Party Queen

Ayumi Hamasaki is back. And she's back "as your Party Queen". Or so she says.

Her lastest album, her 13th album, in 13 years (yes, lucky 13!) is pushing boundaries I don't think she's ever pushed before.

CD+DVD cover

CD only cover

CD+2DVD cover

Party Queen tracklist

01.Party queen
02.NaNaNa
03.Shake It♥
04.taskebab
05.call
06.Letter
07.reminds me
08.Return Road
09.Tell me why
10.a cup of tea
11.the next LOVE
12.Eyes, Smoke, Magic
13.Serenade in A minor
14.how beautiful you are

How beautiful you are was released as a digital single in February, but I hadn't paid much attention to it since I knew it was going to be on the album.

My 1st thought on the covers: Not good. My dislike for the covers has nothing to do with the fact that she's in lingerie, posing on all, hugging a shoe or looking like a drunk. My dislike from them comes from the fact that they just look bad. I never liked Ayu with short hair, and this is even worse. Her jaw and chin on the CD+DVD cover look abnormal and the background? What's with that lamp?. The "13th album" sticker on the bar code looks tacky.

It's pretty bad when the only things I like about these covers are her nails and the leopard print.

Disappointed, yes, surprised, no. I had high hopes for this cover, but that's my own fault for expecting too much out of it. I loved her previous albums' covers so much that I just thought they would keep on being beautiful. Yet I don't find any of these covers to be beautiful.

Ayu took a lot of heat when they were released, so much that she felt the need to explain the meaning of the covers on Twitter. She said they are meant to look like gossip/tabloid magazine covers. They are meant to represent her as a "sad" Party Queen, as someone that even though she is always surrounded by staff and friends, she is always lonely no matter what.

I'm sorry but if you have to explain the concept of your covers, to me that just means that it was poorly executed.

Mind you, I don't love her any less for it, after the FAIL of mini-album FIVE, I think Party Queen brings "old Ayu" back.

Even though the physical copy of the album is set to be released only on March 21st, it was made available for purchase and download on iTunes Japan yesterday.

I had a good 1st listen to the album yesterday afternoon, and had a 2nd go at it later in the evening. My 1st thought: Wow! I didn't expect to like it so much, especially since I disliked FIVE very much and didn't care for Rock'n'Roll Circus.

Party Queen has a very good flow to it, it seems everything was well thought and executed (on the contrary to the covers).

Party queen to taskebab has a dance-rock feel to it which is what I wanted most from Ayu. She had been writing so many slow-medium ballad songs for the last year that I wanted none of them on this album. NaNaNa shocked me the most, when I think of someone singing "Nanana", I think of a pop-happy song. But no, Ayu's NaNaNa feels like raw rock, with an electronic edge to it. The only word I find that describes it best is intense.

call to a cup of tea is the soft and sad part of the album. The lyrics to call clearly refer to the relationship she had with ex-husband Mannie and how their relationship was viewed by everyone on the outside, her fans, the media, etc. Return Road refers to her divorce. It really is true when they say that heartbroken songs are often the best in terms of lyrics. Listening and reading through these songs, I really felt for her.

the next LOVE and Eyes, Smoke, Magic have jazz feels to them. Something new and very different for Ayu. Eyes, Smoke, Magic made me think of burlesque, I hope she applies the concept to her Arena Tour this year.

Serenade in a Minor didn't leave any lasting impressions on me.

How beautiful you are is one of the most beautiful songs I've heard in a long time. I'm kicking myself a bit, for not paying attention to it sooner than this. I had it on repeat for a good hour last night. "You don't know, you don't know... How beautiful you are..." really describe the song as a whole. There is also a meaningful music video attached to it, I would recommend you have a look/listen. It's well worth it, especially on one of those days where you're feeling down.

Over all, I love this album! The cover disappointed me, and I will probably end up replacing them with another fake cover in my iTunes. But this is the 1st album since NEXT LEVEL (in 2009) that I can say I'm able to listen from beginning to end without skipping a single song.

Good job Ayu! And welcome back~


What do you think of Party Queen? The covers? The songs? The music videos?

Divorce & Break-up

Team Ayu message from earlier this month...

To my overseas fans,

I wish to inform you theat i, ayumi hamasaki, instructes my lawyer to file for divorce on my behalf in the united states today.

At the time of our marriage, my husband and I decided to live in the united states. However, approximatetely two months later eastern japan was struck by a huge earthquake. As a result of this tragedy, I felt an overwhelming need to stay in my home county, and was forced to leave my husband alone for a long time.

