Rock'n'Roll Circus - Professional album review from allmusic
 

Rock'n'Roll Circus from Ayumi Hamasaki
- Written by Alexey Eremenko © allmusic

http://ayu.no/images/articles/albumreview.jpg

Released: April 19, 2010 | Genre: Pop/Rock | Label: Avex | Length: 62:08

The first cuts on Rock'n'Roll Circus really live up to the album's name and may induce the audience to believe that Hamasaki is serious in her attempts to intrude on the terrain of Olivia and Anna Tsuchiya -- powerful and melodramatic gothic rock in the vein of Linkin Park and Evanescence. But these are only obligatory novelties, thrown in to give the album something to differentiate it from the rest of Hamasaki's output, and the main body of the record is pure and classic J-pop, with the occasional dash of commercial J-rock (think Uverworld) appearing here and there.

Rock'n'Roll Circus is pretty versatile: there are a couple of pop/rock tracks, a Middle Eastern techno tune, a playful plastic pop song, even a jungle interlude, and, of course, a slew of epic, string-drenched ballads that no J-pop singer seems to be able to resist performing, probably because their lack of originality makes them great anime-credit fodder. The music is meticulously arranged, and multiple stylistic layers ensure that the record does not wear thin after the first few listens -- but although Rock'n'Roll Circus is a testament to veritable professional skills of Hamasaki and her producers and songwriters, its emotional power is questionable, to put it mildly.

The record is compiled of J-pop and J-rock cliches, which gives it a lackluster feeling, at least for those familiar with the genre. The ballads are the worst offenders in this case, but it's easy to tune out on the rest of the songs as well, despite all of their bombast.

This is Hamasaki's eleventh album, and so songwriting routine is to be expected, to a degree, but she would have been better off going all the way with the alt-rock gimmick instead of meekly complying with the already trite conventions of J-pop, even if she had created those herself.

allmusic Rating: http://ayu.no/images/news/st_r5.gif

Thanks for sharing.
Agree with all of the review except for the above. I don't feel that the album's production as a whole is any more professional than any of her previous works.

Well... most of the time i don't like Allmusic reviews... And it's pretty much the same this time :P

just because it makes it bad?
I love the album but i don't have to speak against this cause it is about Ayu. Pretty much everthing this article is right and some thing also speak for the Secret album.

In this case, she called it RnRC so she could left of the Ballads (or at least everthing but you were cause it think it fits in somewhere, despite not beeing one of my favs) and the complete LOVE is ALL single (same goes for blue BB/BF on secret) and put on more of the rock tunes ala Microphone to live up to what she was aiming at.

She always has great concepts, but she sticks to what JPop is famous more half of the time cause otherwise it would be a bit to risky.

As I said on JPM, she should screw her singles or produce an album image and put out singles that are fitiing. Secrets, NEXT LEVELs and RnRCs Singles are all pretty much out of place and are only there because its seems to be a JPOP, and more over an AYUMI rule.

The little comments on jrcok, jpop, and anime help me to not take it very seriously at all. Ah well~
Yeah SLT, LD, DLB, and Microphone, and count down are perfect cliches. :rolleyes
I don't see how half of this album is really at all like jrock but oh well
And apparently if the ballads are good or not doesn't matter. They're just a bunch of generic jpop ballads which = bad
Oh well~ three stars is gracious. ;)

Its amazing they even slightly liked anything from what they said. :yes

Thank you for sharing this ^___^

I just read their Reviw of RAINBOW and they tend to get way to personal and expecting abit much from an artist it seems. As a result, i agree their writing style is a bit meeh but not everything they say (at least for RnRC) is wrong as I just wrote...

Nops, I do agree with the review about it being an average generic album :P But most of the time they tell they hate or love an album, but never really say why... And they don't really seen to bother about the context (both cultural and musical) of the albums they review

Did they forgot she is a J-Pop singer?? XDD

I agree on what some of you said abou the singles... with Born to be & BB/BF in secret, Glitter in GUILTY, GREEN/Days in NL and S/S & BALLAD for RNRC kind of killed the album theme. Because when she releases singles she's not thining about the next album's theme... it's a pity... but well... in RnRC all new album tracks are way better than the singles for me, so I'm just happy with that... For me this "un-fitting singles" in RNRC are not as "un-fitting" as Born to be..., BF and BLUE BIRD for Secret... seriously they killed the rockish, melancholic atmosphere in Secret.. BLUE BIRD before Kiss o' kill is terrible XDD

but this is just my opinion, of course :)

I didn't know Linkin Park are making Gothic Rock '-'

LD is not a cliche song? Its an anime song, lol!

