[News] Winter diary ~A7 Classical~ - release 23rd December 2015 (Thread #2)

[mi|kshake]

Loving reading everyone's thoughts! I can't wait to get my copy of the album!

The back cover is gorgeous - I love how they kept the Winter theme. I can't wait to see the PV too. I wonder if it will be released in the next few days? Although that would be an amazing turnaround!

[Next_Level29]

i know off topic BUT
summer diary passed 1 million klicks on youtube! its the 4th music video in this year !! im so surprised, congrats ayu

[owlflight]

Saw the teaser and I'm not sure what to think yet. First thought was does the song and PV imagery go well together. Does it all make sense? Will have to see the PV in full!

[KarenPang]

http://ent.ltn.com.tw/news/breakingnews/1548239

The Winter diary PV was shot in Taipei's Ximending according to the news article

[KarenPang]

1st day chart position - #5

http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/ja/d/2015-12-22/

Not bad

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

AHS continues to amaze me lol. This video looks really interesting. Like probably the most interesting looking video she's released in awhile. Virgin Road was contrived.

It looks modern and sleek and well filmed and the Santa scenes look really cool and like...it just looks -cool-

Ayu hasn't done cool in a while. Like, I mean cool enough that I wouldn't be embarrassed to show people lol.


Also she reminds me of Harley Quinn. Like the old school 90s Batman cartoon one.



Also a cheap video doesn't mean it's a bad video. Most Jpop acts have low budgets because no one is bringing in huge amounts of money now. And many of the videos are still good. Miliyah has really well made videos for the most part. Ayu still has the opportunity to give us videos filmed on location in other countries... That's pretty badass. And while the song may be polarizing, it's very classic Ayu imo. *shrug*

And even though the full video isn't out yet, I still give them credit for the filming techniques. I love love love the shots of her lying down.

I wonder if there will be scenes when she's actually mouthing the lyrics? Or if it'll be all story based and the song will just be the BGM?

[Raiu-Ayu]

Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan

Also she reminds me of Harley Quinn. Like the old school 90s Batman cartoon one.

OMG YES!! Lying in the snow in Santa costumes is very 90s Batman :p

[ExodusUK]

The album sounds a bit better if you play around with the EQ settings but yeah..wtf is going on at Avex.

I don't know why you guys think the PV looks low budget...I imagine it's quite expensive to film overseas in a capital. Then again, look at Ayu's most expensive PV "My Names WOMEN" which is a cheap and tacky looking mess.

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

I agree that the song isn't as "full" as her older stuff. I love me some guitars and was thinking about their disappearance from most major Jpop acts in the recent years. Early 2000's were very often guitar based.

I started thinking about that after listening to Hitomi's cover of Anytime smokin' cigarette. I love the use of guitar in it. I don't know if it's digital or an actual guitar, but just having it there made me miss it.

Some of my absolute favorite songs have guitar as a prominent instrument. One in particular is July 1st. That intro is just...perfect.

She still uses a lot of piano and violin, heck she uses organs....but it's still not the same.

However, I'm still able to enjoy her music. Perhaps I just don't care so deeply about it...or it's just not something that interferes with my enjoying a song.

For me, more than instrumentation, it's the melody(?). For example... I don't know the technical term...but like, Marionette is a song I continue to hate. Because it just feels so heavy and "down" sounding. It's the not instrument choices, it's the very negative sounding overall "blah" feeling that it gives me.

[Zeke.]

Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan

I agree that the song isn't as "full" as her older stuff. I love me some guitars and was thinking about their disappearance from most major Jpop acts in the recent years. Early 2000's were very often guitar based.

I started thinking about that after listening to Hitomi's cover of Anytime smokin' cigarette. I love the use of guitar in it. I don't know if it's digital or an actual guitar, but just having it there made me miss it.

Some of my absolute favorite songs have guitar as a prominent instrument. One in particular is July 1st. That intro is just...perfect.

She still uses a lot of piano and violin, heck she uses organs....but it's still not the same.

However, I'm still able to enjoy her music. Perhaps I just don't care so deeply about it...or it's just not something that interferes with my enjoying a song.

For me, more than instrumentation, it's the melody(?). For example... I don't know the technical term...but like, Marionette is a song I continue to hate. Because it just feels so heavy and "down" sounding. It's the not instrument choices, it's the very negative sounding overall "blah" feeling that it gives me.

Yeah it's sad. Even fairlyland has the guitar playing a prominent role throughout the entire song.

[Chibi-Chan]

Originally Posted by Zeke.

Yeah it's sad. Even fairlyland has the guitar playing a prominent role throughout the entire song.

So I'm not the only one missing the guitar nowadays? One of the reasons why I fell in love with jpop back then was that no matter how kitschy a song was, the guitar always played a prominent role in most songs. I miss the guitar so badly. u.u

[Zeke.]

