Thoughts on A BEST LIVE

[ayu-michan]

At least Youngae has pretty good vocal

Part of me somewhat feels sad when someone leaves the Ayu troupe lol, no matter if they're Timmy or Peco.

[amorphose]

I just watched the concert and here are my thoughts:

I thought here voice sounded a lot better than I remember it sounding in recent years (but I haven't watched an Ayu concert in the last couple.) I thought the highlights were definitely "A song for xx," "Memorial address," "M," "No way to say," "JEWEL," "HEAVEN," & "Tell all." The last of which, I didn't like until I saw this performance. I'm glad to see that she finally got new background singers-- I think these new ones work much better for her than the older ones. The negatives for me were that her continuos overuse of her dancers just annoys the hell out of me. I feel like it takes away from some otherwise flawless and beautiful performances a lot (like HEAVEN & JEWEL.) I also find the dancers to be completely unnecessary in rock segments. It's much cooler when it's just Ayu and the band on stage. They don't bother me as much in the cute or upbeat portions of the concert, but those are the parts I tend to skip over anyway. I love how often she changes her outfits and the visuals this time around were better than I remember, but I feel like her theatrics really peaked around the MY STORY & (miss)understood tours and since then everything feels recycled (or just not as awesome.) Although, the pool during JEWEL & HEAVEN was pretty cool.

Overall, it was a pretty good live, but I personally would enjoy her performances more if they were more focused on her and less on the 10,000 other things going on on the stage.

[Saki-Chan]

I just hated this concert.. I like the tracklist, dresses, Ayu was gorgeous and ok.. but autotune IN EVERY SINGLE SONG? Her voice is not natural at all- No, I'm sorry.. I won't buy this dvd..
If I have to pay to listen to autotune, I'll wait for something else.

[truehappiness]

Originally Posted by Saki-Chan

I just hated this concert.. I like the tracklist, dresses, Ayu was gorgeous and ok.. but autotune IN EVERY SINGLE SONG? Her voice is not natural at all- No, I'm sorry.. I won't buy this dvd..
If I have to pay to listen to autotune, I'll wait for something else.

They really rushed this release, I think the only ones with massive changes were poker face/Fly high/HONEY. Tell All also seemed like it had autotune but I think that was just a VERY loud backing track.

[kaito_moonlove]

I have listened to the recording tracks (RT) from fans somewhere in this forum many times. I realized that her voice in RT and concert is not different so much. If you listen the RT carefully and separate Ayu's voice and the fans, you can listen her clear voice.
I believe that they just auto-tuned about 30-40% her voice !
P/s : Sorry about my bad writing !

[AyuWorld]

the idea of using Shuya again and again ,flailing on the stage with what i cant see as a dance made me a bit disappointed with Ayu, she should have came out with another idea. the simplest and the best is only her singing the beautiful ballad, like No Way To Say, it became too boring and annoying seeing Shuya popping out on the stage with her

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

I didn't like Poker Face. It was too edited for my taste.

And I'm uber tired of Shuya and the same exact dancer situations in every single concert.

Hopefully she'll start getting more creative...

This is nowhere near my favorite tour, but it was still enjoyable.

Also since I didn't really care to see the last show, it was nice to see how much it changed before the first show and last show!

[JesA]

Other than Timmy being gross and Ayu's creepy contacts, this is my favorite tour yet! I love how they made so many changes to the songs, yet kept it representative of how far she's come. My favorite was definitely Poker Face, and I loved the way she sang(?) it

My favorite part was definitely all the fans that were having major freak-outs, during the crowd-cam portions It reminds me of why we're all here. Ayu really has changed my life, and I'm so happy to see that she's still going with the same momentum as she had back in 2003 when I first jumped onto the fan-train.

[Livey~]

I'll start saying that I really couldn't enjoy the Live CD as I wished, especially BLUE BIRD and Who...
Luckily the dvd made me change my mind.

I loved everything of this tour. Really everything.
The stage very similar to the RnRC one, but with a more elegant touch. The lighting and the great job they did with panels. The hair, her flawless hair. The vocals. The outfits. Yo-chan dancing!
Uhm.. I think that my favourite moment was the beginning of SURREAL ～ evolution ～ SURREAL. After ayu's message, it really moved me and I simply loved it.
Voyage was very good too.
Who..., which I really couldn't stand on the Live CD, was perfect.

And again, when MY ALL started I was going to cry just like years ago when I saw an ayu concert for the first time.
I know it is over-performed, but it was special in a certain way this time.

Oh.. and Timmy's Rule was hilarious~

[yizhihenanjing]

I just glanced through right after the download coz im busy with exam. however, I stopped at teddy bear. I cried with her . My dear Ayu. She's the best. No singer could give me such a feelings like she did. She's so so so amazing after 15 years and will always be the most amazing artist in my heart !!!

[marty]

Wah, I finally finished watching it! I've been so busy, I just had to finish it bit by tiny, little bit every now and then.
So, I think it was a very nice, well performed show. I won't lie: for me it doesn't hold a candle to the last three tours, but I think the last three tours were just exceptionally good. A BEST LIVE was neat, your typical idol concert, with shiny, stylish dresses, ordered and tidy sections, and some nice references to Ayu's previous performances. It was short, and there were some parts I plainly didn't like (mostly the overtragic ones, totally out of line for me), but there were parts I absolutely ADORED (the whole poker face-Fly high-HONEY part was amazing, not to mention the JEWEL-HEAVEN pool stuff which was superb, and Ayu's hair shake during the last bit of A Song for XX just gave me life).
Soooo... I really liked it! It wasn't too celebrative, but I liked it in its semplicity, with some smart, small original touches (the poooool! <3).

[kaito_moonlove]

Do you think evolution in this concert is quite bad ?
I wonder if she was screaming in the final parts.
Do you agree with me that the sound quality in this show is worse than cdl wake up's one ?

[ayu-michan]

Originally Posted by kaito_moonlove

Do you think evolution in this concert is quite bad ?
I wonder if she was screaming in the final parts.
Do you agree with me that the sound quality in this show is worse than cdl wake up's one ?

After re-watching the BD many times, hmm I don't think evolution was that bad, but yes I agree with you, she "screamed" too much.

I love Wake up the most actually It was very enjoyable.

[truehappiness]

Tell All is so badass.

[g~sus~]

i love her performance. She totally gave her all in performing..and I cried out of joy for a few times haha..
but..does anyone else think her voice sounds like autotuned voice now? It's powerful but sometimes I can't help that thought from popping into my mind haha

[kaito_moonlove]

I don't think that her voice is auto-tuned so much. It may be 30-40%.

[Chris85]

Originally Posted by g~sus~

but..does anyone else think her voice sounds like autotuned voice now? It's powerful but sometimes I can't help that thought from popping into my mind haha

All her previous releases were pitch-corrected and this one is far from being one of the worst in terms of editing. Actually I think her vocals during this tour were pretty fine, very stable and consistent, so there was't too much editing needed. Of course sometimes she shouts instead of singing or strain her voice in Jewel for example, but it's not new for us.
So, to sum up, I don't think there's bigger amount of editing this time than usual.

[ayu-suits]

does anyone here have a tv version or something that is not edited? The blu ray copy was magnificent but I think it was edited way too much to make it perfect. However, I think reviews from people who have watched the concert live would probably make me more happy (no offense but i think all her dvds are made perfect hehe). I hope you all get my point.

[truehappiness]

There are reviews of the concert in the concert threads. It wasn't as polished, but still good from what I'd read.