LOVE again thoughts?

[Bad Wolf]

I'm actually really, really surprised by this album. I enjoyed the mini tracks a lot, so I wasn't expecting to NOT like the album but I have to say, for an album I was expecting to sound really soft and refreshing this album is surprisingly dark, bitter and just... painful. It's definitely the 'darker' side of her "Love songs" style, which all felt strangely refreshing, even if some of the songs were about similar subject matter (struggling with hidden emotions, not knowing how to live honestly, torn between dreams and reality, etc.).

There's just something about this album that's uncomfortable for me, and that's a first with any Ayu record. I just feel like I'm seeing a part of her that's so vulnerable and raw, and it's invasive on my part. I wonder if she was aware of that when approaching this work? It really does just feel like such a significantly more tormented work than her characteristically darker albums previously.

I truly feel for the first time that releasing "LOVE" and "again" was such a MASSIVE injustice for this album. I liked the remixes we got on both of them, but it was so unfair to an album that's really quite strong and distinct on its own that it's now made to look "cheap" by comparison to the previous two releases.