[Miliyah Kato] invites you to embrace LIBERTY in thread #7

[orbitalaspect]

Originally Posted by blackmage

LOL well you don't have to expect anything but sales or chart positioning is just part of the conversation, the territory. Nothing to get too worked up about. Unlike a lot of other artist pages here, chart ranking is a common conversation or mention worthy post that really doesn't happen much on Miliyah's threads. Yeah it sucks that international sales don't reflect on the Oricon charts, and I might not typically follow sales or charting that much with any artist I listen to but I recognize that sales and charting is still an important factor. The last thing I want is Miliyah to barely be able to release music or to even be dropped from her label (always a possibility if artists continuously don't sell per the standards the record label expects or based on projections for the album, etc. Not that I'm saying she is going to be dropped.)

If I care about it, it is because I like Miliyah, I enjoy her music and as a fan I want her to do well.


Anyway out of curiosity sake, LIBERTY went back up on Oricon's daily album chart.

3/7 - #12
3/8 - #7



I'm really loving that saxophone on Want you back.

LIBERTY kind of bombed. A very sad, sad first week:

#4 - 14,110

But, the good news is she made Top 5. And while this may likely fall off the chart in only a few weeks, she has not sunk to lecca's sales. She's mostly selling similar to Shota and Daichi, and if they're still getting frequent releases, I think she's safe for at least a few more years.

I'm assuming the baseline for most labels is at least 10,000 in sales to keep an artist going, give or take a few poor-selling releases. I guess if we looked at this in terms of comparative sales for US records, she sold around 56k, which is good, but still a massive drop even compared to LOVELAND.

I think LIBERTY is a decent record. I think it suffers from some of the mixing problems which plagued LOVELAND and TRUE LOVERS, namely that it sounds like she's singing karaoke on her own albums. But I'm starting to think it's probably because she sings an octave lower these days. She truly doesn't sing like she did on Ring or HEAVEN. And her mixes usually sound pretty compressed. I don't know. It's a good album, but I'm sad it's not getting better attention. I think it deserves better sales than LOVELAND, and probably better than TRUE LOVERS.

[Chiharo]

^If Miliyah's mixes sound compressed to you then I don't know what do most other Jpop artists' mixes sound to you. Miliyah is one of the rarer few who has at least decent mixing when it comes to Jpop. In general it seems Sony is one of the only labels who has sound engineers who at least care half enough to do a decent job. I wonder how you must feel about lecca's songs then? Not attacking; I'm just genuinely curious!

[thinkingoutloud89]

^^ LIBERTY only sold around 4k less than MUSE.
Dropping an artist is not so easy. I explained it million times before. In most cases it is not the way the sell but something behind the scenes that leads to parting ways.

If an artist never had good sales from the beginning, it might be another story, but if you had your share of decent hits, you are save for a lifetime. Miliyah still gets the money from online-sales and tours (100.000k people attaned A MUSE), so I guess that is what counts in the end (and maybe tie-ins)

[Utena]

Sales are a bit low but I guess it's pretty normal since there's basically no hit on the album.
I received my copy yesterday, I really like the packaging. I've also uploaded the scans here: http://kumonoito.net/scans/thumbnails.php?album=297

[DevilsClap]

Thank you for the scans! ^ I love the album shoot.

[Chibi-Chan]

Originally Posted by Utena

Sales are a bit low but I guess it's pretty normal since there's basically no hit on the album.
I received my copy yesterday, I really like the packaging. I've also uploaded the scans here: http://kumonoito.net/scans/thumbnails.php?album=297

Thank you! I like that those aren't just beauty shots!

[Utena]

I just noticed I forgot to upload 3 of the postcards scans. Including my personal favorite <3 Pink hair really suits her for some reason.
http://kumonoito.net/scans/displayim..._display_media

[orbitalaspect]

Originally Posted by Chiharo

^If Miliyah's mixes sound compressed to you then I don't know what do most other Jpop artists' mixes sound to you. Miliyah is one of the rarer few who has at least decent mixing when it comes to Jpop. In general it seems Sony is one of the only labels who has sound engineers who at least care half enough to do a decent job. I wonder how you must feel about lecca's songs then? Not attacking; I'm just genuinely curious!

lecca's tracks suffer from a similar issue, but it's often that they clip rather than sound compressed. The average lecca track is much more dynamic than Miliyah's songs since TRUE LOVERS.

[Chiharo]

I completely disagree with you (except on the clipping part which is true) - but that's okay, we all hear things differently I guess.

