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The problem of "utterly" generic for some reason never comes up when talking about I Am.. and MY STORY(especially the ballads on those...), yet they are some of Ayu's most generic albums and Party Queen probably her least generic. I'm confused by some reactions. Show me one other mainstream pop artist producing jazz-y showtune tracks with a couple speed changes like the ones on Party Queen, or orchestral rock with a REAL classical influence(in Return Road's case Baroque) and not just random string melodies. Or another one with a song that incorperates Dubstep, Disco(talking about 70s, 80s disco here, not 00s, 10s club music) and Chiptune, all three.
Most of what Ayumi does isn't really generic, she always brings in something to stop that from happening, small things like the guitar lines in Sparkle for example, but most certainly her past albums before have been more generic than Party Queen. Just because it sounds more western(since practically every influence to the sound is western this time around) and therefore more familiar for us it is not more generic. Musically it's the biggest risk she has taken by simply not being generic aside a handful tracks in the middle section, and even those are only "ayu-generic", and maybe hbya, but the gospel influence makes the difference in that one.
Also, Ayumi pretty much confirmed that she is being ironic in the title track("it sounds sad to me", and the lyrics to NaNaNa:"I'm a lonely queen"), that's the whole album concept.
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