AvadaKedavra Posted October 19 Posted October 19 (edited) Love this one so much. Feels like a Classic Japanese song no much to say. Just the song speak by itself The Guitar solo from the bridge to the outro. Just perfect. The video is so pretty. Is that rural japan in twilight-morning? Love the details with the butterflies. A Star was born. The star of Japan Her fashion in this video Edited October 19 by AvadaKedavra
Kyle-x Posted October 19 Posted October 19 The Because of You CM is cunty you can see a young @Curaga featured as ayu takes a train through the Irish hills 3
Graves Posted October 19 Author Posted October 19 1 minute ago, Suilen said: That was Memorial Address Maybe I'll add a Suilen-less results sheet to my post-rate happenings too... 1
Kyle-x Posted October 19 Posted October 19 This is a bit too high, I'm sorry girls. I love it as much as y'all but I would personally slide it down about 20 spots
Graves Posted October 19 Author Posted October 19 Just now, Kyle-x said: This is a bit too high, I'm sorry girls. I love it as much as y'all but I would personally slide it down about 20 spots The voice of reason, at last. The girls pumped up their Depend on you scores because they felt bad about bombing the rest of the album I fear.
Graves Posted October 19 Author Posted October 19 (edited) Track #3 on I am... 11 x 1: @Maresia HIGH SCORE: 10 x 8 (Graves, Suilen, Kyle-x, Invisibility, Meloetta Carey, blueberries, Fevesy, Katamari) LOW SCORE: 5 x 1 (sanzo) HOST SCORE: 10 The little album track/single freak of nature that could. Connected is an enigma in Ayu's discography. Technically a single, but not counted as part of her chart run as it never received a Japanese release. Connected is also perhaps the only real charting Ayu has ever done outside of Asia. Sure, it might've only been for an #89 peak in Germany, but that's more than most Japanese artists ever got. It's interesting that they chose to promote in Europe when most J-pop attempts at going international were focused on the US. I say promote, but I don't know how much promotion was done. Ayu certainly didn't visit in person. She doesn't even star in the music video! But album track or single, it doesn't matter that much. Connected is a vibe either way. Unadulterated trance vibes that even LOVEppears wasn't fully experimenting with. An enigma on her singles run and an enigma in her discography as a whole. She might have been going towards more rock adjacent sounds at the time, but this is one song that makes you wish she could go back for another swing at a dance record. Just majestic, a real surprise treat for an album otherwise deep in the rock soundscape. Connected was produced by Dutch DJ Ferry Corsten, and I believe was the first Ayu track to not be done by Japanese producers. Corsten was commissioned by Avex to submit a track for Ayu's next album at the time, and she later wrote the song on top of it. Corsten's own instrumental version eventually got a release under the title The Love I Lost. While I think Ayu's lyrics and vocals are too good to be missing, I'm sure that's a big boon to deep trance fans. Suilen: Kyle-x: It's actually CRAZY how ******* good this song is omg. I wish I could listen to this song again for the first time. The "Ambient Mix" on the German single is so good as well as the "Talla 2XLC remix". Maybe the best animated pop girl video? Invisibility: She invented trance the moment this was released. The video kinda birthed the whole Dr. / Defend Love saga Namie would go on to release a decade later also. Curaga: Fantastic instrumental, but this is one of the songs that actually deserves to be 5+ min… Why is it so short lol. Bad Decisions: I wish we got more of this sound during her prime but alas. AMIT: mother in her trance bag and she ate everything in it. 2/16 Edited October 19 by Graves 3
Suilen Posted October 19 Posted October 19 1 minute ago, Kyle-x said: This is a bit too high, I'm sorry girls. I love it as much as y'all but I would personally slide it down about 20 spots Not all of us are independent girls 1
Graves Posted October 19 Author Posted October 19 Our top five, therefore is: A Song for xx appears SURREAL M RAINBOW Now, if Ayu had just kept RAINBOW on the album of the same name we could cutely say that the top five represents the first five albums as a whole, but she had to be clever about it.
Kyle-x Posted October 19 Posted October 19 1 minute ago, Suilen said: Not all of us are independent girls The way the b-side was Two of us, condependent girlie single 1
Katamari Posted October 19 Posted October 19 (edited) thank you bentley jones @ DOY Edited October 19 by Katamari
Kyle-x Posted October 19 Posted October 19 The way there are technically 4 different German singles in the top 10 because Depend on you, M and appears got released there too.
