Secret / Hamasaki Ayumi

11 January 2007

浜崎あゆみ Hamasaki Ayumi
Secret

29.11.06
9th album
AVCD-23178/B

tracklisting
CD
1 Not yet
2 until that Day…
3 Startin'
4 1 LOVE
5 It was
6 LABYRINTH
7 JEWEL
8 momentum
9 taskinst
10 Born To Be...
11 Beautiful Fighters
12 BLUE BIRD
13 kiss o' kill
14 Secret
DVD
1 Startin' (video clip)
2 Born To Be... (video clip)
3 BLUE BIRD (video clip)
4 Beautiful Fighters (video clip)
5 JEWEL (video clip)
6 1 LOVE (video clip)
7 momentum (video clip)
8 Startin' (making clip)
9 Born To Be... (making clip)
10 BLUE BIRD (making clip)
11 Beautiful Fighters (making clip)
12 JEWEL (making clip)
13 1 LOVE (making clip)
14 momentum (making clip)

purchase date 11.12.06

review
This album was purchased as part of my 21st Birthday Celebration and it is the only CD bought and heard on 11.12.06 (actual day).

With only 2 singles released prior to this album, "Secret" was initially planned as a mini album, as it has the least single A-sides among all of ayu's original album. But with more songs completed on time, the mini album was eventually expanded into a full album.

"Not yet" is ayu's typical techno introduction track. In addition, there are 2 more interlude tracks on this album, namely "LABYRINTH" and "taskinst". All 3 instrumental tracks are not bad, but nothing particularly interesting either. "Not yet" transit smoothly to "until that Day…", similar to how "Introduction" transit to "Fly high" in "LOVEppears". "until that Day…" is a techno song typical in recent ayumi works and this song definitely builds up energy as the opening number of this album. "until that Day…" is a good song, with the right mix of emotion and vocal technique. I love the use of acoustic guitar towards the end of this song; it fits the dark and desperate mood nicely.

"Startin'" is ayu's excellent spring single release of 2006 and it is the best song in this album. "Startin'" is a techno-rock track similar to "STEP you" and the song has a very interesting pv. In the video ayumi imitates several J-pop princesses of avex, which I personally think is a good move to demonstrate her dominance and the amount of power she is still holding on to in the company. ayumi first appeared in a 'Koda Kumi style' outfit similar in style to those Kumiko wore in her "Selfish" pv, the only difference is, ayu's adaptation is not so revealing. Next is a gothic style black dress with a huge hat that resembles BoA's "everlasting" pv. The 3rd costume is a yellow racing suit which suzuki ami wore a red one for her "Eventful" pv. Besides this, ayumi also rides on a bike like what amigo rode. Otsuka Ai also rides a scooter for her "フレンジャー" pv.

Since "Duty", ayumi has always include a hard rock number in her album. Excellent hard rock songs includes "End of the World", "evolution", "Because of you", "About You", etc. She also tends to close her album with song of this genre; like "girlish", "flower garden" and "+". But with the decline in ayu's overall performance, it is most obvious in her vocal performance for this genre. "1 LOVE" is a hard rock song and I don't like her coarse vocal performance for this type of music in recent album. "1 LOVE" suffered the same problems with recent songs of the same genre like "Humming 7/4" and "Ladies Night". Furthermore, "1 LOVE" has a very disgusting pv.

"It was" starts off softly like a R&B ballad and then explode into a mild ballad-rock piece. The song was initially planned for inclusion in her previous album "(miss)understood", which is most probably being replaced by one of the collaboration with GEO. Therefore, the inclusion of this previously unreleased song is likely due to the need for more filler tracks from the sudden expansion. In fact, "It was" focus on acoustic guitar makes it shares a similar sound with majority of the songs included in "(miss)understood". Nevertheless, "It was" is the better non-single track in this album, and much better than most of the GEO collaboration tracks.

