ALBUMS:
BEST: LOVEppears
when u look up ICONIC on a dictionary this is what appears
(ba dum tsss) next to it! the album is a serve and the cover is a reflection of it. i’ve seen quite a few people recreate this cover on ig and that’s just a testament to just how legendary this album cover is. def one of my fave album covers ever regardless of artist or genre!!
WORST: Party Queen
it was between this and rock n roll circus’ cd-only cover until i ultimately decided that this was just the bigger mess. her expression is awkward, i don’t understand why she’s just randomly holding a jewel and she’s not even looking at it… the hair is questionable and the graphic design is just … 😭 coincidentally this is also my least fave ayu album musically… everything about this album is just not it for me unfortunately
SINGLES:
BEST: kanariya
can you say… Y2K REALNESS??? idk why they decided to not include inserts for this single and Fly high, but i’m glad they didn’t because the cover being the CD is so aesthetically pleasing!! definitely couldnt have been a budget issue considering how well loveppears sold. the font, the jewels on her body, the thick ass platform heels… everything abt it SCREAMS 1999 and ironically enough that’s why it has aged so well, with the y2k aesthetic being so popular in recent years.
Honorable mention for STEP you/is this LOVE?, i adore the pink motorcycle aesthetic and the editing is gorgeous, but i can’t completely get behind her mismatched extensions…
WORST: appears
…
this one REALLY pains me bcuz appears is one of my fave songs ever, not just from ayu but overall. it’s really such a tragedy that such a great song has such a terrible cover 😭 and kinda offensive too… i know it was 1999 and gyaru culture was very trendy at the time, but even with that being considered this cover has certainly NOT aged well (and she still used it again for the 20th anniversary rerelease
). that being said, visually there are things i do like abt it, her hair is cute and i like her jewelry + i love the idea that it’s meant to be a dark ver. of the loveppears cover (even if there are other ways she couldve gone about it), but i just think that the darkening of her skin is just too much of a no-no for me to not rank this as her worst single cover.
ayu has a lot of really good covers but then she also has a lot of bad ones. i think generally her best covers are from the first half of her career while her not-so-good ones came in the second half (specifically during the period of 2008-2013) i feel like she’s been getting a bit better with her more recent releases however, and i hope that her upcoming album’s cover will continue that trend! even if it doesn’t, we can still count on the music being good
