(miss)understood is all over the place. Like I said, I love all the music on the album except for "Beautiful Day". But this album is horribly incohesive, which for me is a deal breaker.

Look at these breakdowns.

A. (miss)understood
01. gospel infused funk (Bold & Delicious)
02. rock-infused digipop (STEP you)
03. total 80’s throwback (Ladies Night)
04. aggressive rock ballad (is this LOVE?)
05. digi-coustic rock ballad (miss)understood
06. experimental digi-orchestral rock (alterna)
07. American pop/R&B song (In The Corner)
08. orchestral dance-rock (tasking)
09. experimental digi-orchestral rock ballad (criminal)
10. gospel-infused R&B ballad with a swing (Pride)
11. experimental neo-Japanese digi-coustic non-pop-time-signature ballad (Will)
12. grand climactic power-orchestroballad (HEAVEN)
13. early 90’s digipop (Are You Wake Up?)
14. digi-poprock ballad (fairyland)
15. digi-coustic pop mid-tempo ballad (Beautiful Day)
16. minimal orchestral pop ballad (rainy day)

B. Secret
01. neo-digi-dancerock (Not yet)
02. neo-digi-dancerock (until that Day...)
03. rock infused digipop (Startin')
04. hip-rock (1 LOVE)
05. acoustic hip-rock (It was)
06. minimal digi-orchestral (LABYRINTH)
07. minimal piano-orchestral ballad (JEWEL)
08. piano-orchestral dancerock (momentum)
09. aggressive down-tempo rock (taskinst)
10. orchestro-poprock (Born To Be...)
11. bubblegum poprock (Beautiful Fighters)
12. orchestro-poprock (BLUE BIRD)
13. aggressive orchestro dancerock (kiss o' kill)
14. minimal piano-orchestral ballad (Secret)

In B, we see the same recurring themes and sounds unifying the entire album with one cohesive sound. In A, there are many random styles that are just out of place, and many of them are firsts for Ayu. This album was a complete cop out. It screams "I don't know what direction to take, so I'll do a bit of everything."

If you think about it, isn't that an entirely plausible reason why most people find this album so agreeable. If an album (such as B) has one consistent style, while being an artistic success, it might be a commercial flop because of it's limited appeal. But in the eye of the consumer, an album (such as A) with a bit of something for everyone is sure to have a couple highlights on it. It's a crowd-pleaser, and for that I think it is an artistic flop.