Thoughts on COUNTDOWN LIVE 2007-2008 Anniversary

[Bad Wolf]

Originally Posted by octocoffee

@Inorinouta
XD You're funny.

And yeah, I was thinking about that too. I think that this CDL was an especially important one for her, since it's her 10th Anniversary as well as a tribute the her special friend who died. If I was her, I'd want to put my all (wow, unexpected pun) into this. So, despite the vocals, I still loved this concert.

That's how I feel. If her vocals sounded rusty and unpolished, I could deal with that because the show itself was still an amazing one. I'm not trying to come up with excuses or anything for Ayu's sake, but this has been a really tough year alone just with the break up and the death of her friend: if she has any other worries going on, personal OR professional, that's bound to weigh hard on her and take away from her concentration. Thinking like that, there's no way I could fault her for shoddy vocal work on a few songs (because YES, the performance really wasn't bad overall) because that's not her standard: that's not something Ayu finds "acceptable."

[mishidabo]

i just watched the CDL today... it was seriously boring.. i dunno if it was ayu's crappy vocals over the damn thing... but for some reason the dvd release is always more fun to watch (which is not a good thing :S)

anywho, wasnt expecting to much of this CDL, but the outfits were nice, and she did some effort to "dance".

One thing i had the biggest problem was the intro.. it is supposed to pump you up and get you all fired up for ayu, but this time... i couldnt bare it

[truehappiness]

Originally Posted by mishidabo

i just watched the CDL today... it was seriously boring.. i dunno if it was ayu's crappy vocals over the damn thing... but for some reason the dvd release is always more fun to watch (which is not a good thing :S)

anywho, wasnt expecting to much of this CDL, but the outfits were nice, and she did some effort to "dance".

One thing i had the biggest problem was the intro.. it is supposed to pump you up and get you all fired up for ayu, but this time... i couldnt bare it

Whatever. You're boring.

[Ayumiko]

I finally finished downloading the whole freakin thing and watched it! Its definitely my fav cdl from ayu.

I do agree with mishidabo about the intro. There are better choice but this one is not bad. Reminds me of duty . Im glad she didnt use mirror as the intro. Save it for the tour! Unlike last year she used not yet as the intro for best of cdl

Honestly her vocals wasn't that bad like some of you guys said it was. I was expecting something far worse than this after reading the comments before watching. omg last year's was worse!

I love all the performances. Very entertaining. Ladies night, together when She performed some of the songs that I didn't think I would hear in this concert...and its a good thing! untitled for her and my all was sad

All the outfits are nice. The outfit for evolution was very well put together. I really like it. The school uniform outfit was really nice too. The decision outfit looks really cool on her with her hairstyle. This cdl definitely have the best outfits overall.

I can't wait till they release the dvd. I really want to add this concert dvd to my collection!

[truehappiness]

I think "starting over" fit in with the theme that she was gonna "start over" this year.. in a way..

And she did use Not yet in the AT07 interlude-video-ness. It was before the Secret/part of Me performance.

[Bad Wolf]

^ I agree. She probably used "Starting over" for a reason and.. well, what is New Year's but an opportunity to make promises to start over again in a new year?

I really can't wait for this to be released: I'd love or this to be my first Ayu DVD..

[Kaiyn]

so dissapointed.. this would have been the best CDL imo ever if not for her shocking vocals

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Some of you guys seem to believe that she performs the way she does because she believes it's "good." And because of that, you think that she sucks at lives and shouldn't be doing them because she's just damaging her reputation even further. But perhaps there's something to it. A reason maybe? I dunno if she'll ever say "Oh, I'm sorry for not singing my best", but she's sure giving it her all despite not being able to hit notes too well. I think that's enough to make up for her bad vocals. At least she's performing and not being a grouch about it. [i.e: singing badly AND performing as if she's singing badly]

This simply isn't true at all, shes a singer, and generally singers are required to be able to sing in tune...if she was a little off it would be forgivable, because it was a good show... it's not like Ayu's selling point is her singing ability, but for songs like Surreal and Humming she was COMPLETELY off to the point where it was very annoying. I'm a huge fan of Ayu, i've flown to Tokyo to see past shows, but I'm not a blind fan... This person pretty much summarized how i feel:

Originally Posted by voltron

I have to say I'm pretty sad about this. It was a good show for a CDL, in terms of entertainment value, but it's by far the worse vocal performance during a concert to date for Ayu. I don't think she hit a single correct note during Surreal. The whole show was just an absolute mess...usually the unplugged section goes really well in her tours lately, but even these songs were not good. I really hope she rests her voice before her next full out tour, because if she's going to sound like this from now on...it's not worth touring.

The only thing worse than Ayu's vocals was peco and princess'...i'm actually beginning to wonder if maaaaybe someone majorly screwed up some of the equipment set up. Could they not hear themselves properly? Was Ayu's ear piece broken? The fact that she was so consistantly off-key makes me think it's a possibility.

[ownsarai]

I only saw what truehappiness uploaded (the TV rips)...I thought Ayu's vocals were a little low, but I figured that to be because it was on TV and not in HQ.

I loved the opening "starting over" I also think it reflects how Ayu sees this year, a good starting over point.

"talkin' 2 myself" was FIERCE! Love the FIRE! The outfit is beautiful, I think it's one of my favorites from this year, besides the red outfit from "decision".

Ayu looks really HAWT in that red outfit. Ayu's vocals were good for "decison" but...OY! Peco & Princess, their back-up vocals RUINED it for me. *stabs them in the throat*

"RAINBOW" was nice, I loved the song the whole way through.

