Suilen Posted October 13 Posted October 13 Anyway, I'm not mad about no way to say being her highest Japanese Grammy-winning song. Some artists don't have one. 1
Curaga Posted October 13 Posted October 13 1 minute ago, Curaga said: (I'm sure my favs are next) 1 minute ago, Graves said: HIGH SCORE: 10 x 5 (Kyle-x, Curaga, blueberries, AMIT, Katamari) 1
Graves Posted October 13 Author Posted October 13 1 minute ago, Curaga said: (I'm sure my favs are next) Just now, Graves said: 15th Single Track #6 on Duty HIGH SCORE: 10 x 5 (Kyle-x, Curaga, blueberries, AMIT, Katamari) 1
Kyle-x Posted October 13 Posted October 13 58 minutes ago, Graves said: 34th Single Track #11 on MY STORY 11 x 1: @Suilen HIGH SCORE: 10 x 3 (Kyle-x, UrMom, blueberries) LOW SCORE: 4.3 x 1 (Curaga) HOST SCORE: 8.5 I thought Moments was going to be the soaring sing-along ballad-adjacent moment for this album when I first heard it, so quelle surprise that this more traditional take was laying in wait further down the tracklist. That's not to insult it, however. Moments might try to blend more of a harder edge to her ordinary sound, but CAROLS is Ayu treading her previous stomping ground and showing that she hasn't lost her touch for penning an emotive and powerful ballad. If anything, she's still firing on all cylinders. Despite the name implying a festive feel to it, CAROLS is not especially winter-specific. Other than some snow imagery in the lyrics, the whole package is shockingly un-Christmaslike. If I were to be cynical, I'd say that this was a sort of damage control, "break in case of emergency" ballad that was put on the album just in case they needed to avert course and go with an old faithful to please the GP. Of course, they didn't really as Moments and INSPIRE were both quite big hits, but my conspiracy theory remains. As for single status... another number one on the charts, and a year-end position of #20. Only one spot below Moments! She was really on fire for so long, wasn't she? Hit after hit. The video to CAROLS is nice, albeit a little bit on the boring side. She looks beautiful no doubt, but there's nothing all that unique about it. A black and white video for a ballad? Groundbreaking. Also an interesting choice to shoot it in the empty theatre. As if she were at a hitomi concert. Suilen: Ended Putada's overrated ass!!! (c) Maresia Kyle-x: Now this is a song that actually took quite a while to grow on me, I used to think it wasn't anything too special. I've come to absolutely adore it over time and the lyrics are quite lovely. The version on MY STORY Classical really ups the drama in a nice way and the trance remix on ayu-mi-x 7 bangs. Curaga: Hard for me to rate... I think bumped this one up and down my list the most out of any song. I guess it really depends on my mood with this one! AMIT: I used to always find this one rather mid. I enjoy it more now, but still not among my top ballads from her. 6/17 Oh WOW. Now I would've never predicted Suilen gave this the coveted 11. One of the biggest gags of the rate so far. Definitely a song that took a while to grow on me, but I really appreciate her now. The PV is quite gorgeous 1
Graves Posted October 13 Author Posted October 13 Just now, Curaga said: HEEEEEEELP the twin posts Great minds. If only they could think alike when it came to scoring. 1
Kyle-x Posted October 13 Posted October 13 This promo performance she did where she suddenly didn't have a bob like in every other appearance is a gag. When it snows at the end>>>> we love her drama https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Fi4y1o7bA/?p=2 1
Curaga Posted October 13 Posted October 13 (edited) Sorry I really have to run now, but what I saw of this update was a blast! The write-ups keep getting better and better somehow Thank you, Graves! Edited October 14 by Curaga 1
Suilen Posted October 13 Posted October 13 2 minutes ago, Kyle-x said: Oh WOW. Now I would've never predicted Suilen gave this the coveted 11. One of the biggest gags of the rate so far. Definitely a song that took a while to grow on me, but I really appreciate her now. The PV is quite gorgeous It sounds magical, and I'm a bit of a witch, so the stars were aligned for that one. Let me choose the appropriate curse for miss Curaga. 2
Kyle-x Posted October 13 Posted October 13 51 minutes ago, Graves said: WHATEVER getting beaten by BORING ASS End roll Maybe I don't feel bad for your 11 getting punched by Curaga now 1
