NEXT LEVEL album thoughts

[Aga-chan]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Really? I believe Bridge to the sky was made in order to transition to NEXT LEVEL.. I believe the two lines that are found in Bridge are also found in NEXT LEVEL or something like that.. also, they perfectly fit together imo..

Well, the transitions between "Bridge to the sky" and "EnergizE" are quite good.

[kendelle]

Thanks for sharing the YT vid, it was really awesome *__*

I'm still loving the album. It's something so different from Ayu...I mean, the last time she dabbled in electro-pop was LOVEppears, which is coming up to being 10 years old!

My fave tracks change often, I love the whole album. The only things that are "bad" is that GREEN is out of place and sometimes the songs don't flow well together, but who really cares? I still find it enjoyable, I still play it at least once per day. I'm loving the interludes, they could really be full tracks if she had more time, but interludes are built for concerts really. I can't wait to hear Bridge to the Sky played live, it will be epic!

I think that Ayu needs more fun songs. I don't think that to be a great artist, she has to constantly write about how "the wings of hope will protect you" or w/e. Ayu is a great artist because she takes chances. Not every genre she tries is guaranteed to sell well, but she does it anyway. A lot of her albums have been divisive between fans lately. I remember when (m)u came out and it was trashed for ages before people turned around and decided that they liked it after all. (not saying everyone did, but there were some!)

Ayu wouldn't be the artist we love if she did work that pleased us every time. I think that makes her so wonderful. I love NL and rank it highly:

1) RAINBOW
2) MY STORY
3) LOVEppears
4) NEXT LEVEL/GUILTY
5) (miss)understood
6) Duty
7) I Am...
8) Secret
9) A Song for XX
10) Memorial Address

[truehappiness]

I highly recommend everyone to watch this. The songs in piano form are so.. intriguing and powerful. abottchen = amazing.

[*Petit*]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

I highly recommend everyone to watch this. The songs in piano form are so.. intriguing and powerful. abottchen = amazing.

THansk for posting this.

[JackieRos]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

I highly recommend everyone to watch this. The songs in piano form are so.. intriguing and powerful. abottchen = amazing.

wait i saw i a thread that they dont like people to post their videos anywhere

my turn album rank

RAINBOW
(miss)understood
GUILTY
Duty
LOVEppears
I am...
Memorial Address
NEXT LEVEL
Secret

I hate these two:
MY STORY
A Song For XX

other:
A BALLADS
A BEST

[pommy48]

they really are~ and they're really nice

i love how they played sparkle and mirrorcle world together <3

[nanakopy87]

i love this album very much...the way they arrange the songs...like disco-minication before energize...and the it starts with those hype songs and slowly slow down the tempo to days and curtain calls.
one of my favourite album <3

[pommy48]

^ they just don't like it when people rip the audio out of the video~

[truehappiness]

wait i saw i a thread that they dont like people to post their videos anywhere

You may not copy, distribute or transmit the playing without our permission.

I wonder if they count embedding through YouTube as the same? It's sort of weird that they'd say that and enable embedding, but oh well. It's YouTube.

[waterballoon]

^ Actually embedding can be disabled by the uploader. Unless these dudes only know piano and nothing else, I'm sure they would disable embedding if they don't want it "distributed". It's not like we're doing anything malicious to their works... oh well.

[JackieRos]

oh so its allowed

but why were the other videos of them deleted?

[pommy48]

they also need to embed their videos on TAF, so that's probably why they don't have the option turned off

[JackieRos]

to me youtube is complicated for me anyways

[rookies]

I love the piano versions of the songs from NEXT LEVEL in that youtube video, they are really good. *__*

[freedreamer]

^I love their Sparkle X MW piece...it's just brilliant..makes me think that Sparkle is gonna be superb in Rock (same for the MY ALL X momentum piece)

[ayumixfan]

Originally Posted by njanjayrp

Pure gold ^_^ Commercial success has at times little to do with the quality of the songs, of course it has up to some point, though I know many examples when crap sold (EXILE lol). Great songs ! = great sales. Of course it all depends on what you think the great music is. Since Ayu's albums always sold less & less I am positive the NL sales have nothing to do with the music.



