broylim / catalog

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…~ :) 

ayumi hamasaki - Love songs (microSD+USB+DVD - Limited edition)

AND IT’S FINALLY HERE!! “Love songs”~

*watching the DVD right now while I’m blogging this entry*

I say, this has to be the biggest packaging ever (not including Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus because the CD is inside)~ It’s really really gorgeous, this album! 

Anyway, some background about “Love songs”. It’s ayumi hamasaki’s 12th studio album and her second album of year 2010! Uncommon much? But who’s complaining? This album is as solid as Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus in my opinion, with pretty strong songs like “Love songs”, “do it again”, etc…

And of course, she released her album in various versions and this time, she released Love songs in 3 different jackets (CD+DVD, CD-only, microSD+USB+DVD). And guess which one I’m going to show here~ :D

TA DA!! I got the microSD+USB+DVD version, which is *shameless~* the limited edition version! Look at ayumi struggling inside that bubble wrap! Imma save you, ayu!

The album came in this vinyl sized box with her big gorgeous face across it. I prefer the CD+DVD cover though but this is not bad too. Love the color choices actually; very soft, romantic, mysterious (like “I’m going to tell you a secret about my desired love life”) kinda feel.

The sticker on the plastic cover.

In case you want a comparison on how big and marvelous the album is, it’s about 4 times the size of a regular CD casing. It’s really good to hold in your hands too~ Furthermore, the quality is good; I almost mistaken the material as plastic.

The obi’s details… Yes, it comes with an obi…

And how ridiculously big the obi actually is. Actually, when I first saw the album, I laughed a little because I never expected it to come with an obi because of it’s huge size but it still did~ Perhaps because the obi holds lots of “vital” information though I doubt people actually go through it.

And the back of the album. I had a really hard time trying to get a picture with the correct color but eventually, I managed to! Those flowers kinda remind me of the flowers you see on our overhead bridges in Singapore. In fact, on closer inspection, they are; OVERHEAD BRIDGE FLOWERS!!

The track list. This album contains 16 tracks (including the bonus track, SEVEN DAYS WAR’s live version), featuring the singles “MOON/blossom”, “crossroad” and “L”, all fantastic singles, may I add~

This is how the album looks like when you lift up the flap. You’re greeted with ayu smiling sweetly at you as though she’s saying “Thanks for buying me!!” On the left, you see the lyrics booklet slotted there and on the right, you see ayu’s beautiful face.

The lyric booklet. I love the motif at the back~

*GOES GAGA!!*

So here are the contents of the album; the microSD on the top left, the USB on the top right and the DVD (if you cannot recognize it, you should come out from your cave). Each media device stores different stuff and I shall elaborate it soon.

First of all, the microSD. Unfortunately, the contents can only be accessed by using a Japanese phone. It contains all the tracks and PVs from this album. So, I suppose if you are in Japan, you can just slot this card into your cell and immediately enjoy her album. How handy~ Did you notice that the casing of the SD card is like that of a CD+DVD casing? Cool eh?

The microSD’s back… I forgot to take a shot of the front of the microSD card itself. Basically, it says “Love songs”. WOW!! Obvious, no?

The USB device! Actually, when her album was announced for this format, I was thinking that the USB will be something as elegant as the NEXT LEVEL’s one but I was wrong. Honestly, I’m slightly disappointed but I’ll live… This USB stick reminds me of chocolate though~

The USB when you remove the cap. At least they put ayu’s A on it… O YES!! Did I mention that when I first opened the album, I swear I smell something sweet coming from it. I wonder if they did something to the album to make it smell like chocolate (maybe it’s the USB) but it really smells like strawberry flavored chocolate~

Anyway, the USB contains the tracks of the album in WAV format (lossless audio format), which basically translate to the best quality ever! (at least that’s what I understand). The whole album weighs a whooping 1.19GB!! That’s almost 12 times the size of a regular mp3 album! Each songs weigh around 70 - 90MB, if you want to know. However, I feel that without good audio technologies (like a good headphone or speaker), chances are you won’t spot the difference. But psychologically, you will feel that the WAV is definitely better.

Moving on… The album also comes with a photo booklet that’s also supersized. It’s almost like a calendar just that there are no dates inside. 

Some of the gorgeous photos inside the book… As opposed to Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus, I feel the artistic direction of this album is for a soft, feminine side of ayu. All the photos are feminine, hopeful and of course, BEAUTIFUL!

More ayu!! I love that fountain, by the way…

And moving on to the lyric booklet. They used the album art for the CD+DVD version as the lyric booklet and I though that’s a good move because I find that version’s cover the nicest.

The lyric booklet is also filled with gorgeous photos~ In this one, you can see ayu’s tattoo. I’m not a big fond of tattoos but somehow, this tattoo made the whole picture feel complete…

Now that’s what I call a lyric booklet y’all! A booklet with lyrics inside! Unlike some artistes’ booklets that just contain words that no one will actually read.

And that’s the last picture I have for this post. Overall, I find this album solid (come on~ Which ayu album isn’t right? :P) because it’s a different feel altogether. Unlike her previous albums, this album focuses more on ballads and is less experimental. There is a couple of rockish songs and they are good too.

I love this album! It’s the fantastic Christmas present from ayu (even though I have to pay…) and it compliments the previous album really well; Rock + Ballads. 2010 is definitely a good year for ayu~

 

頑張って、あゆちゃん～～ :D