Meloetta Carey Posted October 13 Posted October 13 6 minutes ago, Graves said: What other pop girl singles sound anything like this?? i feel like the biggest Japanese chart not being radio-driven gave the J-divas more license to experiment. I mean at a certain point they could've released anything on CD and it would've sold like 500K at the very least. 1 1
Kyle-x Posted October 13 Posted October 13 54 minutes ago, Graves said: 6th Single Track #10 on LOVEppears HIGH SCORE: 10 x 7 (Graves, Kyle-x, Invisibility, UrMom, blueberries, Maresia, AMIT) LOW SCORE: 3 x 1 (AvadaKedavra) HOST SCORE: 10 I dunno about you girls, but to me WHATEVER has always been the centerpiece of LOVEppears. Perhaps it isn't the biggest hit on the album, nor the most remembered, but it is the most artistically sound. Look, I get some of you find her vocals annoying at parts of this song, and I don't say that you're wrong! ...but, those little issues just don't bother me enough to not enjoy everything else about this marvelous track. That nasty sounding synth that bounces underneath the entire track is everything, and the rising inflection on the pre-chorus gets me so hype every damn time. Turn the lights down low and just bump to this song like you were meant to. LOVEppears is a dance album first and foremost, and no song on the album represents this more than WHATEVER, in all of its seven minute club mix glory. Yes, I rated the album version and any of the girls with taste did too. The '90s was the decade in which all of the popgirls were begging remixers to give their singles the club mix treatment - there was an art to these mixes. The fact that this mix was done by a Japanese DJ too, Izumi 'D.M.X' Miyazaki, gives it a more full and legitimate feel than a lot of the tinny "club" tracks avex gave to their other artists during the decade. WHATEVER was a real club track, not just a cover of a bad Eurobeat song. WHATEVER was Ayu's first foray into the top five of the singles chart. It came out only a month after her debut album had been released too - talk about a sudden switch-up. Though not one of her biggest hits, WHATEVER is a very important moment in Ayu's career. It was an early example of her ability to be a genre chameleon and a risk-taker. The video also... exists. I don't know that the straw bangs and the straitjacket was her best look, but I digress. Ayu doesn't seem that fond of this one? At least the Version M. She has only performed the (inferior) Version J in every outing since 2000. Ew. What's up with that, Ayu? Suilen: too many variants, this is entering the Taylor Swift territory. Anyway, I think I liked the album version the best. Kyle-x: The way she stuck this 7 minute version in the middle of the album and still made it work whew. The switch up with this single is crazy, I know the girls were shook when she dropped this as the lead single. It's good they opted to use "version M" as the definitive version, even though "version J" is still quite good. This is where the random white kids being in her videos started… but it was very interesting PV anyway. Invisibility: Version J is a cute girl, I appreciate the opera rock kinda rework. But Version M.... oh *****... An electro/dance/trance diva was BORN. A legion of Ayupans dressed as astronauts and Avex buying Armin van Buuren studio time/demos for remixes decades before Terminal was even conceived... I LOVE this song. The dramatics, the woo's, the relentless, pulsating beat and the strings fading into and out of existence. It's one of the most unique songs in her discog in the best way. Curaga: This instrumental is an absolute lightning strike. I really love the verses, but the "wow wow wow" part kinda ruins it for me... Still, I put it relatively high on my list AMIT: version J has always been my favorite, but the album version is good as well and grew on me in no small part thanks to miss suilen. Fevesy: Deduced a .5 cuz the WOooooooWs were kinda annoying. 12/17 Kind of a gag, kind of not a gag that it's out. This one is bit avant garde!
Graves Posted October 13 Author Posted October 13 Just now, Kyle-x said: Maybe I don't feel bad for your 11 getting punched by Curaga now Maybe I won't feel so bad about what she might or might not have done to yours either, wench. 1
Graves Posted October 13 Author Posted October 13 The Curaga Cold War, not knowing who's 11 she's bombed.
