[Album] ayu-mi-x 6 GOLD
Artist: Ayumi Hamasaki
Tracklist

Buy: CDJapan || YesAsia

[Album] ayu-mi-x 6 SILVER
Artist: Ayumi Hamasaki
Tracklist

Buy: CDJapan || YesAsia




And here we have the two latest remix albums from the J-Pop goddess herself, aptly subtitled GOLD and SILVER. I guess Ayu must have liked the BLACK and WHITE concept from her A Best 2 albums so much, she decided to use it again. True enough, if you examine the tracklists, GOLD follows WHITE with a collection of brighter, happier songs whereas SILVER follows BLACK with songs of a darker and more sorrowful nature. Still, being remixes, you can expect a more upbeat tempo and tone from the tracks on either of the two albums. Which is nice and all if you wanna get your groove on to some Ayu music.

Problem is most of the remixes are crap.

Yes, I'm sorely disappointed to say this, but no words can fully describe how aghast I felt listening to how they brutally mangled Ayu's wonderful songs into something less than stellar, less than ear-appeasing even. It's almost as though they just generated some random dance riff and slapped Ayu's vocals onto it, without caring what the result would actually sound like. A casserole remix. Yeah, that's the word. Casserole.

This is true for all but a few of the remixes. Notably for me, ourselves (COLDCUT remix) and HEAVEN(DAISHI DANCE remix). My most favourite remixes among the lot. The remix of ourselves is like a sped up version set to a simple clubbish tune. As for HEAVEN, the remix was done very beautifully, alternating between classical sounds of the piano and violin with thumping dance beats, seamlessly blending them at times. Other remixes worth listening to are fated (Makoto remix), JEWEL (STEPHANE POMPOUGNAC remix) and part of Me (CARL CRAIG remix). Unfortunately (for me, that is), my all-time favourite songs, Moments and GAME didn't get a decent remix. Pity really.




Results
ayu-mi-x 6 GOLD:

Only reason it gets even one berry is because of ourselves. Otherwise, major minus points for screwing up Moments and the rest of the songs.

ayu-mi-x 6 SILVER:

One up against GOLD simply because it has a few more decent remixes, especially HEAVEN. The rest are still either too bland or jarring enough for it to miss getting an overall average rating.