New album 'Party Queen' out 03/21 information thread [VI]

[RayJason]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

So, what's the way of having the right picture from an singer that has 12 albums that spans different music genres, different lyrical themes and different aesthetics? Whose voice changed so much that we can easily point 3 or 4 different voices from her ? Who has albums covers addressing to furry subculture, jewel advertising and neon-plastic fashion?

Either way someone enter in Ayu fandom, this person will picture her wrongly... Cuz her career is not as linear nor homogenic as some other popstars over there.

omfg calm down.

I'm just saying that this is not how ayu represents herself all the time, and people who happen to discover her during this era (Party Queen) will totally misunderstand who and what ayumi hamasaki really is. Not everyone can smell that the album(covers) have a concept. Many people know her for her cutesy upbeat J-POP songs and touching ballads, so it will be different for people who discover her to hear lyrics like the one featured in 'Party queen' (song) where she's (almost) suggesting (/or even encouraging) people do drink to have fun with her.

If the concept could have been done better, people (not only her fans) could understand it. They would know 'OH, so she's not drunk and posing like a ****, she's just sad and is covering it with partying'. I'm sure that people who discover her during this era will think of her as another Koda- artist.

But whatever.

[Maemi]

Originally Posted by Jester

I hope this album will EPIC as MY STORY *fingers crossed*

lol yes right

[channy]

Originally Posted by Zeke.

I will not lie, there is always the tiniest sliver of the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the new work has potential to be just as good, if not better than MY STORY... But who am I kidding?

Sorry, I said this some time ago already, but MY STORY is high-end, first class pop music. I doubt this album will ever be topped by another album of Ayu.

Just my opinion, but I really think it's simply not possible.

[isthisLOL?]

MY STORY has been surpassed by every following album and the 2 albums before for me. I'm hopeful.

[truehappiness]

I really like MY STORY but it's extremely ballad heavy. For her to do an album like that again, she would be taking a huge risk since people are sort of sick of getting that type of song from her lately.

I also think that people forget that a rather large fraction of her fanbase left after MY STORY was released because it was so 'terrible' at the time.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by RayJason

omfg calm down.

I'm just saying that this is not how ayu represents herself all the time, and people who happen to discover her during this era (Party Queen) will totally misunderstand who and what ayumi hamasaki really is. Not everyone can smell that the album(covers) have a concept. Many people know her for her cutesy upbeat J-POP songs and touching ballads, so it will be different for people who discover her to hear lyrics like the one featured in 'Party queen' (song) where she's (almost) suggesting (/or even encouraging) people do drink to have fun with her.

If the concept could have been done better, people (not only her fans) could understand it. They would know 'OH, so she's not drunk and posing like a ****, she's just sad and is covering it with partying'. I'm sure that people who discover her during this era will think of her as another Koda- artist.

But whatever.

Such a long reply, and still, this has nothing to do with I posted... Funny

@TeamAyu2004
If u take a look on all of her album covers, it doesn't seen like the same artist (on the way as they portray very different themes and aesthetics). If u listen to some of her biggest hits, again, a lot of her discography doesn't sound as stuff done by the same person... and this is my point: It doesn't matter what single, album, video or song bring you to Ayu fandom, she releases, releases and will release something that goes on the total opposite direction. There's no way to form a "right" image of her basing your opinions on only 1 album, pic or video.

[pepper]

MY STORY may be a BALLAD heavy, but each one of them is VERY unique. I remember all of em. I don't like ballads like meaning of love,hbya,beloved. I don't remember any of melody except for the hbya chorus, cause it's in english... Even Curtain call and untitled ~for her~ are in that style, but for some reason, I like them.

[emi♡]

who cares what new fans might think.

New fans have been wrong since like 2007

[ayu_ready?]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Her arm is behind a table leg in the CD+2DVD and her face isn't photoshopped that much. The original NOT retouched version can be found in her TeamAyu blog entry and it's really not that different.

you mean this picture is not photoshopped?
don't believe. it might be a lighting though

what I personally don't like is that the face looks so flat and the area of chin-cheek looks too smoothed as well, here there's a flat face with bad lighting
or it might be just a weird Ayusmile, she can't control her mouth in the latest photshoots well XD

the hair & overall remind of Lady Gaga, though. not drawing any parallels but I just came across a video of hers of a shoot or smth and there she had her hair like that wearing some lingerie too, so...

[truehappiness]

Originally Posted by pepper

MY STORY may be a BALLAD heavy, but each one of them is VERY unique. I remember all of em. I don't like ballads like meaning of love,hbya,beloved. I don't remember any of melody except for the hbya chorus, cause it's in english...

Not remembering how they go might have to do with how much you listened to them overall compared to say, MY STORY. I actually didn't listen to MY STORY for a while and it's rather easy to mix up a few of the tracks towards the middle of the album.

