[truehappiness]

For me, it never went downhill. Enjoyed her songs when I discovered her nearly 10 years ago and I still enjoy her songs (old and new) just as much if not more even now.

Sure, she isn't pushing herself as hard as she was a decade ago, but I feel that this is more because that's what she wants. Watching and reading all of her interviews, it seems like she's simply proceeded through her albums in the same way from the very beginning (well, not necessarily ASFXX, but more like LOVEppears, haha.) though recently she seems to have gone through a lack of inspiration for GUILTY and NEXT LEVEL, only to get it back during Rock'n'Roll Circus. (I remember for GUILTY, one day she just wrote like 5 or 6 tracks' lyrics because she had this revelation that she just HAD TO SING or something like that...)

I sort of agree that she hasn't exactly been trying to push the envelope when it comes to her music, but I feel like since she's kind of doing what she's wanted with singles/albums as always, that's good enough for me. (But then again, I've liked almost everything since I listened to For My Dear... and teddy bear as a kid, haha.) Even though she isn't the face of innovation or constantly transforming as she used to, she's still her. I would argue that she is more "Hamasaki Ayumi-ish" now than she was before and after all of the transformations of the past (and the sort of lost-phase that was GUILTY/NEXT LEVEL imo), she's found herself. The real Hamasaki Ayumi.

But that's just me, I guess. In saying that she should do this or do that, I think people are essentially saying that she should not be herself and be this "ideal" version of herself, but I feel that she's just been herself this entire time... and isn't that kind of why she became a singer in the first place? To find a place to call home and find herself?