[Chibi-Chan]

I really love the idea of all those analysis threads! Actually I wanted to write something way earlier and I would love to write something in every thread but I guess I haven't enough time because of my bachelor thesis... u.u

One of the reasons I became an Ayu fan back then was how much effort and creativity she was putting into her whole body of work and I'm always desperately trying to find someone to discuss everything with, so here is my interpretation of the "NEXT LEVEL" era, feel free to comment and criticise.
(P.S I haven't read anything in this thread by now, because I don't wanted my ideas to be influenced by yours, 'cos then I wouldn't be able to put it into my own words anymore. But after posting my thoughts I will go through the thread and read all the wonderful interpretations you guys made )

P.S I wrote more than I thought I would, I hope someone has the time and wants to read this...


Covers

Actually I have a love/hate relationship with the covers. What I absolutely don't like about them are her fake eyes. I tried many times to convince myself that they look fake on purpose, but with the release of "A BEST 2" it began that her eyes often looked that fake. I think they just thought her eyes would look more cool and diva-ish that way - I just don't like it at all.
And what I also don't like is the trend that started with "NEXT LEVEL" to have 100 different cover versions. A cover should be an interpretation of the album content by whatever means and a great cover should remind you of the feeling and vibe you get from this one and special album whenever you look at it - but too many cover versions definetly destroy the potential a great cover could have. Unless you have a great concept and an actual reason for having different covers for one album besides just having different album versions. And "NEXT LEVEL" cover perfectly show, at least for me, why 4 different covers destroy the great concept the album theme actually has, I will explain that later.
What I like about the covers is they look totally different from any other album covers she ever made. The album is titled "NEXT LEVEL" and it was her 10th studio album after her 10th anniversary. It's pretty obvious that she associates "NEXT LEVEL" with a new stage/beginning in life/her career and what would be better to illustrate that than a colourful cover?
So the title and colour selection are a pretty obvious way to illustrate the theme of a new stage/beginning. But what I really love about the covers are the TV screens! You have up to 5 different screens on the covers (depends on the version), old ones and a flat screen. I think this is Ayu's subtle way to make a "Past<Future" statement.
Whereas I think the USB version cover is fucking damn great I don't really like the other ones. What I love about the USB version cover is that the focus not only lies on Ayu but also on the TV screens. The TV screens here have enough space and you can actually see that there are 5 different screens varying in age. You can't really tell how old the screens are from the other 3 versions, the whole concept gets lost and it's just Ayu on them being pretty in a slightly futuristic way.
I loved that the first press versions had different coloured cases. So if you want to express a difference between the versions by their look, why not give them just ONE GREAT cover and let each version come with a different coloured case?
I have no love at all for the CD only and CD+DVD covers, they are useless in my opinion. I can tolerate the 2CD+DVD cover, because Ayu is directly looking at you as if she knows she is watched, what is nice considering the TV screens.
What I also love about the USB version cover is Ayu's unnatural pose. She looks like a mannequin which is placed like in a shop window. The whole picture gives you the feeling you're just looking at a product and not at a human being. The very tight dress and the gloves (which nobody would wear in real life) intensify the impression. Ayu in front of TV screens (aka the media) presented as a mannequin (aka a product) can be interpreted as a statement about her role in the music buisness (like "alterna" PV). So the TV screens not only represent the past and the future, there is yet another meaning behind them. All this can't be seen on the other cover versions - again...
Oh and I almost forgot, but I also really like that the text is integrated in the whole picture and not just slapped on the covers. I rather have no text on the cover at all (like "LOVEppears", what was a great choice I think) than a title/name of the artist slapped on the cover just for the sake of a title/name on it.


Booklet (/CDs/DVD/Case)

