The hidden meaning behind FIVE's title?

[Tom Punks]

She should have just named the mini album "HOPE" then. It would have made sense and been perfectly acceptable. Then she could have given the whole mini album the concept of, you know, hope. Instead of a totally incoherent release with no concept.

So yeah, I dunno if I believe that it's really supposed to spell out "HOPE."

[isthisLOL?]

Originally Posted by Tom Punks

She should have just named the mini album "HOPE" then. It would have made sense and been perfectly acceptable. Then she could have given the whole mini album the concept of, you know, hope. Instead of a totally incoherent release with no concept.

So yeah, I dunno if I believe that it's really supposed to spell out "HOPE."

The whole concept is 5 different views on something. And that is just what the album is. What these views are on is up for discussion but every song shows a different view on something loved, probably her fans. That's more concept than what the vast majority of pop albums have. And it IS a coherent release, not musically but lyrically and that's always the thing Ayu's albums have ben coherent in. (And the only way to make a 5 track EP musically coherent is by being boring and basically doing one genre for 5 songs or having random intros and outros to songs) They've always told stories, if the songs fit together musically came after that.

[Misa-chan]

From WWD's article. Apparently the title was inspired by Leslie Kee!

In response to ayu's question about his idea for the cover's image, Leslie raised his hand, showing the number 「5」. For this mini-album, ayu had written 5 songs. The DVD contained 5 PVs and 5 making-of videos. 「5」 is also Leslie's lucky number, standing for the idea of "destiny". Furthermore, Leslie wished for the visuals to encourage everyone to use their "5 senses" to feel, and with ayu's approval, the album was titled 「FIVE」.

[Tom Punks]

Originally Posted by isthisLOL?

The whole concept is 5 different views on something. And that is just what the album is. What these views are on is up for discussion but every song shows a different view on something loved, probably her fans. That's more concept than what the vast majority of pop albums have. And it IS a coherent release, not musically but lyrically and that's always the thing Ayu's albums have ben coherent in. (And the only way to make a 5 track EP musically coherent is by being boring and basically doing one genre for 5 songs or having random intros and outros to songs) They've always told stories, if the songs fit together musically came after that.

I disagree with pretty much everything you said. It would have been totally possible to do different sounding songs and still be coherent/cohesive. It would have been possible to do different sounding songs of the same genre and not be boring. She just didn't do it here, and mostly because of the huge gap in quality between the songs. (Also, why would a mini album of five songs of the same genre necessarily be boring, anyways? Most artists don't mix genres nearly as much as Ayu does and that doesn't mean all their releases are boring or weak.) I also disagree that each song has a different view on something; three out of five of the songs are pretty much post-break up songs lyrically.

And, as Misa-chan pointed out in her post above ^, the mini album isn't called "FIVE" because it's based on five different views. It's called "FIVE" because Leslie suggested it since there were five songs. That's why, imo, it has no concept or cohesion.

[YUKARI]

^^ so, no connection with HOPE?

that's quite dissappoiting, because I really liked the idea of HOPE

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

This is supposed to be a fun topic... we don't need to get all serious *shrug*

Ayu said there is a hidden meaning within the Sweet interview. People were searching for it, found this, and I raised the question haha.

Whether or not Leslie suggested the title doesn't mean they couldn't have had a little fun with it.

I mean, since it -is- in the beloved video, having a connection in the title wouldn't be far off at all...

Anyway, no one has to believe this. This isn't fact, just an interesting find haha.

[isthisLOL?]

Originally Posted by Tom Punks

I disagree with pretty much everything you said. It would have been totally possible to do different sounding songs and still be coherent/cohesive. It would have been possible to do different sounding songs of the same genre and not be boring. She just didn't do it here, and mostly because of the huge gap in quality between the songs. (Also, why would a mini album of five songs of the same genre necessarily be boring, anyways? Most artists don't mix genres nearly as much as Ayu does and that doesn't mean all their releases are boring or weak.) I also disagree that each song has a different view on something; three out of five of the songs are pretty much post-break up songs lyrically.

And, as Misa-chan pointed out in her post above ^, the mini album isn't called "FIVE" because it's based on five different views. It's called "FIVE" because Leslie suggested it since there were five songs. That's why, imo, it has no concept or cohesion.

Ayumi said there are several meanings to it. What tells you "5 songs and so on..." is the only one? It IS 5 songs...and every one of those is a different view. If you read the lyrics properly you would know that the "post break-up songs" all have very different views and the quality gap is purely your opinion. I personally find it better than most Ayumi albums as there's no songs that are just pure crap mixed in while some of her "fan favorite" albums are filled with those. Hello MY STORY and I am...!
And I do think having 5 songs of one genre stuck together in almost every case is boring. It's the reason I don't get that korean boygroup/girlgroups with tons of EPs hype. The songs are all of one genre and usually generic. The thing I like most about Ayumi musically is that her albums are not of one or two genres but instead basically have different influences or even completely different genres in every song even if they may repeat after an album.

