New song:『Pray for you』

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by !Lawi!

^Let's normalise using Ayu gifs and this one in particular!

As much as I think the statement is too extreme, I think I understand where Akutenshi is coming from because I had the exact same reaction - bored to death thinking 'welp, that's an Ayu ballad all right' and when the horns came in I actually started paying attention.

Obviously it's all a matter of taste and I am in NO WAY qualified as a musician, but to me Pray for you does sound like Pray, Anything for you, Zutto, WORDS or Walk to quote a few. And apart from Walk, none of those actually appeal to me unfortunately.

While being of... varying quality let's say, I feel like the other ones in njanjyarp's list have something 'special' that made me remember them - the dry guitar in Shape of love, the 'etheral' instruments in You are the only one + break at the end, the relative simplicity of Sweet Scar, the change of tone in Last minute, ...

So yeah, while I disagree that Pray for you sounds like all her ballads in the last 7 years because she's had some KILLER ballads, I can't see it becoming one of my favourite based on the instrumental version. But then again, I would have said the same listening to the instrumental version of Walk and yet I was obsessed when it came out.

I guess I'm just secretly hoping for November part II

The issue I have in particular is with the 7-year and “almost every other”, as while you could say there is something that defines a generic ayu ballad i.e. Close to you, meaning of Love, Days, Anything for you, Winter diary, The Way I am and Ohia no Ki for example those are definitely in minority and even the majority of those while not shining brightest arrangement/composition-wise have at least had meaningful and well/written lyrics. Not every ballad will sound as grand as BRILLANTE. I have a feeling we tend to plaster the “generic” sticker to everything plain-sounding.

You did mention WORDS and while musically it’s kind of a simpler song I think the way it progresses and the lyrics just separate it from the batch.

[Deep snow]

Originally Posted by SURREAL__RAINBOW

I like the instrumental, although nothing could beat RAINBOW, ever!

RAINBOW really is one of her undisputed best songs, for me. it would be near-impossible to come up with this kind of perfection in this album (a CREA+D•A•I collaboration? that really builds to a satisfying climax?? in THIS economy???) but I do hope we get a great new song!

[summerain]

What I think about her "generic" ballads is that they are generic based on her own standards. She has a lot of songs with similar sounding / arrangement (and it's Ayu's fault, cause she is stuck with Yuta Nakano, an excellent composer and arranger, but it's up to her asking or picking up melodies and arrangements who sounds similar), but they all sound very "oh, that's an Ayu song". Even if some of them aren't remarkable, she has a solid music identity and for me it's super positive.

[!Lawi!]

Yeah I definitely agree with most of the points made above - first off the generic argument is really nitpicking at this point : the girl been singing for two decades and has covered so many styles that grouping a handful of similar sounding sounds is quite preposterous!

And to be honest I love that about her discography, first because it brings people with different tastes, I'm glad to know people enjoy songs I don't find particularly special, but also just on a personal level I'm glad she has a song for pretty much every mood I'm in! I might not be the biggest fan of her classic sounding ballads but I'd be lying if I said I have never played beloved or the way I am on repeat! And I loved loved loved BRILLANTE when it came out but sometimes it starts playing and I just can't be bothered with it. It's just nice to have such variety, it's something I haven't really found in any other artist I'm interested in.

[summerain]

Originally Posted by !Lawi!

Yeah I definitely agree with most of the points made above - first off the generic argument is really nitpicking at this point : the girl been singing for two decades and has covered so many styles that grouping a handful of similar sounding sounds is quite preposterous!

And to be honest I love that about her discography, first because it brings people with different tastes, I'm glad to know people enjoy songs I don't find particularly special, but also just on a personal level I'm glad she has a song for pretty much every mood I'm in! I might not be the biggest fan of her classic sounding ballads but I'd be lying if I said I have never played beloved or the way I am on repeat! And I loved loved loved BRILLANTE when it came out but sometimes it starts playing and I just can't be bothered with it. It's just nice to have such variety, it's something I haven't really found in any other artist I'm interested in.

