'review' of Rock'n'Roll Circus in June's Teens magazine
 

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/5858/dsc01584x.jpg

Notice why I put 'review' & not review on the header .... it's easy to see why isn't it ? :rolleyes

I took that with my phone when I was at 7-11 & I was SO angry/annoyed , I almost wanted to rip that page up to shreads but I resisted LOL xD

See this's further proof that the local media's such a disgrace when comes to reviewing jpop & if the album was really that bad , why you give it 3.5/5 still woman ? :eviltongu

not to blow my own horn or anything but I can write a MUCH better review of Rock'n'Roll Circus via my music blog

LOL Yeah the rating is a bit off, if I'll based that on what he/she wrote.
But I kinda agree that there's way too much ballads.

LOL well that was a pretty stupid/pointless "review." If you're going to write a review for a magazine might as well review it track by track. That was way too short and vague.

LOL

yeah I know guys , I'm so tempted to make my way down to the headoffice of Teens magazine & throw darts in their faces cos of this xD

eew. bad review pls. "too many ballads"? Stand out tracks - why is Sexy little things not mentioned? zzz

I agree with this review, too many ballads and it should've been named differently, I prefer NEXT LEVEL over it, I think...

However, it seems to be very fitting AT10-wise, but perhaps she should've chosen a different name for the album itself. =p

That's an odd review :\
Why the reviewer didn't mention the upbeat tracks especially Sexy Little Things and Sunrise?

All I can say that this review is too short and bad

That's such an odd review... Can that be called a review?! Really?!

This person obviously didn't listen to the album very well. How is it really possible that those two songs seemed to be the only ones that stood out to her?

To be honest, I think the 'review' just lacked space in the magazine and she just had to cut things horribly short. Did an awful job of it too to be honest. Yes, the album did have a lot of what could be considered ballads, and is it possible none of those stood out to her?

Man, these people don't really take the time to listen to something properly, surely.

Edit: Based on your review for the album, Karen, you should be the one writing music reviews for magazines. I found your review made sense and was fair.

The only thing that pisses me off is that the writer of this review seems to be 5 years old.

there wasnt much space for her to review it anyway. :shrug i doubt most music reviewers in magazines really care about the music they review. its just some journalists given a task to fill out sections of magazines.

The review is way too short, but I kinda agree. I always skip all the ballads on that album, and the only 2 tracks that really stand out for me are Microphone and DLB.

My guilty pleasure is Sexy Little Things though :) And I like Countdown and RED LINE too! So I sort of agree, but my review would be a bit more positive than that one!

Clearly there wasn't much the person could do as the space given to write a review is ridiculously small.

That being said, I agree 100% with what he/says in the review LOL.

Where are people getting the idea that there are tons of ballads on this album? There are only four....0.o
Plus I don't trust anyone who doesn't think Sexy Little Things stands out, it's one of her quirkiest songs ever I think.

Well it's not a review and it's not a music mag, it's a mag for "teens who know nothing in music". Nothing more, why should they tire their a$$ to write something decent when they will be paid the same ? Just a bag of crap as every teens mag *shrug*

I don't feel angry but can't stop to laugh because that person wanted to be called a journalist *rofl*

Oh and Rock doesn't equal only guitars and such, rock is a state of mind ! As punk is ... etc... R'n'RC is filled with stuff she never really tried before .... not even need a debate to state this then this few sentences really show the extrem lazyness and the total ignorance of Ayumi's work.

I agree with the review xD
And even music oriented magazines tends to have short reviews (like Rolling Stone for example).

o.O

3.5/5 ???

aw come on, it deserves waaayyyyy better than NL!!!

^ to make things worst , this 'review' was written by the same loser who wrote NEXT LEVEL's 'review' too :o

let's check:
15 tracks... taking off the inderludes + intro = 12 tracks
You were..., Ballad, Count Down, Last Links, Meaning of Love, Sunset ~Love is All~.
Half of the full tracks are ballads...

I wouldn't call last Links or count down ballads.

^ I wouldn't really consider count down and Last Links as ballads.

edit: lolsoslowXD

kinda agree with the review.but the only thing i disagree is about the ballad.lots of ballad?hmm

I agree with the review of this album, especially that it doesn't live up to its name.

The only songs that stood out were Don't Look Back, Sexy Little Things, and Microphone. Though Microphone stood out because of the organ pipes, once you take those out its just another average Ayu rock song that I've heard before. Besides those three, nothing else really did stand out.

I don't mind the number of ballads- I love Ayu ballads. It's just these ballads--besides the lyrics-- were average.

But some people, the reviewer included, may consider them to be rock ballads =)

it's slapdash...

Teen Magazine? Which country is it from???
Well.. I don't really care this review.. I like this Album.

Whaaa?? Too many ballads?! If they're good songs, you gives a crap how many ballads there are?! Anyway, there aren't that many (=_=) Ugh.

I agree with this review :shrug

Such an unprofessional review

I love the smiley ratings!

xD

well that's probably like the only good thing outta this crap 'review' x)

Maybe a good review would be "Ayu is God, and after she released the crappy Next Level, she presented us with her biggest creation since life, earth and human beings: Rock n Roll Circus! We will take out one 'star' cuz Shimomura directed one of the videos, Godayu bless us all"

:P

:lol That's glorious, Andre.