Thanks for sharing this ~

(Although I don't agree with it, it's still interesting to see what people think~)

powerful and melodramatic gothic rock in the vein of Linkin Park and Evanescence.

Uhh I never thought that's what she was going for. It's a pretty nice review, though I don't agree with it. I like the way they stated their opinion.

I almost completely agree with the review... but I don't think the cliches used (which are pretty much only in "Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~" and "You were..." in my opinion) bring the album the whole way down to 3 out of 5 stars. Those songs are MINOR offenses in my opinion. The album overall deserves 4 or 4.5, I think.

I agree with the part about the ballads. Beside Yw.../B the others are painfully boring.

Linkin Park = Gothic rock?
So Britney Spears is Brutal Death Viking Metal I guess, oh well :rolleyes

I don't know how much Ayu's albums did the reviewer have listen to, but this is not the first time she does a pop rock album lol.
I kinda agree with ballads though, except for Yw and BALLAD but three stars are too few for RnRC imo :no

If by anime u mean lively, which in that case yes

If by anime u mean animation, no. I wouldn't consider that. For me. Anime themes are more ikimono-gakari type or where An Cafe and SiG have gone XD
not reall lady dynamite

However its hard to give one placement to anime as I mean Eiko Shimamiya does tons and her music is excellent and not at all like lady dynamite

"slew of epic, string-drenched ballads that no J-pop singer seems to be able to resist performing, probably because their lack of originality makes them great anime-credit fodder. "

This would make more sense if she had more than 2 songs used in an anime. =P

Thanks for sharing.

Of course she makes Jpop; she is a Jpop singer after all. :P
Sometimes I think people expect Ayu to be an indie singer or something...Her music has always been pop. And none of these songs (aside from maybe sunrise) really sound Anime-ish to me. Oh well.

Thank you. I've seen this comment made by a person before and it absolutely baffles me. As much anime as I watch and anime themes that I've listened to never EVER have I thought a single Ayu song sounded anime-ish (even the very few she's had used in a anime barely makes the cut). I have no idea where people are getting this idea from, unless they seriously know little to nothing about jpop aside from the occasionally ending theme they hear in Inuyasha and Naruto.

And Linkin Park... gothic rock? O_o Does this person actually know their genres?

Aside from those tidbits I agree with most of this article, most specifically the part about the ballads and Ayu being stuck in her own conventions.

Man, I don't even know what "gothic rock" is supposed to mean. o_O i hate overly specific genre definitions, they make my head hurt. Linkin Park are a rock band. >_<

^Lol, me too. I just classify everything as music. (unless it's one of those songs that don't even seem to have a melody)
Makes it a lot easier.

I could see how they came to these conclusions...

but I do agree with Deli. I don't think the generic songs are enough to take the album down to 3 stars...I think 4 would have been better...

but perhaps they save 4 for like, really great albums that arent perfect...and then 3 for all the just "a worthy listen" albums.

The anime reference is kind of annoying though...cause...I think the anime music scene, and the jpop mainstream scene are really different...but whatever.


lol Maybe gothic rock is just...dark...sounding...rock...lol

^One reason why I dislike AllMusic is that some bizarre stuff like Hilary Duff albums got 4 stars x_x'

^were the hilary duff albums bad? I've never heard them...

maybe they prefer the more mainstream sounds? idk. I mean...they did name specifically Linkin Park and Evanescence lol

^I don't think they are bad, but i also don't think anything she did deserves a 4 and 1/2 stars like they did... Some rates they give to music are just plain strange... and they have tons of errors on non american artists profiles... as I said, they seen to take little to no consideration about cultural and musical context...

Even if i also disliked RNRC, and even if to me it deservers 3 stars, most of the remarks they did sounded like steriotype ideas about jpop

^which is interesting...because apart from the ballads...none of Ayu's music sounds like the real stereotypical jpop lol

They probably just suck.

I love it how everyone's getting so defensive just because the writer has a different opinion of the album. IMO, the author's spot on, so there! :P

And as for the stereotypical J-Pop comment (I haven't listened to much JPop properly, coz it's kinda a crummy genre as far as I'm concerned), I agree with the writer because most of the songs sound like stereotypical Ayu songs and she's such a defining icon on the JPop scene...but yeah, "they just suck" too.

OMG, Hilary Duff albums are AMAZING!
:thud

Well, I was obsessed with her for the longest time. She's my dream girl after all.
:love

But seriously, Hilary's albums are great. My favorite is the 2nd one, just titled "Hilary Duff" - it's sooooooooooo gooooooooood.