My husband and I have made every effort to reach a compromise;

However, as time has passed we have grown apart. I no longer feel the same desire to move to the united states. Instead I feel that I must ask myself what I can continue to do for my country, here in japan. This has eclipsed the future I had originally envisaged with my husband, and it is for this reason that I have made this difficult decision.

It was with a grateful, but heavy heart that I read all the messages I received form my fans and the press congratulating me on my 1st wedding anniversary at the beginning of this month. It was then that I realized I had to face up to the inevitable truth that I had been avoiding.

At present, my husband is in los angeles pursuing his career as an actor in Hollywood. I would ask that my fans to respect his privacy and refrain from sending him messages or contacting him to ask for comement.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

Ayumi Hamasaki

I was shocked. In disbelief. Sad. Confused.

I rooted for Ayu and Mannie for all of 2011, I was so happy for her, for them...

Yet little did I know or think, that two weeks later (after Ayu's message), I would be going through my very own break-up. I don't speak of my personal life very much on this blog, but to me this is sort of a lifestyle blog: life + style. Life. Much less style these days...

Not to make up excuses, but yes, I guess it is an excuse now. But this is why I've been away. Break-up with D.

Many things were not right for quite some time, there was a constant back and forth, no consistancy and it eventually pushed me to sit on the edge of the bridge (or on top of the fence if you want to be less dramatic) for a while.

There came a time I had to take a decision for myself, not for D., not for my friends or family, for me. Yes, I took the decision. Just like Ayu did. When I read her message, I didn't understand. But now I do.

As much as you might care for someone, it's important to take a decision for yourself, not to please others, not to spare the other their feelings. It might hurt for a while, but time heals all wounds and I'm glad I took my decision, I firmly believe now that it was the right thing to do.

I'm writing all of this in hopes that this might help someone else eventually.

It's OK, to take a decision for yourself. Just like it's OK to "ride the wave", "go with the flow" or "sit on the fence" for a while, as you think towards a decision.

No one pushed me to take this decision, in fact, I was very fortunate to be surrounded by such respectful people, that did not push me into thinking things or taking a decision I might regret.

If you don't know, then just let it go for a little while, and it will come to you eventually. Believe, and it will.

With every break-up I've taken the opportunity to change things in my life, I think many people do.

My 1st break-up, I changed everything. Moved out of town, new apartment, new job, new life. Previous break-up, didn't change job, didn't move, but I got a brand new car and I made new friends. Now this time around...

Well I started with a new hair color.

From my natural dark brown to a rich, more intense dark red. What do you think?

Next, I'm working on re-decorating my whole bedroom. Can't afford to re-decorate the whole house, but I spend a lot of time in my room, so I'm re-decorating it all. Can't change the layout of it, and I like my furniture, but I'll be changing bed sheets, lamps, curtains and probably wall color too.

Look forward to seeing pictures and reports on the whole re-decorating adventure. I've lived in this house for 4 years now and haven't re-decorated since. I think this will be a nice change, for a while anyway.

If I'm lucky... possibly a new layout for this gold old blog too. :)

Did you make any changes after your last break-up? If so, what did you change?

ViVi December 2011

Hamasaki Ayumi on the cover of japanese magazine ViVi December 2o11.

Huummm... can we say gorgeous much?? I haven't liked many of her magazine covers in the past year or two, so this is a great surprise. The look in her eyes with those contacts... it's hypnotizing! No?

There isn't much about her in the magazine itself other than her usual DeijiDeiji diary. So I probably won't be getting this mag. But I still really like this cover!


What do you think of this cover?

LANDS OF Eden

JUNO x Ayumi Hamasaki modeling for the new japanese fashion brand.

Click for big version here

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4th shot is my favorite, but I'm really liking the first one also. The 1st shot was released as a spoiler for the fashion brand, and there were many questions as to whom the young woman was. Of course there were many speculations, but with a few hints, some dedicated fans found out it was Ayu. In that shot you can see the woman is wearing a red ribbon bracelet on her right arm, this is something Ayu has been doing for quite sometime now. She wears a red bracelet as a sign that she's always connected with her fan club "Team Ayu" and her fans. I don't like her lips in the 2nd shot, but this seems to be a very popular "trend" in Japan right now, I've seen several models with the same "duck lips" expression that is enhanced with make-up.

LANDS of Eden website: http://www.l-o-e.jp/

This seems to be a unisex brand. You can view part of their collection on the website. I could easily see myself shopping there, it seems to be a brand aimed at women their 20s. Not too many bright colors as I've liked recently, but you'll rarely see bright colors for Fall/Winter Collections. LANDS of Eden advertisements.



