Such different takes on LS!
 

I've been surfing around the internet and there are two extremes to the critiques about Love songs, i've found that people either love it or hate it, why do you think so? Personally i love this album so much, there were not tracks that were hard to remember, as in (RnRC i found myself having a hard time remember countdown and Meaning of Love melody) but in this one every song is so memorable! Even a song like Thank U i loved!

I agree, I LOVE it!
And I feel the same about RnRC! I can't remember count down and Meaning of Love at all! >.<

but I love EVERTHING on LS! especially Love song, Sending mail, Last angel, Thank U, and Do it again ^^

It's just because it's different, and because it's so different from what she's been releasing lately.


I find a lot of the tracks have a forgettable melody actually...so, yeah, to each his own, mostly the single tracks though.

The album tracks definitely own.

I love it.
But it is quite different from what she normally releases; maybe that's why some people aren't very fond of it?

In my opinion, 'Love songs' is the best Ayu album since GUILTY era ended. NEXT LEVEL was OK, but Rock'n'Roll Circus was just awfully boring to me.

RnRC album was perfect the way it was~~album track such as, "meaning of LOVE" and "Last Link" were the only songs that were still on the chaku-uta charts before the released of "MOON/blossom" single.

I find it hard to believe why people hate so much with "meaning of LOVE". The song was sweet and I RELI LOVE IT!!! until now~~ People want Ayu to make something different but the people in Japan are sucker to ballads~~ (i think). As we all can see her album sales are dropping slowly~~ we all don't know much about what the people in Japan wants or what everyone wants from her. Some people love "Sunset" but some people hate it~~ But it depends on everyone, they tend to hate or love the song.

Love songs is a really weak album minus like, three single tracks. Maybe I just haven't given the album enough time to grow on me.

I don't think it's necessarily a LOVE or HATE. I am neither. I just really enjoy it. I see where it could be better, but I see where it could be A HELL OF A LOT WORSE. I am just so thankful I like this album so much more than R'n'R. I think perhaps people that loved R'n'R might not like this album but people that HATED or felt letdown by R'n'R might really enjoy this album. I know I sure did. To me I will forever remember R'n'R as the biggest letdown for an Ayu album in the history of my fandom. There was too much hype surrounding the album and it just killed it for me.

One thing I will say with this album, is what everyone has been saying what ticks them off, is the lack of a climax in most songs. I feel like the climax in most songs sounds like the pre-chorus - like the buildup to something amazing. What would be an amazing buildup turns out to be a subpar chorus.

Although, having said that, I have come to love the songs more as I listen to them and now feel comfortable with the choruses.

For me, the situation i faced was quite weird.
RnRC was definitely more IN-YOUR-FACE and yes, it struck instantly with the stronger songs but I had a terribly hard time recalling the melodies of count down-Last Links-meaning of Love. It took a few weeks.

Love songs did not have those IN-YOUR-FACE BAM songs but it went more subtly. Yet somehow, i can recall the melodies of the songs in a much shorter period.

So...I love Love songs for the music in each song. It's really detailed. of course, sometimes we agree that TK's choruses are kinda repetitive and sometimes, not very strong (do it again, Like a doll). So that actually subtracts some of the love-it-on-first-listen situation.

Pretty much agree with this most of this.

Mm! I noticed this too. I personally love it as a whole... it's something that works well put on in the background while you're doing something else because it flows together so well and keeps you basically in one mood the whole time instead of jumping around...

But, at the same time, I think people hate it for that reason. When viewed as a collection of songs, no songs stand out strongly from the rest. For instance, RnRC had Microphone, NL had LOVE n HATE, Rule,and identity, Guilty had Marionette and talkin' 2 myself... Ayu albums tend to have one or more particular track(s) that really make a statement and break away from the flavor of the album. Some people like this. It gives them something to go to immediately when they want an Ayu fix.

