[Bad Wolf]

Sadly, I agree with you ^* ETA: With Iznette and Funstyle, I mean. I made a playlist of Ayu's ballads, spanning her entire career, and I remember being floored by her earlier stuff. However, my appreciation for Ayu's work extends all the way up to her (m)u-era... I just feel like ever since 2007, she's reached this "comfort zone." Her releases are complacent and predictable. She's not trying to break any new ground or express or do different, interesting things. She's exploring the territory she's established and finding more things to do with that.

Personally, I like her dark rock songs. I like the harder, edgier Ayu. However, I know that doesn't go over well in Japan. I also know it's not good for an artist--whether they're in music, writing, painting, sculpting, etc.--to reach a sort of "comfortable slump" where their product all amounts to the same thing. That's a death trap.

I think a lot of the problem might not be from Ayu herself, but her "team." Everything's become so big nowadays with the band, the dancers, the composers/arrangers... I could handle it when Ayu was just a force on her own, composing here and there, relying on others when she liked their compositions. I liked when the dancers were background features...

Yet I'm willing, and obviously able, to accept this new, epic-Ayu era. I just think a lot of changes need to be done to bring Ayu back to top form.

I would never say she's lost her touch. I think that's impossible, really. Ayu's touch (her spirit, her charm, the inexplicable "Ayu"-ness that touches everything she does) can't REALLY go away, even if her songs are lackluster or trite. However, her touch WILL get lost and go unappreciated or unnoticed, which is an even BIGGER travesty, IMO.

Comfort is the death of any artist. She needs to be shaken and experience something BIG to really get her creativity stirring again. And for the love of god, COMPOSE!