Album Thoughts: Ayumi Hamasaki / A ONE
Title:「A ONE」
Artist: 浜崎あゆみ
Release date: 2015.04.08
Again not exactly a review, just my thoughts and opinions.
Is it a coincidence her debut day is also my birthday? God, ayu. To me, April 8 is her debut day. And I always thought that. And then I remember it's also my birthday. Sigh.
Anyway, I want to put down my thoughts on her album, A ONE, that just came out. It's not a surprise or I should say, it's even obvious that ayumi hamasaki has been lazy on her albums these days. And this is like, not my opinion, it's a fact. For an artist that has been going for 17 years, I have to give her credit. But for an artist that started out so good to flop like this is like a slap in the face. Not to the fans. But to the artist herself. In the years I've followed both ayu and Arashi, I saw that since ayu began to flop, Arashi began to rise. Like my two fandoms are having some kind of battle or something. But that's just me being weird, cause ayu and Arashi don't mix. They only mix in my world. In the real world they don't.
Anyway, A ONE is like CoLOURS (yay for spelling it the British way) but a little bit better. The title is as random and meaningless as hell, though. I mean, her first few albums had meanings, and I liked that. And doesn't she like to turn the "A" into her logo? She's not doing that anymore? The cover is even worse. I cannot deny she look beautiful (as always. Damn you, ayu!), but it is like that cover she did with her Countdown Live 2013-2014, where it look like a magazine photoshoot and then she just rip off a picture from there and use it as the cover. WTF, ayu. She also look so Western it's creepy. But the whole cover is safe. So it's plain. Like LOVE again and CoLOURS. But seriously, cover up, ayu, everyone could see your side cleavage!
Her earlier albums contained many tracks, like 15-16 tracks, which also included interludes. But CoLOURS and A ONE has just 10-12 tracks and no interlude. Well, A ONE has that one interlude, which is the first track, a Bell, a short piece of piano based track, that is pretty useless and pointless. She could have started the album with a better piece. But that's me being greedy, cause I guess it kind of fit since the album are sort of, peaceful, I guess.
But at least it's not as peaceful and boring as LOVE again, cause the next track is WARNING, this rock and sexy track that also has a PV with it. The PV is... I can't even. She first does these exaggerated moves, that she always does, then there are these people. Lots of people. And ayu there touching them. WTF. And is that LICO and KO I see hanging around? What happened with ZIN and SUBARU? LOL, I guess they can't even be bothered anymore. I like the song, though, but after a few listens I find it pretty crap. I mean, she sound good, and the song has energy. But it's also really, and I mean really, loud. Louder than even Arashi's TRAP, and that track is loud. And it's also weird how a bell was played and then this track comes up. Like peaceful piano and then straight into fast rock track. Sigh.
The next track is NO FUTURE, which sounds like a mix between anime music and one of her older tracks that I can't be bothered to find which one. And it's OK. Kind of like NOW & 4EVA from CoLOURS. Which is why it's nothing special. Next is Anything for You. This track begins with violin and piano, and then ayu's cracky vocals comes in. Then she repeats this weird melody until it changed into a better melody, and into the chorus of Walk. WTF. The song is basically Walk but crappier. It's okay, nothing special. But seriously, I would rather listen to Walk than this song if I had to choose between the two. Maybe she did it on purpose. What a bitch.
The fifth track is Last Minute. Probably my favourite track on the album. But I do not like the PV. She looks nice. As always. But the swinging of the light is just... no. That's terrible. And annoying. VERY annoying. And this song makes ayu swings her head and body in a very dramatic way. I know she did it to suit the song. But it's creepy. Like she suddenly gone crazily high. But the song is good. This song is also very loud, but I love it. It's touching and dramatic at the same time. And the song ends really well.
Next is Zutto..., which you probably already know what song it is cause it was a single along with Last Minute and Walk. It's nice. And the PV is nice too. Though I did not like ayu all freezed up. That was creepy. She looked like an evil ice queen, and she looked older there. She's freezed up and then she tries to sing at the same time, which makes her look kind of weird.
