:dead2 Well said.

Why do everyone complain about the rock thingy? Isn't it the song, not the genre which makes a good or a bad song? And I definitely do not think every rock song from Ayu sounds the same. Well maybe there's similiraties with (miss)understood and GUILTY but that's just because they're instrumentally both simple and rather slow. But in (m)u Ayu sounds really tired and pissed of, while in GUILTY, as I said before, her voice is kinda cold and then again she sounds like she's lost and panicky. And t2m or Decision remind me about none of her other songs.

And in the end, there's not so many rock songs. Well mirror, t2m and Decision clearly are, and Marionette too, but all of them have many orchestra instruments in them so they're kinda "classical" too. Guilty is slow pop-rock. Fated and TW have rock elements but I wouldn't count them as rock. Marionette -prelude-, TJD, reBiRTH and glitter ain't rock. MY ALL has guitars too but it's more soft popsong. Untitled ~for her~ isn't rock at all. And (d)lma is more pop than rock too. Maybe people find it more rock because it doesn't have songs such as BOLD AND DELICIOUUUUSSH~ or Born to be Free..

Well, you should take into account the fact that the the arranger who worked on those pieces is like, long gone from her team :p XD

And if she made a song like Duty or ever free again, there'd be a ton of fan-backlash because of "recycling." :|

after listening it to it for the second time without any distractions, i find it to be her best work since memorial address.

I've already overplayed (don't) Leave me alone. :[

Then don't play it for a while. :D

I find that to be the best way to get rid of that... overplayed feeling.

Yeah. Either way. Because making a song similar to her earlier eras would be recycling, and making a completely new song can make people go WTF O_O (RE: See Bold&Delicious)

I personally like the rock genre.

xD Your post is a win for sure, love the eyeliner part, just like Seth Green! xD

Well, B&D was gold. She's never done ANYTHING like that before and people loved/hated it. :D

[Same kinda goes for Startin' :D]

Thank you for that comparison! Was my thoughts exactly. And as someone who has spent the last year almost consistently depressed, I treasure them both.

Ok, here is my full evaluation after listening to it 3 times:

Mirror - Really cool. One of her best openings, probably after Everlasting Dream and Not Yet: 10/10

Don't Leave Me Alone - Not a big fan of this song or the video. This could have been really good, but it just never feels like it really gets started. The "chorus" sounds like just a bridge to the chorus. The beginning (and at various parts of the song) REALLY sounds like a synthesized version of 1Love. I'm usually one of the first to say that "Ayu has 100+ songs, some are bound to sound similar", but this is too much. There are enough sounds and material out there that you don't have to sound so blatantly like you are ripping yourself off. : 6.5/10

Talkin 2 Myself - One of her best tracks this year. Great melody and arrangement - reminds me of a Gackt style hard rock song. Really powerful, but not quite 10 material : 9.5/10

Decision - Another really good rock track and I love the vocal bridge, but not quite as gripping as Talkin' 2 Myself overall : 8.5/10

Guilty - I like how this one starts with the creepy bells and all and then the guitar kicks in and the riff kinda reminds me of the 28 days later score, which is a good thing and keeps up the creepy mood. But then something happens, this song just becomes...well...boring is the only way to put it. I'm really kind of torn about this song and can't quite pin point why but there are some things I like about it including the "guilty" at the end, enough to give it a : 6/10

Fated - I've always really liked this song. There's just something moving about it and I love the lyrics. But like Talkin' 2 Myself, it just doesn't feel quite special enough to deserve a 10, so: 9.5/10

Together When - One of her best ballads in a few years I think. Awesome lyrics, good PV, really nice all around. The first 10 song on the album: 10/10

Marrionette-Prelude- : I always like creepy broken down jewelry box/clowns are coming to kill you music. So I like this a lot: 9/10

Marrionette - lol, I like the prelude better than the song. Has great potential, but then never really seems to fully take off, kinda like dlma. Similar to Criminal, but not as good. I like the guitars though. In fact the guitar solo at the end is the only thing that bumps this song up to: 8/10

The Judgement Day - I love this one. It sounds like Silent Hill at the begining. And maybe I'm the only one, but I've always like Ayu's lalalas. And I like how it slowly starts to build in tempo and then turns into dance music: 9.5/10

Glitter - Never was a big fan of this song. It's not bad, but it's kinda 'eh' for me as well. : 8/10

My All - A lot like Replace, but fortunately it at least has some nice electric guitars and a pretty strong verse(so far the strongest melody of any of the new tracks). But then the chorus just seems to fall a bit short. 7.5/10

Rebirth - I kinda like this one. Weakest of the interludes but still not bad. I like the violins : 8/10

Untitled for her - Not bad at all. But like most songs on this album, it just doesn't really stand out either, but it's still solid: 8/10

Good things: This album flows very well except for maybe glitter. It has a dark theme running throughout which I usually like. The interludes and some of the singles are great and the lyrics are great.(but that is a given on any Ayu album)

Bad things: Although this was the third time listening to the album, I couldn't recall the melodies for any of the new songs. That is what is mainly lacking on this album - strong, memorable vocal melodies. This is her ONLY album where I feel like this is a problem. The number of interludes isn't a problem for me - without them, the album would be a lot worse. The number of rock tracks isn't a problem either - they just aren't very good rock tracks. There's not much bang for your buck on this album honestly, especially if you have already bought the singles.

