A ONE thoughts and reviews

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

I will disagree with you over here....

Love~Destiny, To Be, Seasons, Far Way, Dearest, Voyage, No Way to Say, Hanabi, Moments, Carols, Heaven, Together When, Days
You Were

Yes, but those were all spaced out over 16 years - they were not all on one album. Plus some of those I do not consider to be totally safe sounding ballads. I don't consider Hanabi to be typical, Heaven has an unorthodox structure, and Far Away is actually a rock song at heart. The rest are pretty typical, but done extremely well. But for every one of those songs and then some, you had Evolution, Surreal, Free and Easy, Microphone, appears, M, Step You etc etc etc etc.

When I look back and think about Ayu, I don't think "Oh yeah, that's the girl who sang really cookie cutter ballads over and over again", I think "Oh yeah, she had some really innovative sounding songs AND she had some great contemporary ballads too."

Her "roots" to me were in a being a trend setter, in taking chances while still creating catchy pop songs, by being edgy while maintaining a balance of sweetness.

I think this "getting back to her roots" concept is just an excuse to get back to something safer; and therefore safer sales. I can attest that Hello New Me got some pretty good airplay in Japan.

I don't hate the album. It's nice. But that's all it is.