Like I mentioned before, I really like the coloured cases. And like the coloured cases the CDs/the DVD are coloured in the four main colours of the covers: green, pink and blue with a yellow font and inlay. I love how the colourful formula does apply to the whole release.
So everybody who has followed her single releases for the album gets immediately reminded of the "Rule/Sparkle" single and the "Sparkle" PV by the covers (because of the latex gloves) and booklet.
The first picture of the booklet shows just one feet in a high heel and some "electric sparks" (besides the tracklist). I think the feet stands for "making one step forward" towards the future and the electric sparks stand for power/strenght. So here we have Ayu going into her "NEXT LEVEL" future with power/strenght - I like that picture a lot!
Personally I always interpreted the next two pages as a continuation of the "Sparkle" PV. We have some innocent colourful bubbles and a very sexualized and fetishized Ayu, who is grabbing herself in the crotch. The innocent colourful bubbles stand for the "innocent" and cute lolita image Japanese people love for women (ok, not only Japanese people, but they tend to carry it to extremes, I'm just hinting at idol groups like AKB48) and Ayu with her pose and clothes representing the actual sexualized and fetishized woman that defines the lolita image in the end. Furthermore I like to interpret Ayu grabbing herself in the crotch as a statement about the hypocritical view that lies behind the cute (childlike) and "innocent" lolita presentations of women: it's ok to objectify women as sex objects for the pleasure of male sexuality but women themselves have no sexuality.
For me she basically unveils this hypocritical view and makes a statement about female sexual empowerment.
The next two pages just show some spotlights (I guess). Maybe just a continuation of the "electric" theme but maybe it also stands for Ayu standing always in the spotlight on stage as well as in the media.
If you turn the page again you see a tired looking Ayu just lying calmly on the floor and with a high heel in one of her hands. This picture also isn't as colourful as the whole package was before (cover, case, inlay, booklet), especially because yellow as a colour is missing and you have a lot of black and a rather dark green and purple. Until now everything gave you a busy feeling but now Ayu is resting from moving forward. She has one of her shoes in her hand because her feet hurt and she is tired for the moment and just needs a rest. But the next picture already seems to be again more hectically showing muddled wires - the electric theme continues already. And one page further you can see a hand which is connected on three fingers with the wires. It appears as if Ayu got loaded with electric power so that she has enough strenght to carry on and in the next picture you can see her leg in a position like Ayu is running again.
The next two pages show Ayu in a slightly different pose than on the cover of the USB version. The screens don't show her name and the album title like the cover does, this time they show Ayu herself. On the picture you're also seeing the product "ayumi hamasaki" on TV and it's also like a timeline somehow because of the older and newer screens - it's Ayu's 11th year in the spotlight of the media.
Flipping the page again there is Ayu looking once more like a mannequin and wearing the same outfit as before (and on the cover). Furthermore it seems as if you're watching her through a spyglass because of the rounded corners.
I really never knew how to exactly interpret the next picture, but it always symbolized a lot of power and control for me. At first I thought it was some kind of a ball which generates/conducts electricity. The longer I watched it, I came to think it isn't a ball but her breasts and the green nipples on it are yeah... her nipples. So if it should really symbolise her breasts in the context of the "Sparkle" theme and female emporement it would make sense.
The second last picture just shows the outlines of Ayu's upper body (what would be a hint that the picture before really symbolises her breasts). She is wearing the same outfit like on page 4 and is pulling her suit open and where her breasts should be or at least her underwear you can just see some strokes converging. Her fists are shining (or sparkling) the brightest on the picture and it seems her whole body is filled with power and energy. But the picture is mostly black, in contrast to the pages before and the very last two pages show the screens again, but this time there is no Ayu, they are turned off and the whole picture is just black with greyscales.

On the first pages Ayu began her journey towards the future, in the middle of the booklet she rested a while and loaded her inner battery to keep moving on. She reviews her own past wich includes that a big part of herself is just a product in the music industry (criticising the same and emancipating herself this way). At the end she is able to move on, therefore leaving the past and to go strengthened and with a lot of power into the future. But because nobody knows how the future will look like (contrary to the past) the last pictures remain mostly black and the TV screens are turned off.

The overall theme is Ayu, who knows exactly her place as a product in the music industry, reviewing the past but entering nonetheless a new stage in life/her career and doing this with a lot of power, strenght and self-confidence.


Music/Lyrics

The music is influenced not only of electropop but also of 8-bit sound (like Andrenekoi already wrote in the opening post). This gives the album literally a "NEXT LEVEL" feeling because it's reminiscent of video game music, love that!

01. Bridge to the sky and 02. NEXT LEVEL
"Bridge to the sky" as the intro and "NEXT LEVEL" are connected with each other. Not only the music sounds in both songs very relaxed but also the lyrics are similar. In "Bridge to the sky" she repeats
"I smile softly
Tears roll suddenly"
and in "NEXT LEVEL" she sings
"When I looked up at the sky
Suddenly tears spilled down"
and
When I looked up at the sky
Smiles came floating down.
What Ayu basically is doing again with the title "Bridge to the sky" is to say she enters a new stage in live aka the "NEXT LEVEL" and in the theme song of the album she references the title of the intro by saying she "looked up at the sky". And of course in both songs she is/was crying and smiling.
While in "Bridge to the sky" she IS smiling and crying right now (she cries supposedly because she is leaving her past behind, what is somehow sad because of nostalgia but she also smiles because she is entering a new exciting future with confidence), in "NEXT LEVEL" she WAS smiling and crying and she says
Even the scars left behind
Seem lovely now.
Ayu seems to have come to terms with her past and now looking positively into the future.
The music in both songs isn't very exciting but got a calm and somewhat very uplifting arrangement.