I think this writer needs to do their research.

And I wouldn't be surprised if some stuff that is considered stereotypical jpop ballads today isn't just some Ayu's influence on today's jpop...

You know what this review feels like? It feels like someone at allmusic staff gave it three stars, but someone else on staff had to write the review and they were assigned "make a review that says 3 stars." So they had to really stretch to call the album weak. None of their criticisms are all that valid, it sounded for the whole first half of the review like the reviewer actually liked the album.

^
Oh God...here we go again.
I mean...I don't mean to be a pest...but my Biology study is boring and it's easier to sit here and point out how ignorant all your comments are.

I'm not a good person.

1. Delirium-Zer0 - The reviewer never implies that he likes the album. He just says that the first couple of tracks live up to what the title promises, but then the album just follows standard J-Pop structures, which undermines the title Rock'n'Roll Circus which he says was given to the album to separate it from her previous albums. Then he just continues to say that the album is unoriginal, which dulls its overall effect on the listener, making it less powerful. Sounds like the reviewer thinks its a 3 star album to me.

2. People on this forum continuously getting aggressive and defensive over any piece of information that shows Ayu in a negative light really only exposes insecurities. Yeah, ok your passionate about the artist, but no one's perfect and there will always be people with divergent views. Just relax. You like the album and that's fine, just don't label everyone with an opposing view as some retard that can't do their job properly.

I think I've preached enough and my Biology won't read itself... ;)

^ No one has gotten aggressive or defensive that I have seen in this thread. Certainly not Delirium-Zer0. In fact, your post is the most aggressive. And your standing up for this person expressing their opinions on the album...what about the people here expressing their oninions on the review? You make them sound wrong for doing it. It's a two way street y'know.

kagami,
Aggressive was the wrong word, I'll admit as I read over AHSs comments, but I certainly stand by defensive. And secondly, I never specifically labelled Delirium-Zer0 as being either of those two things, in fact, I thought her idea that "It feels like someone at allmusic staff gave it three stars, but someone else on staff had to write the review and they were assigned "make a review that says 3 stars." " was really insightful. I just debated her point that the reviewer changes his tone half-way through the album.

But, back to my defensive point. Your post is a perfect example. Just as you defend Delirium-Zer0 because you thought I was critising her entire point of view, so does most of AHS irrationally defend Ayu if someone with authority, such as the reviewer, critisizes her work. Everyone (generalisation, I know, but you know what I mean!) suddenly feels the need to diminish the person's authority as if the whole world needs to see Ayu as a perfect being. I mean...come on, get some perspective. There is plenty of talent out there.

The point of a forum is to discuss different points of view and ideas, right? So, is it so wrong of me to want to inspire some debate rather than blindly worship my J-Pop Queen and just dismiss everything the reviewer says as unsubstantiated and just plain wrong?

Damn, I like to procrastinate...

While i do agree in some aspects, the reviewer seems to be too attached to clichés. What kind of people reviews here? Obviously this person does NOT follow closely what Linkin Park/Evanescence does (what about doing a little research before quoting an artist?). This person also seems to ignore that NOT every artist in Japan records to be in anime soundtracks. Honestly, these ideas take him off a little of credibility and objectivity (like some of you guys already stated).

But, like i said before, i agree with him in some points. Ballads are definitely her weakest point in this record, except for You were.../Ballad. He is correct when he says she tries to be versatile;this has been a signature of her in several of her albums. However, i didn't sense this versatility as much as some of her previous records. May be because she is been doing this for so long every single year (so i understand it) but like the guy said in the review, some of her music already sounds too attached to a formula.

And thanks for the review Maxker, it's cool to see how people (and not fans) see her work. Not everyone can worship what she does... and i like this review because he's expressing his thoughts without being disrespectful to her or her work (unlike some people here :rolleyes). :)

I don't think people here defending Ayu because reviewer has criticize her.
But just the reviewer don't know what he was writing about. It seems he listen to Ayu just a couple of times and then 'oh wow a new album! Let's write a random review about it!!'

He saidAyu made pop-rock songs since Duty-I am... era. So it's not her first attempt.
But her songs are way different from Olivia and Anna Tsuchiya, especially from Olivia 'cause she's more indie. He talks about anime, so I assumed he listen to Olivia and Anna Tsuchiya just for NANA :| but those songs don't represent their styles at all. And Olivia and Anna Tsuchiya are not the only 'rock' female artist in Japan.
And then he puts random western groups like LP and Evanescence, calling them 'gothic rock'. What the hell seriously..

