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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