Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
To celebrate 15 years of wailing like a banshee, passing off hood-length talons as couture nails, and wiping the floor with 90% of the female acts in Japan with chart records and album sales, Avex and Ayu decided to release a mini-album for the fourth consecutive month in February.
Fresh off her November mini-album “Love“, her December release “Again“, and news of her January release, “A Classical“, Ayu chose to surprise her fans by recently announcing that her fourth mini-album release would in fact be a full-length studio album. With there being no time for Ayu to do a great deal, this release follows Avex and Ayu’s recent/current trend of refusing to release a physical single to precede an album. This of course means that the first week chart position of this album will follow another recent trend of Avex and Ayu’s: not debuting at #1 on the Oricon weekly.
Fans thought Ayu was bestowing them with a belated Christmas gift with the news of a new LP … until the tracklist dropped. Check out the dirt:
- Wake Me Up [As Featured On 'Again']
- Song 4 U [As Featured On 'LOVE']
- Missing [As Featured On 'LOVE']
- Sakura
- Melody [As Featured On 'LOVE']
- Task’N'Bass [An Interlude]
- Bye-Bye Darling
- Snowy Kiss [As Featured On 'Again']
- Sweet Scar [As Featured On 'LOVE']
- Petal
- Glasses
- Untitled For Her … Story 2
- Gloria
- Ivy [As Featured On 'Again']
- You & Me [As Featured On 'A Summer Best']
Half of the release is stuffed with songs from Ayu’s first two mini-albums, as well as the inclusion of “You & Me“, which featured on “A Summer Best” and also featured in remix and instrumental form on her “Love” EP. She may as well have put all the songs from her “Five” mini-album on this shit too and just called it a day.
SHE LAZY AS FUCK!
She’s charging fans ¥1,500 yen for a mini-album in November, ¥1,500 for another mini-album in December, and then ¥3,000 for an album which will feature all of the songs from the previously released mini-albums (and a few new songs) in February. This is a scam. Just when you think Ayu and Avex can’t extort fans and take the piss any further, they golden shower the whole of Japan and then throw a match on bitches. Next Ayu will be e-mailing her fan club and asking them to wire money via Western Union to her Nigerian bank account.
Given Avex’s trax record (geddit? LOL), a release featuring Ayu’s mini-album material was always going to happen … I just didn’t expect it to happen THIS soon. And of course there will be the “A Love Again And Again BEST” release, featuring all of the material from all six of Ayu’s anniversary releases – giving fans a good reason to not bother buying any of these albums at all.
—–
This whole entire anniversary release fiasco has been a farce since day one. It’s clear that there was no truly realized plan concerning the roll out of these mini-albums beyond: “Let’s just drop one a month.” And when the hell is Ayu going to stop using the world ‘love’ in her album titles and featuring her fuck buddies in music videos?! All it does is spell doom. She got married to Manuel Schwarz, featured him in a couple of her videos for “Love Songs“, and by the time “Party Queen” came out (little over a year later), she was divorced. Now she features current beau Uchiyama Maroka on one of her mini-album covers, and features him in three of her music videos. Girl, bye. He will be gone by the time “Love Again” drops, which is probably why she looks like she might cry any second on the CD + DVD edition of the album cover (see image at the top of this post).
Ever since Ayu stopped her diet of Manuel’s Austrian sausage, her career has been going downhill faster than Chunktina Aguilera on a unicycle down Powell Street. Many fans are speculating that Avex are milking Ayu, and this is most certainly true, but do not think for a second that Ayu is the helpless victim in all this. Ayu is the face of Avex trax. Her contractual obligation is, of course, to release music, but if Ayu were to get up in Max Matsuura‘s face and tell him “I no release a damn thing for two years“, you can bet that there wouldn’t be a damn thing anybody at Avex could do about it. Nobody is holding a gun to Ayu’s wig and forcing her to do anything. By spamming the charts with releases, she’s just doing her own legacy damage. I don’t know what further proof this woman wants that she is not running Japan with her album sales anymore. Shit is pathetic.
Koda Kumi‘s going easy on releases, Amuro Namie‘s too busy touring and gettin’ crunk in di crub, Utada Hikaru is in retirement, and Ayu’s chart competition is now fucking Beni, who is outselling Ayu’s shit with a cover album.
The fuck?!
![[Review] [Album] Hamasaki Ayumi – “Love Again”](http://www.asianjunkie.com/wp-content/themes/sahifa/timthumb.php?src=/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Asianjunkie-130313-Ayumi-Hamasaki-Love-again-3-575x574.jpg&h=125&w=272&a=c)
I used to love Ayu, man… What happened to her??
Her vehicle’s set on cruise and she doesn’t care where she’s going
Good great gorgon lord, thank god I’m not really that involved with Jpop/Jrock anymore. I couldn’t stand all those ABCD releases ~_~ The whole fucking music industry in Japan is a freakin’ scam
Why do Japanese pay so much for a CD ($35)? That’s absurdly high.
