if she wants to re-invent her career like Namie Amuro then she needs to be a sell-out. I'm a casual listener of Amuro but she bores me... her recent albums are exactly what's trendy in the western market; EDM (not in the vein of Colours, but more Calvin Harris, Avicii kind of sound), and that's why the Japanese eat it up. cos suddenly Namie Amuro is relevant, cool, being 'American'. it's a visual and idea the younger generation might want to be identified with.
Ayu, on the other hand, takes forever to follow trends. Colours might be described as an EDM album but the only song that truly sounds like something that could be released in 2014 is Terminal. every other song is dated. don't get me wrong, I adore the album to bits cos it's so casual and catchy, but it's a fact the sound is dated.
that's her double-edged sword. she doe sthe "Ayu" thing by keeping songs old-school J-Pop with her own twist (usually a trend that has already faded for more than 2 years). Ayu will always be interesting, but is she relevant? is she the embodiment of western music like Namie Amuro? no.
she's also no longer young by Japanese standards and she's way too high-maintenance for intimate moments like AKB48's fan meets. of course there's only one of her and 48 of them, but you get my point.
she, however, with her time in LA, picked up on certain things the singers in the west do. she's already pulling off a Taylor Swift marketing tactic by posting photos of her "work in progress" online. wouldn't be surprised if she took a pic of one of the songs' lyrics and post it on Facebook or something.
all she has now, is her dwindling fan base. i think her best bet is to whet their appetites until they will buy an actual physical copy.
until that day she no longer does dated albums like LOVE again in this era, she's always going to have worse sales. i don't see that as a bad thing, but that's just how Ayu does her recent music. still hum along to Wake me up but it's a stale 2008-esque electro-pop/rock style
