hi guys, I'm just wondering, is there any "PROFESSIONAL REVIEWS" 'bout Ayu's albums/singles out there in the web? I just searched them on Google but I couldn't find the good one (professional enough)..
If you found it, could please post the links here??
Thanks in advance~
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Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another...
Before she was a megastar, Ayumi Hamasaki was still a formidable star in the cosmos of Japanese pop. Rainbow came after a string of high-charting albums, itself not reaching the same heights thanks to some interesting but uneven experimentation with her sound. The album opens with some light ambient introductions before going into an energetic bit of stereotypical J-pop drama in "We Wish." "Real Me" incorporates elements of Aaliyah into string accompaniment and a touch of English lyricizing, and "Free & Easy" puts particularly light and airy passages in direct contrast with exploding horn-and-shout passages. There's some electric rock in "Heartplace" and after the forgettable "Over," Hamasaki moves to "Hanabi," a fair hit that focuses strongly on her vocal qualities as well as some interesting phrasing. With some basic filler tracks, the album chugs along until it gets to "Dolls," a sparse and echoing piece that again allows the listener to focus on the nuances of Hamasaki's vocals and a touch of greater emotion than in some of the more pop-oriented pieces. Despite some intriguing church bells, "Close to You" never quite gets off the ground, especially when compared to the ending track, "Independent," which combines rock, cheerleader chants, and modern electronica into a surprisingly coherent showcase for Hamasaki. The album doesn't have as much refinement as much of Hamasaki's later albums, but it shows the progression of her skills and vocal abilities.
Secret
Spoiler:
3.0/5.0
Ayumi Hamasaki belongs to the top tier of Japanese musicians who find it almost impossible to do something below a certain level, so it's not really surprising that Secret is a competent album with immense charting power. However, while it excels in production and does well in the fun department, its artistic merit is ambiguous (though that doesn't equal "bad"). Being the product of Hamasaki's J-rock period, Secret does feature a lot of guitar playing, but the riffs usually just follow the general direction that the songs take, and that can be pretty much everything from classic hard rock and piano ballads to industrial-lite numbers, ABBA-styled disco, and Euro-dance adaptations (the latter two being especially prominent). The only constants besides guitar lines are techno beats, background synths, and Hamasaki's singing, which is so steadily heartfelt it sounds calculated — but there's always plenty of other things in the mix, from acoustic breaks and children's choruses to strings and new age keyboards. This sounds like the recipe for a dynamic and varied album, but, ballads aside, the mood doesn't really change from start to finish, and all in all, the stylistic jumble is too big to make out what the record really sounds like. It's not quite like the case of Gackt — a popular J-rocker whose tunes are so perfect they're unidentifiable — but the whole of Secret is less than the sum of its parts. Taken separately, each song is catchy and dramatic enough, but when put together, they fail to leave a clear impression. But then, such evasiveness may be a virtue for a pop album, and the puzzlement over whether Secret is meant for dancing, dreaming, or rocking out makes up somewhat for the clichéd melodies that Hamasaki indulges in on the latter half of the record.
ayu-mi-x 6 GOLD
Spoiler:
3.0/5.0
Ever the musical chameleon, pop starlet Ayumi Hamasaki gave her sound up to the whims of other producers in 2008, the culmination of which was this album of remixes. Where she normally has a touch of rock and a hefty dose of sugary vocals,she gains new dimensions in sound in the hands of electronica producers. The album opens with "Step You," remade into something of a Michael Jackson-era dance track courtesy of the Young Punx, followed by a DJ Kentraro remix of "Moments" (which has also lived a life as a piano ballad) worked into a techno frenzy not unlike Yoko Kanno's work for the Ghost in the Shell series. Stonebridge adds a touch of New Order's style of electronica to a track, and a sludgier, more industrial sound is given to "Beautiful Fighters" by MSTRKRFT. When some of the international heavy hitters come along, her sound is nearly unrecognizable. Armand Van Helden twists and cuts her vocals into a dance track that hardly uses more than a syllable at a time. Coldcut keeps her firmly in the dance realm and keeps her vocals mostly intact, but adds some proper cuts and breaks to add a touch of funkiness and a hint of Bollywood. Mad Professor (of course) adds a heavy piece of dub, stretching and echoing around Hamasaki's voice in surprising ways, and actually removing her from the picture for a period. Throughout, the mixes are intriguing, and add more levels to what are otherwise some fairly lifeless singles. Hamasaki has some talent and a lot of star power, but in combination with other styles of music she really starts to come out as a viable lounge music star.
