I was re-ripping my CD collection (migrating from MP3 to AAC) when I came across something wonderful: the CD Extra data track from the second disk of Ayumi Hamasaki’s album LOVEppears. You may not find it noteworthy, but to me, it was like finding a still wrapped, long-forgotten Christmas present buried deep in a closet. I bought the album ages ago, so it must not have run properly on my system at the time, or otherwise I would have remembered the content this time around. Whatever the case, it runs now, hence my unbridled glee. Finding old stuff is neat.
And old this thing is. The album was released in November 1999, and all the files are timestamped sometime in October 1999. Ten years may not seem like much, but for digital media it’s equivalent to a century, or so I deem.
There’s a number of goodies included: Commercials featuring Hamasaki, samples from her discography, links to long-dead webpages, images from magazines featuring her, photos from a shoot in New York City, and voice clips. My favorite section is the commercials… there’s over two dozen! Most of them appear as if they are copies from a VHS, considering the tracking artifacts.
Observe, a commercial for Hamasaki’s debut album A Song for XX featuring her song “POWDER SNOW”.
Since you’re still reading, you’re probably either an Ayu fan or just bored, so here are some screenshots of the title screen for each section.
Despite my delight at coming across old Ayumi Hamasaki goodness, I admit I’m not much a fan of her recent works. I liked her through Rainbow, but after that, except for a very few choice songs, I have to say, “Blegh”.
