[Namie Amuro] The 102nd Thread - WE ♥ NAMIE FOREVER -

[AJFmzk]

Originally Posted by BlackSilence

But she kind of seamed like an r&b kinda gal back in the day, at least from the stuff i've heard? That's one of the reasons why i just couldn't get into her. She hardly seemed to have any pop rock tracks, i maybe only know like 2..but it could be that i just didn't hear enough. I have to say though the other day i listened to a few of her old songs, and you can easily tell the time they were released, i don't think some of her stuff aged very well lol But maybe it's just me.

......


I can agree that her music became very POP/EDM and that's mostly all she did, but for some reason it worked with her vocals better to my ears and i like dramatic arrangements with a lot going on, so maybe that's why i got more comfortable with her music. I think Damage and Neonlight Lipstick are some of the coolest songs from her newer stuff. I have to say Damage is probably my favourite Namie song.

Sorry for the super long post, but...

It's true that Namie has cited Janet Jackson as her biggest influence, but she didn't really start moving to a more r&b style until around late 2002/early 2003 if I remember correctly. She took a break after TK stopped producing for her because she felt like she lost the inspiration for her sound and didn't know how to produce for herself. She got re-inspired after joining suite chic.

I like songs from all across Namie's albums, but as I said in my previous post, my taste has shifted away from her later (especially 2012+) sound and back to her older stuff from TK and Dallas Austin (I do also really love some of Nao'ymt's compositions for her), which were more guitar and drums driven rather than electronic beats and loops. Even her early 90's stuff with super monkeys was guitar/drum machine based and featured interesting guitar solos and arrangements, kind of like rock meets dance, and I really like that combination. But my favorite era from Namie's sound is S19B, C20 and G2000. I sometimes still enjoy her newer songs, but EDM/electronic is really not my thing and I really have to be in the mood to listen to it. I kind of like some of the return to natural instruments on _genic, but the compositions and arrangements aren't that interesting to me, TK just had this magic ability to compose stuff that really hooked you in and kept you listening. And then replay and listen again and again, and then sounded even better live.

I think her voice changed with her getting older and using new vocal technique. She wasn't singing as nasal, and less nasal = more pleasing sound. Plus, the keys that the songs were written in later may have been more suited to her natural voice, since it seems like TK liked to push his artist to sing high and out of their normal ability. If you watch Namie sing her old TK songs, she frequently has to scream to hit some of the notes and that's really not healthy (in an interview she said it destroyed her voice especially after PLAY and BEST FICTION tours and she said her voice has never been the same since then, and she ended up having to cut the band because she couldn't sing over them anymore).

I wouldn't say her songs didn't age well, that's a matter of personal taste and perhaps technical criticism on the mixing and drum machines available at the time, but the arrangements, compositions and riffs of those songs, in my opinion are solid and still hold up. Don't wanna cry is such a well composed track from so many different angles, I legit cannot get tired of listening to it. Himawari is a great song and I'm kind of sad it didn't;t get a PV at the time, but I have the fan space version of Break the Rules Tour and she sings it there. I like the song damage, but I don't really listen to the single/Finally version. I do however really like the live versions, especially from 12MD Tour.

[Ashen Twilight]

Originally Posted by thinkingoutloud89

^that I personally don't agree lol It drags on way to long
Her best ballad is I HAVE NEVER SEEN

Agreed! THINGS I COLLECTED is ok, but it does drag on too long and the way Namie sings in that song does not do her any favors. I HAVE NEVER SEEN has an epic quality to it that not a lot of her ballads have. They all tend to be fairly simple. I WILL, Finally, and Dreaming I was dreaming all hold a warm
place in my heart too.

Also, GENIUS 2000 and break the rules aren’t BAD, but compared to her other full albums these two just fall a bit short for me.

How does everyone feel about STYLE and Queen of Hip-Pop? I feel like these two albums, particularly STYLE. I think QoHP has some of her worst tracks on it (I Love You, I Wanna Show You My Love, Ups & Downs, and My Darling), but also some of her strongest (ALARAM, No, Queen of Hip-Pop). Very much a mixed bag.

STYLE holds up very well for me honestly. I am still mad Did U didn’t make the final cut. One of my favorite songs in general!

[thinkingoutloud89]

^^ As a big Namie stand I love everything from front to back and there is no track that has not at least 250 spins in my library. But I would also say, as I stated, that her music after 2012 isn't as inspired and in that manner I would agree with you.

I'm not sure about the whole lost her way thing tho. if I remember correctly, during RtPoL promotions, her mother was killed. also GENIUS 2000 was her album after her maternity leave and the sales already indicated that her fame faded with break the rules crash landing That has mostly to do with avex pushing the album in a short time-frame (hence Himawari and think of me were recorded with her being very sick). "Put Em Up" was already produced for break the rules with a feature of one of the TLC girls, but was scrapped and pushed to Style. Her breaking away from TK and more into the DA sound was already her own drive.

In the Interview for LS2006 she said all her friends told her to just "retire" as she would not see a comeback from all that, but after SUITE CHIC she just tried the R&B sound she liked (and I personally feel like was already in her sound-DNA from S19B onwards). QoHP was a moderate success again and then PLAY hit with Baby Don't Cry and then it was topped by BEST FICTION - mostly due to extrem quality sound, already rising fame, excessive promotion, her being a fashion icon again and the fact that the sound she rooted for with SUITE CHIC/STYLE finally found ground in Japan - only seeing her breaking away from that after BF.

Namie is an extremely thought-out artist. She very rarely composed or wrote lyrics, yes, but she was always involved in her own image and was very peculiar about it, pushing for both quality and innovation. She proved to have a very keen eye/ear for that, always stayed true to herself and presented herself, even with her "scandal" from the best possible angle resulting in her becoming an icon of J-Pop.

