runny nose? Have you watched AT 12? That's a real runny nose.
I'm still a big fan, and as generic her recent albums are, she still dishes out songs that are WAY better than most others I listen to.
I just feel that she used to be so coherent with everything pre-2009, and that she always had brilliant ideas which she executed so, so, so, well and beautifully. From LOVEppears to (miss)understood she really was at her prime because every era felt like a package. IDGAF that she was shrilling in the Duty album or that her hair was shit in the RAINBOW era.. what matters is that as a whole, each era was complete - a nice little package that felt consistent, with effort, and well thought out.
Recently, she's been haphazard. Good examples are her 10th and 15th anniversary. I love Days to death but the 10th anniversary singles were quite lackluster in terms of a whole package; A COMPLETE was nothing special. 15th was worse because she didn't do anything but tour, and you can argue that she's touring even more blah blah but FFS she's ayumi hamasaki, she's THE Queen of J-Pop, yet her 15th anniversary felt like a muted song in a corner of the room.
the 50th singles project was rubbish as well; the link between MOON/blossom, crossroad and L is..?? Though we did get Love songs which was her best album since MY STORY imho, the whole era felt so disconnected and I couldn't believe her 50th single was about her one year husband.
Which brings me to my next point - the way she's handling herself these days makes me
because it feels a reverse; she should be behaving like how she did in 2010 - 2013 when she was younger because those silly mistakes are so.. unprofessional and unbecoming of someone like her.
I'm still unhappy about pasting Mannie's face on the PVs of her 50th single, I'm even more appalled and disgusted with the whole Maro saga, pasting his face on PVs and an album cover is just.. self-indulgent.
That's it. I think she's getting self-indulgent, and you know what that reminds me of? Lady Gaga. She's self-indulgent and she doesn't make a buzz anymore.
I repeat what I said on another thread that AT 12 was so disgustingly self-indulgent that I couldn't stand watching it. There's something attention-seeking about the "I am the Lonely queen" shit that puts me off.. however low her life was (ASFxx - Duty, I am.../A BEST, GUILTY) she was never self-indulgent, attention-seeking and being a baby about it. I hate Party queen so much, that year was her lowest to me.
And the discussion on Feel the love? We wouldn't be getting it if she had proper execution for it. She touched on dangerously scandalous topics in the past (price of fame, politics, homosexuality) in her PVs and every idea was executed with a nice thought process (Endless sorrow, Dearest, GREEN, Lady Dynamite, my name's WOMEN, alterna, Free&Easy).. in the past we may not always get her message, but none was offensive or at least came across offensive, and what we understood was what we perceived. Yet we can't point a finger and be so certain because nothing was obvious.
In Ftl, she had a good albeit typical concept for loving thyself but like what emi mentioned, the execution was so so so bad. I cannot believe she let the last part with James Ellis slip; if this were evolution she would move from the director's camera, to James, told him off and get his shit together to get THAT expression SHE WANTS to convey the message she wants. But she didn't.
Which brings me to my next point. She really doesn't care anymore sometimes does she?