In the case of LS, though, it's probably her most complete and (yes I will use the freaking word) cohesive album since RAINBOW. It has one idea, one thread going throughout the album and I think it's hard for people to not have specific songs to reach for every time. Granted, there are some songs that get stuck in your head more than others, but they wouldn't be the same without the rest of the album.

And I'd also like to note that some people may hate the entire mood of the album altogether. The fact that there's little change throughout may irritate people if they didn't like its style to begin with in the singles and whatnot. Basically, I think if there are those who disliked the new feel of the singles, they probably didn't like the whole album for the same reasons.

Just my theory.

I only started reading album reviews from fans with GUILTY.. and I'd say since then this is her best reviewed album by AHS/LJ/JPM fans. I didn't really notice any extreme hate for it except for by a couple of people. GUILTY and NL had like this extreme hatred by what seemed like hundreds of fans and then some love here and there. Love Songs seems like, for every 50 or so people who love it, one person hates it.

I love the album and as of now it's my favorite of hers. whenever I try to listen to songs on other albums now I'm like "ok this is good.. but not as good as _____ on love songs" lol.

I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. I was a bit harsh when I first recieved it (we never learn, do we?) because I felt the album tracks weren't anywhere near the quality of the single tracks, but after a few listens, it grew on me. I'd say it's not as good as NEXT LEVEL (which I loved), but better than R'n'RC for me (which I was kinda "meh" about).

I don't get the strong hate though, what kind of standards do these people hold her to?

I think for an album where majority of the songs are monopolized by a single composer, there often is a case of extreme opinions - if you like T.K's style, you will like the album, and if you don't, you're gonna hate it.

Personally though, I love the album... every song is amazing and the interludes this time round are even better than some of the full songs lol.

This album is very different from what she did before IMO and it got less musical diversity, instead of throwing a heavy rock song, an upbeat pop one, an acoustic midtempo one and a quiet ballad next to each other this album is more cohensive, which also means if you dislike the sound of one song, you are likely to dislike others as well.
However, I love it to death.

all songs are easily memorable...

Ohhh... tetsuya komuro is truly a god... :D :laugh

I dun really know why we have to compare R'n'RC with Ls when they are so different from each other. And why must the new album must be better than the last one (or vice versa)? Can't both be equally well made?

Anywayz, Love songs should belong to the "slow to take" category. Honestly there aren't many stand out album songs this time except Love song, and it stands out too much that makes other album songs kinda dull at this moment (to me btw). I've only listened to a few times only (been sick :no), and so far it gives me a good vibe (unlike GUILTY, which I couldn't stand it even I tried my best a few times). It's really cohesive tho so I gotta find a time to just listen to the album, doing nothing else :P.

This :)

I've had some time to take in the album and for me Love Songs is arguably one of Ayu's better albums since secret. :s Rock 'n' Roll Circus was...well, a circus. There was no flow, the interludes and ballads constantly interrupted that, and it was only thanks to a couple of b-sides that saved the album. (Microphone, Sexy Little Things, Red Line and Don't Look Back).

Love Songs is consistent and flows well. Yes, most of the songs are average but it still has a couple of 'WOW' songs: Sending Mail (minus the annoying chorus it's actually a decent listen) Do it Again, Last Angel and even Virgin Road. For me it's a more memorable album then RnRC and Next Level (combined).

As for me, I really like this album. There are tracks, I don't want to listen to that much (blossom, Sweet Season and Thank U) but all in all this album has not been a disappointment to me!

I was already upset when I heard from "MOON/blossom" back then. I thought "Oh, not epic sounding titles, kinda cheesy" then I listened to the single and noticed that MOON was a wonderful, dark song.

Then crossroad. I saw the covers and was like "Ewww..." which has not changed till today. When I heard crossroad for the first time I thought "Hm, OK...". Nowadays I think it's just like MOON one of her really good songs since quite a while.

With L I was mostly OK, just Sweet Season was not to my liking.

Now that I heard Love songs as a whole album for several times, I am absolutely fine with almost everything on the CD.

It's funny that I ignored most of the singles this era, but they became my favorite tracks from the album. Sweet Season and Virgin Road are just so amazin'. And I already liked MOON beforehand.