03. Disco-munication and 04. EnergizE
After "NEXT LEVEL" and through "Disco-munication" with its video game sound Ayu reached the next level in "EnergizE" (which also has the video game sound) but already feels as if nothing goes the way she wants it and receives her first setback. But she is encouraging herself not to give up and to carry on. I always thought with the chorus
"Put your hands up together!!
Keep your heads up together!!
Let me sing forever!!
Dala dala dala dala..."
she isn't just encouraging herself. She also refers to her fans to cheer her up and to let her sing forever and therefore to let her do what she loved to do in the past and would love to do also in the future.

05. Sparkle
Besides that she says that you have to go for something or you won't ever reach it the lyrics are very sexual:
"Let your body feel it",
"But just let the beat
Take control of your body"
and
"Be bolder
To the point of shamelessness" (those are just the lines I find are speaking the most clearly about sex).
I think the whole song is about sex and telling herself she just should play out her phantasies regardless of what others might say:
"Don't go on the defense
You've gotta attack
Who decides
What's possible or impossible?".
In the context of the PV and booklet she is speaking up against slut shaming and says people should have sex and play out their phantasies without being ashamed of it.

06. 'rollin
At the beginning Ayu says
"I can't believe
What I'd hoped for turned out to be a mistake"
and admits that the bright future she was hoping for at the beginning in "Bridge to the sky" and "NEXT LEVEL" turned out to be darker as she thought it would be. She doesn't want to accept it but has no other chance. She also realizes that she can't decide by herself if she wants to go towards a new (better) future and that it's only a matter of time that our future comes unavoidable up to us:
"The world turns
At the speed of rebirth"
and that everything (life) has an end one day:
"Times are changing
Speeding towards the end".
She also realizes that she is completely powerless against the flow of time, feels dizzy and at this station of her life too many negative things are happening one after another and furthermore she feels that she wasted her time in the past and now hasn't enough of it. She doesn't know how to stop this way to fast flowing "time spiral" she is in. The sound at the end of the song always gives me this dizzy feeling of an endless way to fast flowing "time spital". And because she can't stop it she just pretends to do so:
"Rather than talking about ideals
I pretend to stop
The dangerous flow"
and says at this point she doesn't want to think about how her future should look like.
The robotic voice makes her sound like she isn't human anymore and it seems that she is just functioning like a machine right now and that she gave up. But despite all negativity there are moments in in which she still has something she is longing for and therefore wants for her future:
"Despair and desire are coming in waves"
At the end of the song Ayu says:
"Disappointment and hope are warring"
and the "time spiral" sound comes. Ayu tells the listener that you just can't control time and that it's just natural that there will be negative times of disappointment and positive times of hope in life and that just one thing is for sure, time (and the things one experiences) changes people and that you can't go back to the times you liked the most:
"I can never go back
To where I was before".

07. GREEN
All in all in "GREEN" Ayu isn't able to tell someone that she loves him, plans to do so in the future but is uncertain and vague about it.
I think it's interesting that after the modern electropop songs a song with more traditional instruments follows.
It's like the positive outlook in the beginning was followed by doubts and now that she fears the future she wants to go back to the past for a while.

08. Load of the SHUGYO
I guess the title is referring to "musha shugyou"?
I always thought so and interpreted the interlude therefore as understanding that in life you have to go through hard times as well, that sometimes you have to find a way on your own but that you will be strenghtened at the end.

09. identity
In the context of "Load of the SHUGYO" Ayu found herself in the end and knows her identity now. She got her self-confidence and power back and despite not being positive like in the beginning she is speaking up for herself.

10. Rule
In contrast to "rollin'" Ayu isn't accepting that things are like they are, she is fighting and making her own rules and stoped with the black and white thinking.

11. LOVE 'n' HATE
I don't think there is much space left for interpretation here, Ayu is in love with someone but he doesn't love her. Because of heartache she decides to leave him and to go on in life. We have again a theme of going into a new future, but this time not because she just hopes for a better future, she is willing to do something for it - even when it hurts.
I think it's interesting that she counts in the middle and at the beginning till seven (which is a lucky number in Japan) and ends the series with zero. But in the end she counts till four (which is an unlucky number) and then backwards from three till zero. It's like at the beginning of the song she is still hoping to be in a happy romance with the person she loves but ends up with nothing (zero) everytime she has a little bit of hope. In the end she gives up on her hope and decides to accept that she's unhappy at the moment and to start from zero.