To be honest, I think it's a perfectly fine review. I disagree with the author, as I love Rock'n'Roll Circus, but they are concise effective. The word choice is strange in places, (pop rock "ditty"?) and I think they should have mentioned why they liked Microphone and don't look back rather than mentioning the arrangement, but it's not bad overall.

:roflmao I like RnRC but this review makes me laugh.
I disagree with the review but overall its not that bad, maybe the reviewer couldn't write more about it.

HAHA.

I smiled when I saw the rating was 3.5/4... and then the review totally didn't match that at all. xD

That *****. It's [Don't look back]

wtf it's one of her BEST albums (with one of her worst MV's ever on it :P). Don't trust reviews just go and try it. ;)

lol Just the fact that they mentioned Next Level as better is a testament to how retarded the writer is.

Still, I think 3.5/5 is fair...and I do think there are a lot of ballads on it, coupled with a lot of upbeat tracks that aren't that great.

count down and last links arent upbeat rock songs...so...they generally have to be the opposite...even if they aren't full on conventional ballads, or even full on rock ballads.

lol @ 'review'

Just because you don't agree with it doesn't mean its not a review.
And magazines album reviews are commonly short. Not enough space to write the detailed analysis ayufans think each of her albums deserve
Its an opinion - which the reviewer is entitled to. If the reviewer liked NEXT LEVEL more, so what? It was a good album. Doesn't make it any less of a review.

this is exactly what people want to see:rolleyes

Exactly! That would be an amazing review.

The problem with this review is that its a bit on the short side....otherwise....I don't see anything wrong with it....I agree with it.

they should actually give a star since Kazu only directed one video...

I personally thought NEXT LEVEL was a better album lol

The review may be poorly written, and though I like RnRC, I have to agree that I can sort of get their point when, actually, the name of the album, even though cool, bugs me quite enough. With songs like BALLAD, You were..., Sunset and Meaning of Love, sexy little things and a lot of interludes, plus the fact "Don't look back" ISN'T a rock song, it sounded a bit schizophrenic for the album to be called "Rock'n'Roll Circus"....talk about fake advertisement, ayu :rolleyes I'm not a rock freak that only demands ayu to make rock songs, since my most favorite songs there are Don't look back and BALLAD, but hmmm..the title doesn't really match the album at all...the album has no "rock" feeling at all :shrug Maybe that's why it's called "Circus"? So people can laugh at how ironic that is? I dunno...

Really, don't know if this is what u meant, but I'm a little offended by the "Just the fact that they mentioned Next Level as better is a testament to how retarded the writer is." cuz I do find NL a better album...

lol.ya.i do think Next Level is better than RnRC :P
but i remember karen said that this reviewer mentioned on the same magazine before that he/she thinks that Next Level is ayu's worst album something like that. :irked
this reviewer taste keeps on changing XD

^
http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showth...t=level+review

lol.i see.not bad :P

I think it's difficult, if not impossible, to do a proper review of anything in the amount of text space they're given here. Really, it's only a passing mention. If I'd written the thing, I would hardly have felt it was necessary to even listen completely to the entirety of the albums I was supposed to be reviewing. :-/

This is not even a review lol. It's that bad!

Don't like this "review"....too childish!
:(

I know you do...

thats just something we disagree about so...no use discussing it really since it's already been beaten to death.

unless you want to...but yeah...

its sooooooooooooooooooooooo obvious that the reviewer didn't listen to the entire album..

i would say Sexy little things is really one of a kind. and yes more ballads than usual. I would say there are more rock elements in it. :(

perhaps the person already had a negative impression of her to begin with.

AHS is gonna import copies of "teens" magazine with such a review! :P

well, the reviewer is obviously entitled to her own opinion, but sometimes when they say really.. stupid things it just gets on my nerves. Like with this, I disagree with a lot of the review's contents.

and just an F.Y.I, Ayu did mention in an interview that the meaning of Rock'n'Roll Circus isn't an album filled with screaming, annoying snare drums and overbearing guitars - it's a concept and state of mind she had with this album, so...

3.5/5 is a proper rating
when talking about the whole "album", NEXT LEVEL IS better than RnRC

I don't see anything wrong with that review, except some choices of words maybe.
Do most of you guys just don't like it, because it leaves a negative feeling about the album? Seriously people, then you are a bit childish, not the reviewer. :shrug
And to be honest, I do agree with him most of the part.

Actually if the writer gave the album 2 smiley face the review would be much better since what he wrote and his rating would be on the same level.

I don't mind if professional critics writers panned the album

but do they have to do such a poor slip shot review of it ? it looks as if a 5 year old kid did it instead of an adult

why is it in English? Im confused lol

I'm guessing because a lot of Singaporeans speaks English fluently?
I'm not sure though can someone confirm this.

what. the main language in Singapore is English... are you guys that mis-informed about Singapore that an article in English comes as a "shock"...? :rolleyes

f.y.i we do have newspapers & magazines in English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil. Sorry if our diversity of languages and culture is too much for you to handle.

