[Coelacanth]

Originally Posted by Tom Punks

Nowadays, it seems like everything is about putting on an entertaining show, which I find is just a lot less... well, entertaining. For example, her old performances of ASFXX still make me cry! But I can't even bear to watch that '08(?) a-nation performance of ASFXX because every single move was rehearsed. Basically, I view her more as an entertainer now because I feel like, in the past few years, she's forgotten how to put real emotion into her performances and everything is dramatized now.

Yeah. BALLAD from AT10 is a good example. It was well-executed and entertaining... but completely contrived and overdone.

Originally Posted by Tom Punks

Right now, I just want her to put out quality music with good covers and PVs. Her covers since NEXT LEVEL have been (in my opinion, of course) really cheap, poorly planned, lacking concept, and ruined by bad, bad facial expressions, font placement, and background choices. If I didn't know who she was and I saw most of these covers, I would hardly be able to believe she was Ayumi Hamasaki, queen/empress/awesome legendary person in j-pop.

Like FIVE, for instance. First, it's called FIVE presumably because there's five songs on the mini-album. That's lazy... And like you said, the album is full of ballads and has this "fierce" glam-rock cover. It's obvious so far that there's no concept whatsoever.