ayumi hamasaki, URATA NAOYA, AAA
Look at this!!
The albums which I bought had finally arrived in the mail yesterday! And in case you’re wondering, yes!! I’m home because I’m given the rest of the week off! Ain’t that cool? Anyway, here I am, about to “show off” these great pieces of art with you~
Featured in this post…
ayumi hamasaki - Love songs
URATA NAOYA feat. ayumi hamasaki - Dream ON
AAA - Heartful
And yes, I got these albums from Yesasia because they are lighter on the pockets but still pack the same quality. Well, the obis are probably slightly uglier but I can live with that…
First up, AAA’s five studio album, HEARTFUL, released in February 17 2010 in Japan and several weeks in Hong Kong and everywhere else. Honestly, even while typing this entry, I had no idea how this album sounds like. Heck~ I haven’t even heard its singles! But I believe it’s good because I love their energy!!
How the back of the album looks like…
The tracklist. This album packs 14 full tracks as well as 5 music videos (along side with their making ofs). I have the next few days to watch and listen to this album so I hope it will impress me. The packaging had so far scored quite well on my aesthetic charts though. Cool concept, nice color choices and good photography.
The CD is simple and shiny~~
How the lyric booklet looks like. It’s typical for AAA to feature each and every of its member in one page like what you’re seeing above. By the way, that’s Urata Naoya and he has his solo career (which you’ll soon witness) and his voice is really raw and cool~
A full picture of all these cool and energetic people~ Honestly, if you asked me, I find that they are like the Pussycat Dolls, where they have a lead singer and the rest are just dancers. But for AAA, they have a couple more lead singers and an allocated rapper but the rest are just pretty/handsome!
Did I mention that this album that I got happens to be the first press Hong Kong edition? The first press comes along with a “character” card, featuring one of the seven members of AAA. I got the lead singer’s (at least I feel he’s the lead singer) card; Takahiro Nishijima.
This is how he looks like~ His voice is unique, I would say. Almost boyish and extremely lively. His prominent voice in SUNSHINE is the reason why I noticed this band and why I continue to support their music.
Moving on to Urata Naoya’s solo career and previously mentioned… He released a new single along side with ayumi hamasaki’s new album “Love songs” on December 22 last year titled Dream ON, featuring ayumi hamasaki herself! Ain’t that cool?! He should be honored that he is the first artist (after KEIKO) to be featured on a collaborative single with ayu.
The minimalistic track list, featuring the track “Dream ON” along with the instrumental version. This version comes with the DVD which contains the promotional video as well as the making of.
Why can’t this be the album art instead! When you remove the obi, this is what you see~ I swear this photo is so much more interesting than the original single art but again, this is Urata’s single, not ayu’s so he should be in the spot light. Oh well~
The CD features nature’s colors of danger; Yellow + Black and I’m digging it! Brighter colors are easier to photograph so yes… :P The lyric insert is on the right as you can see.
Close up on the really cool CD design.
The DVD looks like an inverse of the colors and I don’t think it’s really working though…
The lyric insert of Dream ON. I like how they did the design in a way that there is a divide between ayu and Urata.
Sometimes, I feel that Urata’s leeching off ayu because ayu is the one who wrote the lyrics of the song and she also produced this single! In fact, this is the first time she is titled the Producer! Coolness, no? Furthermore, this single debuted #1 on the Oricon charts and I feel that most of the credit goes to the queen herself. But that’s not to say that Urata did not contribute because he is really good in this single! Great job!!
Isn’t this cute? Urata and ayu’s logo side by side at the back of the lyrics insert.
And last but definitely not the least, ayumi hamasaki’s Love songs!! I know I know~ I’ve featured her limited edition one already but this CD+DVD version is different okay? The contents may be the same but the packaging is definitely not! First of all, she is looking at YOU in this album art as opposed to the limited edition’s one where she is looking away.
When you put the CD+DVD version on the limited edition version, it fades away like a mouse beside an elephant but nevertheless, it is gorgeous! The size is just one of the many differences though.
The obi of the CD+DVD version is very similar to the limited edition’s gigantic obi. Other than the size, it’s basically the same actually.
The back of the CD+DVD version recycles the image used in the limited edition and yes, it’s shrunk down. The tracklist is also shorter because the microSD is not included here (duh!)
Suddenly, the regular album casing seem so tiny as compared to the LP-sized one.
What’s so unique about the CD+DVD version is that the first press comes in the slipcase and what’s underneath surprises people; an alternate album art! From what I understand, there are 2 versions of these alternate album arts and this is what I got!
Finally!! Something that’s more wide as opposed to all beauty shots of ayumi! It’s almost as though the photographer finally realized that she has limbs! Her legs look long here thanks to the low angle of the shot as well as the heels; just some tips for people who wants to have lengthier legs. I love this album art!!
When you open the case, you see the brown CD on the left as well as the lyrics booklet (which is exactly the same as the limited edition one) on the right.
The CD is brown and it reminds me of the chocolate-like USB stick that came in the limited edition.
The DVD is the same as the limited edition one just that this time, it’s in region code 3 and that means high-definition music videos for me if I play this on my PlayStation 3!!
Recently, the song “Last angel” is constantly playing in my mind and because of that, I shall show you the photo they used along the lyrics of this song which ayu relates to her husband (YES!! SHE’S MARRIED just a couple of weeks ago!!).
And since I bought these Japanese albums from Yesasia, I get a free mini toy and this time round, I actually got something that I actually want; a Super Mario mushroom!! Not only is it cute, it’s also soft!! ADORABLE!!!! That’s the great thing about Yesasia; freebies!!
Space alien loves the mushroom too~
YES~ Love songs is a good album so I don’t mind getting another version of it (actually, I just want the DVD and packaging but~~~~). Well, time to end this blog entry which I’ve been trying to publish for almost 2 hours and a half because tumblr and the internet is unstable and therefore, writing this post was extremely challenging.
Hopefully, this problem is only for tonight because if it persists, I’ll go crazy!!
Wonder what I should do tomorrow…~ :)