^ huh?
He just asked and I said that Singaporean speaks english fluently, Anything wrong with that?

Um I didn't even know the main language in Singapore is English...

so...sorry for the ignorance? Damn.

I wasn't referring to you, sorry about that.

Sorry about that, I think I was in a bad mood when I was typing that.. :(

^it's okay love, we still love you :) :shughug

Singapore's 1st language is English being taught in the UK style , followed by respective mother tongues of different races

I'm a Chinese so my 1st language's English & my mother tongue's Chinese & there's also dialect too

Not everyone knows that English's my country's 1st language . I have quite a fair no. of foreign friends who're surprised when I told them this

They all commented that the way I speak English's good xD even though I failed it in secondary school :roflmao

& I suck when comes to writing essay papers too x)

I guess I should have written something like this instead of my bratty post... >_<"

gosh the reason I was asking was coz I didn't know what country it was from lol I assumed it was Japanese or something. lol

It's okay everyone have bad days xD

Well I do agree that it doesn't quite live up to its name 'Rock 'n' Roll Circus'...but not in the same sense that the article describes. I just think the album doesn't have enough rock in it to be dubbed as a rock and roll circus lol. I mean, I guess the 'Circus' part makes sense, since the album is very diverse, but the only rocky songs on the album are Microphone and count down lol. But that's just my opinion :shrug.

And as for the review, it's very superficial and does not go into enough depth. But I'm guessing that was the intention of the reviewer...not going into great detail, that is.

Well, if u meant that someone needs to be retarded in order to prefer NL over RnRC, so, them, I'm offended, cuz I don't think I'm retarded... neither other people who prefer NL over RnRC... that's what I was talking about

Considering what I know about u, I don't think u meant this, but ur post can be read this way...

Yeah, that's why I don't like it either. I actually wish there was someone who reviewed the album that didn't like it, but wrote out all of the reasons why in a mature way. I've read a lot of reviews but haven't come across anyone who has done that. It's interesting to read what other people think that have a different opinion, but not when they act like 5 year olds.

dear j-pop reviews in singapore: please stop. thank you.

I agree with it doesn't live up to it's title. She kinda missed the boat with the whole circus thing. Maybe if she through some clowns and piñatas into the artwork concept maybe it would be more 'circusy'. But she's obviously didn't do that since everybody's been doing that, Britney Spears and Kuu just did it last year and I'll bet anyone $20 Lady gaga's next album is gonna be called "The Fame Circus."

I don't disagree with the review. I think NL had much more of an impact :)

Sorry but you have no idea what you're talking about, and if you actually bothered reading her interviews you'd know that her idea wasn't for the album to have a circusy feeling to it, it was a metaphor for a mess, a genre mess in this case ^^ And the album pretty much does live up to it's name.

When it comes to NEXT LEVEL vs RnRC, to me NEXT LEVEL was an experiment for Ayu to venture into more popish/trendy music with more straightforward lyrics and electro touch to it, RnRC brought her back to what she should be doing for the rest of her life :innocent Still the occasional experiments are always appreciated. I prefer RnRC over NL just because it's closer to what I consider great music is.

As for that "review" - :thud

yea i know NEXT LEVEL is better than this album... but the way that they give review is like... they got the album, listen to the popular Don't look back and Microphone (maybe because of the existance of the PVs) then wrote about the two songs, and said most of them were BALLADS... yea right~ i'll "trust" this review... feh~!

I feel like this reviewer listened to 30 seconds of each track before skipping to the next one.

what magazine was in?

Teens magazine

it's a local Singaporean magazine that writes dumb jpop reviews which I can do a much better job than them

I used to buy Teens a great deal but after they started overfeaturing Chinese/KPop artistes , that's enough for me to handle

lol, you ain't kidding. It does sound like whoever this reviewer is just listened to Microphone and DLB only and dosen't care about the other songs.

@Karen - I agreed your review 100x better than what the reviewer wrote. Maybe you should take his/her job. Then again, you'll probably go crazy with all those Breakerz reviews :P -kidding- ;)

I kinda agree with that review. Well, at least with the last sentence. It even isn't the real review.

Hmm.. Not just in Singapore. But in Malaysia also, the media didn't really give such a good review about RnRC. They're not just 'review' it, they also came up with the surgery that Ayu had done. They said that most of Ayu's fans always denying her cosmetic surgery that obviously appeared this days. The thing is, why they must bring up the surgery thing?!!!

:laugh

yeah I'm quite biased when comes to BREAKERZ & ayumi cos these are the 2 artistes that I generally like most of their material/discography

that's lame & really does takes away from the real/main reason in reviewing the album that's for sure

why they brought up the whole plastic surgery issue ? it's so old news

The rating doesn't make sense considering the review, but I agree that the album is underwhelming.

obviously because they don't know what else to say!!
Not all the critics have the tools to write a well done critic so they skip and prefer to gossip. That's silly LOL

I don`t agree with their review, I think that this album is really good. Mostly I like all the tracklist.
Not a ballads, more like slow rock maybe for the last links and count down.