The video of "JEWEL" was the most expensive pv ever made in J-pop history due to its expansive use of expensive jewellery. However, it just proved the theory that expensive does not necessary means better quality. It is a very boring video according to Wataru Takeshi standard, considering that he directed excellent videos like "appears", "kanariya", "vogue Far away SEASONS", "SURREAL" and "M" for ayu. For the song itself, "JEWEL" is a decent slow ballad by ayumi and one of the better songs in this album. In the past, "JEWEL" might be chosen to be released as a simultaneous single for its quality and high budget pv.

"momentum" is ayu's long-awaited ballad-rock song, but definitely not her best. Nevertheless, it is still great to see this type of music genre being featured here. The pv reminds me of "No way to say", but a more boring version.

Coming next is "taskinst", followed by some of the worst songs in this album. "Born To Be..." might sounds annoying at first, but this song will get better after a few listen. "Beautiful Fighters" and "BLUE BIRD" are the worst songs in this album, which I will simply skipped because I had reviewed these 2 songs in my previous review, so I won't spend time complaining here.

"kiss o' kill" has an eerie sound and this techno-rock number sounds like an answering, reply or opposite version to "until that Day…".

"Secret" is the much-hyped theme song of Hong Kong movie "Confession of Pain". The song reminds me of her classic "Who..." and it is the best new song in this album. "Secret" is an excellent ballad that showcased her emotions very well and it fits neatly with the mood of the movie. If ayumi still release recut single, "Secret" will easily be recut as one due to its superior quality and huge tied-up.

Overall, there is nothing bad in this album. Most songs are of good to above average quality. In fact, "Secret" is actually quite good in accordance to her recent standard, but only above average if compared to ayu's golden standard. This album isn't as bad as "RAINBOW" or "(miss)understood", which are her 'all time worst album' to date and none of the songs are as horrid as "Real me", "HANABI ~episode II~" or "Bold & Delicious". It is interesting to note that the 3 single tracks "Born To Be...", "BLUE BIRD" and "Beautiful Fighters" are actually the worse songs in this album. For the new songs, most of them sounds good, but are not as great if compared to her old classics.

recommending #3 Startin', #14 Secret, #2 until that Day
rating 8/10 good

Buy it here:
Secret [Jacket A / CD+DVD] / Ayumi Hamasaki
Secret [Jacket B] / Ayumi Hamasaki

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Secret / Hamasaki Ayumi   © 文彬 2004~2024. All rights reserved.

BLUE BIRD / Hamasaki Ayumi

11 December 2006

浜崎あゆみ Hamasaki Ayumi
BLUE BIRD

21.6.06
40th single
AVCD-31051/B

tracklisting
CD
1 BLUE BIRD
2 Beautiful Fighters
3 Ladies Night ~another night~
4 BLUE BIRD (Harderground remix)
5 BLUE BIRD (Instrumental)
6 Beautiful Fighters (Instrumental)
DVD
1 BLUE BIRD (PV)
2 Beautiful Fighters (PV)
3 BLUE BIRD (making clip)

purchase date 11.11.06

review
After releasing an excellent single "Startin' / Born To Be..." in March 2006, ayu is back, delivering her annual summer release "BLUE BIRD". Being her 40th single, "BLUE BIRD" is released in 3 formats, consisting of the normal CD edition and two types of CD+DVD format, which each DVD contains a different making clip...

"BLUE BIRD" is a really mediocre Pop-Techno song composed by D.A.I. It has a melody so unoriginal that it resembles her 2005 mediocre summer single "fairyland". Also included in this single is a techno remix of "BLUE BIRD". Nothing special on this track, but the Harderground remix of BLUE BIRD do stand out better than the original...

"Beautiful Fighters" is another unoriginal mediocre song composed by Kikuchi Kazuhito The melody just reminds me of another horrible song "Ladies Night" from her previous album. However, "Beautiful Fighters" is definitely better than both "Ladies Night" and "BLUE BIRD". Ironically, a rock arrangement of "Ladies Night" is included as a recut in this single.

