ayu's vocals nowadays...

[ayu_ready?]

I prefer A BEST till MY STORY
but are ya trying to say she's losing her voice, darlings?

[nodoka]

well the vocals have definitely changed. not for the better either i think.

[*hearT_Place*]

I think she is really maturing as a vocalist. The power behind performances such as Memorial Address, a'nation's is this LOVE and HANABI (the last notes on both of those were "wow!") show that she can do so much more with her voice. Even though she was flat sometimes (though not much) on the AT06 version of is this LOVE, she still had a lot of raw power behind her vocals that made it a great performance. (miss)understood was alright. She was flat a lot and sang the bridge much too loudly; however, the final notes were wonderful! But I agree, she does have trouble controling her voice.

And I am also a fan of her deep, rock voice. I hope she performs a lot of her more aggressive songs from Secret on her tour, because those songs could really rock.

[WillofDusk]

I think her vocal has improved and became even stonger than before.Much stronger. And she actually sings that's enough

[miniayumi]

I love her sexier, sassier, more mature voice these days.

[SnowDrop]

I miss her hight-pitched squeaky voice..I love A Song For XX. I don't like her "mature" voice that much, especially in combination with pecos background vocals..sometimes it sounds plain awful. Also the use of vibrato right now is killing me. X__X

[yamogi]

Ayu's voice is REALLY fluctuating. Sometimes she can do a good job with a powerful and penetrating voice such like those in A Song for XX(Dome tour), Desrest, 1LOVE...but, in some TV programs( e.g. those of fairyland) her voice turns out to be very bad. Her vocal performances are inconsistent, she can sing songs like 1LOVE perfectly(I'm a fans of her rock), but in kiss o' kill and It was, she sung just like she CAN'T sing at all, that voice is so 'pretended', unskillful and 'fake'.

Actually, I wonder whether ayu is faking a "ayumi-style" voice when singing her own songs. Because if you've seen those lives in ayuready which she was singing others' songs, she sounded absolutely different no matter in terms of 'way of singing' or the voice itself. In those lives, ayu sounded much more professional and skillful than singing HER songs.

Or, maybe, that "ayumi-style" voice is part of her marketing image.

[heyheyderek]

I think her vocals in the concerts are alright, but her vocals are really bad when she was on the TV show singing JEWEL~~

[[taskin.ayu]]

Yeah I miss her old voice we heard 2003-2005. It's so weird now. :/ I was watching some kouhaku performances, and her moments performance was so good compared to JEWEL. T__T Dunno.. I hope she corrects it this year.

[~AyUsIcK~]

a REALLY good point that snowdrop dropped in.. PECO! GOD!! ok, she can sing.. but her voice is TOTALLY TOTALLY TOOOOOTAAALLLLLYYYY different from ayu's vocal style!! n the outcome of that, NASTY!!! i would shave my hair for her to remain as a crew or backstage... seriously...
n those backup singers that ayu used during some RAINBOW performace back in 2003 ARE GREAT!!! i really don get y ayu chose peco..

[*hearT_Place*]

Yeah, I don't know if Ayu and Peco always blend together that well.

[Ayu_Jayson]

Hmm, I think perhaps itz now harder for Ayu to create those high pitch tones compared to last time. But itz fine with me =) Her voice definitely changed a lot.

I dun think is a change for the worse though, at least I dun see it that way. It prolly means she can experiment with new genre, kinda like a new direction.

[RoboNyanya]

I was so blown away by the sheer energy and strength she maintained in CDL 04-05, that everything else seems to fall short. I haven't listened to everything from CDL 06-07 yet, but from what I have seen from this and her TV performances this year, she's just not all there. I can understand copping out for a TV performance to save your voice for a concert, but her voice lacks clarity and purity of sound even there. It's more like she's forcing a certain timbre (her 'cute Ayu' voice) too much instead of focusing on producing a better overall tone. Actually, I feel like Ayu tries to disguise her discomfort with singing nicely and overcompensates with too much 'flair' if that makes any sense.

In the performances where I can tell that her voice is not quite up to snuff, I like it better when she just sings her heart out and has fun, than trying to cover it up with the affected nasal voice and 'cute her way out'.

Oh yeah, and about PECO. With the way Ayu's natural voice seems to be going now (and I really like her lower register), I think Peco's vocals are a rather proper complement. It's very different than what we'd expect from the same Ayu who sang Evolution and AUDIENCE and all that, but I think it works for the time being.

[yamogi]

Originally Posted by RoboNyanya

I was so blown away by the sheer energy and strength she maintained in CDL 04-05, that everything else seems to fall short. I haven't listened to everything from CDL 06-07 yet, but from what I have seen from this and her TV performances this year, she's just not all there. I can understand copping out for a TV performance to save your voice for a concert, but her voice lacks clarity and purity of sound even there. It's more like she's forcing a certain timbre (her 'cute Ayu' voice) too much instead of focusing on producing a better overall tone. Actually, I feel like Ayu tries to disguise her discomfort with singing nicely and overcompensates with too much 'flair' if that makes any sense.

In the performances where I can tell that her voice is not quite up to snuff, I like it better when she just sings her heart out and has fun, than trying to cover it up with the affected nasal voice and 'cute her way out'.

Oh yeah, and about PECO. With the way Ayu's natural voice seems to be going now (and I really like her lower register), I think Peco's vocals are a rather proper complement. It's very different than what we'd expect from the same Ayu who sang Evolution and AUDIENCE and all that, but I think it works for the time being.

I agree with you in the part of "forcing a certain timber"

I think her voice has gotten better. Everytime she sang CAROLS live it would always crack.

[Dyran]

I think Ayu has a very good live voice in most of the concerts and live clips iv seen. Her performances dont usually sound the same as the origional studio recording, which to me is a good thing otherwise whats the point in listening live? I always think there seems to be more energy and feeling in the song when its live.
Ok, yes there are a few times shes sounded bad, eg Boys and Girls a-nation 06 wasnt very good IMO.

[truehappiness]

Well, she wasn't born a singer.

IMO, she probably wouldn't have made it with any other record company other than avex. :\

[*hearT_Place*]

^I think that what has given her so much staying power is not as much her voice as it is her lyrics, creativity, and a huge marketing machine. Her voice during the ASFXX era wasn't exactly great.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think her voice is necessarily BAD. I quite like it and she has improved a lot; when she is on, wow...she can turn in some amazing performances. She just doesn't have the greatest techncal skills. She is a prime example of how emotion and expression really go a long way in making a vocal perfomance powerful; but, her inconsistancy shows where the technical skills are lacking.

(That's not to say that vocalists with good technical skills are always perfect. I just saw an Evanescence performance where Amy Lee was hideously flat.)

[Key ~eternal tie~]

Hmm, I thought Ayu was ill this year. Didn't she mention something about having to stay with a nurse and that she was so ill that she was covered in sweat?? Can't remember where I read that from. Sometimes Ayu's voice can be off-key but that just means that she's human!!

I don't have a problem with her lives. Infact, it was her live performance of Bold & Delicious (from CDL 2005/2006) that made me like that song, before it was "bleh". She has such a powerful voice. I prefer her now to before. Personally I prefer her (miss) understood era's voice, but her JEWEL voice is also amazing.

I think she's really flat .. she can't even do "real" high notes.

she just IIIIIIIIIIIIIs everything. she doesn't show much range.