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Ayumi Hamasaki: The Rate - Part I [Greatful days]


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Posted

Not the Duty lashings

 

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  • Kyle-x

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  • Graves

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  • Suilen

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  • Curaga

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Curaga said:

THIS CLASSIC VIDEO ASDLFKHADOSGPA :ahh:

 

Sorry, I was at dinner and thought I had till 8:30 like last time we did late reveals, but I'm here now much to everyone's chagrin :gaycat3:

It's okay, my love. You'll have other crimes to be held accountable for in this update :heart:

  • Haha 1
Posted
29 minutes ago, Graves said:

Invisibility: Such a mixed bag. You have the ambience greatness at the start, but then it devolves into Disney schmaltz and that hideous keyboard preset that I only ever enjoyed in Hikki's Bad Mode (song) and like... yeah.

 

@Invisibility spilled; this is exactly how I feel about this song. LOVE that  opening :clap3: but then it keeps going lol

  • Like 1
Posted
2 minutes ago, Suilen said:

Not the Duty lashings

 

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Seasons was always getting done dirty but SCAR is cute I fear, could've held on til closer to top forty :sad:

Posted (edited)

Glad we have more members now attending this iconic rate :gaycat3:

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When I play this song, it transports me to a romantic epic tale from Japan's colonial era. :gaycat2: 
Scar gives me classic feelings

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Edited by AvadaKedavra
  • Like 2
Posted

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Track #6 on RAINBOW

 

HIGH SCORE: 10 x 2 (Kyle-x, AvadaKedavra)

LOW SCORE: 6 x 1 (Katamari)

HOST SCORE: 7.5

 

Listening to this one now? Feel like I might've underscored a tad. It's a tough call to make. The thing is... I press play on this song thinking "oh, another ballad," and then halfway through I decide "yeah, wasn't that bad actually," but but BUT... that last line. That last "It's over..." Girls. Is there any other moment quite as bleak and heart-wrenching as this one?

 

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Over is just one of those songs I remember in a certain way and then end up gagged when I re-listen and remember all the parts of it that I like so much. Love the lyrics too! It's one of those looking back on the end of a relationship songs that RAINBOW is rife with, but with a writer as good as Ayu you don't really mind the topic overlap.

 

Really, the entire ballad run from Heartplace - Over - HANABI is kind of great? Like, I would expect to be bored but I actually live for all three of those tracks... and then the cool and unusual taskinillusion interlude follows and leads us into the quirky everywhere nowhere and July 1st?? Smash. Smash. Smash.  ...Why do we not like RAINBOW again?

 

 

Suilen: ended Lindsay Lohan.

Kyle-x: The instrumentation is so lush. The lyrics are sooo sad.

Curaga: I love the intro. The jingle bells are kinda funny, but it ends up not sounding too Christmasy somehow. That very last, "It's over," really gets me :monkey:

 

 

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8/16

  • Like 3
Posted

ENOUGH Duty LASHINGS OMG

Posted

WAIT ENOUGH RAINBOW LASHINGS

  • Haha 2
Posted
19 minutes ago, Graves said:

The fact that one of the classic J-pop ballads has a music video in which Ayumi stands in the middle of a wasteland, wearing a funeral dress, as fire spouts from the ground around her is kind of hilarious to me. She was giving seasons alright, Nuclear Seasons.


Kyle-x: Iconic whew. She was at the funeral of several careers in the PV.

My abs are gonna be insane after this rate is over :bibliahh: Y'all are too funny

  • Haha 1
Posted

It's cute. If Rainbow wasn't my most neglected album by her in the 00s, I'd probably score it higher.

Posted

Over is a smash, but it made it pretty high for what I expected the girls to rate it ddd

Posted (edited)

There's something so atmospheric and watery-crystalized about the instrumental :gaycat4:this is the type of ethereal songs i want katy to make
So delicate. Ayumi's Ray Of Light. For me this is the sister of Close To You even if they feel different

 

Edited by AvadaKedavra
  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

ayooo.gif

 

fuq, I should've been in the 10s for Over... This intro is incredible. 

 

AND THAT PIANO :jonnyknife:

 

Edited by Curaga
Posted
1 minute ago, Curaga said:

ayooo.gif

 

fuq, I should've been in the 10s for over... This intro is incredible. 

the 10s??? Mama... you weren't even in the 9s, the 8s OR the 7s for over... :skull:

  • Haha 3
Posted
Just now, Graves said:

the 10s??? Mama... you weren't even in the 9s, the 8s OR the 7s for over... :skull:

Omg expose the good sis

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Curaga said:

ayooo.gif

 

fuq, I should've been in the 10s for Over... This intro is incredible. 