I think she is my favorite artist specially because of that. If we are talking about music crafting (melodies, arrangement, harmonies) we have some artists in J-Pop who are technically above her (like Utada or Shiina Ringo), but her production in general is way above the average and she is experimenting a lot during all these almost 23 years. Yeah, during the last years she has an specific taste for ballads, but she has given us some unique sounding like We are the QUEENS (a mix with epic orchestra, rock and dance track), W and FLOWER (two rock songs, but with a complete different route for each one), Mad World (also rock-influenced, but a very "current" and elegant rock ballad) and Dreamed a Dream (a 90s electronica and pop blaster).

Also, I always remember a thing Andrenekoi has been saying from a long time: when she wants to make her listeners paying attention to the lyrics (actually, she is a lyric-driven artist per se, but still), she downsize the music production to a basic level to avoid any distraction. The most "meaningful" ballads (in a personal level) of TROUBLE are like that and so is Ohia no Ki (I almost cried the first time I read the translation, so I wonder what would be the lyrics impact in a japanese native speaker who could relate to the motherhood situation).

[orbitalaspect]

So, this is 'Ayu' -- which is expected -- but it's like getting more of the same thing when you're fivehead deep in a pool filled with that thing already, and you've spent so long in that pool wading around -- fivehead deep -- believing that initial feel-good experience will come back once more while increasingly pendulous with frustration and apathy over it, you being it, and you wanting to want to be in it but not getting any closer to that ideal.

My initial impressions were that the song sounds like Seiko Matsuda's Baby's breath records sound to fans who were there for albums like 9th Wave. It sounds new and dated at the same time, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if you've heard Seiko's Bara no You ni..., it's impossible to look back on the last 15 years of new Seiko releases and feel remotely as welcoming of them anymore.

I think it's obvious Ayu doesn't want to be pushing out new records/sounds/etc. She may have a big resurgence at some point with one song like Seiko did, or like Nakamori did some years back, but that's going to come out of nowhere and it won't be her working with anyone she's ever worked with. It'll be someone who's figured out some production that rises to the level of BRILLANTE, et. al., but in some way we've never heard Ayu do before.

I'm mostly disappointed with Ayu not writing about this to her fans. I know it's not typical, but Ayu's entire career has emphasized shared loneliness between her and her fans -- that's the point of songs like "curtain call," which was Ayu acknowledging that even as we move on, she has never stopped listening just in case we needed her to let us know so.

I'd really appreciate a letter about this. Even if it reads, "I'm really bored with all of this, and I just want to do tours until I'm completely done." Because again, her commitment in 2007-2008 was that "as a professional" she would never just let things go. If that's changed for one reason or another, from one human being to another, I'd just like to know that I shouldn't wait or come back and check every now and then.

A part of me sees A BALLADS II and thinks, maaaaybe she'll pick it up again?... maybe??. And I can't help that as a fan going back to 2005-2006. But if she's ready to go forward like Amuro was in 2018, I'd just like to see a full finale, a thank you, best wishes, and a final curtain call on the legendary 'A' symbol. I feel like 20+ years deserves a formal farewell. And then she can do her Fukushima residency and spend her days off in rubber boots fishing at the nearest wharf. She can do her own Ayu tees, like, "Ayu-ready A-hole?!!" and "I sold 70 million records and all I got left is a bunch of leftover boxes of these t-shirts."

Anyway, it's OK. But I'd rather not hear stuff like this personally, as it feels like she's "playing" Ayu in a song now. And the whole Ayu brand runs far deeper for most of us than this is willing to acknowledge with effort.

That sounds rude, but it does sound really like the last saltine of a box of saltines for me, personally. If everyone likes it, that's great. I just know that if I were Ayu, I'd have spent the last 9 months revisiting what all of this meant 15-20 years ago -- for all of us, including Ayu -- and I'd be up day and night, exhausted and worked to the bone, to get something like that again given how easily we forgot that it could all so quickly be swept away with no possibility of ever even having the means to do it if we ever wanted to do it again.

[Kanasake]

Ayumi is a mother now and and we all know there's the coronavirus. So stop talking like that! All of you!

