Ayu - Anything Goes Thread -XIV-

[paper_doll]

^I feel you on that.

I just can't walk away entirely. When's the last time she put out something I truly enjoyed? A decade ago? Maybe longer? But her back catalogue is so incredible and so important. And because she puts out some really good songs every once and a while, it's worth sticking around for me. She'll always be my favourite even though I feel like I mostly just bitch anymore lol

[jiarongisme]

I think this is the Sweet Season video in question

[Miduhyo]

^ Oh my God, I loved it. So much better than what we have, I feel.

[Delirium-Zer0]

Originally Posted by paper_doll

^I feel you on that.

I just can't walk away entirely. When's the last time she put out something I truly enjoyed? A decade ago? Maybe longer? But her back catalogue is so incredible and so important. And because she puts out some really good songs every once and a while, it's worth sticking around for me. She'll always be my favourite even though I feel like I mostly just bitch anymore lol

Kinda with you guys there. Like I love "A ONE" but it's still nowhere near what I feel like it COULD be.

I don't feel like Ayu is doing what she seemed to be on track to do through... hmm, maybe the "H" single. She seemed to be getting more intimate, allowing herself some rawness, she used a good mix of electronic, electric, and acoustic instrumentation.... her stuff had texture, and that gave it more resonance, because the music felt very deliberately created but it also felt very human.

These days I'll listen to music like old-school Garbage, Enter Shikari, late 90s/early 2000s BT, some progressive metal & dramatic Visual Kei stuff, Bjork's "Post" and "Homogenic" albums, Tori Amos' "from the choirgirl hotel" and "To Venus and Back" and I just think.... Ayu should be doing music somewhere at the midway between all that & her current stuff. THAT is where she seemed to be going, and I dunno if she got scared of going that way or what. And I think I'm disappointed that I never got to see a mature version of the material on "Duty" and "I am..." because NONE of the above music really scratches the itch for me. Enter Shikari has all the screaming vocals which I'm really not into. BT's stuff is just a BIT too engineered for Ayu (although I'd still ADORE a collaboration between them, I really would). Prog metal (and math rock) don't typically have the female vocals and when they do the singer just doesn't sound like she's really feeling what she's singing... like she's more focused on the technique than the emotion. The other stuff up there I've just listened to too many times, and there's nothing new that sounds like it, so I'm left kinda feeling like "okay, I'm done listening to all that, does anyone have anything for me? ...No? well crap..."

Ayu's big selling point for me was that her stuff was more personal & complex than most "pop" was, but it still had the polish & professionalism of pop... It was intimate like the rock I enjoyed, but it wasn't totally self-indulgent and thrown-together-in-a-garage sounding. My taste has always been stuff that's personal and noisy, but communicated in the polished pop music language. And Ayu exemplified that in a MAJOR way for awhile. And I've yet to find anyone to match it. Like I've never heard a song like "monochrome" by anyone else.

When Ayu occasionally releases songs that incorporate some deliberate artistry, it's SO WORTH IT to keep following her, because those songs are always "OMG MY FAVORITE SONG EVER" whenever they happen.

[Yumsushi]

Originally Posted by jiarongisme

I think this is the Sweet Season video in question

I remember watching this when it was first posted but I never noticed the difference between this and the final version. Personally I like both, but this version sounds rawer, warmer somehow.

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

These days I'll listen to music like old-school Garbage, Enter Shikari, late 90s/early 2000s BT, some progressive metal & dramatic Visual Kei stuff, Bjork's "Post" and "Homogenic" albums, Tori Amos' "from the choirgirl hotel" and "To Venus and Back" and I just think.... Ayu should be doing music somewhere at the midway between all that & her current stuff. THAT is where she seemed to be going, and I dunno if she got scared of going that way or what. And I think I'm disappointed that I never got to see a mature version of the material on "Duty" and "I am..." because NONE of the above music really scratches the itch for me. Enter Shikari has all the screaming vocals which I'm really not into. BT's stuff is just a BIT too engineered for Ayu (although I'd still ADORE a collaboration between them, I really would). Prog metal (and math rock) don't typically have the female vocals and when they do the singer just doesn't sound like she's really feeling what she's singing... like she's more focused on the technique than the emotion. The other stuff up there I've just listened to too many times, and there's nothing new that sounds like it, so I'm left kinda feeling like "okay, I'm done listening to all that, does anyone have anything for me? ...No? well crap..."

By BT did you mean Buck-Tick? I would LOVE to see a collaboration too!
Something like Oukoku kingdom come, Romance or Keijijou Ryusei. Although I think even Ayu would find it challenging to match Sakurai's sexy soulful style.

Also as a Bjork and Tori Amos fan I can say that looking at their careers, they too (to me) had highs and low in terms of their musical output but I dont think any of them actually lost sense of their selves or their art like I feel Ayu did. I feel that Ayu is too immersed in her world to be able to look at anything objectively. She needs to either step away for a time or hire an objective third party to critique her work.

[Aderianu]

7th March - NEVER EVER 15th anniversary


8th March - Startin'/Born To Be… 10th anniversary

[Chibi-Chan]

How I miss those times when she didn't looked all fake on her covers. u.u

[jiarongisme]

I LOVE everything about the Startin'/Born To Be... shoot. EVERYTHING.