There was a grand opening event recently, JUNO and Ayu were both there for the press!


They look like they have good chemistry!


What do you think of this new brand? Think "LANDS OF Eden" is a bit too cheesy or you like it? What about the modeling shots of Ayu and JUNO together?

Ayu produces false eyelashes too!

I had been playing with the idea of trying out fake eyelashes for some time, probably just as long as I've been thinking about colored circle lenses. To me, they go together, but I probably won't be trying them together at the same time for the first time. Or should I?

It seems DollyWink have been very popular with western gals, so I was just about ready to order a pair or two online, when news of Ayu releasing her very on false eyelashes came out! (Yeah, yeah I know, I posted about Ayu already once this week, but what do you want me to say? This is how it works with her, she releases everything practically all at the same time! And I can't help but talk about it! It's Ayu AND make-up related.)


There are three (3) lines: Natural Days, Gorgeous Days and Royal Days, ranging from natural volume to more dramatic. Within each line there will be 12 different types of lashes.

The price is 1,480 yen per pack and each pack contains 3 sets of lashes!

1,480 yen! That's totally reasonable, don't you think?

Honestly I don't know why she waited so long to do this.

Natural Days no. 1

Natural Days no. 2

Natural Days no. 3
Natural Days Bottom no. 1

Gorgeous Days no. 4

Gorgeous Days no. 5

Gorgeous Days no. 6

Gorgeous Days Bottom no. 2

Royal Days no. 7

Royal Days no. 8

Royal Days no. 9

Royal Days Bottom no. 3

My favorite ones out of the bunch: Naturals Days no.1, Gorgeous Days no.6 and Royals Days no.7. Personally I don't care for bottom lashes so I'll be leaving these out for now.

These have been on sell at mu-mo since September 22nd, and they will be sold all over Japan starting September 30th. I haven't managed to figure out a way to order them from mu-mo.net yet (they have an international website affiliated with Tenso which gives you an address in Japan so that you may order from Japanese online websites that don't ship internationally), but you can view all of them here on the Japanese website here. If you guys know how to get your hands on these, please let me know!! I'd really like to order two or three pairs to try them out!

Until next time~~~



Note: If you want to use the pictures included in this blog entry, please make sure to credit and don't remove my blog tag. I took the time to put them all together from mu-mo. It was a bit time consuming... Thank you very much!

What do you think of these lashes? Will the fact that Ayu produced them herself, influence you into buying them? Or are false eyelashes not your thing? Tell me what you think!

Love And Trench: Ayu x Aquascutum

Ayu is back collaborating with Aquascutum! Last February I posted about Ayu modeling for Aquascutum London (here).


"Love And Trench" campaign offers three (3!!) new coats modeled by our lovely Hamasaki Ayumi! Weither there was an actual collaboration in design or not I'm not sure, but it fits with Ayu's personal style perfectly and she wears them really well as usual.

"Aquascutum X Ayu"

"New Aqua Tech"

"Short Military Trench"

I like these trench coats a lot! I can't pick a favorite between the beige and the green one though, I like them both equally I think!

You can read more about it on Aquascutum's website (in japanese) Here!

What about you?
What do you think of this collection?
Which one is your favorite?

Late gets, nails, etc...

I haven't had a post of "latest gets" in a while because I haven't been spending as much. I've been paying off my credit card, putting money away for Japan and trying to have some kind of a life. Not much has been going on though... During this transition from Summer to Fall, everything seems to slow down around me... Has it been like that for you too?

Well anyway. Flash back to July!

My last set of nails for a while. I had them done just before my birthday and got them removed in August. I decided to take a break from nails because I had been wanting to change my nail color every other day. I figured it couldn't hurt on my wallet at the same time...

Since then, I've been experimenting with different colors, new and old shades! I've been into matte colors more than ones with shines and sparkles. I especially love this shade of pink called "Greenwitch Village" by NYC.

Did the tips by myself, no paper, no stickers, no help. Just me and the brush from the bottle!
I think I've gotten pretty good at it, what do you think?

Back to July. During my summer vacations I went out of town and found some good deals on Oakley and Hurley t-shirts. These guys were my best friends for all of August!


For all of August I didn't spend money of clothes. Which is some kind of miracle (or is it?) for me because I always find myself buying at least one piece of clothing once a month, if it's not twice a month... When came September I was hitching to take wallet out on a small shopping spree, but I wanted to shop ONLY for things I REALLY needed. The flats I had been wearing all summer were giving me their last breaths and since I wear flats at work all year long I had to get me a new pair.