ayu-mi-x 6 SILVER
Spoiler:
3.5/5
Having taken a liking to the idea of releasing multiple remix albums after any given studio album, Ayumi Hamasaki's "Silver" rendition of the sixth remix album takes a core of Hamasaki's pop vocals and builds an elaborate series of layers around them, converting what was once a basic pop vocal set into a deep, occasionally dark electronic club run. While Hamasaki by herself can pump out a strong pop anthem without too much trouble, when her tracks are in the hands of some of the upper echelons of Japan's DJ scene, the results can be altogether intriguing and different. The album opens under Black Strobe's work, introducing a deep thump around Hamasaki's vocals for an interesting tonal offset and an entirely dance-worthy groove. The 808s and the tempo get kicked up for a remix by Freeform Five, while Playgroup focus their work more strongly around the vocal track (a bit of a rarity here, surprisingly). Force of Nature does their best impression of a Juno Reactor track while incorporating long cascades of Hamasaki along the way, and Daishi Dance leaves a ballad almost untouched, save for an additional piano track and an out of place house beat. High Contrast uses Autotune to its fullest as they chop their way through a vocal track, and Carl Craig almost forgets to add the vocals back in after an extended ambient break or two. The trick in this album of remixes is that some DJs take the opportunity to focus on Hamasaki's formidable vocals, enhancing an otherwise lackluster ballad or two. Others, however, take more energetic numbers and remix them into massive club anthems. Both styles add noticeable energy and drama to the pieces, leaving an end result that may not be entirely devoted to Hamasaki's music, but is an exciting listen nonetheless.
GUILTY
Spoiler:
2.5/5
With a long career and a longer discography, Ayumi Hamasaki spends a lot of time on the pop charts reinventing herself to meet the mores of the current J-pop scene, whatever that may be at the time. On Guilty, she updates her sound to fit a modern version of J-pop, infused heavily with rock and with darker, more gothic elements. With Hamasaki unfortunately, the result is a fairly staged, theatrical sound. She stretches across her range admirably to capture the darker, deeper tones of the rock, but it nearly invariably sounds like theme music to a basic Asian robot-based sci-fi film. This isn't necessarily to say that the sound isn't put together well, or that Hamasaki underperforms. To the contrary, if anything she overperforms here, adding an unnecessary melodrama to the proceedings and ruining what seemed the original intent of the album. Moving away from straightforward bubblegum (and the occasional power pop style track) is an attempt to add a bit of the emphasis on authenticity that's swept through much of Japanese music, including the pop sphere. Where others explore elements of folk and more emotional attachment, Hamasaki comes off as either a fairly flat and standardized singer of fairly flat and standardized songs, or as a great singer trying hopelessly to keep up with dark rock ballads that are horribly mismatched to her temperament and her delivery style. Hamasaki's got plenty of good work in her catalog, Guilty is unlikely to stand with the best portions of it, even for her numerous fans.
NEXT LEVEL
Spoiler:
3.5/5
Holding her place at the top of the Japanese charts, Ayumi Hamasaki's 2009 album takes an interesting line from her previous releases. While she's always been on the forefront of new developments in the pop world, her music has stayed largely based on standard dance and pop tracks over the years, with a large exception being a series of remix albums endorsed after her major studio releases. With the interest taken in those remixes and their heavier electronica bent, Hamasaki went a bit deeper on Next Level, combining with songwriter Yuta Nakano and club DJ CMJK (formerly of Denki Groove) for a thick, somewhat wild release of dance tracks infused with a healthy dose of technology. The album opens innocently enough, introducing bits of electronics as accentuation around the strong focus of her vocals. As it progresses, the beats and rhythm tracks begin to take over, placing Hamasaki herself into a much deeper, thicker set of sounds custom-built to emphasize her stronger points and combine for an outstanding dance set. Hamasaki continues to evolve her sound, and the deeper experimentalism on Next Level only helps to cement her claim to the top. As an added bonus, multiple parallel versions of the release include music video DVDs, concert footage DVDs, and a live concert recording CD.
I don't like allmusic reviews... I somewhat find them too conservative...
But most professional reviews concerning Ayu discography obviously were done in Japanese/Chinese... some were translated and posted on the forum...
7th April 2010, 06:03 PM
I think her albums deserved better! 
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