I personally consider Kumi a great artist. She seems very involved in her work. And on live you can see how much she enjoys it, specially the ballads, and of course all the jazzy/rearranged versions of her songs. One just can't deny this woman loves what she does. And I respect her for that, even if l don't like/consider bad the final product.(just like her last 3 albums)
Ps. I'm curious what 50,000 people maze is talking about, because almost all the fans have bought both albums, and that makes about 20k people in the end