[Miduhyo]

^ Me too. She looks soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo beautiful in them.

[Gustavopc]

That is the main reason I bought the single lol It is one of her prettiest shoots ever imo

[MessiahofSilence]

Originally Posted by jiarongisme

I LOVE everything about the Startin'/Born To Be... shoot. EVERYTHING.

God, YES!
Long straight and dark hair really suits her

[Delirium-Zer0]

Originally Posted by Yumsushi

By BT did you mean Buck-Tick? I would LOVE to see a collaboration too!
Something like Oukoku kingdom come, Romance or Keijijou Ryusei. Although I think even Ayu would find it challenging to match Sakurai's sexy soulful style.

No, BT the electronic composer/producer... although a collab with Buck-Tick might be interesting, especially if Ayu sticks to her lower voice and gentle vibrato. She can be absolutely entrancing when she sings low like that. Imagine a Buck-Tick collaboration version of "the next LOVE"! They could add a really gorgeous gothic touch to something like that.

But no, BT (Brian Transeau)'s older big beat stuff (cuz nowadays his stuff is more straightforward EDM/pop/trance) is a GREAT fit for Ayu. To be honest even his recent EDM stuff is a better fit for Ayu melodically & production-wise than a bunch of what was on "Colours," but only marginally. I just feel like the feelings they both put into music seem very similar, but he's much more willing to express it than Ayu has been.

I just have such a hard time believing Ayu hasn't looked into working with BT at all o_O I mean, Hybrid and Mad Professor back in the day, but not BT? That's weird to me.

....Also, Daishi Dance is a poor man's Hybrid lol.

god I miss millennial techno & electronica music. hahahaha

[oaristos]

Originally Posted by love in music

I don't like How Beautiful You Are either. The English lines and her voice ruin it for me.

My ears bleed every time I listen to How beautiful you are. I think it's the worst song from Party Queen and I can't believe it even got a tie-in.

Originally Posted by Aderianu

8th March - Startin'/Born To Be… 10th anniversary

Such an iconic song! It reminds me of how good of an album Secret is!

[Brett.Mason92]

I hope her being with her new husband inspires

Return to Virgin Road ~Untitled so no ex-husband shaming~

featuring her husband in a video trilogy single for winter and not dropping a photo again like in Return Road so we know she values Husband #3 more than Maro (my bae) and that Tarzan wannabe.

[Brett.Mason92]

Originally Posted by love in music

I don't like How Beautiful You Are either. The English lines and her voice ruin it for me.
Anyone remember Sunset ~Love is all~ ? I remember there was so much hate for it when it first came out for being boring. Has anyone's opinion changed on it? I still think it drags a bit but is a nice listen.

Because you don't know how beautiful you are. Watch Feel the love and so you can be that girl who chases a man through LA to Santa Monica and becomes skinny Ayu herself. If you know that and know better, you can then appreciate how beautiful you are and work on yourself, ANATA GA


But really, I don't like her English also there.. Her English sounds like she's struggling to breath sometimes like she's escaping this situation and recording all at once.


You don't know
you don't know
how bea-uuu-tiff-full you ahhhhh
you ahhhh
you ahhhh
yeahhhhhh
You don't know
you don't know
how bea-uuu-tiff-full you ahhhhh




(I'm not mocking her accent in a prejudice way as her english IS GOOD, it's just how it's sung)

[xLuna&1LOVE]

^ What is up with those gifs tho? I don't get it and I don't think it is funny.

I might be retarded, because I like how beautiful you are. I won't be overplaying it, but it is a nice song. I prefer to listen to this, than something like Thank U.
Besides it is a nice album ending. The worst of Party Queen is definetely NaNaNa or Eyes Smoke Magic.

[DonkeyKongRemix]

LOL those gifs, it's like you think it's leading to something pleasant and it turns to hell. That last one!!!

[Brett.Mason92]

Originally Posted by xLuna&1LOVE

^ What is up with those gifs tho? I don't get it and I don't think it is funny.

I might be retarded, because I like how beautiful you are. I won't be overplaying it, but it is a nice song. I prefer to listen to this, than something like Thank U.
Besides it is a nice album ending. The worst of Party Queen is definitely NaNaNa or Eyes Smoke Magic.

I do like it and the chorus is FINE. Above, I was just being overdramatic out of boredom and seeing as it's common for members to give great critic towards her music. However; I'm bad at that as I love almost all her songs so I just went crazy with GIF's

[SayukiChoco]

Originally Posted by jiarongisme

I LOVE everything about the Startin'/Born To Be... shoot. EVERYTHING.

Totally! It's one of her best shoots ever, she looks so natural

Originally Posted by xLuna&1LOVE

I might be retarded, because I like how beautiful you are. I won't be overplaying it, but it is a nice song. I prefer to listen to this, than something like Thank U.
Besides it is a nice album ending. The worst of Party Queen is definetely NaNaNa or Eyes Smoke Magic.

I like NaNaNa Certainly not one of her best songs but I do listen to it from time to time.

[sitara]

Originally Posted by Brett.Mason92

I do like it and the chorus is FINE. Above, I was just being overdramatic out of boredom and seeing as it's common for members to give great critic towards her music. However; I'm bad at that as I love almost all her songs so I just went crazy with GIF's

the last gif has me giggling like mad XD