And then it's Out of control. The song is basically like all the other songs. Rocky, yet touching, pop ayu current style music. It also sounded like a track that's supposed to be on, say, Party Queen, along with her other rocky tracks on that album. I don't know. It's forgettable. That's what it is. Actually all the songs on this album that I mentioned so far are forgettable, except maybe the ones with PVs.
Next is another forgettable song, Story, which sounds like an anime ending theme song or something. One of those, you know. It's basically another one of those songs. Next! The GIFT. This is that special song she did with JJ Lin (or whatever his name is). I love this song. I remember I used to listen to this song every morning while eating breakfast around the time when this song was coming out. But it has a short duration, so I wished it was a bit longer. It's about wedding, I think. And the PV is basically ayu singing while sitting on this piano JJ Lin is playing. The background has this couple getting married, and then at the end JJ Lin gives ayu a ring like they are married or something. First, I did not know who the hell is JJ Lin. I still don't, by the way. I also don't care since I don't really follow Mandarin music. Secondly, Chinese and Japanese people do not mix. And they will never mix. So imagine the awkwardness. I'm watching a J-Pop video, and there is a Chinese dude there. WTF. Okay, I'm being racist. Next!
The Show Must Go On. This song. Oh my god. I LOVE the intro music! But I HATE the rest of the song. I just hate this song. It's really bad. What's even worse is that the bloody song is long. It's already bad, it's also long? That's not fair. The good songs are short and the bad ones are long? She basically repeat that horrid chorus all the way until the end. I don't think it's actually that bad, but because her terrible vocals are repeated that way, it's like, my ears are bleeding, woman! **The show must go on! YAY YEAH, YAY YEAH! The show must go on! YAY YEAH, YAY YEAH! The show must go on! YAY YEAH, YAY YEAH! The show must go on! YAY YEAH, YAY YEAH...** Save me.
The eleventh track on the album is Walk. Now, it may sound at first like what I said about Story, but since this song is tied to a single, of course it will stand out. And the more I listen to it, the more I love it. I also liked her performance of this song on her recent countdown live, where she basically cried at the end. Ayu crying while singing always gets me. But these days I don't even know if she's just acting. Like, in the past she wrote down her true sad feelings, and it was real, which was why many people loved her. But then things start to change. She cared more about her image and less about the music and her feelings. She started writing these music about love and they bore people, okay? What makes ayu different is her touching lyrics. But then she gone and married some useless dude, and it all ruined everything. Her music became less touching and so her fans fled. Like prey seeing a predator. Poor woman.
Last track is Movin' on without you, which is a cover of Utada Hikaru's song. I really like this cover. It's nice. But I cannot stand her performance of this song live. Like, I can't. Her vocals are terrible. And she basically has either 2-YAN as the DJ, along with a lot of light effects, or just the light effects, along with her dancers dancing their monkey arses off.
So there you go, my thoughts on A ONE. She also has this bonus track of Tell All (2015 mix) but it's just basically a remix version of Tell All. And I would actually rather listen to the original version than this one. Some songs I actually really like the remix of them, but this one just doesn't have anything special about it.
Despite how much ayumi hamasaki tries to experiment with different music, and maybe succeeding, kind of, I still have to say that no matter what music she sings, they will always sound bad. Because of her crappy vocals ruin it all. She's a good singer, no doubt, but as the years passes, her vocals just seem to get worse. Poor woman.
And her personal life does not help as well. People always say, "We separate work life from personal life, okay? That's how to stay professional", but this woman goes and does pointless stuff during her personal life, and boasts about it in public. WTF. No one cares!
People like an artist for their image AND their work. Ayu not only is flopping in music, she also does things that ruins her own image. Examples? She look as plastic as hell, she married a foreign guy who basically trashed her image, she divorced, then dated a back-up dancer whom all her fans were familiar with (puke!), then married another foreign guy and moved to LA like "Fuck you all Japanese! I'm heading outta here, bitches!!"
Traitor.
Conclusion: 4.5 / 10 stars because for an album, the tracklisting and basically thoughts that were put into it are as random as hell, basically going nowhere. I've seen much better albums so this one is nothing.