First of all, the bold part is pure nonsense - someone was that desperate they had to try the EU in the end cuz it flopped in the States (now you don't go further and release singles for an album you don't have faith it will sell). Excuses aren't always the best arguments

Oh and I just love how people were all comparing Ayu's and Hikki's NINKI and now that NEXT LEVEL outsold TiTO the two became instantly incomparable. End the needless Hikki talk before a fight breaks out.

(miss)understood was the last Ayu album that was certified as a million seller (shiped copies) by RIAJ

So, my Ayu album list:
I am../MY STORY
GUILTY/LOVEppears
(miss)understood/Secret/Memorial Address
RAINBOW/NEXT LEVEL/A Song For XX/Duty

I still love all the albums ^_^

as rude as it is to continue this off-topic discussion, i'm going to do it anyways because I don't think your point makes sense. She didn't know the american pop scene well at the time. If you watched her exodus interview she even stated that she doesn't understand the pop radio and that she was experimenting with english because its different from japanese. Yes she tried to sell her music to the american market, but in terms of releasing it to make it favourable was another thing. Honestly i think her experimenting was the reason why exodus was able to sell well in Japan. She was just lucky her experimenting was favourable in japan :S and VERY unfavourable in the US, which was unlucky.

Second Hikki does not choose her releases, DefJam Island does. Its just like How avex can throw out A best and ayu really cant argue with it. I thought this was common knowledge...

I think the NINKI wasn't a comparison and u're taking it too seriously... everyone knows NINKI is just a interest survey, and people were just shocked to see TITO's ninki higher than next level. I never said you couldn't compare them :S but I mean the way she compares them against me is so stupid and then calls it my standards. I just htink its ridculous. I personally feel that comparing hikki's TITO that was directed towards an american audience to Next Level which was directed towards a japanese audience which is the selling target is unfair, but of course you're free to compare it. Its just my personal opinion. I might've pushed that point too much lately, and I'm sorry if I did. I'll admit sometimes I get a little defensive about this album, but thats because people call it a FLOP or try to make her look bad with it and ignore the fact that her HEART STATION album just sold a million copies meaning she's honestly not doing that bad.

I'm not the one making excuses here... I don't know if Utada was making excuses, but I persoanlly believe her because she's an oldies fan (she stated this) and she was in japan for a long time so obviously she didn't receive much information about the the american pop scene, this making her behind in the american music scene. I'd be overwhelmed too. When I stopped listening to american music for a few years, and finally like 2007, I started again, I really felt behind too. Even now I still feel slightly behind haha.

Once Again, u just restated what I posted. When you count sales, you use oricon. when you count shipments you use RIAJ. The difference is that oricon counts people buying the album while RIAJ counts how many albums avex was able to ship to the stores. I stated that she got shipments of 1 million but in terms of people buying it, it didn't reach a million making it her first album not to sell a million. Secret is the first album to not get shipments of a million though. Don't you wonder why hikki fans were sad when untra blue only didn't make it to 1 mill in oricon sales? it still received shipments of a milllion but it didnt sell a million making it hikki's first album to not sell a million ( This is not a comparison btw. This is an example of the difference between shipments and sales)

And I find it funny how you can call EXILE's sales as an example of how crap can still sell well when you say that music is in terms of taste. If its your opinion then fine, but that doesn't mean they're now officially an example.

Anyways I love the piano to Next Level. Maybe its because i love piano versions of songs haha. I love going to this asian grocery that plays piano versions of Jpop songs because it sounds so nice : ) Maybe these songs just didn't suit ayu for me because I really LOVED loveappears but I really dislike this album =/ but i do love the piano versions of the songs so I don't hate the songs in that context.

