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Post by mirrorcle on Feb 19, 2012 19:45:49 GMT -4
Drowned World Tour gave us AT02 after all lol Ayu took so much from Madonna for that tour, had it been the first Ayu concert I saw I would have hated Ayumi...but she pretty much stopped taking from Madonna much since she started getting those "visualized by..." credits in her concerts so I don't think she'll change that much. The AT10 stage design was reminiscent of Sticky & Sweet tour but that's it.
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Post by relmy on Feb 28, 2012 13:10:35 GMT -4
Yeah, she just changed her stage recently so we'll probably be seeing that for the next 8457943895 tours
Precluding this with a massive imo...
I've been listening to RAINBOW today. I wanted to listen to Ayu, I STILL play some tracks from Love Songs and the songs from I am.../Duty/Loveppears always shuffle up, so I wanted to listen to an album I never really listen to any more. I don't really like MY STORY, GUILTY, RnRC and NEXT LEVEL (lol that's a lot), so I was left with ASFXX, RAINBOW, MA, (m)u and Secret.
ASFXX... no lol only album where the songs are better live, MA just felt wrong to me, I'm not in the mood for (m)u's cheesiness and I just wasn't in the mood for Secret lol
Why is this odd? I've never really liked RAINBOW much as an album, I love the tracks alone, like Free & Easy, Voyage, HANABI, July 1st, but it all just felt so... blah when it was put together. I even enjoyed blah stuff like Over today. I still think Close to you is THE SINGLE MOST POINTLESS SONG in her discography. It's worse than meaning of Love, simply because at RAINBOW she didn't have the shitty winter ballad formula. IT'S YOUR FAULT CLOSE TO YOU.
I don't get why people dislike RAINBOW is my point. I always thought of Ayu has having this creative journey of discovering herself that peaked in the godly masterpiece that is I am..., but today I realised how much RAINBOW still owes to that journey. I always saw it as a break point where... I don't know, she has those "re-style" years of MA, MS & m(u) before she found that awful formula in Secret.
Maybe RAINBOW is the end point of that journey though.
I am... to me, has always seemed a bit like an album made of songs that are just shouting, screaming, begging to be listened to in their desperation and lack of hope, it's painful almost. The songs are rough, they're messy, they've got some of her post poignant lyrics about hope and despair.
RAINBOW is like... it's sleek, it's shiny, it's still a bit messy though - there's none of that perfectionist sheen her music has now. Even stuff like Last Links and count down lack that "unpolished" feel these songs have, LL and CD were made to sound angsty and unfinished, while I am... and RAINBOW just came out that way.
Look at the early songs on RAINBOW, they're about self-empowerment, the one thing missing in ALL of her early works. The songs make amends with the world (Free & Easy), in Heartplace she reuses that concept of a stranger passing by that's present so much in her early albums, but it's not about isolation, it's about warmth now. It's got her first proper summer songs, she had upbeat stuff before but they were laced with melancholy and sadness, July 1st is purely summer.
RAINBOW just feels so conclusive. It's like... it is Ayu in MS onwards, but there isn't this same thread of idea and feeling to the pre-MA albums. MA on the other hand, is obviously influenced by her older albums, but "feels" like the post-MA ones and has more in common with them.
I wonder if FIVE will serve as a transition the way MA did? The build up of this formula to "perfection" in RnRC, with Love Songs being that album that both is the same, but really kind of isn't. Love Songs of course is the exception to the "nothing to do with the old ones" rule, Virgin Road is essentially ASFXX ~episode II~ lol
My Ayu thought of the day.
If this was in anyway cohesive, I'd blog it, but it's just random thoughts lol
edit: WAAAH LOOK HOW LONG THIS POST IS D:
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Post by relmy on Feb 29, 2012 11:26:32 GMT -4
double post but...
THEM COVERS. LOL.
I don't like the CD & CD+DVD ones much, I dislike her hair and she wasted her time in London in all honesty. But yaaay, Ayu has learnt how to smile again! They're still kinda bland for album covers though, it's just her twitpics with text on.
The LE cover would be amazing if she had some weight on her. She looks like a stick wearing a push up bra.
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Post by Sai on Feb 29, 2012 21:04:01 GMT -4
Um wow. Those covers.... :XD
Maybe S/S ~LiA~ and RnRC and (m)u have given me a kind of immunity, but I hardly think they're her worst, actually. She looks great, I love the smile :3 They're odd and raunchier than I expected, but yeah... after the initial shock, I don't have too much of a problem with them! *shrug*
And I have a response to your RAINBOW post, I'm just putting it off 'til I have a bit more time xD
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Post by relmy on Mar 1, 2012 11:14:01 GMT -4
I kinda like the (m)u covers... ;^^ They suited the album so much with it's girly fun times theme. I'm weird... and my only problem with S/S is the background, her hair and outfit is so cute~
RnRC though... that's not even Ayu, I swear. She has no bones in her face, the made a paper mache balloon head and photoshopped her features on.