"fated" was great vocally and her outfit was gorgeous and sparkly, but, I'm sorry, Shuya should not have come out and did his "interpretive dancing"...to me it just looked a little silly and didn't really fit into the song...(maybe it's just me that thinks this)

"untitled~for her~" was very sad, I too cried, I could just see the emotion coming from Ayu, and it made me want to hug her.

"MY ALL" was an awesome ender to the show...although the vocals weren't 100%, but it was nice to see the audience trying to do the parapara... I'm going to learn it myself!

Hoping to see the rest soon! I want to own this on DVD. In all I give it a 8/10 (based on the parts I've seen so far)

[Kaiyn]

Originally Posted by voltron

I have to say I'm pretty sad about this. It was a good show for a CDL, in terms of entertainment value, but it's by far the worse vocal performance during a concert to date for Ayu. I don't think she hit a single correct note during Surreal. The whole show was just an absolute mess...usually the unplugged section goes really well in her tours lately, but even these songs were not good. I really hope she rests her voice before her next full out tour, because if she's going to sound like this from now on...it's not worth touring.

Couldn't agree more ...it was so bad ....;; the only thing i can think in Ayu's defense is maybe someone screwed up the equipment...and she couldn't here herself properly. It would make sense as she was so consistently off key, and Peco and Princess also sounded terrible...maybe this happened during surreal...hence the dramatic shift into one of the worst performances of Ayu's i can remember ever seeing..;;

If this CDL had the vocals from CDL 05-06 it would have been just about perfect...

[truehappiness]

It wasn't as much "parapara" as it was just.. arm dancing. XD

Like B&G's LALA LALA LALA LAALAAALAAA when you move your arms up and down. And Trauma's kyooou no ureshii kanata wo or w/e.

Parapra involves leg movements of stepping to the side and such, whereas these ones are just audience interaction-moves.

[ownsarai]

^meh, I just call it parapara anyway... But it looks like fun!

[Ayumiko]

lol....I just remembered that girl in black with the huge ass and boobs. Hope we get to see her if there's documentary or something. I wanna see what they stuff in there. I can totally see ayu laughing really hard. haha

[alternarist]

yeah... 1st of all, ayu's voice didnt make it that night. she was tired..

i was a bit disappointed with the overall concert. i feel that the costumes were slightly boring and the stage set up wasnt too fanciful either. but i have a strong feeling that ayu is saving the best part for her ASIA TOUR so i jus gonna wait!!!!!!

i like the idea of having 3 stages cos you wun know when ayu will appear next!!! Ladies Night was fun with the guys trying to compete in dancing. Bold & Delicious looks weird without the bday cake stage but i still like it nonetheless..

i dint like the idea of having RAINBOW as the song for before/after the countdown. doesnt pump me up a lot.. lol..

Finally, i am glad that ayu used glitter as the ending song. it beats Boys & Girls though i like it a lot!!

i realised that there is one more male dancer, and 2 more female dancers. One of which left and joined back again!! i hope that she only joined back the dancing group for the CDL cos she is not pretty at all.... Midoring-u looks way too HOT!!!!!!!!!!

[UHPlus]

i was watching RAINBOW on veoh.com

O_O the last part of the song is TOTALLY out of this world horrible...

[truehappiness]

I think you're overreacting. :|

[UHPlus]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

I think you're overreacting. :|

u haven't seen me over-reacted... ^_^

...and ya, STEP you is pre-recorded

[truehappiness]

Originally Posted by UHPlus

u haven't seen me over-reacted... ^_^

...and ya, STEP you is pre-recorded

Blah.

You don't know that for a fact.

[se7entheaven]

I dunno..sorry but I think this is really her worst CDL I've heard so far...Not that it's bad ..like..totally bad..but it lacks ayu's voice in it...last year's CDL still better... I dunno..in December last year ayu's lives were good but in this CDL..really... even I've only watched 3 perfs. but I think it sounds bad...in talkin' 2 myself,RAINBOW,and MY ALL,sorry ayu...this time u sound not that good...I hope Asia Tour next year will be good

[truehappiness]

Originally Posted by se7entheaven

I dunno..sorry but I think this is really her worst CDL I've heard so far...Not that it's bad ..like..totally bad..but it lacks ayu's voice in it...last year's CDL still better... I dunno..in December last year ayu's lives were good but in this CDL..really... even I've only watched 3 perfs. but I think it sounds bad...in talkin' 2 myself,RAINBOW,and MY ALL,sorry ayu...this time u sound not that good...I hope Asia Tour next year will be good

:\

The performances you watched weren't even the best examples of CDL though..

MY ALL, she was sobbing throughout the song, so that obviously isn't a good vocal number, talkin' 2 myself was one of her best performances of the song yet [although the mic should be set louder], so perhaps you've never seen the TV performances? And for RAINBOW... it was okay but not terrible. I'd say she's done better, and probably did do a lot better on 12/30.

[se7entheaven]

truehappiness you are a really good fans of ayu and nice 'defender' here to comment on all the negatives comments abouth this CDL..I LIKE U ^^ LOL
well...I change a bit ok...um...actually I finished watching MY ALL perf. and I think she's still GOOD coz...u know...she still can reach the last part (hi-pitch)...I like that...ya maybe she's exhausted...can't blame her...singers are not always perfect...sometimes koda kumi also cant reach the notes in ai no uta where she keeps making it longer tunes in 'ai no uh-taaaaa'... lol