I don't mind about bad, good reviews. When I listen to an album, I don't care about reviewers seriously. If I don't like an album, I wouldn't change my mind if the reviewer said 'is the best album of the year' and I still like an album even if the reviewer said 'it sucks lol'.
But they must do their job well.

Can't believe no one has brought this up.
Girl still rockin' it.

Most insightful part of the review, in my opinion. That's Ayu's problem these days: she's frozen herself into the very conventions she herself has created, ironically those same conventions that began as her attempts to re-define contemporary J-pop.

I agree, though, that the review should have been put into better context especially with regards to today's J-pop scene. I would say that Ayu in fact greatly influenced the rock-as-pop music of Olivia and Anna Tsuchiya. Do they even know what Olivia's early music was like (i.e. Color of Your Spoon)? It ain't nothin' like what she's doing these days.

My feelings exactly. Hell, I agree with some of the stuff he said but it was obvious he had no idea what he was talking about, what 'gothic rock' is, who Ayu is, her style, nor listens to much J-pop (if any) yet make those claims. If you're going to review an album and make comments on the artist's musical style, at least do some research. The comparisons made and his tone suggested that he believed this to be a first attempt by a strictly pop artist to break into the rock genre. Like seriously, Ayu's been doing pop rock for how many years? :shakehead Stuff like that on sites where people actually read the reviews from the staff just bugs me, it's so unprofessional. :no

There are several J-Pop reviewers on Allmusic. I think this one was done by Alexander Eremekyrtrasomething. I never like his reviews. He delves way too much into the clichés of J-Pop (forgetting completely that every music style ever has its shares of clichés) constantly compares music to other groups which I think is a terrible style of reviewing, AND he just doesn't know anything about the scene at all.

In a different review he said "-insert group- is one of those wildly succesful J-Rock groups, like UVERWorld or Alice Nine."

Anyone who thinks Alice Nine is a wildly succesful J-Rock group shouldn't really be pretending to know anything about Japanese music at all >_>

Some of the other reviewers, like Adam Green, are actually great and often spot on!

While everyone complains about the linkin park comparisons...did anyone else notice how they got the release date wrong?

Well, the reviwers once called a brazilian pop star "a huge star on her native Brazil" on a recent album review, and the woman is pretty much nobody since the end of the 90s

Ahhh complete trash~!!!
RnRC was amazing :)

Ummm @untitledforayu: I think ur just trying a bit to much to find a way to say some ayu fans are acting like stans or something
Sincerely, no one is being so super defensive. Look at andrenekoi. They don't like the album but they still have their ideals about the review
Many people are expressing how they feel about the review. Just because someone might say they disagree and that the review wasn't written well doesn't mena they're just blatantly defending ayu. Ur exaggerating
Me, if they wouldve given it 5 stars I wouldn't like how this review is written. The comparisons and etc just don't make sense but I'm sure I alredy talked about that

Most people here as I recall are not just blindly defending ayu and trying to prove she's perfection. Disagreeing with the review doesn't equal being a stan.
Anyone can defend there point just as u defend urs.
There are many well written and sensible respones here. Half of which don't relate to whether he likes the album or not.

I just though u should understand that and same for anyone else who feels like u.
I don't feel like explaining anymore *sighs* basically no one is saying its a bad review simple because its not giving ayu 5 stars. I'm sure many people here wouldn't give it that either
Look at AyumiAi...now that is unnecessary sounding

-----------------
Yeah the only song on this album I could ever compare to LPs array of songs is count down. But its more reminiscent of GUILTy etc.
I don't understand how they're gothic rock either

And someone said something about alice nine ( :heart) being a popular successful band? :laugh as if

And hilary duff got more stars thann this? Haha. She has gems though.
I still have most of her albums since I was a kid

I'm sure there's greater writers from allmusic though. This guy. He is good at sounding like he knows what he's talking about when he writes about jpop and jrock (it works if ur not familiar with either world). If only he actually was

I really appreciated this review, thank you for sharing it with us

Not to be TOO rude... but these people DO NOT KNOW MUSIC.

I doubt anyone on this board would argue that Ayu's single's leading up to RnRC are so far out of place it's just weird. But this site is just bad. It's like going to a tabloid for news on Iraq. Seriously, these people have their heads up their bums, tripped out on the high that they have website where they can pretend they're music analysts. I dont really care what they say about Ayu, you like her or you don't, but after reading their other stuff I can comfortably say they have no idea what they're talking about.