Review Of A COMPLETE ~ALL SINGLES~ In Singapore's The Strait Times's Life ! papers

[Sundae]

Ayumi isn't the best vocalist. I think that's what he's pointing to. There are still times the vocals of poker face get to me and not in a good way. For me, I already have all her albums so A Complete was a bust to me. Esp since I don't care much for Who.

But the journalist should have mentioned all the things the album has. I think that even if you know of Ayu you know she isn't a Celine Dion or something so pointing out her vocal ability was a bit useless. He should be recommending or not recommending the album for the different people out there. For example, the fans and those not familiar with Ayumi. 3/5 isn't a bad score.

[ImpactBreaker]

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

Her singing WAS whiny, unsteady, and unskillful for most of disc 1. And the music did get better as her voice did. Face it, half the reason alot of you like ayu's earlier material is only because you like her more recent material; you're gonna be much more forgiving of higher-pitched, whiny singing than someone who's not a huge ayu fan.

I guess I personally never minded her high pitch voice though. not because I liked her non-high pitched stuff asnd decided to force myself into like the older stuff, but mainly because I started enjoying her high pitched stuff far more than her non-high pítched stuff at first. Back when I first knew her, the first songs I listened were in these:

Fly high - SURREAL - evolution - M

Of these 4, only SURREAL really caught my interest to make me really extremely impressed at first listen, though I really liked Fly high a lot and M. it really made me want to look forward to her. Then, I went mass downloading and when I listened to YOU and TO BE, I was completely blown away, I was sure ayu would be forever my favorite artist. At that time, I found myself far more impressed by her LOVEppears/A Song For XX songas than the Duty/I am.. ones. I wouldn't stop listening to YOU, A Song for XX, Trust, appears, monochrome, Depend on you....Actually, back then I was really a fan of "For My Dear..." which most ppl seem to abhor, and I always loved kanariya, the original version that ppl say it's too high pitched lol Later things flatened and I liked everything all the same. And then I went into the stage of enjoying most her upcoming stuff because I had overplayed the past stuff to death XD

[bulmasman]

When it comes to Ayu i'm stuck in the past still I enjoy her new stuff, don't get me wrong, but as far as i'm concerned... A Song For XX - Rainbow is where she shone the most. The pitch of her voice and the lack of... refinement is what really made her stand out to me. She didn't sound like anyone i'd ever heard before (in a good way) and it gave her songs a more personal quality imo.

As far as the review goes, i don't get the notion floating around that you can't review compilations. It's far far far from impossible or pointless to review a compilation, infact, in the case of A Complete, being a full single compilation, it's a good way to give a review of her body of work. In music magazines it's no surprise to me to see compilations reviewed. It's good that a reviewer can look at a number of songs spanning a career and say that the artist was good/bad/whatever at certain points in their and give a balanced view.

This review however was terrible, can barely even call it a review.

Finally... as far as i'm concerned, this is without a doubt a 5/5 release.

[KarenPang]

even I can write a much better review on A COMPLETE than Samuel Lee

I read his other jpop reviews & this's so far the worst outta the whole lot

[kirei_ayumi]

a 3 out of 5?! it sounds like a 4.5/5 to me

[alternarist]

i feel that the person is biased. He sounds very negative. No matter how much that person hate someone, a review shld be objective..

Although he may thinks that ayu's voice is bad, he should have said things like "the vocals in her early years werent that great, but now she has improved."

instead of..

"if you survive, moving on to disc 2 and 3".

WTF!! i feel so ashamed reading that person's review.. He isnt fit to review someone's album.

it's not about the scores he give. but the way he wrote his review. fug-ed up.

[wenren93]

^ yeah -.-
and the rate.. seems abit too low, lol. should give 4/5

[SolarAngel]

Originally Posted by KarenPang

I read his other jpop reviews & this's so far the worst outta the whole lot

Doesn't help that it was directed at ayu huh... Daigo's just too hot.

I guess i've had 2 days to cool down and i realize, he's probably one of those who vaguely knows ayu as a overhyped, popular for God knows what reason singer. That's ok. Those who are fans would buy the album regardless of what the review says. We already know what the songs are like. The review were for people who are deciding whether to get it or not. I don't think it's going to deter on the fence people much from buying it. All they got from the review was ayu's voice in disc 1 was more high pitched compared to her voice in disc 2 and 3. He barely mentioned anything about the songs, lyrics and music-wise. Basically it provided very little information. Even the insults are kind of sweeping. I don't think it will have any adverse effect on A Complete's sales.

[Kikaru]

I don't mind the fact that he didn't give it a good rating. I actually agree with his early assessment of her voice. I actually didn't like Ayu's pre-duty voice that much, and had for my dear been my first song, I probably wouldn't have cared much for Ayu at all.

But as far as the article goes, it comes off as unprofessional. If it was a casual music blog, sure, why not. But since this reviewer is getting paid to review this, I thought at least they could have made the writing not so sloppy.

[Delirium-Zer0]

Reviews are ALWAYS going to be biased. They CAN'T be objective, they really can't. They're based on nothing more than the opinion of the reviewer. But that's why you read multiple reviews of things before you make any judgements on whether or not you're going to invest money into something.

Impact: LOL, yeah, that's why I said "alot" of fans liked her early voice for that reason, rather than ALL. I really don't mind most of her older stuff either (cept when I have a bad cold, and I already have a headache.... yeah. x_X Maybe i'm just old or something but there's literal pain there =\ Didn't used to be that way though. Oh well. ) But yeah, I've been a fan since early 2000, so obviously I had to get into ayu during this squeaky-voice era. So sure alot of us aren't going to mind, but... take me for example, I can enjoy some of Hikki's first two albums, but only because I'm COMPLETELY IN LOVE with her stuff from "FINAL DISTANCE" onwards.

[lovelism]

Its the greatest album!
Maybe everyone has their own opinions too.....

[yoshino]

Argh. that's a bad review. it really seems unprofessional in the way he wrote. How can he say that to such a great complication album!

I think Ayu's earlier works are nice too. For My Dear... became my fav when I first heard it in A Complete Clip Box. Her high pitched voice is smth that I liked a lot.
Ar.. nvm. knew that pple like him won't give such a nice review. =p

[otsukachieko]

eeeeh,,, only 3/5 ???
its at least got 4/5 or 4.5/5
=3=

[emi♡]

Uh...yeah...

It's understandable about what he would say about disc one.

Honestly...If i bought it...I would first rip it to my itunes and then pick and choose my favorite songs...I might even pass that disk up completely...