[Mikytaryan]

Originally Posted by orbitalaspect

So, this is 'Ayu' -- which is expected -- but it's like getting more of the same thing when you're fivehead deep in a pool filled with that thing already, and you've spent so long in that pool wading around -- fivehead deep -- believing that initial feel-good experience will come back once more while increasingly pendulous with frustration and apathy over it, you being it, and you wanting to want to be in it but not getting any closer to that ideal.

I'm mostly disappointed with Ayu not writing about this to her fans. I know it's not typical, but Ayu's entire career has emphasized shared loneliness between her and her fans -- that's the point of songs like "curtain call," which was Ayu acknowledging that even as we move on, she has never stopped listening just in case we needed her to let us know so.

I'd really appreciate a letter about this. Even if it reads, "I'm really bored with all of this, and I just want to do tours until I'm completely done." Because again, her commitment in 2007-2008 was that "as a professional" she would never just let things go. If that's changed for one reason or another, from one human being to another, I'd just like to know that I shouldn't wait or come back and check every now and then.

A part of me sees A BALLADS II and thinks, maaaaybe she'll pick it up again?... maybe??. And I can't help that as a fan going back to 2005-2006. But if she's ready to go forward like Amuro was in 2018, I'd just like to see a full finale, a thank you, best wishes, and a final curtain call on the legendary 'A' symbol. I feel like 20+ years deserves a formal farewell. And then she can do her Fukushima residency and spend her days off in rubber boots fishing at the nearest wharf. She can do her own Ayu tees, like, "Ayu-ready A-hole?!!" and "I sold 70 million records and all I got left is a bunch of leftover boxes of these t-shirts."

Anyway, it's OK. But I'd rather not hear stuff like this personally, as it feels like she's "playing" Ayu in a song now. And the whole Ayu brand runs far deeper for most of us than this is willing to acknowledge with effort.

That sounds rude, but it does sound really like the last saltine of a box of saltines for me, personally. If everyone likes it, that's great. I just know that if I were Ayu, I'd have spent the last 9 months revisiting what all of this meant 15-20 years ago -- for all of us, including Ayu -- and I'd be up day and night, exhausted and worked to the bone, to get something like that again given how easily we forgot that it could all so quickly be swept away with no possibility of ever even having the means to do it if we ever wanted to do it again.

I can understand from where you're coming from, but you said something interesting: "if I were Ayu".

The thing is, while we would all do stuff if we were in someone's shoes (I could sing better, I could work better, I could draw better, etc. etc.), we can't actually know what's going on through a person's mind to even say that. No, you cannot know what you would do if you were Ayu, you can only imagine and that would still be one of 48728573845 possibilities.

I understand, people are tired, we are all tired, but this pandemic affects people in different ways! She may be hurting, and we cannot know for sure how and how much and she doesn't have to tell us. She has so many things going on in her life, so there's no way she would deliver at the same pace. BUT from this, to thinking that she is on a retiring path and that's that, is sad to think...

People can be inconsistent, people can get tired...this doesn't mean that she will stop. In this era, she felt the need to give us a soothing present in the form of a very "Ayu" ballad and a compilation of ballads to heal our souls and this can be more powerful than anything new she would release because it channels the spirit of familiarity, it channels that feeling that you are home.

I hope this can be heard in her new ballad, and I hope people can see that even if she referred to her artist persona as a product, this doesn't give us the right to treat her that way or to expect that she should be in a certain way for us to feel connected to her.

The truth is, things have changed, she's a mother now, has many other priorities - but please don't dismiss her only because of that! She can still work and deliver powerful music, just that this is at her own pace, and I respect that.

Looking forward to this new song and I am certain her feelings will be delivered in full, because it's her song and her lyrics - those things that redefined an era and a genre.

[love in music]

Originally Posted by Mikytaryan

I can understand from where you're coming from, but you said something interesting: "if I were Ayu".

The thing is, while we would all do stuff if we were in someone's shoes (I could sing better, I could work better, I could draw better, etc. etc.), we can't actually know what's going on through a person's mind to even say that. No, you cannot know what you would do if you were Ayu, you can only imagine and that would still be one of 48728573845 possibilities.

This..

