Nobita, ayu’s song arranger, posted the following blog entry, explaining his ideas behind some of the songs in new album 『Love songs』.

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Hamasaki Ayumi album 『Love songs』 in LA
27 December 2010. 7:18pm

This is regarding AYU-san’s new album 『Love songs』, which was released on 22 December.

This was a work which was made in the 1 month we spent in LA.

Love song

AYU-san’s comment for this was “The base for the album this time will be this piece called Love song. Please pay special attention to it!” Saying this, she passed me Komuro-san’s demo song, and so the arranging process began.
With the title “Love song” and Komuro-san’s melody, I plumped out the concept and arranged this song.
For me, Love song has a deeper meaning of being “something which any generation of people can relate to”.
And that was how the first and last parts of the song had the classical feel to it.

Digressing a little, I ordered the acoustic guitar player, Mr Eric, to play his track, while keeping an image of AYU-san singing and strumming the guitar herself in mind. This was to create an image of a singer playing her own accompaniment.

sending mail

This song used to have an original drum track, but under AYU-san’s orders, it was replayed live, and so that turned this into a rock song. The back part of the song is intentionally messed up, to reflect the complicated and uncertain mind of the singer. The strings had a little dangerous phrase there too.

Thank U

I like this song. I arranged this song with the lyrics on hand, and they gave me a warm feeling, reminding me of those who are important to me, and that was worked into the arrangement.
Doesn’t the part which couldn’t be put into words still manage to fill your heart somehow?

do it again

This song illustrates the light and dark sides of chasing a dream. Against the pure youthfulness of SEVEN DAYS WAR, do it again was arranged with another image in mind. In the process of becoming an adult, there may be despair and uncertainty hiding behind the happiness. But even so, there is a single ray of light, thin but straight, that leads you to your dream.

That sort of became a long essay. Sorry. (sweatdrop)

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Visit Nobita’s blog.
Credits to truehappiness@AHS for finding this interesting little entry!