It is really sad to see both D.A.I and Kazuhito composed such lousy song for ayu. D.A.I wrote great songs like "TO BE", "Boys & Girls" and "SEASONS", while Kazuhito composed "appears", "vogue" and "SURREAL" for ayu...

Like the song itself, the video clip for "BLUE BIRD" is equally bad. It is one of the worst and most boring pv ever filmed by ayu. The summer-themed video reminds me of a low budget version of "fairyland" pv. The video starts with ayu singing alone on a sand-bank, followed by footage of ayu playing with her staffs later in the clip. Unlike similar video from other artists, these footage looks unnatural and staged, as the group doesn't seems to enjoy themselves that much, which can be seen from the fake smiles on their faces...

The video clip of "Beautiful Fighters" is more interesting, but definitely not her best. The video shows 5 girls (including ayu herself) who are caught in embarrassing situation during work, but they still get support from people they offended...

Despite its strong marketing technique (nothing new or inspiring compared to past strategies) I had to say "BLUE BIRD" is one of her worst single ever released. It is sad to see ayu putting out such low quality product as she was known for high quality releases and creativity. The quality of her releases decline sharply since 2002. Releases prior to "Free & Easy" have such good quality that anything stamped with the name "ayumi hamasaki" simply warrants quality assured. I seriously hope ayumi just stop releasing anymore lousy product to tarnish her name further.

Unless you are still one of her hardcore fans, you might wish to skip this single...

recommending none
rating 3/10 bad

Buy it here:
Blue Bird [Jacket A] [CD+DVD] / Ayumi Hamasaki
Blue Bird [Jacket B] [CD+DVD] / Ayumi Hamasaki
Blue Bird [Jacket C] / Ayumi Hamasaki

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BLUE BIRD / Hamasaki Ayumi   © 文彬 2004~2024. All rights reserved.

Sketching ayu: A SKETCH

28 March 2005

After a weekend rest, I choose the cover of Hamasaki Ayumi (ayu)'s best album "A BEST" as the subject of my 2nd pencil portrait drawing. I used the cover of my copy of "A BEST" booklet (there are 6 version of the booklet cover, which is hidden beneath the cardboard sleeve). Like "A Sketch for ××", the reasons for choosing this cover is because of its simplicity and monochromic colour scheme.

Titled "A SKETCH", I think this drawing is not as good as "A Sketch for ××". This is because I drew the face shape and proportion of the facial feature wrongly. But after some trimming through shading and rubbing, I managed to reduce the facial width slightly.

There is also vast amount of empty spaces. Eventually, the empty spaces were being decorated with ornament visuals found in the booklet. The result is, I am actually more satisfied with the bubbles than the portrait itself.


A SKETCH

From my experiences of drawing "A Sketch for ××" and "A SKETCH", I concluded that human eyes are the easiest feature to draw. The most difficult parts would be the cheeks. Pencil portraits require hand rubbing, which always resulted in black leaded fingers. Besides, absolute patience and tranquillity are very important, as any disturbance could ruin any beautiful artwork.

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Sketching ayu: A SKETCH   © 文彬 2004~2024. All rights reserved.

Sketching ayu: A Sketch for ××

In TPJC, I learnt a lot of drawing and painting techniques from Mr Eugene Tan. Among which, includes the principles on drawing human facial features using pencil. Knowing my strengths lies in pencil drawing, I had my first attempt in portrait drawing.

Being a huge fan of Hamasaki Ayumi (ayu), I decided to draw the cover of her 1st album "A Song for ××". The reason for choosing this cover is because "A Song for ××" is simple in design and being monochrome in nature will makes pencil drawing easier. After spending about 5 days drawing this portrait, I learned some pencil drawing tricks, like rubbing and the use of different shades of pencil. Named "A Sketch for ××", this drawing is a success, which gives me the courage to do more pencil portrait.


A Sketch for ××

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Sketching ayu: A Sketch for ××   © 文彬 2004~2024. All rights reserved.