Also I'm pretty sure commenting on how you would live someone's life is a pretty intrusive and rude thing to do, especially when you try to make it a point to say you'd live it better than they are living it. Very disrespectful.

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by love in music

This..

Also I'm pretty sure commenting on how you would live someone's life is a pretty intrusive and rude thing to do, especially when you try to make it a point to say you'd live it better than they are living it. Very disrespectful.

And also it's super easy to say this when you have limited information, but the fact is at some point we all get tired of whatever we are doing. I've been in the IT industry for 10 years and boy am I tired. Priorities and people change. People get sick and tired of things.

[kendelle]

12 months ago I would've thought "wow, a pandemic and work slowing down, what a great time to knuckle down on Japanese!"

Yeah, 12 months later and life got the best of me yet again lol My field never really slowed down and I haven't touched Kanji in that whole time! I'd love to imagine what I could achieve in a given period of time, but even I can sort my crap out lol

[Chibi-Chan]

Originally Posted by orbitalaspect

So, this is 'Ayu' -- which is expected -- but it's like getting more of the same thing when you're fivehead deep in a pool filled with that thing already, and you've spent so long in that pool wading around -- fivehead deep -- believing that initial feel-good experience will come back once more while increasingly pendulous with frustration and apathy over it, you being it, and you wanting to want to be in it but not getting any closer to that ideal.

My initial impressions were that the song sounds like Seiko Matsuda's Baby's breath records sound to fans who were there for albums like 9th Wave. It sounds new and dated at the same time, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if you've heard Seiko's Bara no You ni..., it's impossible to look back on the last 15 years of new Seiko releases and feel remotely as welcoming of them anymore.

I think it's obvious Ayu doesn't want to be pushing out new records/sounds/etc. She may have a big resurgence at some point with one song like Seiko did, or like Nakamori did some years back, but that's going to come out of nowhere and it won't be her working with anyone she's ever worked with. It'll be someone who's figured out some production that rises to the level of BRILLANTE, et. al., but in some way we've never heard Ayu do before.

I'm mostly disappointed with Ayu not writing about this to her fans. I know it's not typical, but Ayu's entire career has emphasized shared loneliness between her and her fans -- that's the point of songs like "curtain call," which was Ayu acknowledging that even as we move on, she has never stopped listening just in case we needed her to let us know so.

I'd really appreciate a letter about this. Even if it reads, "I'm really bored with all of this, and I just want to do tours until I'm completely done." Because again, her commitment in 2007-2008 was that "as a professional" she would never just let things go. If that's changed for one reason or another, from one human being to another, I'd just like to know that I shouldn't wait or come back and check every now and then.

A part of me sees A BALLADS II and thinks, maaaaybe she'll pick it up again?... maybe??. And I can't help that as a fan going back to 2005-2006. But if she's ready to go forward like Amuro was in 2018, I'd just like to see a full finale, a thank you, best wishes, and a final curtain call on the legendary 'A' symbol. I feel like 20+ years deserves a formal farewell. And then she can do her Fukushima residency and spend her days off in rubber boots fishing at the nearest wharf. She can do her own Ayu tees, like, "Ayu-ready A-hole?!!" and "I sold 70 million records and all I got left is a bunch of leftover boxes of these t-shirts."

Anyway, it's OK. But I'd rather not hear stuff like this personally, as it feels like she's "playing" Ayu in a song now. And the whole Ayu brand runs far deeper for most of us than this is willing to acknowledge with effort.

That sounds rude, but it does sound really like the last saltine of a box of saltines for me, personally. If everyone likes it, that's great. I just know that if I were Ayu, I'd have spent the last 9 months revisiting what all of this meant 15-20 years ago -- for all of us, including Ayu -- and I'd be up day and night, exhausted and worked to the bone, to get something like that again given how easily we forgot that it could all so quickly be swept away with no possibility of ever even having the means to do it if we ever wanted to do it again.