12. Pieces of SEVEN
I always interpreted "Pieces of SEVEN" in the context of "LOVE 'n' HATE" and as a statement that once you can accept your unhappiness there will also be hope and happiness one day - even if there will just be a glimmer (piece) of happiness (seven) in the beginning.

13. Days
In "Days" Ayu found a glimmer of hope, but that's it, 'cos she isn't truly happy - but content with what she has for now.

14. Curtain call
After being unhappily in love in "Days", Ayu seems truly happy (not only content) in "Curtain call". I think you can interpret it in two different ways, because besides being a love song for her fans it also can be seen as a love song for someone she truly loves and who loves her back:
"I can hear your voice
Calling my name
I can see you
Smiling at me".
So either in the end she found a true love and is happy with that person or she is happy with the love she receives from her fans (or both is the case and the song is intentional vague about who Ayu is talking to).


PVs

Days
Because the video is an exact portrayal of the song's lyrics, there isn't any real or special symbolism and also no hidden meaning behind it. The PV of "Days" isn't a masterpiece or something like that, but it managed (and still does) to make me cry. I think if a pop music video can achieve that, it's good enough.

GREEN
This PV is just perfect I think and there is so much going on you could write an essay about it but I'm way to tired after writing this long ass text to give a proper interpretation. Just one thing: I really really love the sexual tension between Ayu and the other woman and the love affair that is implicitly shown betwenn those two. Because speaking up for gay romances are something which seems to be "cool" when it comes to pop divas or movies, but lesbian romances are mostly overlooked.

Rule
Same as above, I don't like to write anymore, but I love the "Dragon Ball" references and think the video is pretty cool - but not only because it looks cool.

Sparkle
At the beginning you see Ayu dressed as the typical cute and innocent Japanese idol performing at a typical music show. Then it switches to some kind of room you would imagine in a psychiatry and Ayu is wearing a latex suit. In some scenes she has red eyes as if she's mad and people with gas masks appear. In the end it switches back to idol Ayu on the stage of the music show.
There is the innocent and cute idol Ayu and a very sexualized and fetishized Ayu, who seems to be mad and therefore in a psychiatry. The innocent idol stands for the "innocent" and cute lolita image (Japanese) people love for women and Ayu with her pose and clothes representing the actual sexualized and fetishized woman that defines the lolita image in the end.
Like I said in my interpretation of the booklet already: I see "Sparkle" PV as a comment about the hypocritical view that lies behind the cute (childlike) and "innocent" lolita presentation of women: it's ok to objectify women as sex objects for the pleasure of male sexuality but women themselves have no sexuality. That's why the obviously sexualized and fetishized Ayu is caged in a psychiatry (I always see the "Sparkle" PV as a new interpretation of the cover of "Duty") - because women having a sexuality and wanting to have sex have to be mad.
In the end, after idol Ayu finished her performance, what is way more fetishized and, even if it isn't as obvious, also totally sexualized (symbolized by latex suit Ayu), she stands just there with a smile pretending it's all just about her cute image but in the end it's all about sex and how the ideal woman has to look/act like otherwise people call her a slut.

NEXT LEVEL
Ayu driving into the future... nothing special here...

Curtain call
Ok, this one is also pretty good, but same here, I don't like to write anymore.. sorry... xD


Overall personal rating
I really like the songs on "NEXT LEVEL", especially all songs from "Disco-munication" till "Pieces of SEVEN". "Bridge to the sky" as the introduction to the album is great and I always loved "Curtain call" a lot! (and to sing along to it )
Only "NEXT LEVEL" as the title track seems a bit weak, but I like it in the context of the album. To be honest I like it BECAUSE it is the title track. Despite all negativity, despair und unhappiness throughout the album Ayu chosed a song with a very positive vision of the future as the title track, which tells us she doesn't think the world is as dark as one may think after hearing the album - I like that!
I never really got why people think the flow of the album is bad, I think till "Pieces of SEVEN" it flows very well. Only "Days" after "Pieces of SEVEN" sounds a bit akward, but if you take a look at the lyrics it fits.
Ignoring all covers besides the USB version cover, the visuals and the story the booklet tells is great and I had a lot of fun figuring out what everything could mean! Sadly it's the last Ayu album I like the booklet that much.
The PVs are great overall and "GREEN", "Rule" and "Sparkle" are three of my all time favourite PVs of Ayu.
All in all I give it 4/5.