Ayumi Hamasaki – Daybreak

August 27, 2012 at 6:58 PM | Posted in Ayumi Hamasaki | Leave a comment

SINGLE REVIEW
Ayumi Hamasaki – Daybreak

1. Daybreak “HΛL’s Mix 2002”
2. no more words “BRENT MINI’S ROTARY MIX”
3. I am… “night clubbers mix”
4. no more words “nicely nice remix”
5. I am… “Ram’s Special 11 Days Mix”
6. no more words “turn up the break mix”
7. I am… “Huge Fairy tAle Mix”
8. no more words “Laugh & Peace MIX”
9. Daybreak “HΛL’s Mix 2002 -Instrumental-”
10. opening Run “JK’s extended mix”

Daybreak is the twenty-fifth single by Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki, released on March 6, 2002. This single reached #2 on the Oricon charts and charted for nine weeks. It sold 197,140 copies, becoming the #57 single of 2002.

I really loved the album version for Daybreak, so I don’t know why a remix should be the main version on the single. Still Daybreak “HΛL’s Mix 2002” is another good creation from HΛL’s team, although most of their remixes are a hit or miss. They took the original song, threw out the electric guitar (in fact they deleted all the rock elements) and made it a steady synthpop song. I like it, but the album version is more my thing.

no more words “BRENT MINI’S ROTARY MIX” is a bit of a weird remix. It started out pretty nice and oldschool, which I loved since the original is a ballad song, but then the arrangement didn’t fit the vocal melodies in the chorus at all. It turned out pretty bad during that part, while the verses were actually quite enjoyable.

Funny to see remixes for both ‘no more words’ and ‘I am…’, album only tracks. I am… “night clubbers mix” is an agressive remix with a loud trance sound and I quickly realized the overall sound worked very well for the song. You couldn’t exactly call the original track a ballad but it was quite chill, yet the vocals work perfect for an uptempo club mix. It’s almost like this is the original version, I love it.

It’s kind of annoying how the line ‘Haisha de ii / Itsudatte‘ gets repeated over and over during the first minute, but thank god no more words “nicely nice remix” turned out way better than I expected after that. Very uptempo, and the music finally fits the vocal melodies perfectly. I also like the music so much more than that of the previous remix for this track, it has a little more oomph to it.

I am… “Ram’s Special 11 Days Mix” is a bit quircky. The vocals are way too slow for the music, and th music itself is, well… boring. I mean, the arrangement is nice and it definitely has potential, but the synth line doesn’t change at all for the next 7 minutes. The only nice thing about this remix is the piano intro for ‘Dearest’ they mixed in for a couple of seconds.

no more words “turn up the break remix” finally had a little more potential and a lot more spice to it. I like how it started with Ayu’s adlibbing and a softer ambience before a trance arrangement comes in with a lot of beats and synths. The introduction is very long and the vocals are pretty slow, but I guess I like the overall sound of this remix better than some other remixes on this single.

I really liked how I am… “Huge Fairy tAle Mix” had an amazingly relaxed R&B sound to it, it fits the song very well. The flow of the song reminded me a little bit of some of Koda Kumi’s older works, especially when it comes to the beat and the softer use of strings and an acoustic guitar. So much better than the “Ram’s Special 11 Days Mix” which was a bore.

I loved what Laugh & Peace did to some of Ayu’s songs, and no more words “Laugh & Peace MIX” is more a hit than a miss as well. Nice too hear they didn’t make it as futuristic as their other remixes but more of a disco themed mix which works very well. I definitely like the strings arrangement, very 70s disco style indeed. Too bad it’s such a short mix but at least they used the best parts of the vocals too.

An interlude is getting its own remix now… Okay. I know opening Run is the fierce introduction/interlude on the I am… album, I loved the energy it has and it’s sooo good they used it in opening Run “JK’s extended mix” too, including that very nice piano melody. In this extended versions, a lot of synthy sounds were mixed in and there’s a really cool percussion break so this is definitely a good extended version of an already solid intro track. No Ayu, but that’s okay.

Daybreak was the last single in this ass long era, which means… SWEET FRRRRREEDOM. Also it is the best feeling of freedom ever since this is the last Ayumi single to feature all those darned remixes! Anyway, let’s get back to the single shall we. I must say it wasn’t her best, but also not her worst. There were some boring remixes on this single, but also a couple of really good ones. It was kinda weird though that the original version of this single’s A-side wasn’t even featured here, the rock version of Daybreak on the album remains the very est version. That said, HALLELUJAH I’m done.

OVERALL RATING

3 stars