Album average: 8.4/10 - However, I think that is higher than it deserves. If not for the interludes being so good, it would be a lot lower. So really, the rating I want to give is 7.4/10
Compared to her other albums:

I Am...: 9.5
RAINBOW: 9.5
LOVEappears: 9.4
Memorial Address: 9.4
Duty: 9.3
Secret: 9.3
(miss) Understood: 9.1
My Story: 9.0
A Song For Xx: 8.6
Guilty: 7.4


Not good.

YEP! well said! :D

I give it a 9/10, and I put GUILTY next to RAINBOW and Memorial Address in terms of well produced album, good theme and originality!.

I really like this album.. I love it so much! but well I wish it has more songs and more poppy songs, but it's alright anyways..

Mirror - I really like it, this is the most played track on the album TBH, Really great and fantastic! 10/10

(d)Lma - This song reminds me of 1LOVE but it's different too at the same time.. The song itself it's amazing and fun to hear! and the PV is amazing too, really! 9.5/10

takin' 2 myself - It's a really good song, but not my favorite.. But there's something I don't really like but I don't know what. 8/10

decision - I really love it! more than t2m! Great vocal and video! 9/10

GUILTY - I like it because it's much more slower rock than talkin' 2 myself/decision.. I really like the music, vocal not so much because of her vibrato.. 8/10

fated - I always love this song!! simply beautiful! 10/10

Together When.. - This song is a bit boring imo, great song but a bit boring. 8/10

Marionette -prelude- - Creepy!! It's simply amazingly scary! 10/10

Marionette - I really like the opening music, really scary in a good way.. this song is simply amazing! really original IMO.. 9.5/10

The Judgement Day - This interlude is stuck in my head actually, I really like it.. 9/10

glitter - probably my least favorite track of the album, I used to really like this song so much, but i don't really like it as much I used too.. 6.5/10

MY ALL - Not that memorable, but still quite great! 7.5/5

reBiRTH - nothing special - 6/10

untitled - I really like it! much more better than Together When... IMO, the melody is simply beautiful! - 9/10

btw how to count the average?

I finished listening to the album about an hour ago. I actually like this album; it's not that bad. After having read about how people were disappointed with the album, I thought that the album would be terrible. But after listening to it, I realized that it is actually a great album. I like most of the songs and how the album sticks to a theme or central idea. :yes

Also, some people think 4 interludes are too much. But when you really think about it, you will see that "Marionette -prelude-" lives up to its name - it is a prelude more than it is an interlude. It sets the tone and background for "Marionette." The two songs complement each other. When you think of it that way, there are really only 3 interludes; Secret had 3 interludes.

I'm fairly impressed with the album, and I'm glad that I didn't listen to most of the songs until my copy arrived.

I must say GUILTY is probably my favourite Ayu album... I love every track except for two (MY ALL & reBIRTH... which I think are okay)

The other's are simply... AMAZING.

Marionette - So eerie and emotional.. great.

GUILTY - Probably the best title track ever from Ayu

(don't) Leave me alone - Catchy and almost unforgettable

Mirror - Awesome for an interlude

Marionette -prelude- - just plain spooky and LOVE IT

The Judement Day - I love how the beat just gets faster n faster

glitter / fated - favs. from the get go ;)

Together When... - do I even have to say how awesome this song is?

talkin' 2 myself / decision - both just... awesome

untitled ~for her~ - full of emotion and win

I must say, this album is definitely a different turn for Ayu, imo. A turn that is awesome. A new sound that she definitely pulls off and the whole album just feels so... together.

I'm not even going to bother rate the album on a scale cause for me it's pointless. How much I like or not like this album can't be translated into numbers xD, I'll just say it's really good and get on with my life =]

well, its not as good as secret, buts its still an awesome...the song itself is much better than secret and (miss)understood's title tracks put together...the album's style is exactly what I love...mirror,guilty,and marionette are my favorites...

(sorry my capitalization isn't there snd that my posts are so basic....im not sure how to capitalize anything...)

I hope this doesn't seem off-topic, but a lot of you guys mentioned the lyrics in your review. Now, I don't think all of you understand Japanese fluently, so I've gotta ask: where did you find lyric translations for GUILTY? I wasn't able to find any on this forum or any other site linked to here... I would love to read what she is saying.

GUILTY is also my favourite ayu album. I love every song on it except fated lol.

InoriNoUta great review. Makes me want to listen to the album even more. Still waiting for my copy to arrive =\

They're in the News section of the Ayumi Hamasaki forums. They're posted by a user named "masa."

He does all the translations, and they're usually on his website after a week or so [masa's translations at the top of the AHS page]~