 

AND THAT PIANO :jonnyknife:

 

The quick repenting for your sins whew

Posted

Probably not as big a shock as SEASONS, but...

 

 

Well, see for yourself:

 

 

 

 

 

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26th Single

Track #4 on RAINBOW

 

HIGH SCORE: 10 x 5 (Kyle-x, UrMom, blueberries, AMIT, Fevesy)

LOW SCORE: 0 x 1 (Meloetta Carey)

HOST SCORE: 7.5

 

...and because I don't want her to get away with it, I need to also point out Curaga's messy 1.8 score! These haters!

 

This song is kind of crazy, huh? Like, Ayu has many songs of this archetype. The quiet verse that bubbles up into an explosive chorus... hell, we've eliminated many of them already! I think Free & Easy is the most logical extreme of this song type. The furthest you can push it without breaking. Like she said how can we pair the quietest verses of my career with the most sudden, loud, and jarring chorus I've ever made? I don't think I entirely love it, but I do respect it!

 

Free & Easy was a brave choice as the lead single to RAINBOW, released back in April of 2002. Of course, being a peak era Ayu song it peaked at #1 and sold almost 500,000 copies in total. Fun fact: Free & Easy is the start of Ayu's impressive twenty five consecutive number ones between 2002 and 2010. A record holding queen!

 

The music video for Free & Easy portrays Ayumi being burned at the stake by Avex after her last single only entered at #2 :'( On a serious note, it is a great video that furthers the "Joan of Arc" theme of the single art. A striking mixture of mental asylum imagery, cult behavior, and a really clever use of fabric strings for the witch-burning scenes. It makes for a really exciting and memorable visual. She's acting again! Yes, Ayu. You stomp those grapes down!

 

 

Kyle-x: I love when she switches up a song out of nowhere. Shake the table queen. The PV and photoshoot for this single are iconic. I love the "Plum mix" and the "Huge Heavenly Mix".

Invisibility: The way she bursts your eardrums down when you foolishly turn the volume it at first.

Curaga: Maybe the weirdest song in this whole rate, liiike... what in the world lol. That fake woodwind thing at the start baffles me.

Meloetta Carey: I wanted to be fun and sabotage a fan fave that I despise, but...

Bad Decisions: I appreciate the song for what it is but I find it a chore to listen to.

AMIT: iconic song, the juxtaposition of the gentle verses with the bombastic chorus and the song building up with the thumping beat and electric guitar frenzy is amazing!

Fevesy: It took YEARS for me to get this song but once it hit, it HIT.

 

 

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7/16

  • Like 3
Posted
1 minute ago, Graves said:

the 10s??? Mama... you weren't even in the 9s, the 8s OR the 7s for over... :skull:

:deadbanana2: to the guillotine 

  • Haha 1
Posted

The homophobia towards RAINBOW rn…

Posted
1 minute ago, Graves said:

and because I don't want her to get away with it, I need to also point out Curaga's messy 1.8 score!

Oh mein gotttt 

  • Haha 2
Posted
Just now, Graves said:

the 10s??? Mama... you weren't even in the 9s, the 8s OR the 7s for over... :skull:

There were so many songs I liked better, so kept bumping it down in favor of others but... 

 

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1 minute ago, AvadaKedavra said:

Omg expose the good sis

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1 minute ago, Kyle-x said:

The quick repenting for your sins whew

Just now, Kyle-x said:

:deadbanana2: to the guillotine 

Maybe it's time for me to give up the villain act in the name of "winning" and spread free love à la Kyle-x :gaycat4: You're inspiring me, sis

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Posted
1 minute ago, Kyle-x said:

The homophobia towards RAINBOW rn…

I promise that the next song is NOT from RAINBOW or Duty!

 

 

...but we will be losing two more #1 hits during this update. :biblio:

Posted
Just now, Curaga said:

There were so many songs I liked better, so kept bumping it down in favor of others but... 

 

ayooo.gif

 

Maybe it's time for me to give up the villain act in the name of "winning" and spread free love à la Kyle-x :gaycat4: You're inspiring me, sis

You're in your I am… world peace era :gaycat2:

  • Like 1
Posted
Just now, Graves said:

I promise that the next song is NOT from RAINBOW or Duty!

 

 

...but we will be losing two more #1 hits during this update. :biblio:

I'm suspecting LOVE ~Destiny~ after this ballada massacre 

Posted

This is quite good. 

 

I'm fine with the remaining MY STORY songs but not it outlasting some of these albums...

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