[blackmage]

Originally Posted by Utena

Sales are a bit low but I guess it's pretty normal since there's basically no hit on the album.
I received my copy yesterday, I really like the packaging. I've also uploaded the scans here: http://kumonoito.net/scans/thumbnails.php?album=297

Thank you! There are a couple images that I think could have been better choices for the cover art. The photos with the goggles on, especially the one about the Fashion lyrics is cute!

[maddy1111]

Originally Posted by Utena

Sales are a bit low but I guess it's pretty normal since there's basically no hit on the album.
I received my copy yesterday, I really like the packaging. I've also uploaded the scans here: http://kumonoito.net/scans/thumbnails.php?album=297

wow! Booklet shots are actually really great. How could some make such horrible covers by using those shots?!

[Ryusei]

Love the pic on the quad

[Beauty4123]

So after one full week of replaying the album a million times... I can now finally proclaim my complete & absolute love for it. "LIBERTY" is amazing! From start to finish. My favorite album tracks are "LIBERTY", "WANNA BE", "This is my party", "FASHION" & "Megami no Hikari". I think I can also honestly say, that this album's the first I've truly loved since..."HEAVEN", I'd say! I know, it's been way too long. I just love the theme Miliyah has went for, with this album.

[blackmage]

Oricon daily album charting:

3/10 - #21


I wonder if UNDER ARMOUR x Miliyah collaboration ended in extra photoshoot or clothing line. I'm still unclear about that, but the Japanese AM FB page (https://www.facebook.com/underarmour.jp/) has a couple videos with Miliyah, one with her working out in the gym and one with her signing if anyone is interested.


Also, I was wondering if anyone know how her books faired, how were they received?

[orbitalaspect]

Originally Posted by Chiharo

I completely disagree with you (except on the clipping part which is true) - but that's okay, we all hear things differently I guess.

Well, which tracks from lecca sound flat to you? I'm a huge fan of hers, and I can tell a noticeable difference in the dynamics of a Kato song vs. a lecca song. I can hear the clipping in lecca's tracks because they're usually overblown, as in way too many instruments competing for attention, but they're usually loud and vibrant to me.

EDIT: Actually, I'm curious if you'll hear the difference in vocal mixing I hear between Owari Naki Kanashimi (last track of HEAVEN) and H.I.K.A.R.I.? I hear her voice better blended with the music on Owari, but on H.I.K.A.R.I. it sounds like it's "on top" of the music, almost as if someone turned down all the music to hear her sing. That's the "flat" sound I hear: the music sounds like it's smooshed and turned down compared to Miliyah.

Originally Posted by Beauty4123

So after one full week of replaying the album a million times... I can now finally proclaim my complete & absolute love for it. "LIBERTY" is amazing! From start to finish. My favorite album tracks are "LIBERTY", "WANNA BE", "This is my party", "FASHION" & "Megami no Hikari". I think I can also honestly say, that this album's the first I've truly loved since..."HEAVEN", I'd say! I know, it's been way too long. I just love the theme Miliyah has went for, with this album.

I was real skeptical for all the positive reviews I read on this thread before I listened to LIBERTY. But I can definitely hear an improvement in her direction over LOVELAND and TRUE LOVERS. I liked the variety on this album too. It's definitely what TRUE LOVERS should have been. So, I'm proud of Miliyah's work here. I think she did a great job apart from the vocal mixing on many songs.

[Chiharo]

^ I'd greatly elaborate on this but I fear it would be too off topic; but seeing it still includes Miliyah and compares to her music I'll go ahead but I'll keep it under spoiler because it's long.

Spoiler:

I'm a huge fan of both too - and I'm honestly really surprised that you think that lecca's songs have more dynamics than Miliyah's.

What system do you listen on?

I don't think there's a need for me to single out only a handful of lecca's songs because literally all of them are so bad that they should have never left the studio in that condition. lecca's only decently produced albums were Dreamer, Rekka and URBAN PIRATES. Mind you, even they weren't exactly great or dynamic but there's a significant difference between those and all her newer albums. Some of her songs have shockingly more apparent awful audio production, and here are some of those extremes:

RULE
Negai
Kimi ni Shika Nai Mono
RUNWAY
Dreaming of you
Aniki.
credit
Motokare
Home Party
Poka~n
Koi Hajime
SOLA

So here's my point of view: the fact that a lot of her songs clip is not because she has too many instruments going on in the songs - it's a clear sign that people (person?) who work on her songs have no clue what they're doing (or they do it to purposely ruin? I don't know). I mean, even Aniki. clips badly and it's a ballad with not that many instruments going on in it. And so it's really strange to me that you say that they sound "vibrant" to you - if they clip there's harmonic distortions going on which affect everything you can hear in the song, too.

