finally got to listening to the album... wow!
1. a Bell
seriously what is this intro doing? sounds more obligatory than adding to anything. bleh. meh. pass. one of her worst intros/interludes
2. WARNING
I got chills listening to this, but her "LA LA LA" parts sound very auto-tuned, and the chorus has this weird noise, like every sound layer is fighting to be the loudest and most prominent and it becomes very jarring. I also hate how in the later part, they added some "yeah yeah yeah" into the "LA LA LA", as if the song isn't messy enough.
it's an amazing song that has so much power, but compared to her past power songs, this is way too noisy. still like it though.
3. NO FUTURE
I already loved this from the preview, so yeah still love it. I don't get the comparisons to "Like a doll", and I don't think it sounds dated at all. If anything NO FUTURE sounds like an old-school anime opening, something like Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura lol.
the choruses are very well done, and I like it so much. the last minute or so though... I appreciate the change in key and structure but for a while it feels like she's singing on and on and they refuse to let the song stop.
4. Anything for You
Like most people, I dismissed this right off the YouTube preview, and it does remind me of Walk.
What I like though, is how depressing it sounds, and there's something very beautiful and poignant about the arrangement and use of minor key. It is also one of her more grandeur ballads. But again, something sounds noisy in the chorus. I noticed that since LOVE again, they have done a shit job in layering her voice and the backing vocals. It's very very jarring in this song and it takes away some of the enjoyment from an otherwise surprisingly good ballad.
5. Last minute
Still like it, but again it's noisy in a bad way. Compare this to Memorial address and immediately you can tell which had a superior production. The drums sound dead, and bleh the whole sound is bad. Like Anything for You, it really takes away so much of the enjoyment, because I really like this song.
6. Zutto...
Still like it from the single days. Can't find anything particularly bad, but I can't find anything that really makes me go "wow" either. Kinda like most of her recent works, but still enjoyable to listen to.
7. Out of control
Hands down, the best song in the album. People compare it to "call" and "Letter" but those 2 songs in her worst album (Party Queen) have nothing on this. I love the instrumentation, I love her vocals, I love everything.
8. Story
I remember being blown away from the YouTube preview, but in full, it was pretty meh. The intro reminds me just a little of "walking proud" because of the subtle guitar riffs in the background, but "walking proud" was a masterpiece from a Magnum Opus album, while Story is... average.
The verses outshine the chorus, and they remind me a lot of Haru Yo Koi, so plus points there. The chorus sound messy, and there's no distinct melody.
I'll also stop here to say, I find one of the biggest problems with A ONE is that a lot of the ballads sound like the, "It's the end of the day, and I'm here reflecting on life" thing... and it makes the listener feel tired. If you place one of these ballads toward the end of an album, like "winding road", or even, "Curtain call", or "untitled ~for her~", then it's fine, but on A ONE, songs like these are everywhere.
Almost every ballad sounds reflective and peaceful, like a goodbye to a journey. There weren't many ballads that were dynamic and made you feel for it. Maybe Zutto... counts, but the rest were way too "end of the road" to me.
9. The GIFT
Again, it's another song that's just okay - nothing fantastic, but nothing horrible. It feels warm that's for sure.
10. The Show Must Go On
I was very excited by the intro, until her voices come in... that part with the "The show must go on, yea yea yea" was so grating ugh.
The rest of the song was pretty good though, and it's probably the next best song after Out of control.
11. Walk
It's a fitting finish to the album, but we already had Anything for You and Story. Still pretty though, but that's about it.
---
so that's my take on A ONE. most, if not all, of the songs sound middle-ground, and rather safe. This is a very safe album imo, with Ayu doing everything just right without any sense of "reinvention" if that matters to you.
Besides the problem with many songs sounding very "end of the road", I also find the mixing/layering/mastering/whatever you call it quite garbage. I can't stand it anymore. It's a problem since around LOVE again I think, where her songs don't sound like art anymore, but more like weird rejected demo quality. It's so bad. Firstly, her main voice and her backing voice really don't mesh well together (for a good example, refer to the chorus in Days), secondly, every layer in every song tries desperately to overtake each other, and everything sounds very loud and overall, it's jarring. Examples including the chorus of WARNING, the chorus of Anything for You, the chorus of Last minute, the whole of Story. They could have all been excellent if not for the horrible -insert music production jargon here-.
I still quite enjoy the album, but I probably wouldn't listen to it from start to finish anymore because as an album, the songs don't mesh well and it's really weak, but individually, they are all actually pretty decent.
Are any of these as good as the "older" Ayu? I guess not, but good enough for me anyways.
