[isthisLOL?]

I wrote "it's perfect to get new fans", not "it's perfect".
And how can progress be the weakest of her epic rock songs when she isn't even doing a rock song in it? It's far more anison than rock really except for the guitar solo. The melody is very anison, so is the arrangement.

The general public wants generic, Ayumi took a step into that direction with FIVE.
And honestly while far from my favorite release I think it's much better than ASFxx(generic Jpop with good lyrics), LOVEppears(horrible production), Duty(great songs mixed with bad songs + too short for a full album), I am...(the ballads on that album are so generic it's sickening, make them stop!!!), MY STORY(half the songs sound the same on this one) and Secret(would have worked better as EP). All those had great tracks but to me consisted mostly of fillers - and they all were just as generic. While FIVE has one masterpiece to me(BRILLANTE), one great song(progress) and 3 songs that are just normal Ayu. (and I think it's very Ayu with the exception of ANother song, all the songs are very much like stuff she did before)

And FIVE being the beginning of a new peak(if it turns out to really be one) doesn't have to mean she continues releasing the same type of music. It just means she gets the attention to sell better again, so whatever she releases next may have a higher chance at selling well as more people may listen.

BTW: I used progress and BRILLANTE to introduce new people to Ayumi and it worked every time, worked better than songs like Love Song.