I've noticed that I like very little specific parts in each songs, rather than the whole song :/ (minus November and overture, those songs are great). Thank U has beautiful instrumentation, there's this one part in sending mail that sounds beautiful, Like a doll has awesome lyrics (and the melody is growing on me) and Last angel has a cool beat (but the way Ayu sings it is terrible). The only tracks I just cannot stand are do it again, SEVEN DAYS WAR live, insomnia, and Love song.

When I heard LS at first time, I only love the one that had pvs cuz I had watched it before I got the CD, but after I heard again and again, I found myself really into this one, and I think every song in LS are really touching and the melody is easy to remember, although before LS I love RNRC more, but now I changed my mind to LS~:)

Lol, these reviews on AHS is way more positive than the other Post-Secret albums. So I think LS is doing really well. The only thing I wish is that the sales were just a little higher.

I don't really love it yet, but I do like it! I like it a lot more than Rock'n'Roll Circus which was just not memorable enough for me.

I don't love it, I don't hate it, I just prefer R'nRC and all her previous work so much more than LS, the whole album is so damn weak to me that it's just meh. The singles were great (except Last angel that I don't like much) and that's all, Love song stand out, november is really nice as well but the rest is on repetition mode and nothing more and it really hits my nerves, not enough work for this album imo, too average and I would remove half of the album to actually make it worth to me and it's the first time in many years that it happens to me with an Ayumi album. That's why I pray for her not to use TK anymore !

To be honest when I listened it in full my first thought was : next single please.

I absolutely love it.

Hee hee...LS kicked RnRC out of my brain...literally...and now Love song, Last angel, sending mail, overture and Like a doll and do it again are stuck in my head...permanently! Ayu did a great job with this album....:luv2

It's really, really cohesive. It flows together nicely. However, from my own personal taste I don't love it. For me the songs were all a bit too mellow, even for "Last Angel" it was just not up to the tempo that I normally find in Ayu singles, I loved, loved Next Level but LS is something I have to be in a contemplative, mellow mood, nothing on it makes me want to get up and dance---it makes me want to sit and think or look at pictures. Still, it's a good album. I mean, Do it Again is amazing.

This album is perfect to me. It even rivals my former favorite, (miss)understood.

I think the only way a new album and a previous album could be compared would be in terms of sales. They are just so stylistically different that comparisons are unfair in my opinion. I don't entirely agree with taking into consideration how memorable a song is very subjective, since to me calling something memorable borders on catchy. I'm sorry if I offend but I also thought how quickly older songs were forgotten was due more to a short attention span than anything else. I'm a little surprised at how easily dismissed R'n'RC appears to be. I quite enjoyed that album, I thought the album was suppose to reflect on Ayu's stay in England and possibly how its history/culture influenced her. For example I thought the music of Don't Look Back was a nod to England's large Indian community/ties with India.

But I digress...

I came into Love Songs with very little exposure to the singles leading up to it. So it really was a first listen for me on those tracks. I quite enjoyed the album as a whole. I agree with peoples statements on how well all the tracks flowed together. Sometimes the interludes seemed like it was part of the following or previous track. I usually like my Ayu songs to have a little more umpf but I like that she managed to be be a wee-bit mellow but not boring.

Oh and since most people mentioned what album they disliked most I'll tell you mine: Guilty. I don't know what it is about it but I just don't care for it. I even deleted it off the computer which means if I actually want to listen to it I have to get out the actual CD.

It's not a hit for me. Having listened to it for a while now, I think R'n'RC was much better than this. But that is mostly due to the fact that I AM a huge rock fan.

It's not the "worst" (I don't hate any of her albums), but it's so far from being the best. I'd say maybe my 3rd least favorite. Album tracks are not good at all, with 1-2 exceptions. Some of the single tracks are just outstanding, so it saves the album for me. My favorites are Last Angel, Virgin Road and sending mail. My least favorites are November, Love Song and do it again.