If I had to rank ayu albums:
1) LOVEppears <3 I loved the whole album.
2) (miss)understood - Same as the top but not as much
3) My Story - The album had a nice flow to it and I really liked the songs on it.
4) Duty - I like this album, but the main reason I loved it was for the three single tie-in
5) Memorial Address - It was very good, but I liked My Story over it XD
6) I am.../Rainbow <--- they;re really similar for me. I like it, but I felt it was overrated
7) Secret - I said this before, it wasn't the best, but it was definitely a decent album : )
8) A song for XX - I mainly liked the single tracks.. and not even all of them. Its ok tho
9) Next Level - I really don't like this album overall but it had 2 tracks I liked.
10) guilty - I don't want to recognize this as an ayu album because I don't like anything about it

[Andrenekoi]

TITO is far from selling that bad considering the actual music market in Japan, and so does Next Level... Trying to say that they are selling bad or that people are not liking their music based only on sales is somewhat dumb in my opinion... TITO is selling as good as american albums use to sell in Japan (it's still on top20, right?) and Exodus was top20 or top30 in the end of 2004...

Next Level still on top10 for 2009 and I don't really believe it will go down and leave top15 (top10 is not very likely, but still can do it), it's not a massive seller, but is far from a fail

So... to me, both are doing great^^

[AyuRox]

Bridge to the sky-Pretty cool. I like it towards the end where the synth comes in. The rest is good too. 4/5

NEXT LEVEL-I like this one, like, the style is really cool. Its upbeat and relaxing at the same time. There's a simplicity about the instrumentation that really gets to me. idk, its hard to describe. The scenery in the MV is really beautiful, too. 5/5

Disco-munication-This is very likely my fave ayu interlude. (of the few I've heard) I just really like the electronic thing it has going on. OMGLOL. The first time I heard the siren, I though there was a fire, or the cops were coming to arrest me or something. It scared the crap outta me. 5/5

EnergizE-This is probably my favorite song from NEXT LEVEL! Whenever I hear it, I can't help but smile. It puts me in such a great mood! Plus dance and swing together are awesome! I love that little triplet thing at the beginning and the end. (if anyone knows what I'm talking about) 5/5

Sparkle-I like Sparkle, but its lost some of its luster since I first heard it. It seems a tad repetative, and the chorus is on the same few notes over and over again. The bridge is a little lacking, but it does have a mysterious feel to it. 4/5

rollin'-This one's pretty awesome. Its all electronic and its just really cool. The effects during the chorus are really cool, too. The part that comes after the chorus is really *insert synonym of "cool" here*. (I need a bigger vocabulary) 5/5

GREEN-I agree that it feels out of place. Its like, random chinese sounding pop interjected in the middle of dance music. The song itself is good, regardless. Musically, its a little bizarre that the vocals are in swing, but the instrumentation is in even eighths. The end is a little reminicent of M. It gets all powerful, and then just before the end, it gets all calm again and repeats the verse. I like that. Not the best song, but I like it. 4/5

Load of the SHUGO-It starts off sounding like its gonna be electronic/dance, and then, electric guitar! I like the rock feel of it, but ist really repetative. 3/5

identity-I really like this one. While not my favorite, its close. The one thing about it is that right before the chorus, there's a split second of silence, which is just kinda weird, and makes the song sound like the music was spliced together. The song is really edgy, and I love it. the bridge is awesome. It sounds almost hip-hop-ish and then it goes into an awesome guitar solo. 5/5

Rule-like Sparkle, its lost some of its luster. At least it doesn't feel out of place, like GREEN... (If I could copy and paste from iTunes, I totally would) But yeah, its really rock based. The chorus is somewhat lackluster. The bridge and the parts right before the chorus are really calm and melodic, which offers a nice contrast from the rest of the song. 4/5

LOVE 'n' HATE-This song is really cool. Like, identity, its really edgy. The percussion in this song is pretty interesting. The beginning is cool, the way it starts with the violins. I like the verse a lot, and the synth in the backgroiund adds a nice touch. The bridge is more melodic, which contrasts the rest of the song. 5/5

Pieces of SEVEN-Starts off really melodic, but then it switches to that characteristic HAL sound. I like the end more than the beginning. 5/5

Days-one of my fave Ayu ballads. It makes me feel like Christmas. This song is just so beautiful and emational. Idk ehat else to say. Its just an awesome song. 'nuff said.

Curtain Call-Does the very beginning before the vocals remind anyone else of "Without You" by Mariah Carey? I hate to make that comparison, but yeah. This song is so calm and emotional! I love it. Throughout the song it gains movement and then just before the end, it calms down. 5/5