[waterballoon]

well the feeling I had listening to MY STORY vs LOVE again was "this is ayumi hamasaki's autobiography" VS "my pink album..." I'm sorry but MY STORY has this really raw and personal feel to the album, which I felt was poignant and really beautiful. it's one of her best albums IMO because it had a great theme, the songs flowed super well and it was to me, her diary.

I agree with another user about I am... that as an album I think it's pretty shit, but out of the 15 or so songs, more than 3/4 of them stood out really really well as individual songs, yet together as an album it was pretty trash. I attributed the mess to the change in her mind due to the 911 incident.

with regards to the topic itself, I never thought her songs sounded dated, not especially nowadays. if anything they sound blander, emptier and as if less effort was put into it. kinda like pottery you know? her recent songs sound like every ornament was mass-produced in a factory so they come out look pretty but that's about it. the older ones were pretty AND were full of substance cos most likely she crafted every one by hand on the potter wheel.

the best example was FIVE I think. I hated that mini so much lol... progress was decent then the rest were so meh. BRILLANTE reminds me of a heavy dessert - good on the first listen then it kinda disgusts me the next time onward.