[Tom Punks]

Originally Posted by isthisLOL?

I personally find it better than most Ayumi albums as there's no songs that are just pure crap mixed in while some of her "fan favorite" albums are filled with those. Hello MY STORY and I am...!

And now it's just boiling down to opinion. My opinion is totally the opposite. MY STORY is my favorite Ayu album because I don't think any of the songs are "pure crap", while on the other hand I think about half of FIVE is "pure crap." (Also, even if I DID think MY STORY was half "crap," I would take an album of 8-9 good songs with 8-9 bad songs over a mini album of 3 good songs with 3 bad songs (counting Why... feat. Naoya here), but lol, that's not even the point.)

I don't really "get" pointing out fan favorite albums as examples of "bad Ayu works," but whatever. The point wasn't to get into a discussion about whether FIVE was a better or worse release; I was just trying to point out that if "HOPE" was the hidden message, it should have just been the title because then the release would have looked a lot better and more thought out.

[Andrenekoi]

^Nops, you are pointing again, that in your opinion FIVE stinks like dog poo, and that it doesn't have a concept because of it, as u did 10x on every thread about this release... We got it, Tom Punks, you hate FIVE, but this is not the discussion of this thread. BTW, I can't tell most of My Story songs from each other, together with Secret and Rock n Roll Circus IMO it's her less creative and most generic and boring effort yet...

I do find the HOPE thing to be curious, and bizarre enough to be true, but I'm with ThisisLOL here, not believing this is the case...

IMO the overall idea of this album is an open letter from Ayu to someone (her fans, IMO), telling how she is seeing her relationship with them (IMO, the lyrics make sense one after the other, as it was a whole piece of work)

[Misa-chan]

Originally Posted by YUKARI

^^ so, no connection with HOPE?

that's quite dissappoiting, because I really liked the idea of HOPE

What was said in WWD is just why the album was named FIVE. The hidden message is a different issue, so the stylized HOPE is still plausible! ^^

[Tom Punks]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

^Nops, you are pointing again, that in your opinion FIVE stinks like dog poo, and that it doesn't have a concept because of it, as u did 10x on every thread about this release... We got it, Tom Punks, you hate FIVE, but this is not the discussion of this thread.

Um... No. The "discussion" of the album didn't even start until someone replied to me. All I said was "she should have named it HOPE so it wouldn't have been an incoherent and concept-less release, so I don't think hope was the hidden message." I don't know how you get "I hate FIVE and it stinks like dog poo and I'm trying to start another discussion about this so I can bash it some more" out of that.

What's the point of even responding to me when you're just going to say "YOU'RE DOING THIS AND THAT AND JUST WANT TO HATE ON THE ALBUM" when I just obviously tried to end THAT conversation because, as I just stated, it wasn't my intention to even bring it up in the first place.

But no. Of course, all I want to do is bring up how much I hate FIVE, and then just pretend I didn't want to do that so I can end the conversation, because that makes a lot of sense. Even though I haven't even posted here mentioning the album in two weeks.

Like... stop stalking my posts or something. I feel like I can't say anything without you being like "TOM PUNKS, WE KNOW YOU HATE FIVE."

I.
JUST.
TRIED.
TO.
END.
THE.
CONVERSATION.
ABOUT.
THE.
ALBUM.

[Andrenekoi]

"If you look at the title FIVE closely, you'll find a hidden word. So do check it out!"

http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showth...38#post2759538

So, it's confirmed

[jbrat2219]

So...

There's a hidden message in the title, FIVE is lyrically cohesive, and the it has a theme...

So far so good.

[Andrenekoi]

BTW, she also confirms this album is focused on people who are not part of her fanbase

[truehappiness]

Really, it's to be expected from Ayu, lol. There's always something there, and as much as it might be denied, there's always a reason for whatever she does when it comes to releases.

[jbrat2219]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Really, it's to be expected from Ayu, lol. There's always something there, and as much as it might be denied, there's always a reason for whatever she does when it comes to releases.

I know, and she even said there were multiple meanings for the title FIVE, it's up to the listener to draw their own conclusions but I guess some people don't want to do that lol.

[YUKARI]

Originally Posted by Misa-chan

What was said in WWD is just why the album was named FIVE. The hidden message is a different issue, so the stylized HOPE is still plausible! ^^

yesss! I'm happy she said about it

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by YUKARI

yesss! I'm happy she said about it

http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showth...38#post2759538

She confirmed there's a hidden word in FIVE...

[pommy48]

Oh that's cool if they did do that...then they probably spent a long time looking for the right font? lol

[Misa-chan]

Originally Posted by jbrat2219

So...

There's a hidden message in the title, FIVE is lyrically cohesive, and the it has a theme...

So far so good.

And she did say in Sweet that all the songs have hope in them. So the guy in first post probably got the hidden word right. ^^