ayumi hamasaki - ayu-mi-x 7 LIMITED COMPLETE BOX SET

And it's finally time... *drum rolls*
to blog about ayumi hamasaki's latest remix albums!
ayu-mi-x 7!!


Well, before I start, some brief "history" of this album. This album was produced by none other than avex legendary producer, max matsuura, to commemorate ayumi hamasaki's 50th single "L". There was this moment where ayumi and max were tweeting on twitter, saying something that it's been awhile since the release of a remix album and I presume that moment was more or less the seed for this production.

Anyway, what's so special about these 4 remix albums is that they come in different styles (just like how they did it for ayu-mi-x 2) featuring all 50 A-sides of her 50 singles so far. Furthermore, if you got the LIMITED COMPLETE BOX like I did, they will give you a disc featuring some of the remixes from these 4 albums compiled into a non-stop mix. Pretty cool stuff!!

Let's start the ball rollin'!

Please forgive me if the pictures are not as nice because it was really challenging to take photos of such a large album! Plus, it was the same night I took photos of FEMME FATALE so I was extremely tired. Just so you know, this box set is even bigger than Britney Spears' FEMME FATALE limited edition album - it's basically a LP sized box! It consists of all four remix albums (which I will be featuring later on) as well as 13 LP-sized posters of her previous remix album arts plus the bonus non-stop mix CD.

In case you want a closer view of the sticker on the album. It roughly translates to what I previous said above. 

The back of the big box is designed with the CMYK colors and on the plastic cover is the track list of all the CDs in this box set. 

The close up of the bonus disc's track list. By the way, I saw these albums (not the limited edition one though unfortunately) on sale in Singapore's HMV and each of them were going for nearly S$55!! If you multiply that by 4, that would be a whooping S$220 for the entire collection! Isn't that freakin' expensive?! Good thing I got mine online because that's around the price I pay for this limited edition goodness.

Unlike the limited edition of "Love songs" - click to check out my post on this fantastic album!), ayu-mi-x 7 does not have the oversized obi but here's the spine if you're wondering how it looks like. I think it's a better idea not to have the oversized obi anyway because it looks really awkward.

TA DA!! All for remix albums placed neatly in the box, protected by the soft sponge packaging! Smells like "Love songs" too! From top left clockwise...

ayu-mi-x 7 -version HOUSE-

ayu-mi-x 7 -version Acoustic Orchestra-

ayu-mi-x 7 presents ayu trance 4

ayu-mi-x 7 presents ayu-ro-mix 4 

And the CD resting on top of the remix albums is the non-stop remix bonus disc that came along in this box set. I will be talking more about the rest of the albums in further detail later on. By the way, some of the pictures are quite badly taken (at least that's how I feel it) so please forgive me. :( 

The obis of the albums. Clever creative direction of using CMYK don't you think? :)

Let's start with ayu-mi-x 7 -version Acoustic Orchestra- because you know, I prefer the Acoustic Orchestra versions of ayumi's songs. In fact, I can buy a single just for a single track if it was an acoustic version. 

This album basically features some of her songs but with an acoustic orchestra twist (duh!). BUT BUT! It's the first time "evolution" got made into an orchestra version and I have to say, I love it! It's not as good as her Tour of Secret live performance where she did an acoustic opening but it's good anyway. Too bad the DJs just took her older songs and worked on the vocal tracks as opposed to ayumi singing them all over again.

Some other songs in this album includes WHATEVER, AUDIENCE, BLUE BIRD, You were..., kanariya and more. For the full track list, google it because I'm too lazy to type everything out. :P Plus, I do reviews of packagings and songs, not a storage of album track lists.

ayu-mi-x 7 -version HOUSE- is basically a typical remix album. Well, honestly, I can't say I like ayu-mi-x 7 better in general as compared to ayu-mi-x 6 -GOLD- / -SILVER- because the remixes in this album basically sound very similar. Maybe that's the direction they want to head in because they want to make the whole album sound as cohesive and as seamless as possible but that kills re-listening value in my opinion.

But having said that, -version HOUSE- does contain some good remixes like "Dearest" and "crossroad". It's a pity the rest of the tracks sound a little unmemorable though. That's one of the disadvantages of remixed songs - they kinda lose their initial charm; unless they are remixed really nicely. Other tracks in this album consists of TO BE, fairyland, For My Dear..., Voyage, Virgin Road and more.

I was pleasantly surprised by ayu-mi-x 7 presents ayu-ro-mix 4 because it sounds a lot better than -version HOUSE- in the sense that at least the songs are more distinguishable. I didn't really enjoy the previous ayu-ro-mixes because they sound too "clubbish" and there was more music than there was singing. Fortunately, ayu-mi-x 7 focuses a lot on the singing and less of mindless clubbing music.

Like -version HOUSE-, the album is created to be seamless but at least the songs are still uniquely different from each another. Well, not totally different but at least you can tell that it doesn't sound the same. The songs on this album are more of the uplifting summer ones like Sunrise ~LOVE is ALL, glitter, SURREAL, Fly high and more.

And the fourth album - ayu-mi-x 7 presents ayu trance 4. It's somewhat like ayu-mi-x 4 but... Honestly, I don't know what's the difference between trance and euromix because they sound like the same style to me. Like ayu-mi-x 4, this album is also not bad. The difference is probably that this album contains more ballads-transformed-trance. Personally, I think this cover looks the nicest - maybe because it's blue. :P

Some of the songs included in this album are Far away, MOON, Rule, monochrome, vogue, Greatful days and more. Weird that they picked Greatful days instead of "ourselves" considering that "ourselves" is the first track. They also picked HANABI over "independent" - odd~ But considering that both of the singles are tripe A-sides, I guess it's fine then.

As if thinking that the listeners are blind, they have to print the track list really big.

The four CDs laid out nicely - colorful~

Another photo...

No. This is not the box - this is the slipcase for the bonus disc. Well, if you followed my blogs long enough, you would have known that something against slipcases...

The track list of the bonus CD - ayu-mi-x 7 Special Non-Stop Mix. Basically, this disc consists of some of the songs from the 4 other albums and the songs are shortened and edited to make the whole album flow smoothly. 

Well well~ Bet they heard my complaints regarding slipcases and avex is really clever. Instead of slipping the CD straight into the cardboard, they slipped the disc into this protective casing before stuffing the disc into the slipcase. More protection for the disc! But it puzzles me why they can't just make a proper box for this CD though.

And now, the POSTERS! I love posters - even though I don't put them on my wall. It's for the bragging rights you know you know? :) Anyway, this collection come with 13 LP-sized posters featuring the cover arts of her previous ayu-mi-x works and what can I say? They are simply GORGEOUS! Pardon the bad placement of posters in this photo because there was no space.

The posters are so pretty! I love the SILVER and GOLD version the best even though they are heavily edited. Her eyes are smiling~

More posters for your viewing pleasure!!

Overall, I think this box set is worth the money simply because getting all 4 different albums separately will probably cost more. I don't think the bonus disc is much to "wow" about considering that it reuses tracks. If only the bonus disc really consists of more remixed songs then I guess that this buy would be even more worthwhile. 

But I think the main selling point of this box set are the posters because they are so pretty and the good packaging. Honestly, I don't think the music this time round is really fantastic but oh well~ It's ayumi!! Anything about her is fantastic, no? :D

So, if you are thinking of getting this album, you probably want to pick the one with the songs that you like better if you are not the collector kind like myself. Would probably save more money that way. Or alternatively, you can wait till YesAsia releases the Hong Kong press would be so cheaper than the Japan press ones if you want to collect 'em all~