I wholeheartedly agree with you. I'm fine with her having changed maybe and simply having other priorities now. But I would like to know. Before every release, where she is teasing us with how good it supposedly is, I'm so disappointed afterwards because there is no real effort, it never compares with the Ayu I fell in love with almost 20 years ago. I also just wish she would let us know and be like "see guys, atm I'm not feeling like doing what I did for so many years, I'm having more fun releasing whatever from time to time and want to mostly perform". Then I wouldn't expect what I did expect from her years ago and would just be happy that she found a place where she is happy. But her being like "this is the best release evaaaa" everytime kind of feels as if she wants her fans to stay around, wants to keep them hooked, even though she knows they expect something different from her and this feels kind of "unfair", given that a lot of us walked that way with her for two decades.

[TheRainbow]

Actions speak louder than words. She hasn’t released a full album in almost five years - does she really need to spell out that she’s not into releasing music in the same way as she used to? I don’t think so. I doubt she’d ever say her heart’s not in it the same way, but the clues seem pretty obvious.

[ava_dreams]

Honestly I can relate to the above. As a person, I understand that she has changed and has different priorities. It feels like she is living with a ghost of her past consistently both trying to please her old fans, and not really creating anything to connect with people on a new level. For me the honesty is missing. With every new release or even concert it feels like the passion and effort are there. What is lacking is the vulnerability that made me connect with her. There is deep respect and appreciation for everything that she has achieved, and for whatever she chooses to do, but there is absolutely no doubt that creatively she is wading in very stale waters.
But hey, we all keep coming back in hopes, so that's gotta say something.

[love in music]

Why would she say something like she's not as into things as she once was though? First of all, it may not be true, that's just what some people are assuming. Second of all, if it were true that would be bad for her brand and would ruffle the feathers of anyone else working with her at Avex. I'm not saying money is everything to her but it's important and it seems that she wants to keep working with Avex as even though she is releasing at a slower pace, she's still releasing things. Thirdly, I don't get why some fans feel like she has to be honest with them about how she feels about her career. She doesn't owe us any explanation of what she's feeling right now just because we have followed her for a long time and she has been honest with us about things in the past. We are not her friends, we are not her family, we are fans that have had the privilege of discovering a talented singer/songwriter. We may think we are close to her and have some sort of bond, but in reality we aren't. I'm not saying we're not important to her, but we are not close with her on the level that we can expect to know her true feelings about her career.

Also, if you have expectations of her releasing the same quality of music as she did 10+ years ago when year after year you have been more disappointed than not, that's on you and not her.

[Toniayu123]

She doesn’t owe anyone anything and she can do anything she feels like. She hasn’t stopped releasing, has she? The only year we didn’t have a new song was 2019, and still we had concerts. The only thing changing has been the pace in which things are being released. Lack of creativity? Completely agree. But a bankrupt company doesn’t help either lol
I understand the frustration of some fans not getting the honesty She always “promised” to have with TA, you know... the whole 2015 “come back” thing, she crying on TV over the fact she went away to LA but she regrets it because she felt she abandoned her fans, etc. Sorrows, I’m looking at you. But she’s at a different point in her life now, her priorities may have changed. But she hasn’t stopped, never. I mean, we even had a CDL right after she gave birth. I’m sure we’ll have a new album, probably we won’t have to wait much. (I don’t like comparisons, but Britney’s or Rihanna’s latest albums were released in 2016 iirc, so it’s not like Ayu is the only one taking “4eva” to release one)

To keep myself on topic, I’m excited for the new song! So am I for A ballads 2. It feels so nice seeing the forum so active again. Hope they finally release PoM18 on the luxury version so I can happily spend my $$$$ saving avex.

[rainbow_smile]

Just because you don't like a release, doesn't mean it's objectively bad or that ayu didn't put any effort into it

[kendelle]

The comments on Ayu's perceived lack of effort remind me of The way I am's lyrics........


Even so, as long as you say
you want to believe the future is bright
I will stay here, continuing to make dreams come true
And when you no longer need me, please,
don’t pity me

Throw me away without hesitation

[Evan Odinson]

^That's really accurate! And such an underrated song

[indigochild]

Not people here thinking they DESERVE an explanation and to know exactly what's going on in HER mind, HER life, and HER career There's not enough eye roll emojis in the world to express how asinine some of y'all are sounding right now.