I really didn't intend for this to happen, two posts on Ayumi (sort of) back to back. However, there really isn't anything to blog about. I wanted to blog about Music Station Super Live, but the whole event in itself was so so, and none of the acts were particularly good or bad, which means it is very un-blog-worthy.


So here I am reviewing Hamasaki Ayumi's latest album. For easier reviewing (as usual), I will not touch the songs that have been released previously. For this album, I will also not review the useless, mysterious interludes and short instrumental pieces that are stuck randomly in between the tracks.

This leaves me with 7 songs - Mirror, (don't) leave me alone, decision, GUILTY, Marionette, MY ALL, and untitled ~for her~.

[The good]

There are only two songs that I like in this album, and oddly both of them are seemingly strategically placed at the end of the album. If you're too lazy to slog through all the bad songs, just start from track 14 and work your way backwards.


The first song I like is MY ALL. It is pretty similar to all her widely popular songs such as glitter and her older releases. This style mixes with her very well, and I honestly think she should stick to what she does best. Her releases went downhill after Voyage, much due to her changing her style so drastically. So, this is a refreshing change from the never ending bad songs she's been releasing lately. With a catchy melody and strong beats, this makes for an addictive listen. It's not as fast as I would like it to be, but still pretty acceptable as a whole. Be careful, this is a song that could get stuck in your head, which is pretty bad if you don't like Ayumi much.


The next song I like is untitled ~for her~. Ayumi has dedicated this album to a dead 31 year old woman, so I assume this song is specially written for that woman. Morbid as it may be, this song still ranks high with me. I'm not sure if you can call this a power ballad, as her voice is not really a powerhouse kind of voice (I mean, look at Ayaka), but that's the only description that comes to mind. With heavy rock and classical influences in the chorus, and a toned-down verse, the contrasts in the song is stark and surprisingly works well together. As with MY ALL, Ayumi's voice suits this song well, giving it a signature "Ayumi-feel" to the song.

If these two songs were released as a single together, I might even say Ayumi's making her big comeback. However, this wasn't released as a single (like duh) and it was released with a bunch of mediocre songs, thus lessening the impressiveness of the songs. One word - wasted.

[The so-so]

(don't) leave me alone would have worked much better with a less noisy tune. The song is generally bordering on hard rock and has Ayumi's voice constantly bordering on robotic. Kind of irritating, but not quite there. Plus, disturbing images from the PV keeps flashing in my mind, which is always so pleasant.


Marionette is disturbing on a totally different level. The music in itself is strange, with a constant loud ticking in the background (like a very eerie and haunted grandfather's clock). It sounds like the kind of music you hear when a kid in a movie goes to a haunted carnival and the clowns there wants to eat them up or something. I like this creepy feeling that the song has, but it was ruined during the chorus. Noisy rock comes avalanching on an otherwise freaky and addictive tune, destroying all the dark beauty that this song worked so hard to build up in the first minute. Once again, wasted.

[The BAD]

The album starts off badly. Mirror has a carnival tune that is slightly happier than Marionette, but fails to work its beauty. Like I mentioned in a previous post, this sounds like a glorified Buddhist chant. It wouldn't have been this bad if the chorus didn't just suddenly BLAST your ears out. I'm still receiving therapy for that, sigh. Thankfully, this song is oddly short, and clocks in at only 1 minute 56 seconds, so you won't have to suffer for TOO long.


decision starts off with a pretty tune of light piano and strings, but similarly to Mirror, it blasts your ear off with irritating as hell rock music. Why is she even bothering with rock? It's not as if she does it really well or something. The rest of the song persisted with this level of noise, so I gave up and moved on to the next song.


Which was a bad choice too. Next song on the album is GUILTY, and you would think that being the title track of the album, they would have given us a better song. Church bells chime, as a threatening beat plays softly in the background. That beat subsequently lunges forward to suffocate you just long enough for you to feel like dying, yet lets you go so that it can continue to torture you with the rest of the horrible song.

The song can be described as a lazy effort. She sings a verse, pauses for a few seconds and then repeats this process for the rest of the song. Irritating to listen to, has not much of a melody to speak of and a jarringly loud tune, this is a pop fan's worst nightmare.

I honestly think this album will sit well with many people. If you like loud rock music, this album will be cotton candy for your ears. For people who like pop just as I do, this is an album one would quickly try to forget. Not worth the buy, not really worth the listen.

Labels: Hamasaki Ayumi