Like... if you only listened to beloved once or twice, of course you're not going to remember it over an album that you played many times.

[AngelSenshi]

Originally Posted by RayJason

omfg calm down.

I'm just saying that this is not how ayu represents herself all the time, and people who happen to discover her during this era (Party Queen) will totally misunderstand who and what ayumi hamasaki really is. Not everyone can smell that the album(covers) have a concept. Many people know her for her cutesy upbeat J-POP songs and touching ballads, so it will be different for people who discover her to hear lyrics like the one featured in 'Party queen' (song) where she's (almost) suggesting (/or even encouraging) people do drink to have fun with her.

If the concept could have been done better, people (not only her fans) could understand it. They would know 'OH, so she's not drunk and posing like a ****, she's just sad and is covering it with partying'. I'm sure that people who discover her during this era will think of her as another Koda- artist.

But whatever.

For a long time now Ayu's mostly been concerned with being as honest as possible with everyone, including herself. For what she cares for, every album is a part of her life, an era of her own life and not just an era of her career. She's not thinking "I better not release that! New people may get the wrong idea!" and she hardly ever was. She doesn't care for that at all, so why should we? She doesn't care what people think, even if it hurts sometimes; she's just trying to deliver good, honest material to her fans, and be honest with herself, find a release for herself.

Besides, the material she releases from one album to another, her style from one single to another, one magazine to another, one video to another, it almost always changes. The only thing that remains the same is that it is an honest portrayal of her personality at that given time. To become a 'fan' you need to look at the work of more than just the present moment and the future, so frankly, a new 'fan' shouldn't be what we're concerned with. And frankly, old fans should remember who she is as a person; the fact that she's always digging deeper with her work.

[truehappiness]

Besides, the material she releases from one album to another, her style from one single to another, one magazine to another, one video to another, it almost always changes. The only thing that remains the same is that it is an honest portrayal of her personality at that given time. To become a 'fan' you need to look at the work of more than just the present moment and the future, so frankly, a new 'fan' shouldn't be what we're concerned with. And frankly, old fans should remember who she is as a person; the fact that she's always digging deeper with her work.

I love youuuu.

[ayu_ready?]

I have to disagree about MY STORY because to me it's one of her best-s, so...full of ballads, but each of them is very good, imho. in terms of composition they are more complicated then simplified, acoustic, lately released beloved, HBYA & of the kind, all the same.

[pepper]

when I think of MY STORY ballads I think "Oh, these are songs from inner galaxy. From MY STORY galaxy." They are just diffrent then anything. I don't glorify them, it's not even my favorite album, but everything on MY STORY sounds just diffrent. It's MY STORY, it's a package of atmosphere that it's a little close to November song atmosphere.

[love in music]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

^Well, I hope it's more awesome than My Story, what is not that hard to me considering I hate that album LOL

yeah, it's one of my least favorites from her too. i'd be very disappointed if it was worse than that album. this is what it looks like in my itunes lol
http://i42.tinypic.com/rc1o2d.jpg

[Tom Punks]

I agree with ayu_ready...

beloved and hbya feel so simple and generic melody-wise, yet I cannot for the life of me remember how they sound, despite having listened to them like 30 times collectively. :| For hbya, I can only remember the chorus, and for beloved, I can't remember the melody at all unless I think REALLY, REALLY hard about it. These are the only two songs Ayu's ever released that I've had trouble remembering the melody for after like two or three listens max. :x

[TeamAyu2004]

Originally Posted by AngelSenshi

Besides, the material she releases from one album to another, her style from one single to another, one magazine to another, one video to another, it almost always changes. The only thing that remains the same is that it is an honest portrayal of her personality at that given time. To become a 'fan' you need to look at the work of more than just the present moment and the future, so frankly, a new 'fan' shouldn't be what we're concerned with. And frankly, old fans should remember who she is as a person; the fact that she's always digging deeper with her work.

this is what i was trying to say.. thank you for saying so much better!

[Deep snow]

So the 7 PVs total has been crossed out from the misc. bit, did she confirmed lesser number of PVs already?

Oh, and

Originally Posted by isthisLOL?

MY STORY has been surpassed by every following album and the 2 albums before for me. I'm hopeful.

^ This.

[truehappiness]

Originally Posted by Deep snow

So the 7 PVs total has been crossed out from the misc. bit, did she confirmed lesser number of PVs already?

Oh, and



^ This.

Since they haven't officially said anything about any new PVs, we should assume that we're only getting four according to the tracklist available on her official site. More would be great though!

I wish we were getting seven though since she seems to be filming things like crazy lately. (And calling them PVs as well....)

[pepper]

7 it's a bit too much I guess. but 5 would be cool.