One may not like a particular era of her music, and that is fully okay as it comes to taste - but you can find extremely well ade music throughout all of it when you look at it more objectively and in context of the music-market she catered to.

Even know, after 16 years, I'm still proud to say I'm a Namie fan and always will be.

Originally Posted by Ashen Twilight

Agreed! THINGS I COLLECTED is ok, but it does drag on too long and the way Namie sings in that song does not do her any favors. I HAVE NEVER SEEN has an epic quality to it that not a lot of her ballads have. They all tend to be fairly simple. I WILL, Finally, and Dreaming I was dreaming all hold a warm
place in my heart too.

Also, GENIUS 2000 and break the rules aren’t BAD, but compared to her other full albums these two just fall a bit short for me.

How does everyone feel about STYLE and Queen of Hip-Pop? I feel like these two albums, particularly STYLE. I think QoHP has some of her worst tracks on it (I Love You, I Wanna Show You My Love, Ups & Downs, and My Darling), but also some of her strongest (ALARAM, No, Queen of Hip-Pop). Very much a mixed bag.

STYLE holds up very well for me honestly. I am still mad Did U didn’t make the final cut. One of my favorite songs in general!

OMG I LOVE YOU and Ups & Downs are two of my fav songs from that era. I agree about the other two.
as for Style, it probably has the best singles for me and great bsides too. I also love all the albums tracks, but as a whole, it feels it lacks her own DNA - or rather it feels scrapped together and less like a full body of work.

[AJFmzk]

Originally Posted by thinkingoutloud89

^^ As a big Namie stand I love everything from front to back and there is no track that has not at least 250 spins in my library. But I would also say, as I stated, that her music after 2012 isn't as inspired and in that manner I would agree with you.

I'm not sure about the whole lost her way thing tho. if I remember correctly, during RtPoL promotions, her mother was killed. also GENIUS 2000 was her album after her maternity leave and the sales already indicated that her fame faded with break the rules crash landing That has mostly to do with avex pushing the album in a short time-frame (hence Himawari and think of me were recorded with her being very sick). "Put Em Up" was already produced for break the rules with a feature of one of the TLC girls, but was scrapped and pushed to Style. Her breaking away from TK and more into the DA sound was already her own drive.

In the Interview for LS2006 she said all her friends told her to just "retire" as she would not see a comeback from all that, but after SUITE CHIC she just tried the R&B sound she liked (and I personally feel like was already in her sound-DNA from S19B onwards). QoHP was a moderate success again and then PLAY hit with Baby Don't Cry and then it was topped by BEST FICTION - mostly due to extrem quality sound, already rising fame, excessive promotion, her being a fashion icon again and the fact that the sound she rooted for with SUITE CHIC/STYLE finally found ground in Japan - only seeing her breaking away from that after BF.

Namie is an extremely thought-out artist. She very rarely composed or wrote lyrics, yes, but she was always involved in her own image and was very peculiar about it, pushing for both quality and innovation. She proved to have a very keen eye/ear for that, always stayed true to herself and presented herself, even with her "scandal" from the best possible angle resulting in her becoming an icon of J-Pop.

One may not like a particular era of her music, and that is fully okay as it comes to taste - but you can find extremely well ade music throughout all of it when you look at it more objectively and in context of the music-market she catered to.

Even know, after 16 years, I'm still proud to say I'm a Namie fan and always will be.

OMG I LOVE YOU and Ups & Downs are two of my fav songs from that era. I agree about the other two.
as for Style, it probably has the best singles for me and great bsides too. I also love all the albums tracks, but as a whole, it feels it lacks her own DNA - or rather it feels scrapped together and less like a full body of work.

100%! I think she is a very deliberate and calculated (in a good, intentional sort of way) person. I think she always had the influence of R&B because of Janet, but her musical style didn't really reflect it until (at least to the public) until 2002 ish. TK wrote in a lot of styles but I don't recall him writing R&B for Namie, the closest was reggae Me love peace. I could be mistaken, but I don't recall anything in her pre-2000 discography that's R&B. I could be getting the timeline slightly wrong, I didn't start listening to Namie until a few years later. But yes, 2000-2002 was not a great time for Namie. Her Mother was murdered, she got divorced, her sales were down, she was pushed to record 2 albums in less than a year, Ayu rose to the top of Avex's artist lineup. I do recall her saying she wasn't sure which direction to go in. Yes, she made the decision to stop working with TK, but she said that she wasn't sure how to go forward being her own producer and thought about retiring in 2001.

I completely agree, there are plenty of well crafted songs all over her discography. Even 2012 +, I like Tempest, Break it, Get myself back, Can you feel this love, Contrail, Stardust in my eyes, sweet kisses, damage , hero, tsuki, fighter, Christmas wish, you & I. I just find that I much prefer her older songs than the new ones. Ups & Downs is one of my favorite tracks off QoHP. STYLE is kind of interesting for me. When I'm in the mood for it I will listen to the whole album all the way through, but generally I skip a lot of the tracks and just go for the singles, but the singles are so good that I bought a physical copy of the album so that I could listen all the way through.

I think it all comes down to individual tastes for which era you like or listen to most, but I 100% agree that she has some excellent stuff across all her albums, even if some of the well crafted stuff is not to my particular taste.

I constantly use both Ayu and Namie tracks as reference tracks for myself and to show others when writing my own music and when collaborating with other people. Even though she is no longer making music, I'm still introducing new people to her stuff, at the very least for inspiration or to explain a stylistic idea I want to use or convey.

[haraiso]

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