[Tony G]

2nd or 3rd favourite Ayu album for me but the defining album of her career, no doubt about that. Being one of her shortest albums (and very short for j-pop 2000 standards) only served to strengthen the best tracks, basically being every single song on here. There is not a single dull moment. The trilogy tracks deliver, ballads are downright amazing and who knew at the time that SURREAL would become a j-pop classic? Even the weakest song, girlish, is above average. Weakest only because it has so many classics to compete with.

Ayu's albums usually suffer from lack of flow and consistency because the singles can precede the album by many months. This album does not suffer from that. The singles here came out thick and fast and the album followed very soon after. Because of this, every song complements the next, flows perfectly. Flows so well you tend to forget that half the songs were released prior to the album dropping. Album feels like a whole piece of work, meant to be heard in its entirety instead of as singles.

My absolute favourite thing about the album is that it gave birth to Ayu's rock-influenced pop sound. The album that gave way to her rock sound's climax song, "M". A sound that would define her career and still does to this day. She put her cheesy 90s dance tunes behind her and created a mature masterpiece. With this album, she became a true artist.