It is weird how she was always almost adamant about using strictly Japanese in her lyrics for so long. And then suddenly she started dabbling with it. I mean, I guess it's okay to dabble in anything, it's just kinda interesting. She is much more influenced by what's cool in Japan nowadays, as opposed to defining what's cool. English lyrics, poppier cute music... I guess you could look at it 2 ways: (1) she [or Avex] is treading carefully by becoming something closer to other artists so as to maintain Ayu's popularity in her later years; or (2) she really is just getting exhausted from so many years of pumping stuff out, that she's having a bit of a creativity lapse. I think it might be the latter. It's noticeable even CREA's compositions; they were very very simple on "MY STORY" whereas in the past CREA was behind much more complex melodies. Ayu's the best, IMO, but maybe that very sake she should take a bit of a rest. It seemed to to Amuro Namie some good; her already great career exploded after she went away for a while, didn't it?