Globo Shoes had a pair exactly like my old ones! Happiness!


And while I was there I took advantage of their amazing sale on Winter boots. I only had 1 pair of boots for all of Winter last year. What the hell was I thinking considering I live in Canada, right? Well I just couldn't find any that I liked in my size. It seems the size I wear is always out when I find a pair of boots I really love!

I found these pairs and didn't hesitate. 60$! I think that's the cheapest I've ever paid for boots, EVER.

I really don't like wearing heels in the snow, and these turn out to be super cute and comfy! All the boots I've had in my life so far have been black, so I thought I'd got for this shade of gray to spice it up a little bit. I'm excited to wear these when the temperatures really get down close to zero celcius.

And then I ordered me a small package from Japan!


I've been wanting Soul Sister magazine since I saw it on Universal Doll and Rii's blog. This is the type of fashion I like the most out of Japan! It's edgy, a little dark, sexy and a little rock at the same time too! Totally love this magazine!! I'm definitely ordering the 2nd issue once it's available on HMV Japan.

And last but not least...


I'd been waiting for SO LOOOONG for Ayu Blu-rays. Her DVDs are all region coded, which means I can only watch them on my computer. Most of them aren't all that great quality of picture and sound either. The joy when I found out she was releasing Blu-rays of some of her past and now future concerts!! MAD HAPPY I WAS!! I order NEXT LEVEL Arena Tour 2009 (right) because that's the show I attended twice while I was in Tokyo. And Coundtown Live 2010-11 because it's the most recent show out to date and I really liked the previews I'd seen.

Let me just say it's preeeetty damn awesome to watch her on my HD TV, and hear her on surround sound.

*Fangirl squeal!*

That's it for now~

Have you gone shopping for Fall/Winter wardrobe yet?

FIVE [Ayu Mini Album] + Ayu Contacts

This was announced a while back but I was waiting for track list and covers to come out to speak of is on Gossip Candy.

Hamasaki Ayumi releasing FIVE, a "mini album", on August 31st 2011.

CD + DVD Cover

CD Only

CD Only -Limited Edition-

Track list

CD content.

01. progress (●PS3「Tales of Xillia」theme song)

02. ANother song feat. URATA NAOYA (●BeeTV「sweetTV」theme song)

03. Why... feat. JUNO (●HIS Taiwan Campaign CM song / Recochoku TV-CM song)

04. beloved (●Japan Television「Sukkiri!!」 theme song for August)

05. BRILLANTE (●music.jp TV-CF song)

Dvd content.

01. progress (video clip)
02. ANother song feat. URATA NAOYA (video clip)
03. Why... feat. JUNO (video clip)
04. beloved (video clip)
05. BRILLANTE (video clip)
06. progress (making clip)
07. ANother song feat. URATA NAOYA (making clip)
08. Why... feat. JUNO (making clip)
09. beloved (making clip)
10. BRILLANTE (making clip)

A song for a video game, Tales of Xillia, thus why the anime limited edition cover.

I'm not as excited for this as I've been for previous albums. Probably because it only has 5 new songs and doesn't feel like a "real" album does.

I mean, this could have very well been split into 2 singles and then we could have had a new album at the end of the year or something along that line. But with Ayu's life changing (aka. she got married) and the earthquake in March, I've noticed her way of doing things has changed. It's like she taking more time to focus on the things she does rather then rushing through it all. Which is good, I think.

In this album, she has 2 songs in collaboration with 2 different male singers. URATA NAOYA, whom she's performed and produced a song with already. And a new guy, JUNO. He looks tasty. Wait, what? Did I just say that out loud?!!

I like the CD Only, bust shot cover, but the other two leave me going "meh". I don't like the font they used for her name and in the face shot she looks very manly to me. I don't know if it's the hair or the eyebrows or what, but I don't find it feminine at all, and to me Ayu is all about being feminine. I could care less for the anime cover, I mean, if it'd been HER as an anime character then OK, but this one doesn't say or remind me of Ayu at all.


In other news, on the exact same date, a collection of color contact lenses will be released! Seems to be some kind of collaboration 「浜崎あゆみ × SWEET DAYS」



I don't know if they were designed by Ayu or if they just affiliated with her to use her name. Maybe they'll be using her as spokes person for this serie of lenses, who knows. I'd love to see a photo shoot of her wearing each one of them, but that's probably just me dreaming.

You can view everything in details with better pictures of the lenses Here


What do YOU think of Ayu's "FIVE" mini album? What do you think of the covers? What about the contact lenses? Would you buy any of them?