Suilen Posted October 13 Posted October 13 Duty title track better be top 10 at this rate, but I don't trust these people
Graves Posted October 13 Author Posted October 13 9th Single Track #6 on LOVEppears HIGH SCORE: 10 x 8 (Kyle-x, Curaga, blueberries, Maresia, AMIT, sanzo, AvadaKedavra, confide in me) LOW SCORE: 3 x 1 (Bad Decisions) HOST SCORE: 8.5 Um, can you say signature hit? Boys & Girls is a legendary song for so many reasons... her first million-seller, her first big chart battle, her first cosmetics campaign tie-in. This was the moment that Ayumi Hamasaki's building hype reached climax. She had gone from rising star to the it-girl of the moment. This song went to #1 and from then on she never had to worry about anything other than the top of the charts. The J-pop starlet had become the J-pop empress. She could've released LOVEppears off of the strength of this song alone and still probably done a million first week, forget the other seven singles. This was her star-making moment. It makes sense, doesn't it? Even if Boys & Girls is not your favorite Ayu song it's pretty undeniable how good of a pop track it is. Every line is like a new hook, catchier than the last one. This song starts at a breakneck place and just doesn't slow down at all. Ayu glides from verse to chorus and back with the confidence of a true professional, flirting with synthesized guitar licks the entire time. The whole thing has an intrinsically danceable quality to it, like there's no way you're hearing this and not bopping your head and tapping your foot along. This **** bops! I like the A BEST version even more, for the added instruments. Boys & Girls has been performed more often than the national anthem. Almost every Ayu tour has it in some form, nary a year goes by in which Ayu isn't performing this song to a sold out arena somewhere. Gotta give the fans what they want, eh? One of her biggest singles, it was her second number one and her first song to sell a million copies in total. The song featured in commercials for AUBE cosmetics, and kicked off Ayu's relationship with the brand as a spokeswoman. The music video is... nice. Ayu posing around in an orange room, getting good mileage out of her LOVE~destiny~ bob. Is it a surprise to see it down here? Probably not after witnessing what became of SEASONS and the likes, but I think we could've done it a little bit better even still... Suilen: jokes about gender binary enforcement aside, I just feel like it's rather overrated. Kyle-x: So there's this undeniable classic… the way she was just CHURNING out these defining hits of the era, something shifted… and that fuckass bob ate. Invisibility: A classique for a good reason! In a way it's her own Body Feels EXIT, just with a bit more restraint; and if works! Curaga: For some reason, the hipster in me resented this song on my first few listens, but it has really, really grown on me. The details in the instrumental are completely insane: that spacey, staccato beeping around 1:27–1:40; the laser shots in the chorus; the frenetic post-chorus instrumental... WHEW! I feel like it will come down to this song and another, so lemme tip the scale in favor of Boys & Girls! Bad Decisions: a concert staple but not really worth listening to on its own. AMIT: iconic smash it. 11/17 3
Kyle-x Posted October 13 Posted October 13 I want to link the performance of WHATEVER where she's dressed like an alien diva but I can't find a standalone video.
Suilen Posted October 13 Posted October 13 Screaming, I thought it was winning, and my sabotage would serve AMIT's 3 to TABOO.
Kyle-x Posted October 13 Posted October 13 4 minutes ago, Graves said: The Curaga Cold War, not knowing who's 11 she's bombed. The UNITED SLAYTIONS (us in this rate who are not Curaga) better act fast 1
Graves Posted October 13 Author Posted October 13 2 minutes ago, Suilen said: Screaming, I thought it was winning, and my sabotage would serve AMIT's 3 to TABOO. As somebody who LIKES ha... I never for once second thought she was going to win.
Kyle-x Posted October 13 Posted October 13 M your wig is not safe, I fear. The top 10 will be a gag....
Kyle-x Posted October 13 Posted October 13 She was finally starting to yassify her look around this time. History was forever changed 3
Suilen Posted October 13 Posted October 13 2 minutes ago, Graves said: As somebody who LIKES ha... I never for once second thought she was going to win. She kinda has all the ingredients for the success: iconic, a no. 1 million seller, gay-friendly... But maybe you need more than that.
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