It can’t be explained by the exchange rate. They really are paying a lot more than anyone else does.
Japanese don’t make much more money than the average American (in fact, maybe even less in their own currency), so it’s not because they have more discretionary income, either.
Japan is one of the most expensive country on earth. When I was there, everything were freaking expensive, even a t-shirt at Shibuya 109.
Hopefully it will change soon since it doesn’t sound like Japanese are buying into this bullshit of overpriced CDs
http://aramatheydidnt.livejournal.com/4414189.html
I know, but Japanese CDs are a magnitude more expensive than their US counterparts, for no apparent good reason.
I guess the answer must be that there is some cultural difference that makes Japanese really covet the physical CDs over MP3s or something.
99% of Americans don’t give a shit if music is physical or digital, so the industry here was forced to accept lower profits from digital sales. Before digital, we used to get raped buying an album for $15 that had only 3 good songs on it. In hindsight, we realize how badly we were getting ripped off. Hopefully the Japanese consumers wake up and realize it, too.
I always thought it was partially due to the rental market – record companies thinking that anyone who rents the new releases for only 300Y is a “lost sale” so they jack up the prices for albums to recover revenue.
And some BS law from the 70s that makes it illegal to re-sell media but it’s been probably 10 years since I looked at law in Japan so this could’ve easily changed dramatically.
Well I said this on TH but her ‘mini albums’ are no different than her last singles which pretty much could be considered ‘mini-albums’ so… honestly, I dunno see much of the big deal other than avex still refuse to let her release a real single (my guess is to not ruin her streak) But yeah, those ‘mini-ablums’ are just singles under a different category. Someone tried to make it seem like fans are being cheated out of Love again but…. it’s no different than Namie’s last album release which was just a bunch of her old singles in an album, plus 4 more songs… Mika did the same thing too with her last album (but after hearing of her condition, at least hers is a bit more understandable) So… meh. I’m not surprised, let down, or whatever. I personally did like “again” ^^
Honestly, I see it from a different perspective that she’s kinda doing whatever she wants (thought still some control with avex) Since her recent collaborations with people, especially with UN that many (international) fans were upset with because.. it marked her first collabo since the wife of TK (and intl fans act like their great Empress Ayu can’t sing with lowly people) so she’s been kinda all over the place, doing lots of stuff with Leslie and just whatever… I dunno… I say let the 34 year old woman just go free now. She did her time lol. I don’t expect her to keep up her legacy… she already kinda went down since Guilty came out so… meh…
lawl This is such a slap in the face to the fans who bought the 2 singles marketed as “mini-albums”.
I would die if the final release in March is A BEST 3 or something like it.
Isn’t that what all legends end up doing eventually anyways (unless they die prematurely)
I used to listen to Ayu so much 01-03′ but ever since I heard Hikki’s beautiful :P voice, my Ayu playlist dropped.
I wouldnt necessarily say that its only Avex thats milking her dry, to me, both Ayu and Avex are trying to milk out everything they can from the fans which is to say she will probably retire soon.
Huh? “Set to ruin her legacy”? Home gurl has been ruining her legacy for the past 5 years now.
:o
OT: I want an article about infinite H mini “hiphop” album.
That group Phoenix from France is pretty good
I dunno who this lady is, but you make her sound amaaaazing!
Should’ve stayed with Mannie and started biannual releases and still touring so she can still make music/still work but can take some time so the stuff she brings out is actually half decent.
Party Queen was a fucking mess, Timmy is just annoying and she sounds worse than ever. Ayu needs a solid break of a year or so to learn how to sing and not fuck up her voice forever. She was pretty good in GUILTY but then obviously forgot whatever training she had done and it’s just gone down since then.
Pity because for most of us she was our gateway into Jpop. Ayu still means something to me, but she’s not the singer-songwriter she was back in her glory days.
I always think it’s funny when people compare “old Ayu” to “new Ayu” because sound and songwise…. she sounds EXACTLY the same. She’s still singing about the same stuff, she’s still experimenting, just like she did back 10 years ago whatever people wanna acknowledge it or not. I Am is very different compared to her first 2 albums… and My Story is different than that… and missunderstood (which seems a handful of intl fans didn’t like) too, was different. She’s the same but always doing something different. Honestly, I think many of her stuff has been too much the same, recycled crap I’ve heard about (especially her ballads) so it’s why I liked Party Queen. She was experimenting, again. Now how her releases are being handled is a different story. But meh… for me, it’s “about time she does something different.” FIVE was boring, felt like she should’ve named that De Ja Vu honestly. Brilliante was probably the saving grace for that album, and even still… I wasn’t that crazy for the song. Just when people do that whole “the old Ayu….” because her music or rather, the style/way she goes about her stuff isn’t that much different… Like do people seriously read the lyrics? It’s the same song with a different tune lol
I’d really have to disagree. When I talk about “old Ayu”, I’m talking about I Am… ~ (miss)understood Ayu.
