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For me, Ayu's albums went downhill in quality after (miss)understood. Whereas she was redefining her sound up until that album for mostly every release, almost everything after 2006 fell short in comparison. Secret, GUILTY, NEXT LEVEL and Rock 'n' Roll Circus basically have no own identity sound wise and one could easily switch songs around on those releases and it wouldn't matter. Love songs finally was an album which's songs you couldn't randomly replace with songs from other albums. Same goes for Party Queen. Even if one doesn't like the album, it had it's own identity. Then LOVE again, Colours and A ONE followed and even though there were some good songs here and there, as albums they weren't anything special and most songs are pretty forgetable.
Actually the quality in music went downhill again. Even though Secret, GUILTY, NEXT LEVEL and Rock 'n' Roll Circus were all pretty similar in sound, they had great songs, whereas a lot of songs on later releases were more like what orbitalspect called somewhere "and then I recorded this one too" .
M(A)DE IN JAPAN truly was a great release again, the album has a consistent theme regarding lyrics and sound and finally I felt she put a lot of energy and thought into an album again.
But to some it up: since the release of (miss)understood in 2006 there are only three albums which are really worth listening from start to finish, because she actually has something to tell through lyrics and music.
Even though the quality of her releases drastically went downhill over the last decade, I still found her to be a great performer and loved watching her concerts until Premium Showcase. After that tour every new one suffered the fate of her later album releases, they simply lack every bit of originality. What's worth is, her whole stage presence is gone. The woman who was once able to move to to tears by just standing there singing now doesn't sing at all anymore and is instead flailing around on stage trying to appear as desperate as possible. The stage presence and strenght she once had on stage is completely gone and there is no way I will ever understand how the Ayu who performed A Song for xx the way she did at her dome tour (and whom I fell in love with) could become the Ayu performing the same song the way she did when I went to see her live this April.
What also was a real no go for me was that she decided two times now for her TA tours not to have a live band and go with more dancers instead. I'm sorry, but if she would care about music just a bit at this point, she would understand that a live band is essential to every good concert.
Also what really disappointed me was that she chose not to celebrate her 20th anniversary at all. Tge way I see it this isn't only her anniversary, but also the anniversary of her fans.
I'm a fan since I'm 12 years old, that means since 15 years now and more than half of my life. I spent a lot of money on Ayu, like many other fans did. We deserve a little bit to celebrate. It would have been so easy for her to do whatever for this anniversary. A lot of my favourite artists had their 20th (or whatever anniversary) already last year and they did a lot of different things to celebrate it. Ranging from releasing a free song as a thank you via their website, doing free lives, rerecording entire albums, doing a short tour for every single album they ever released, letting other friends/musicians write songs for them as an anniversary gift and release them as an album to etc. etc. There are so many possibilities to celebrate a 20th anniversary together with your fans and to show at least a little you're greatful they supoorted you over all those years. Ayu did nothing. And no, adding 20th anniversary to the title of a half assed tour, you yourself say isn't a good one, doesn't count. Not at all.
Even though I complaine a lot, I still buy her releases and still support her. She has been an important part of my life way too long that I simply could give up and I stayed because I really think she could do amasing things again. But with this "anniversary" and shitty tour I feel as if she doesn't care about music nor her fans at all anymore.
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