[truehappiness]

It seems at least like the mixing got weird once Naoki Yamada 'replaced' her usual mixer entirely. IMO, that's when the levels of instrumentals and vocals started to get really bizarre and uneven. Before then, her songs may have been loud/busy/noisy but they were at least balanced which I think are both being conflated as the same problem. I don't think it was ever noticed before Party Queen onward because for the most part the same guy who knew what to do was working on her albums but now he's only back once in a while or for half of an album so it's a mixed bag. Party Queen especially as an album was weird because other than the next LOVE/Return Road, the rest of the album was mixed by foreigners. David Reitzas who did a bunch of songs on Love songs and progress did the best job there with how beautiful you are.