What also kind of sucks is that, although Ayu has had many winter ballads, this is her first attempt at a blatant Christmas tune, and predecessors like Kumi and Kana have both done it better (Kana with "Christmas Love" and Kumi with "Winter Bell"). Although, I might classify as Close to you being even more Christmasy than Winter diary.

Funny thing; I kept wondering what certain aspects of Winter diary reminded me of. Finally I was able to dig it out of my brain. The winter theme from Harvest Moon 64!


The Harvest Moon theme appears to be in minor and Ayu's winter diary in major? I don't know a ton about music theory but that's my initial thoughts. But is not the chord progression similar? I'm still learning so forgive me if I'm wrong about the technical aspects.

OT, I always adored the winter themes from the Harvest Moon series. I used to just let the game roll when it became winter so I could listen to the music. (And it probably is partially why I developed such a strong love for J-winter ballads later in life - my brain stored those songs as templates, going off of what I discovered in my research paper)

Spoiler:

[DonkeyKongRemix]

Originally Posted by Zeke.

What also kind of sucks is that, although Ayu has had many winter ballads, this is her first attempt at a blatant Christmas tune, and predecessors like Kumi and Kana have both done it better (Kana with "Christmas Love" and Kumi with "Winter Bell"). Although, I might classify as Close to you being even more Christmasy than Winter diary.

Funny thing; I kept wondering what certain aspects of Winter diary reminded me of. Finally I was able to dig it out of my brain. The winter theme from Harvest Moon 64!


The Harvest Moon theme appears to be in minor and Ayu's winter diary in major? I don't know a ton about music theory but that's my initial thoughts. But is not the chord progression similar? I'm still learning so forgive me if I'm wrong about the technical aspects.

OT, I always adored the winter themes from the Harvest Moon series. I used to just let the game roll when it became winter so I could listen to the music. (And it probably is partially why I developed such a strong love for J-winter ballads later in life - my brain stored those songs as templates, going off of what I discovered in my research paper)

Spoiler:

UGH I freakin love you right now for bringing up Harvest Moon, it is like...my life! XD A Wonderful Life though had some other simply wonderful background music, IMO.

Here's my favorite Harvest Moon winter song...


But you're totally right about that comparison.

[pepper]

Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan

I agree that the song isn't as "full" as her older stuff. I love me some guitars and was thinking about their disappearance from most major Jpop acts in the recent years. Early 2000's were very often guitar based.

I started thinking about that after listening to Hitomi's cover of Anytime smokin' cigarette. I love the use of guitar in it. I don't know if it's digital or an actual guitar, but just having it there made me miss it.

Some of my absolute favorite songs have guitar as a prominent instrument. One in particular is July 1st. That intro is just...perfect.

She still uses a lot of piano and violin, heck she uses organs....but it's still not the same.

However, I'm still able to enjoy her music. Perhaps I just don't care so deeply about it...or it's just not something that interferes with my enjoying a song.

For me, more than instrumentation, it's the melody(?). For example... I don't know the technical term...but like, Marionette is a song I continue to hate. Because it just feels so heavy and "down" sounding. It's the not instrument choices, it's the very negative sounding overall "blah" feeling that it gives me.

to be honest I feel the same way, also WHOLE Guilty album was "that" kind of music. Heavy, negative sounding. And very massive, it always making me tired. Even Together when... lol. And Marionette its pretty overrated for me. I never really enjoyed this song.

[Coelacanth]

I think a lot of her older songs, although they could be quite synth-heavy, still sounded somewhat organic. My only criticism of A ONE is how so many of the tracks containing guitar still sound too digital-- (WARNING, Last minute, and Out of control).

do it again and November are probably her last two songs with excellent balance between organic/synth elements.

[Ruan Borges]

The new classical album is really good, but the best version by far is for NO FUTURE <3

I really liked the teaser for WD pv, love some badass ayu!!!

[perfectodub]

the entire album doesn't move me at all
i think is because i don't find any good track on sixxxxxxxxx

winter diary is just another plain track that im not going to remember in the near future.
the PV looks very interesting, but i know theres gonna be the over-acting, unbelievable sequences and cliché themes that ayu love to show in her latest plot pvs.

for me 2015 is just the year of "many classic moments" cover

[Beauty4123]

Oh my god...I was totally not expecting "Winter diary" to have a PV like that teaser. It's so awesome! I love (and a bit intrigued ) at the scenes of ayu & Shu-ya lying in snow, dressed in santa suits...while blood's leaking from them? Are they dead?! I sure can't wait to find out what's behind all of that! Plus, I'm so interested to see more of the scenes that are of ayu & Shu-ya at that casino & clothing store, plus I just love the scenes of them walking around Taiwan...such beautiful scenery. I hope the full PV will be out soon!

[Sunrise]

WARNING - Step by step - Sorrows - Last minute whew

[ayu_ready?]

I think the PV is awesome, it's been a looooon time I liked the PV tbh