AvadaKedavra Posted October 19 Posted October 19 (edited) Not my fave but One of her most sophisticated songs. Her voice really works with Electronic European influenced music. A bit whiny but it works I wish i was able to differentiate between her trance-techno-house songs with accuracy She really had her european crossover before her american one so many were able to know her with her remixes and songs like connected The video is dope. Want a whole anime of that. Me dancing to the song Edited October 19 by AvadaKedavra 1
Graves Posted October 19 Author Posted October 19 Just now, Kyle-x said: The way there are technically 4 different German singles in the top 10 because Depend on you, M and appears got released there too. The set-up. An Utada launching with Easy Breezy tea.
Curaga Posted October 19 Posted October 19 Oh woooow, I really thought Connected was going to take it after Boys & Girls got eliminated I have no idea which song will win now!
Kyle-x Posted October 19 Posted October 19 Let's invent a time machine and go clubbing in Germany in 2003 4
Kyle-x Posted October 19 Posted October 19 Just now, Graves said: The set-up. An Utada launching with Easy Breezy tea. The way that company was still releasing singles as late as 2005 in Germany is so random, they might as well have released an album there since they went six singles deep 1
Graves Posted October 19 Author Posted October 19 11th Single Track #12 on LOVEppears HIGH SCORE: 10 x 10 (Kyle-x, SA*KURA, Curaga, Meloetta Carey, blueberries, Maresia, AMIT, Fevesy, sanzo, confide in me) LOW SCORE: 5 x 1 (Katamari) HOST SCORE: 9.5 The somewhat title track of LOVEppears departs us, but in a very respectable position. I've always really liked the opening of this track with those little virtual droplet sound effects and funny noises. Those small little trance elements really do a good job with elevating this track over some of the other, similar album tracks. What could otherwise be a bit of a generic pop-rock powerballad is rendered into a more interesting experience thanks to eclectic production quirks like those. There's little moments like that throughout the song. The instrumental breaks go hard too, and the whole thing carries an understated earworm appeal. I always liked this, but listening over the course of voting made it grow on me even more. As a single, appears did quite decently with a #2 peak. Perhaps it couldn't be helped, releasing on the same day as the parent album. And as a limited release at that, with only 300,000 copies printed. Either way, it is a big fan-favorite with many live outings over the years. The video is very cute too, with Ayu making an early example of her status as a style icon and tastemaker. That cowboy outfit is so cute. And this is the only discourse on the song's visuals that we'll be doing today, thanks! Suilen: the song itself is good, but that cover... and apparently another song about M*tsuura since she burst into tears while performing it after their break-up. Kyle-x: Sooooooo ******* good. I feel like in recent years this has gotten more love than I used to see it getting? We love to see it. There are so many good remixes of the like 30+ versions there are ddd, I'll highlight the "Armin van Buuren remix", "H.W Tokyo Hard House Mix", the absolutely stunning "HAL's Progress" version on A BALLADS, the "Kyau vs. Albert Radio Edit" + "Vince the Saint vs. Villa Radio Edit" from the German single, "Melodic Extended Mix" and the "Shinichi Osawa remix" on ayu-mi-x 7. Invisibility: Oh my beautiful Animal Planet's Most Extreme, Christmas-but-not-quite single, cowboy hat-wearing gem! This song makes me feel like I'm a Ghost of Christmas looking through people's windows on Dec 24. Curaga: Continuing with the "Curaga's partially deaf" bit, this was a song I had to listen to over and over to remember wtf it sounded like. I never disliked it, but melodically it was not as memorable as the others to me. It's definitely one of my favs now though of course. Love the lyrics. Bad Decisions: one of her best songs. We won't talk about the atrocious single cover tho. 1/17 2
Kyle-x Posted October 19 Posted October 19 She really pays it dust live, she's only done it on like two tours ddd
Graves Posted October 19 Author Posted October 19 HIGHEST SCORERS 1. Kyle-x - 10 2. blueberries - 9.824 3/4. Maresia - 9.294 3/4. AMIT - 9.294 5. confide in me - 9.147 LOWEST SCORERS 1. Katamari - 6.529 2. Fevesy - 7.029 3. Bad Decisions - 7.035 4. Suilen - 7.559 5. SA*KURA - 7.618 Average 8.193 Adjusted average (no b-sides, no interludes) 8.482 1
Suilen Posted October 19 Posted October 19 A great song, I was too fixated on Matsu*ra even though immature etc. are also about him. The HAL remix actually takes away from it. Her crying was a big deal back in the day. 1
Katamari Posted October 19 Posted October 19 yes! get this album out of here i still lost tho with it outranking MA and MS
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