black Cherry is overrated though it's definitely a good album. My favorite of hers actually has to be TRICK. I was interested in Koda Kumi for a while, but it was Taboo that made me an honest fan and to this day that song is still my jam. I love every song on it... besides That Ain't Cool. (God, why does that song exist?) Just The Way You Are is probably my favorite upbeat track of hers. I like you~ I like you~ You are my best friend! It's the perfect mix of upbeat, cheesy, fun, pop. I just love it. xD

[KarenPang]

For a second there I thought I was the only 1 that disliked the way UNIVERSE was marketed when it was released at that time

It was odd if not really mean that BEST～third universe～ was released as a standalone best album but UNIVERSE itself was not which really annoyed me . Album tracks wise , I can't even remember any of them aside from UNIVERSE (the song -_-)

It's a pity though cos I thought the single songs in UNIVERSE were good

[Corvina]

I also dislike the way UNIVERSE was marketed with the best. But it is actually my favourite Kuu album. Great singles and some of her best album tracks (YSB, No Way, UNIVERSE). The 2 cute songs are nice as well. The only song I dislike and skip is Stay. I'd love to have a proper shoot, cover and packaging for this album.

Black Cherry was my first album back as a fan and the first I owned. It's a good one, but I also think it's overrated.
I pretty much like every album of her to be honest. The weakest are affection and secret to me - secret is the other totally overrated album. I just like half of it.
Apart from those two, all of them are good to me.

[ayumisrael]

What? affection and secret are masterpieces

Well everything from affection (save for feel my mind because of its slow flaw) up to ~second session~ included was awesome.

[Pieces_of_SEVEN]

So is there a resource anywhere for download kuu's PVs?

[DevilsClap]

secret was my first album of hers and I love it to bits.
I don't enjoy Kingdom a lot except for a few tracks though, but still own the album itself.. sometimes I ask myself why.
the cover art for Black Cherry isn't exactly to my likes but the album is really good.

[Gustavopc]

Originally Posted by Corvina

I also dislike the way UNIVERSE was marketed with the best. But it is actually my favourite Kuu album. Great singles and some of her best album tracks (YSB, No Way, UNIVERSE). The 2 cute songs are nice as well. The only song I dislike and skip is Stay. I'd love to have a proper shoot, cover and packaging for this album.

Black Cherry was my first album back as a fan and the first I owned. It's a good one, but I also think it's overrated.
I pretty much like every album of her to be honest. The weakest are affection and secret to me - secret is the other totally overrated album. I just like half of it.
Apart from those two, all of them are good to me.

Totally agree with your thoughts on UNIVERSE Except for it being my favorite, I don't know if I have a fav album of hers tbh, it really depends on my mood. If I had to make a top three, it'd probably be JAPONESQUE, feel my mind and WOML.

[jean-baptiste]

I don't think Black Cherry is overrated at all. Someone mentioned the production quality of that album, which I think makes up for the mess of the tracklist order.

Kingdom is definitely one of my top fav kuu albums. secret and affection being at the top, since I agree they are masterpieces.

And I know not one soul will agree with me on this, but I actually think JAPONESQUE is her most overrated record. Good album, but to me that's all it is. A few amazing tracks (Slow, Lay Down, Love Technique) the others are really good or just ok, but not the way everyone makes it out to be. In my (very unpopular) opinion, of course. Lol

I notice the albums that seem to make a very particular impact on me are her cover albums. Would love her to release another one soon.

[DevilsClap]

I agree with what you said on JAPONESQUE

[pimenta]

I agree 100% with the statement that JAPONESQUE is her most overrated album. It's good, but not near her best imo.

To me Kingdom is one of her weakest albums ever, I just don't get the hype about it... it has some amazing songs (mostly the singles), but the album tracks just don't stand out for me (except Under, I love Under). And it has More, which is probably the one track from Kuu that I can't bring myself to like not even one bit.

I agree with those complaining about the marketing behind UNIVERSE, it's an amazing album that got overshadowed by the whole best thing

But, tbh, probably very few will agree with me on this, but my favorite Kuu album has become Bon Voyage. I can listen to that album over and over again and never get bored, it's so good imo

[Minttulatte]

Oh, there's a how we became fans/what's her best album discussion here? Let me take a part in it as well then~~ Prepare for the longest post I have ever written in a Kuu thread, muhahaha.

I started listening Kuu with affection in 2006. I wanted to listen every album through that was released between 2002 and 2006 (up to BEST ~second session~). Affection and grow into one were pretty boring to me at first but feel my mind was the first album that caught my attention by being awesome. Secret made me even more amazed and so did BEST ~first things/second session~.