Artist: 浜崎あゆみ
Release date: 2015.04.08
Again not exactly a review, just my thoughts and opinions.
Is it a coincidence her debut day is also my birthday? God, ayu. To me, April 8 is her debut day. And I always thought that. And then I remember it's also my birthday. Sigh.
Anyway, I want to put down my thoughts on her album, A ONE, that just came out. It's not a surprise or I should say, it's even obvious that ayumi hamasaki has been lazy on her albums these days. And this is like, not my opinion, it's a fact. For an artist that has been going for 17 years, I have to give her credit. But for an artist that started out so good to flop like this is like a slap in the face. Not to the fans. But to the artist herself. In the years I've followed both ayu and Arashi, I saw that since ayu began to flop, Arashi began to rise. Like my two fandoms are having some kind of battle or something. But that's just me being weird, cause ayu and Arashi don't mix. They only mix in my world. In the real world they don't.
Anyway, A ONE is like CoLOURS (yay for spelling it the British way) but a little bit better. The title is as random and meaningless as hell, though. I mean, her first few albums had meanings, and I liked that. And doesn't she like to turn the "A" into her logo? She's not doing that anymore? The cover is even worse. I cannot deny she look beautiful (as always. Damn you, ayu!), but it is like that cover she did with her Countdown Live 2013-2014, where it look like a magazine photoshoot and then she just rip off a picture from there and use it as the cover. WTF, ayu. She also look so Western it's creepy. But the whole cover is safe. So it's plain. Like LOVE again and CoLOURS. But seriously, cover up, ayu, everyone could see your side cleavage!
Her earlier albums contained many tracks, like 15-16 tracks, which also included interludes. But CoLOURS and A ONE has just 10-12 tracks and no interlude. Well, A ONE has that one interlude, which is the first track, a Bell, a short piece of piano based track, that is pretty useless and pointless. She could have started the album with a better piece. But that's me being greedy, cause I guess it kind of fit since the album are sort of, peaceful, I guess.
But at least it's not as peaceful and boring as LOVE again, cause the next track is WARNING, this rock and sexy track that also has a PV with it. The PV is... I can't even. She first does these exaggerated moves, that she always does, then there are these people. Lots of people. And ayu there touching them. WTF. And is that LICO and KO I see hanging around? What happened with ZIN and SUBARU? LOL, I guess they can't even be bothered anymore. I like the song, though, but after a few listens I find it pretty crap. I mean, she sound good, and the song has energy. But it's also really, and I mean really, loud. Louder than even Arashi's TRAP, and that track is loud. And it's also weird how a bell was played and then this track comes up. Like peaceful piano and then straight into fast rock track. Sigh.
The next track is NO FUTURE, which sounds like a mix between anime music and one of her older tracks that I can't be bothered to find which one. And it's OK. Kind of like NOW & 4EVA from CoLOURS. Which is why it's nothing special. Next is Anything for You. This track begins with violin and piano, and then ayu's cracky vocals comes in. Then she repeats this weird melody until it changed into a better melody, and into the chorus of Walk. WTF. The song is basically Walk but crappier. It's okay, nothing special. But seriously, I would rather listen to Walk than this song if I had to choose between the two. Maybe she did it on purpose. What a bitch.
The fifth track is Last Minute. Probably my favourite track on the album. But I do not like the PV. She looks nice. As always. But the swinging of the light is just... no. That's terrible. And annoying. VERY annoying. And this song makes ayu swings her head and body in a very dramatic way. I know she did it to suit the song. But it's creepy. Like she suddenly gone crazily high. But the song is good. This song is also very loud, but I love it. It's touching and dramatic at the same time. And the song ends really well.
Next is Zutto..., which you probably already know what song it is cause it was a single along with Last Minute and Walk. It's nice. And the PV is nice too. Though I did not like ayu all freezed up. That was creepy. She looked like an evil ice queen, and she looked older there. She's freezed up and then she tries to sing at the same time, which makes her look kind of weird.
