Life didn't offer anything special to me (musically). I think this song should be rated even lower (so I think it's overrated).

Anything can be overrated or underrated to individuals. But collectively speaking or rated as a whole, it's rated what it is. Thus, one person can say a song is underrated while another person can say the same song overrated (to them) regardless of overall rating.

Likewise, I can say GAME and Blue Bird are underrated. I think these songs should be rated higher than they already are. There's no other reason to say something is overrated or underrated except for personal opinion (as oppose to collective opinion).

Blue Bird doesn't seem to be underrated to me, at least not among the Japanese. They seem to be rather fond of it, I think. And, according to those polled in this Oricon survey, BB is the last song (chronologically) to be in the "best 10 songs".

^ I said that to make a distinction between personal rating and collective rating. The Oricon survey is a collective rating, whereas I personally think it should be rated higher than it already is. Thus personally, I said it's underrated. ^_^

OMG i love these ALOT! but idk why lots of ppl DONT :eviltongu

i feel that criminal is rather underrated too~

I hadn't hear that myself, but it's an interesting theory :yes I'm re-reading the lyrics now and it really fits the story... I don't want to sound too excited because of the topic but it's really amazing :tipsy

Because it was too sudden
I couldn't accept it

I wished someone would say, "It's a lie"
And laugh with a mischievous look

What should I think of ?
Whatever can I do ?

I had surely thought
That we would continue to walk
Laugh, breathe and even have an idle talk
Just as usual

The city is active again today
As if nothing had happened

What are you thinking of ?
How do I look in your eyes ?

You have surely become
So strong and tender
Yes, much more than what you were
After knowing the meaning of pain and love

I remember again
What I think always exists
Just as usual
Is not a matter of course at all

You taught it to me

Let's make a miracle

Of course it didn't offer anything special, it's rather bare-bones without any bells and whistles. I imagine you're one of the people who dislike it for being boring/simple, but hey! As you say, it's a matter of personal opinion, and imo Life doesn't get enough credit at ALL. I've seen way too many people just dismiss it as some POS when it really is anything but.

...higher than they already are? That'd be escalating them into the heavens, to be honest. There's a far greater amount of general disdain for songs like Life/Beautiful Day/Born To Be../etc. It's rather interesting how most, if not all, are an album track/the coupling A-side/B-side.. People LOVE LOVE LOVE BLUE BIRD, and so far, I haven't seen anyone who doesn't like GAME. I don't believe you actually know what an underrated song actually is if you'd think these two highly praised (and rightfully so) songs are at all.. underrated. Sure, AHS is just a small sample, but it's evident when the population here doesn't like something. Oi.

Part of Me & Close to you are like in my top 5 of favorite ayu songs xD they are both so beautiful

Life is alright. I disliked it at first but it started to grow on me. don't love it though

for me, LIFE is a very pretty and meaningful song. I wouldn't mind if it's in the album in replacement for Curtain Call

ok..I agree it's really not so much appealing..it's an old-style song, as A Song for XX songs were like..nothing special but an easy guitar/vocals song as we all were used to listen to..We feel this song so far from our taste because Ayu's music turned into something more artificial maybe..

even the lyrics are deep:

Kitto ima no kimi wa totemo
Sou kore made no kimi yori mo zutto
Itami datoka ai datoka no imi o shitte
Tsuyoku yasashiku natta

Definitely a combination of everything you mentioned which makes me love it so much!
Yeah, WTF. Lol. I think Days is one of Ayu's best songs EVER as well. It's just a really good pop-ballad. Very Christmasy and wintery, which I absolutely love and was hoping for her to release!

I feel as though that's far from the case. She's had some very organic songs like untitled ~for her~ and Secret, so that's not the reason. Maybe people just don't know how to appreciate something good until nothing new is coming out.. -sigh-

I think the reasons why Life is underrated is that she didn't promote it as much, same goes with most of the songs on the list. Only ayu fans will know those songs, cuz if you're not a fan, why would you get the MW cd to listen to life? It's because not all of her songs get equal promotion, that's why they're underrated in that sense.

And AHS usually hates all cute poppy songs, so most of those songs, especially from My story is definitely underrated here, but love by my Japanese friends.

I feel like all songs from Next Level apart from days (which the japanese ppl love/ahs hates) is underrated because she only performed them in concert. If she performs them like in TV more, I'm sure people would love them.

That doesn't apply to Bold and Delicious because it's her most unique track of her entire discography. Because it's so different, people tend to shy away from it. I'm glad she sings this, it's very experimental for her and it's her most interesting song.

Well, the opinion among [most] Ayu fans seems to be that Life is rather bland and etc. No one who casually listens to Ayu would've probably spotted it or theme of a-nation '03 or ever free because they probably buy her albums only. The underrated opinion imo stems from seeing people constantly talk about how ______ isn't up to par with -insert some othe song here- and not just one person, but many individuals expressing their disdain for a certain song. I should go to bed or something, hah.

But that's only coming from her hardcore fans. You know that they don't reflect the majority right? Like how a lot of hardcore ayu fans love Talkin' 2 Myself when it did so poor even with all those promotion.

I just think that Life is not performed enough to make it well known for most fans. I'm sure a lot of casual listeners would like a laid back song to listen to, but by your logic, they can't either because they would hardly spot this song. Seeing how it was performed once or twice in 10th anniversary tour, I can see how it's underrated. She just need to perform it more, like everywhere nowhere & Hope and Pain, two which I love since PDCL.

Haha it's almost 2 am here too, since we both live in cali. I should go to bed too.

It was only performed once, but still. A song doesn't have to be performed for people to like it. MW has been available for people to listen to since April 2008, so I imagine that a good amount of people have heard it and formed opinions about it..

Key words: "Forgettable, lame, boring, bland, typical, etc."

You don't really have to be a hardcore Ayu fan to say things like that, and tbh, the majority of people who had listened to MW from what I've seen people say online said very similar, if not the exact same words.

^ OMG I so agree. ALL those songs u listed are SO underrated : ( ~! Its a shame because I love those songs LOL. I seem to have the opposite taste of most people on this forum sadly >_< Especially Beautiful Day and Beautiful Fighters D= Beautiful Fighters is one of her greatest accomplishments to me because although I'm not a women, I liked how she like supported them. I think thats great. And Beautiful day is such a fun and happy song. born to be is such an inspring song and Life is a nice relaxing song. They definitely are underrated.

I love Life. Seriously it is very underrated.

yea..indeed!! i LOVE that song..

another songs that should've got more attention is HAPPY ENDING and criminal:innocent:innocent

Let me be clear again.

My point was that you can only used the terms "underrated" and "overrated" at a personal level, not on the collective level.

Of coarse I know what an underrated song is. Anyone can look at a collective ratings list and can easily say that the lower half is "underrated", but that's not my point. Why else did I say some songs are underrated at a personal level even though collectively, they are already rated high? Besides, I've acknowledge they are already rated high, I just stated that they were underrated just for me. Likewise, I stated Life is overrated even though I've already acknowledge it is rated low on a collective level.

And Life can offer a particular person something special like it has others. I simply stated it didn't for me. I didn't find Life to be boring or simple, I simply didn't like the style and the way she sings. What else you want to assume about me?

I'm just offering another perspective. Anyone can easily say something is underrated when it's already rated low on the public charts. But I also wanted to answer your question. I did so by answering on a personal level and not on a collective level (which I now believe I didn't make myself clear at first). That's why my answer is different (via personally saying a song is underrated when rated highly overall) and I know people will disagree with me or be confused because we are talking at different point of views. I initially wanted to make my answer clear and short before, but I hope this is more understandable.