But I didn't call myself a fan yet. More like a casual listener because at the time I really disliked everything that was somehow sexy (I know, it's stupid as fuck) and when Black Cherry was released I wasn't sure if I wanted to listen to it but then I thought, "But BEST ~ss~ is amazing, what if Black Cherry is even more amazing?" which really surprised me actually. Back then I was still in my Ayu/Hikki phase, you see. But I still listened to Black Cherry and after doing that I've been a loyal Kuu fan. That album is just awesome in every way I can think of. And therefore it's definitely my favorite album of hers. After that release I have listened to/watched everything.

My Kuu phase was on it's highest peak during 2007-2008. I pretty much listened to everything on repeat 24/7. And the result was that I overplayed Kingdom to the point that it sounded boring for a while as well. But then I told myself not to listen to it until I feel I have to and that took me 6 months or something, haha. :'D During those times I was busy with TRICK era which was awesome, but the album itself didn't meet my expectations. Singles were amazing (especially TABOO, I think it's my most played Kuu single ever, followed by Suki de x3 / Anata dake ga and Whatchu Waitin' On?) but album tracks didn't amaze me at all at first. Album has then grown on me a lot, and now I can say that I love it. Maybe not as much as the rest, but it has some of my top 20 favorites in it so it can't be shit.

What happened with TRICK also happened with UNIVERSE, but it did so with her singles instead of the album. I felt like the best stuff was left for the album only (UNIVERSE, Work It Out!, No Way, and You're So Beautiful are the ones I talk about). But it was only a good thing because that album totally made me crazy for her music just in time for the 10th Anniversary, lol. UNIVERSE is actually one of my favorite albums now. I think it's in the top 5 actually. Lyrics are one of the best parts of this album because I can relate to these so well.

As for the albums 2011 onwards, I totally love them. Dejavu is also one of my top 5 favorites actually. That era is flawless. All singles were great (I totally played the living shit out of Suki de, suki de, suki de, Lollipop and POP DIVA and later also Bambi, Melting and Aitakute were on repeat). JAPONESQUE era was also awesome (I totally overplayed Ai wo tomenaide, KO-SO-KO-SO, V.I.P. and Lay Down), as was Bon Voyage (SHOW ME YOUR HOLLA, Dreaming Now!, Koishikute and Go to the top were the most played songs) and WALK OF MY LIFE (Dance In The Rain and HOTEL are so far the most played tracks. I'm still gonna play Like It, Lippy, Fake Tongue and few others like crazy) eras. I can alrso say that imo WOML is better than Bon Voyage was. WOML era is also gradually turning into one of my favorite Kuu eras as well.

The list of my most played/most loved Kuu albums/eras:

01) Black Cherry
02) Kingdom
03) Dejavu
04) JAPONESQUE
05) BEST ~second session~ / WALK OF MY LIFE

Added the list just to see for myself how my fangirlsm has made me unable to resist her music.

As for Black Cherry being overrated, I don't think so. I personally think Kingdom is the one that gets more praise than it deserves. I mean, it's a great album and it will probably always be one of my favs because I have a lot of good memories from those days, but still I don't find it having that everlasting atmosphere on it like with Black Cherry. I could listen to it for weeks without getting tired of it. With Kingdom it's not like that at all so I always feel surprised when someone says Kingdom shits on Black Cherry and everything that it is (I have read comments like this on other sites). Also, I gotta confess that Kingdom era also destroyed my Ayu fandom completely until You were... / BALLAD was released in 2009, but that's not important really, lol. Anyhoo, imo everything about Black Cherry is perfect. It doesn't have any shitty songs or anything and that tour she did for this masterpiece is also amazing as hell. I just stan for this album so bad that it even goes past my stannism for Ayu's (miss)understood. :'D

Also, I don't think JAPONESQUE is overrated. Imo it got more hate than love when it was released unlike Kingdom which got no hate. It was praised as her best album to date. JAPONESQUE was mostly said to be shittier than shit on some sites I went to look so I don't get where this statement comes from tbh, but then again, everyone has their opinions.

[Gustavopc]

omg pimenta you don't like MORE?! I think we'll never agree when it comes to Kuu MORE is one of the first songs I show to people who don't know her lol

[pimenta]

^ opinions... go figure
I just can't stand MORE...

Actually, when I'm introducing people to Kuu I usually don't go with the ballads, for some reason the people I show them don't tend to like Kuu's ballads at first, so I usually start with the upbeat songs.