And then it's Out of control. The song is basically like all the other songs. Rocky, yet touching, pop ayu current style music. It also sounded like a track that's supposed to be on, say, Party Queen, along with her other rocky tracks on that album. I don't know. It's forgettable. That's what it is. Actually all the songs on this album that I mentioned so far are forgettable, except maybe the ones with PVs.
Next is another forgettable song, Story, which sounds like an anime ending theme song or something. One of those, you know. It's basically another one of those songs. Next! The GIFT. This is that special song she did with JJ Lin (or whatever his name is). I love this song. I remember I used to listen to this song every morning while eating breakfast around the time when this song was coming out. But it has a short duration, so I wished it was a bit longer. It's about wedding, I think. And the PV is basically ayu singing while sitting on this piano JJ Lin is playing. The background has this couple getting married, and then at the end JJ Lin gives ayu a ring like they are married or something. First, I did not know who the hell is JJ Lin. I still don't, by the way. I also don't care since I don't really follow Mandarin music. Secondly, Chinese and Japanese people do not mix. And they will never mix. So imagine the awkwardness. I'm watching a J-Pop video, and there is a Chinese dude there. WTF. Okay, I'm being racist. Next!
The Show Must Go On. This song. Oh my god. I LOVE the intro music! But I HATE the rest of the song. I just hate this song. It's really bad. What's even worse is that the bloody song is long. It's already bad, it's also long? That's not fair. The good songs are short and the bad ones are long? She basically repeat that horrid chorus all the way until the end. I don't think it's actually that bad, but because her terrible vocals are repeated that way, it's like, my ears are bleeding, woman! **The show must go on! YAY YEAH, YAY YEAH! The show must go on! YAY YEAH, YAY YEAH! The show must go on! YAY YEAH, YAY YEAH! The show must go on! YAY YEAH, YAY YEAH...** Save me.
The eleventh track on the album is Walk. Now, it may sound at first like what I said about Story, but since this song is tied to a single, of course it will stand out. And the more I listen to it, the more I love it. I also liked her performance of this song on her recent countdown live, where she basically cried at the end. Ayu crying while singing always gets me. But these days I don't even know if she's just acting. Like, in the past she wrote down her true sad feelings, and it was real, which was why many people loved her. But then things start to change. She cared more about her image and less about the music and her feelings. She started writing these music about love and they bore people, okay? What makes ayu different is her touching lyrics. But then she gone and married some useless dude, and it all ruined everything. Her music became less touching and so her fans fled. Like prey seeing a predator. Poor woman.
Last track is Movin' on without you, which is a cover of Utada Hikaru's song. I really like this cover. It's nice. But I cannot stand her performance of this song live. Like, I can't. Her vocals are terrible. And she basically has either 2-YAN as the DJ, along with a lot of light effects, or just the light effects, along with her dancers dancing their monkey arses off.
So there you go, my thoughts on A ONE. She also has this bonus track of Tell All (2015 mix) but it's just basically a remix version of Tell All. And I would actually rather listen to the original version than this one. Some songs I actually really like the remix of them, but this one just doesn't have anything special about it.
Despite how much ayumi hamasaki tries to experiment with different music, and maybe succeeding, kind of, I still have to say that no matter what music she sings, they will always sound bad. Because of her crappy vocals ruin it all. She's a good singer, no doubt, but as the years passes, her vocals just seem to get worse. Poor woman.
And her personal life does not help as well. People always say, "We separate work life from personal life, okay? That's how to stay professional", but this woman goes and does pointless stuff during her personal life, and boasts about it in public. WTF. No one cares!
People like an artist for their image AND their work. Ayu not only is flopping in music, she also does things that ruins her own image. Examples? She look as plastic as hell, she married a foreign guy who basically trashed her image, she divorced, then dated a back-up dancer whom all her fans were familiar with (puke!), then married another foreign guy and moved to LA like "Fuck you all Japanese! I'm heading outta here, bitches!!"
Traitor.
Conclusion: 4.5 / 10 stars because for an album, the tracklisting and basically thoughts that were put into it are as random as hell, basically going nowhere. I've seen much better albums so this one is nothing.
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