Ayu: Anything Goes [XXVIII]

[ExodusUK]

Everything about this song, video and Ayu in it is so gorgeous

[chocopockymaster]

Sweet scar is so slept on. I love everything about it.

[truehappiness]

It probably is rather special to Ayu since I don't think she's performed it yet of all the things on again/LOVE again. More tracks on LOVE again have been ignored but this one was on a mini too, so it's a little odd it's been ignored.



I forgot Ayu was part of this Tokyo Purin song. Her part is rather pretty~

[pedronekoi]

ˆ Had no idea this existed! Thanks for sharing

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by ExodusUK

Everything about this song, video and Ayu in it is so gorgeous

This is among the stuff she did I don't think gets enough love.

[truehappiness]

LOVE / again and LOVE again as a whole seemed to get the cold shoulder overall due to the "problems" from that era. I still loooove all the songs from those years.

[Andrenekoi]

I think I actually rank Sweet Scar as one of her best ballads.

[indigochild]

Sweet scar, BRILLANTE, and November are the holy trinity of melancholy ballads. Ugh she needs more of that in her discography

[xLuna&1LOVE]

I love Sweet Scar. This song is being overlooked so easily.
I wonder why Ayu doesn't give it more attention. Maybe it takes her to places she really doesn't want to be reminded of. Anyhow, it is so so beautiful, but it makes me sad anytime I hear it. I'll join your team @Andrenekoi, agreed it is one of her best ballads!

[Evan Odinson]

Everytime someone talks about Sweet Scar I feel summoned lol I love that song with my soul

And I always mention this but my personal holy trinity is Secret - Sweet Scar - Shape of Love and an acoustic set with those 3 songs would be incredible!

[chocopockymaster]

Originally Posted by indigochild

Sweet scar, BRILLANTE, and November are the holy trinity of melancholy ballads. Ugh she needs more of that in her discography

Say it louder for the people in the back, sis!!!

[ExodusUK]

lol i remember the hate was real when it become apparent that Love and Again would just become Love Again

[truehappiness]

With the "5 releases in 5 months" it was sort of inevitable.

[Katsuyuki012]

It's one of my favourite albums by Ayu.
After browsing the LOVE again thread, it seemed like many people on here actually liked the album a lot once it was out.

[truehappiness]

There was a lot of sour feelings toward the album afterward though I imagine. It's similar to what happened with Rock'n'Roll Circus and people really enjoying it at release but then for whatever reason they turned on it a while after.

It's hard to find people that enjoy LOVE again without mentioning the fact that a lot of the songs were old or from the vault or the LOVE + again debacle.

[Gustavopc]

I feel bad for that 5 releases strategy cause it was so poorly done. I think that's what ruined that era for most of us. First two releases were mini albums and oh my god that was so great she had just two so far in her discography! But why are there so many remixes? Then a classical album. Then tour release. Then an album with more than half of it being previously released. She started off with giant momentum and then it fell flat.

To this day I still think LOVE and again were sold as EPs instead of singles in order to try to snatch a #1 on Oricon, cause that had been the only year in her career since 1999 without a #1 album, since PQ and A SUMMER BEST failed to do so. LOVE failed as well, so they pushed again. And both failed unfortunately. Then, since there was no record to keep up with, well let's hold on the full album for now. But oh there's no new music to release. And then the mess began.

If LOVE and again had been proper singles, and with one or two months in between each, the momentum would have been much better, cause we knew an album with those songs would be coming up after that. But ayu had never released mini-albums and included their tracks on later full albums. This also helped a lot on that drama/hate.

All that aside, I really like LOVE again, it feels like a breath of fresh air after the Party queen era being so dark and heavy, it felt like she was at a good place. Unfortunately that didn't last for long cause of her boyfriend at the time as we all know lol

[truehappiness]

I think she was purposefully trying to avoid singles. At that time, L was the 'last one' so there wasn't really a desire to have new singles so they were positioned as minis.

I don't really think the 5 releases thing was that badly done, it was a lot of stuff that was kind of to be expected from her release-wise just in a rapid pace similar to the Love songs leadup with the 3 singles in 3 months.

It's telling also that A Classical and LOVE again both ended up getting number 1 the year after, so there was just no desire to get no.1 since A BEST 2 had already made her lose the no.1 to herself and GUILTY also had no no.1 weekly as well. For the team it was probably "if these get no.1, it's fine, if not, not a big deal" from 2007 onward.

She'll probably still get a no.1 somehow with whatever the next release or two is but it's definitely not a priority anymore. She's always come close with barely any promo at all with no.2/no.3 placements so imagine if she actually tried. Like if TROUBLE could manage daily no.2/weekly no.3 with her barely doing anything, imagine if she was doing it with the momentum she's had since the beginning of July.

[Gustavopc]

^ The record itself was having at least #1 album per year, not a strike of consecutive albums. GUILTY failed but A COMPLETE got it. And yeah it was pretty ironic that in january A CLASSICAL got that #1 'a bit too late' lol But it was so cool for that release to grab that spot, being the first classical album to do so and such.

[truehappiness]

One album a year at no.1 though is one of those weird records though that could very easily get broken if you're inactive for any given period. It'd have happened regardless in the post-TROUBLE years for example if not already having been 'broken' by the lack of releases getting it in the years after LOVE again. (#5, #4, #2, #2, #3 for releases since)

I think she hovers around a good enough spot that unless some juggernaut is releasing, she'd hit #1 nowadays. Just recently some albums hit the top with just 25k~ in sales.

[EndOfTheWorld]

Sweet scar is one of her best work in the 2010s for me. I'll always love it.
I remember checking ahs when LOVE again was out and I thought the backlash was a bit much. It was a bit disappointing that it was just combining the two past releases but I was kind of expecting that to happen. It was like Robyn's Body Talk releases a few years prior.
I enjoy the album overall. I liked it better than Party Queen and felt it was a step in a better direction. I'll admit though that it had a safe sound that sometimes ended up contributing to the "typical Ayu" criticism.