I don't think they're her worst - to be fair, she has a lot of crappy covers - but I wouldn't rate them anywhere near her best. I'm fairly neutral, aside from whatever she's doing to her hair in them. That's actually my main problem D:
We're definitely being trolled though lol She knows we know she said she'd shot the covers in London (try saying that fast).
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Post by mirrorcle on Mar 1, 2012 17:42:09 GMT -4
I love the new covers actually. Some of my favorites.
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Post by mirrorcle on Mar 3, 2012 8:10:18 GMT -4
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Post by Sai on Mar 3, 2012 8:44:36 GMT -4
That was a great read, I agree with pretty much all of it. I reached all the same conclusions after reading her tweets and reminding myself that this is Ayu we're dealing with. Congrats on Timmy sharing it, too The more people that read that, the better, honestly.
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Post by relmy on Mar 3, 2012 15:44:39 GMT -4
I agree with you 100% on Ayu and sexuality, where people get this innocent virgin image from I have no idea.
I like them whatever her concept is, I don't love them, but I'm not the kind of person who needs a concept. Her covers are pretty much always glamour shoots anyway with the colour scheme reflecting the time of year lol
While I agree that Duty utilised sex as a metaphor, I do believe that LOVEppears, while it did have a concept, was utilising nudity for advertising and popularity to a certain extent. It was her second album, her first had been a major surprise hit, and they needed a way to maintain interest - what better way than to totally break from the girl next door image she had in A Song for xx? Not that they shot it and then gave it a concept, I think they intended to do something controversial like nudity for market reasons, then built up a concept that fit with that model.
A concept that fits with her deep lyrical content with an image that will be a marketing dream, and voila, you have an instant recipe for success.
Then again, even the existence of Loveppears alone baffles me as to why people are calling Ayu a "slut" over Party Queen. I mean, look how bad her hair is on Loveppears, that alone is more of a crime than her being in lingerie.
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Post by Sai on Mar 4, 2012 22:37:40 GMT -4
Belated response to your RAINBOW mini-essay : I completely agree with how you describe her earlier works, you really hit the nail on the head there. Angsty, unpolished, messy, poignant, etc. are all words I'd use, too. "she had upbeat stuff before but they were laced with melancholy and sadness", argh, THIS THIS THIS. This is what I love the most about Ayu's earlier stuff and at the same time I genuinely don't think she can recreate the feeling that some of these songs have. Trauma, too late, monochrome, evolution, Connected, just... all of those have such a unique dissonance and I love them to death for it.
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Post by relmy on Mar 13, 2012 10:56:21 GMT -4
DDDDDDDDD:
GUYS. TIMMY IS FROM MY TOWN.
Does anybody know his age? He went to the same school as my sister who is in her early 30s
This is weird. I resisted adding him on Facebook BUT NOW I MUST!
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Post by mirrorcle on Mar 13, 2012 13:34:14 GMT -4
Party Queen is Ayu's best album SO FUCKING EASILY. Unmatched diversity, songwriting, arrangements and vocals. Now only waiting for the lyrics.
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Post by relmy on Mar 13, 2012 14:10:03 GMT -4
I don't know if I'd call this diverse, I'd say call to tell me why (sans Return Road) suffers from the same thing as the middle of MY STORY.
My favourite song is EASILY NaNaNa. I like what she tried with the next Love and Eyes, Smoke, Magic, but I don't think I'll listen to them much.
It's chilling in the middle somewhere for me. I don't dislike any of these songs, but I don't LOVE any of them (yet). I'd say I like Love Songs more, because Virgin Road, Love Song and November are some of my favourite songs ever. I hated a good 4 songs on the album though.
I added Timmy on FB, messaged him about Dover, few hours later he liked my status I made about it. Bit awkward considering my semi sarcastic tone in it in.
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Post by mirrorcle on Mar 13, 2012 16:49:58 GMT -4
I wouldn't mash call to tell me why together. call and Letter are influenced by classic rock, reminds me and Return Road by symphonic emtal to some extent and a cup of tea by RnB. That's more diversity than most rock albums have lol While the middle of MY STORY was practically the same genre of rock songs and then the same genre of ballads.
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Post by relmy on Mar 13, 2012 17:51:33 GMT -4
I know they all have different influences, but aside from the theatricals in Return Road, they are all mid-tempo pop-rock songs, with the rock at increasing levels of heaviness, and then going soft again with tell me why. Stick call next to It was, criminal and Last Links et al and you have a set of songs that really aren't too distinguishable to the non-fan.
2 listens of PQ, added NaNaNa, Return Road, Party Queen, Eyes, Smoke, Magic and the next LOVE to my playlist. The rest I like, I don't dislike any of the songs, but I don't like them enough to listen to as part of my everyday playlist. When I get a new album, the whole thing usually stays on it as a whole for a while, but I just can't sit through that middle section D:
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