Yes, a lot of the lyrics are recurring, she’s still experimenting a bit but she’s a shadow of her former self. CREA is gone – she hasn’t composed a song in years. She dumped the her more entertaining backup singer and bought in Timmy who overshadows her by miles in dress, in vocals and detracts from Ayu’s performance.
http://i.imgbox.com/abiz5ml0.png
Her backup dancers have suddenly started dropping like flies with no formal goodbye to the fans they gained by years of service. She’s on Twitter airing her dirty laundry while saying she doesn’t want people to talk about her life.
Party Queen was a total fiasco, discounting Timmy going and crusading on Twitter against anyone who didn’t like the covers. The album was handled terribly. The divorce was rushed (not that the marriage wasn’t but it’s a different story) and handled badly by both Ayu and Mannie. It’s really ever since she got on board with social media stuff that she’s really gone off the rails.
As a long time fan since 2004 I’ve been really saddened by how she’s acting lately. The A SUMMER BEST release is only good for those few “exclusive” live performances and Happening Here, as You & Me, the exclusive track, is now plastered everywhere she can shove it. I also think her PVs have really gone downhill – they’re all her with her latest guy, or just her looking forlorn in a plain room. I wish she went back to even a PV as good as beloved or BALLAD where there was some type of story because the new “trillogy” isn’t even good or watchable a second time :(
Basically, for me, the “old Ayu” is the Ayu who took charge of her works and fought out against superfluous releases a’la A BEST. The Old Ayu wasn’t overshadowed by her backup singers and producers but treated her staff with the respect she expected of them. I don’t think Old Ayu would have dumped Gomi, Nobuo and Peco with no official statement leaving fans to wonder why they just “disappeared” between concerts.
But who knows? Maybe she would, it just wasn’t as in our faces as it has become these last few years with her gallivanting about on social media every 5 minutes and having Timmy come up on stage and looking like a fool, while having his voice overshadow hers in all the tracks he does. I really think his work could benefit from not having him in it lol.
These days Ayu just seems to pump out releases more like a robot than she ever did years ago – and when she was forced she fought back with PVs like alterna to shove in Avex’s face. I really miss that old rebellious streak that she demonstrated back then.
I’ve been a fan of Ayu just as long as you have too lol. But still, she only really composed for I Am and Rainbow. Missunderstood, she borrowed half the songs from someone else.
But the thing is, we as fans can’t say “old Ayu” wouldn’t do this or that because in the end, we dunno how she really is. None of us know her personally. There was probably lots of stuff she wanted to do back then as “old Ayu” but didn’t. All that was practically 10 years ago and at least we can say now, because of twitter, we have a bit more insight of her, but back then…. no, not really. She gained experience from whatever happened and there’s always 2 sides to every story. Not saying she’s innocent of whatever, but to put blame on her on why some people aren’t here and there with her… who knows what the reason (for all we know, they may wanted to do something else)
Also, there’s a difference too between domestic fans and international fans and it seems more like international fans are getting annoyed with her than anything, but I also wonder if it’s a culture different thing too?
To me, she seems more ‘free’ now, than she was back then. She’s only now recently ‘pumping’ out releases… back during her golden age, she did the same exact thing. I just in the end, as fans, we shouldn’t act like we know what’s going through her mind and say what she would’ve/wouldn’t have done at what point in her life because we really don’t know. (I get bothered when some are like “Ayu would NEVER collaborate with anyone back in the old days!!! Especially a nobody!!!” Like. how y’all know? Lol she probably really wanted to. I was like “About time!” because I started to think she was too snooty to do so, which was wrong for me to think so in the first place but… I dunno, I like collaborations) I don’t even wanna get started on that marriage thing, but I’m also not someone who’s gonna blame Mannie solely for why it failed (like many seem to be doing because he’s a nobody and was ‘using’ her. Like really? Takes two people to wed. I know, Ayu’s just so naive and so sheltered from the world! But apparently Mannie said some douchebag comment on facebook about marriage, after the divorce… though maybe Ayu probably was being a jerk, eh…. he didn’t have to make such snide comments like that while at least with her, she’s not doing it publicly so.) In the end, none of us know so……. *shrugs* She ain’t little Ms Perfect like everyone hoped she still continued to be. I too, am not fond of her choices either lol. But… it’s her life so……. *shrugs*
Bye Ayu, it was fun while it lasted
Well, you can’t be at the top forever…bye bye Ayumi!
“Next Ayu will be e-mailing her fan club and asking them to wire money via Western Union to her Nigerian bank account.”
DEAD lmao
poor Ayu. Loved her when I was in middle school. Listened to her on and off like the first 2 yrs of high school then forgot about her until 2011… a year after getting into K-pop, I was like “oh yeah, I used to love J-pop” and I actually loved FIVE but since then… till now… I don’t even know wtf she’s doing. And tbh I was never ‘involved’ in the J-pop fandom back when I was really into it more than I am now so all the Ayu stans and ‘Queens of J-pop’ stans on the internet scare the fuck out of me.