I completely agree that they are "loud" - and that is exactly their problem. Haven't you noticed that they're way too loud? Her songs are incredibly mauled to the point where everything sounds like someone dragged it through mud. Not to mention how tiring her songs actually are on the ears. Tiring, jarring, with no air whatsoever in between the instruments or her vocals - they sound like a wall of noise. Also, I've never heard a discography with such bad audio as lecca's - I was literally shocked to hear the production and have long wondered how they manage to commercially release something like this.

Miliyah is completely opposite, on the other hand. The fact that her songs are quieter doesn't mean that they are more tamed - it means they didn't try to kill all the nuance in her music because they wanted to make it loud. Have you tried listening to any Miliyah's song that starts with a piano or a similar quiet instrument? Try turning the volume up as loud as you can - you won't even notice the white noise in the background! That's how well made they usually are. It's just the instrument in its full glory - and you. Also, the details almost always sound luscious and real - even if it's only effects like in for example FASHION. You can always turn her music up and it's going to sound great, not distorted in any way or "flat". That's what really baffles me, because while yes, Miliyah's music is compressed (which in itself is not bad of course) - it's a lot less violently compressed and badly produced than most other Jpop artists! To me, lecca's music is at the very bottom of the audio production chain - which is a huge shame.

I can't compare Owari Naki Kanashimi with H.I.K.A.R.I because I didn't listen to the new album yet (waiting to receive it) - but I'll definitely compare once I get the album. I did compare it to some of the songs on TRUE LOVERS and LOVELAND - and it's true that in some songs her vocals do sound louder than the music - for now all it feels like is that it's just creative direction because some songs do sound better when the focus is more on her vocals. Then again it's not something that particularly bothers me unless the mixing is way too off point.

Anyway, I'll keep listening keeping in mind what you said and see if I can hear what you do. You probably didn't expect such a long message and I apologize for the length - but it's interesting to discuss things like these and hear what other people think and I completely welcome your opinions because it's not that one of us is right or wrong - our experiences and the way we listen/what we focus on and notice are different.

[Next_Level29]

miliyah psoted that liberty got 1 on itunes chart, didnt she? i think that is more important than the orican sales

[orbitalaspect]

Originally Posted by Next_Level29

miliyah psoted that liberty got 1 on itunes chart, didnt she? i think that is more important than the orican sales

Well, in terms of sales, I think it is these days. Kana Nishino sold 450,000 copies of Torisetsu on iTunes. That's equal to 200,000 physical sales. But Oricon only counted the 60k physical sales. So, imagine my face when I added that up and realized a Kana single sold 300k!!

If she hit #1 on iTunes, I imagine she sold muchbetter than the measely 14k on Oricon.

[tenshi no hane]

I'm bored today, so here's another translation

WANNA BE (translation)

Spoiler:

I wanna be famous
I wanna be rich
I wanna be special
I wanna be… be happy

People love me, sometimes kill me
They build me up, then break me down
Demanding me to be the person they idealised
Who am I? Who am I? You wanna know?

*
I wanna be unique
I wanna be beautiful
I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be a shining star
She wanna be lovely
She wanna be popular
So she wanna be, she wanna be, she wanna be someone more like me, baby

**
I can feel it inside me
I’m different from other people somehow
I have a spark no one else has, yes, that’s why you’re drawn to me
I want to be loved more, love me
It’s not enough yet, you heard me
What do I do I do
I want to see god more often
Overwhelming presence
This isn’t a dream, wanna be…

I’ll fade out someday
I’ll be forgotten someday
If that’s the case, I might as well run wild and do what I want
Don’t stop me, don’t stop me, it’s okay

* repeat

I’ve woken from my slumber
My genes are getting restless
Won’t you come play in this world I made?
I want to be loved more, love me
It’s not enough yet, you heard me
What do I do I do
I want to see god more often
Overwhelming presence
This isn’t a dream, wanna be…

Please don't copy that
This is so ridiculous!

** repeat

I wanna be a god in your heart

I like how she doesn't hide her ambition. Her peculiar taste (fashion etc) often doesn't match mine, but I appreciate her "this is my career, I'll do what I want" attitude.


edit: And thanks for the scans, Utena!

[Diva_br]

Thanks for the scans and translations!! I'm in love with the album