Review of You were... / BALLAD from J-ENT! World Groove CD single reviews

[truehappiness]

This was a pretty positive review, so I thought I'd stick it here. It's always nice and refreshing to see what casual listeners (I think...) think of Ayu's music.

Just to note, the guy reviewing doesn't seem to have much he doesn't like, haha. So he very rarely doesn't recommend a release. From the main page at J-ENT!: "...and we do not add scores or a letter grade to our albums. We either recommend it or we don't. Personally, everyone has different tastes in music. We can give you our opinion but we have had experiences where we like or dislike an album and then a month or so later, our opinions change. " But even so, I do think this is a nice little review of someone who enjoyed You were... / BALLAD as a whole.

Avex trax’s reigning pop queen from Japan, Ayumi Hamasaki, nears her 50th CD single with the release of “You were…/BALLAD”, her 47th double-A sided CD single with the first song used as the theme for Disney’s video release of “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure” and “BALLAD” which is used for the NHK drama series “Soukyuu no Subaru”.

“You were…(Original mix)” features a song written by Ayumi Hamasaki, music by Kazuhito Hara and arrangement by HAL. The passionate, upbeat ballad features a good balance of strings courtesy of Gen Itetsu and definitely a solid single from Hamasaki with a very passionate chorus.

But my favorite single on this latest release would have to go to “BALLAD (Original mix)” written by Ayumi, music by D-A-I and arrangement by Yuta Nakano. A slower ballad featuring strings by Yuko Kajitani. A gentle, delicate touch of the piano and strings with Ayumi’s vocals. Overall, a wonderful and even more passionate ballad.

The coupling track is “RED LINE ~for TA~ (Original mix)” written by Hamasaki, music by Tetsuya Yukumi and arrangement by Yuta Nakano. The song is an upbeat track and personally, I think it could have been an A-sided single itself. Catch, upbeat and pretty enjoyable track. Interesting on the insert, there are no lyrics but a one-line message which translates to: Due to the creator’s intention, the lyrics to this song have not been mentioned/noted/ listed.

I tried to do a little research of the meaning of the song and some say it deals with a friend of Ayumi’s that passed away. But the song is for her fan club “Team Ayu” (TA).

The fourth track features a music box version of “You Were…” and the remaining three tracks are the instrumental versions of the first three tracks (for a total of seven tracks overall).

The CD insert features the lyrics for “You were…” and “BALLAD”.

It’s important to note that there are three different releases of “You were…/BALLAD”. The CD only release, then two different versions of the single+DVD. The main difference is that the version I am reviewing comes with the “music box -retake version-” of “You Were…” and the other version comes with the orchestra version of “Sunset -LOVE is ALL-” instead. But both have the same DVD content.

As for the DVD, the DVD comes with the music videos for “You were…”, “BALLAD” and the making of “You were…”.

“You Were…” features Ayu wearing a white dress that has glowing parts all over (for those who saw the “Tinkbell and the Lost Treasure” film will understand the correlation of the fairy dust to this music video) and singing while snow falls. While another woman is seen, doing a robotic dance and fire flowing all around her.

In “Ballad”, the music video is a very dramatic video with an actual story. A man is seen sending letters through a mailbox in the middle of a field and then we see a flashback with the man and Ayumi riding a motorcycle and see two animated cats on the road and while they try to swerve, they crash. We then see the man surrounded by clocks, while Ayumi is wearing a dress and is in a beautiful, serene place with flowers, a tree and a lake, while the man with the clocks is searching for her in the middle of a field until we learn what happened to the Ayu and the man after their accident.

The final video is the making of “You Were…”.

Overall, for those who have stuck with Ayumi Hamasaki for the long haul throughout her musical career will find “You Were…/BALLAD” to be a single release featuring three solid tracks, while others may question what happened to her original style that they loved back in the early 2000’s. But for the most part, if you are a Hamasaki fan, this CD+DVD release is solid. I enjoyed all three songs and the DVD, especially the music video for “BALLAD” is well-done and very enjoyable.

If you enjoy her music, “You Were…/BALLAD” is a single worth having in your Ayu music collection.

Source/credit: http://www.nt2099.com/J-ENT/news/wor...single-review/ / Dennis Amith

They also have other reviews available for ARENA TOUR 2006 A ~(miss)understood~'s DVD and NEXT LEVEL.

[SURREAL__RAINBOW]

nice review I really liked this single! I dunno but ayu always gets to me with her ballads


thanks!

[TITANIC]

yeah I really love ayu's 2001

thank for sharing

[noisy_harmony]

But my favorite single on this latest release would have to go to “BALLAD (Original mix)” written by Ayumi, music by D-A-I and arrangement by Yuta Nakano. A slower ballad featuring strings by Yuko Kajitani. A gentle, delicate touch of the piano and strings with Ayumi’s vocals. Overall, a wonderful and even more passionate ballad.

I love the reviewer for this words. 100% right.

Great review, I'm glad that single is taken positively.

[freedreamer]

I really appreciate that he even included the person who lead the strings. Very nice review. Though You were... seems to be highly reminescent of her past hits, i think, because of THAT reminiscence, it is such an amazing and powerful song.

[waterballoon]

haha this is quite an elaborate review!

[mellody]

Thanks for sharing this!

Wow, this person also interpreted her PV as well, nice~
And all of the tracks, he even reviewed it...

[mobius]

Originally Posted by SURREAL__RAINBOW

nice review I really liked this single! I dunno but ayu always gets to me with her ballads

thanks!

^ hah, me too, I love her ballads

Nice to see the reviewer gave it a good review.

[miharufroggy]

It IS a great single. I couldn't agree more with the words!
It's a good detailed review too.

It's nice to know that the writer did some research on it too :3

[Aditmi Krisnasaki ~II~]

this is great! I love this positive review! thanks truehappiness... !

[primavera♥]

oh thanks thats a wonderful review. its very much how i feel about the single. and i feel you were is reminiscent of older ballads

[Izzette]

I wish Ayumi had included Red Line as an A-side, Lyrics wise it's better than You Were/Ballad. But I know she was going for 2 songs that had connection to each other like youwere/ballad did. Red Line really didn't fit in well with the other two. It could've been a future album track or something.

[Ayu_Ready]

Nice review You were/Ballad deserves it !

[hachiroku]

Originally Posted by SURREAL__RAINBOW

nice review I really liked this single! I dunno but ayu always gets to me with her ballads

Same here. I dont understand japan, but i only need to hear her voice.
(english lyrics i understand though)

[love in music]

I love reviews like this. Not just because they're mostly positive but because the reviewer actually did their research so they don't seem ignorant. Very good review!

[ayumisrael]

Yes this review is great and I agree with it. =D

[rakeru]

I really appreciate how the reviewer did his homework! And since it's positive, I naturally agree with his assessment.

[AyUta]

I couldn't agree with this review more .

[jbrat2219]

Great review. The reviewer seemed to have done his homework! Even though the review is positive, it's unbiased as well.

[Tony G]

This is a pretty poorly written review. =/ Good that its positive, but that's about it.