[*Petit*]

His criticism would have made more sense if he actually used some examples, but as you guys pointed out, I don't think he's actually trying to provide any real critique.

The song is self-referential in many ways and has a lot of older J-pop elements, so I guess you could say it sounds like "all of ayu's older stuff and not fresh"... Whether that's bad or good is something people will decide for themselves when they hear the song though.... I do believe the arrangement could be criticized for being too busy as many pointed out too. It would've been easy to simply drop a few instruments in the verses. That would've created more of a build-up and contrast with the chorus too.

But the composition doesn't sound like "old ayu" unless Love songs also is a part of the "old ayu" discography.

Yuta Nakano has reused a few elements from what I can hear especially from progress (the drum in the verse is basically the same as the second verse in progress, the strings and piano also similar), but the song is not building up as nicely as in progress because almost every instrument kicks in at the same time more or less.

The break down with the guitar solo sounds a lot like her early songs, to especially the I am... period.

But I think this is a good thing. Ayu tried using Western / more trendy producers / composers like Namie did, but I don't think that worked out as well for ayu most of the time (Terminal, lelio and some sweetbox tracks from (miss) understood). And none of those songs were big hits for her, and outside of the sweetbox tracks that were rearranged for her, I don't like how her voice fits the arrangement.