progress is one of the songs on Ayu’s mini-album Five. I like it. It has a more classic Ayu sound to it. It was used as the theme song for the game Tales of Xillia. It starts out slow and mellow, but then it picks up as the song progresses.

Ayumi Hamasaki ~ progress

33MB 5:09 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

I haven’t listened to Ayu for a long while to be honest. Mostly due to the fact that I didn’t re-add her albums after iTunes corrupted most of my music library a couple of years ago, but also because I wasn’t impressed by her later albums and took a break and stayed out of the loop for a while.

Ayu recently did a shoot for the November issue ViVi magazine as a part of the promotion for her 50th single, where she shows off her tattoos (among other things).

I can’t say I fully understand magazine numbering. By the time I post this, the November issue photo shoot is already old news, and it’s still September.

Credit: scans by iloveayu.com

I went to eat some sushi for lunch today at a place near my office. It’s been a while since I last ate sushi for some reason.

In the restaurant they were playing some typical unidentifiable piano music in the background. The couple next to me were talking about some party or event and what music they would use and I started to think about the music I like and thought: “How come they never play J-Pop or something along those lines in places like this”.

As soon as I had finished the thought, they started playing Secret by Ayumi Hamasaki. I must have looked pretty shocked when I looked up from my huge sushi plate . After that song they went back to the generic piano music.

The latest model in Panasonic’s Lumix FX camera series is the FX40. Of course Ayumi Hamasaki is in the commercial

Watch the CM here

Ayu looks great in the CM and you can hear the title track of her next album NEXT LEVEL in the background.

Unfortunately I’m not especially excited about the release of NEXT LEVEL (which will be out March 25th, by the way). I haven’t been very into Ayu’s recent songs, so this might actually be the first of Ayumi Hamasaki’s albums that I won’t buy. I do, of course, reserve the right to change my mind

Here’s a bigger version of one of Ayu’s Wacoal lingerie posters that I posted earlier.

Credit: milkycat@ahn

On September 10th, Ayumi Hamasaki’s new singles collection will be out. It will consist of 3 CDs with all her singles remastered as well as a special 10th anniversary version of Who…At first I thought it felt like Avex was just trying to shake out some more money from the fans (which they are), but the collection is not all that expensive, and to ensnare the fans who allready have all the songs and don’t think that remastered versions are enough, there collection comes with a DVD that contains Ayu’s a-nation performances and a recording of the Limited TA Live Tour from 2003. In other words, how can I resist? It’s available for pre-order now.

Check out the track list below. […] there’s more! »

Ayumi Hamasaki will be in an ad campaign for lingerie company Wacoal. Check out the preview pictures below and read more here.

Credit: Maxker@ahn & DELIRIUM-ZER0@ayu-mi-x.com via Zachery@ahs

I would love to get my hands on that second poster… as in getting a hold of it… to put on my wall… not to touch

edit: I added an adjusted picture of the poster. It’s the one from the second picture that I “de-scewed” a little.

The wait is over. Less reading, more downloading. Here are the remaining Ayu PVs as direct downloads.

Let’s start off with Evolution, which is one of my favourite songs. I read that when it first came out, some old fans thought that Ayu had “sold out” with a pop song like this.

Ayumi Hamasaki ~ evolution

31MB 4:46 H.264/AVC 480×272

(download | thumbnail)

(how to play)

(collected in this torrent)

Ayumi Hamasaki ~ Moments

36MB 5:36 H.264/AVC 480×272

(download | thumbnail)

(collected in this torrent)

[…] there’s more! »

Rainbow is a nice and symbolic PV. The song wasn’t on the album Rainbow, but if you bought the album you could download an instrumental version. Then the fans sent in suggestions for lyrics and the song, as it sounds in this PV, was included on A Ballads. At least, that’s how I remember it. So, here it is: Rainbow. Don’t lose yourself!

Ayumi Hamasaki ~ RAINBOW for PSP

40MB 6:09 H.264/AVC 480×272

(download | thumbnail)

(how to play)

(collected in this torrent)

This PV is from the Complete Clips box which is out of print.

This song came out back when I was still buying singles, something that happens quite rarely these days. Is this LOVE? is a very good song, in spite of all the “wowow yeyeah”. The video is pretty cool. Perhaps a little boring. It has some cool visual effects. The car crash is a little “rabbit in the headlights”-y, I guess.

Ayumi Hamasaki ~ is this LOVE for PSP

32MB 4:54 H.264/AVC 480×272

(download | thumbnail)

(how to play)

(collected in this torrent)

This PV is also from A Best 2 -Black-.