Which Ai Otsuka (大塚愛) album is the best?

[aqua_crystal]

Well my cousin is moving to Canada in two weeks and he has A HUGE collection of Asian CDs which he does not want to carry with him. I took a few from him and then he recommened Ai Otsuka. He has all her albums and he said I can have any one.

I HAVE NEVER HEARD ANY OF HER SONGS

Which one should I take? I have less than two weeks from now to decide. Please vote for your favourite album and tell me why I should take that album. Thanks!

The options are:

• Love Punch
• Love Jam
• Love Cook
• Ai am Best (Has been taken by someone else. If you like this album, vote for it as a second choice please!)
• Love Piece

Btw: this poll has been posted twice. I apologize for this.

After Two Weeks:

Okay... so Love Cook clearly won, so I borrowed that. My cousin's gone now so there's no going back. I hope this was the right choice. Thanks everyone fo helping me decide!

[bondingo]

I said both Ai am Best and Love Cook. Ai am Best is her Best album obviously and it has all of her best songs my opinion. Love Cook is my favorite original album and that's why I picked that one as well.

[fanmail]

Ai am BEST and LOVE PiECE.

Ai am BEST - her singles are pretty much her strongest songs, so you can't go wrong with this.

LOVE PiECE - it has great songs, such as Mirai Taxi, Yumekui and is just awesome. XD

[Tom Punks]

I voted for LOVE PUNCH because it's my favorite. It's the best choice if you love poppy music over a "cutesy rock" style. It also has her best selling single ever, "sakuranbo", which is one of the cutest/most annoying songs in the world. The ballads probably aren't as good compared to LOVE COOK or LOVE JAM, but they're not all dark/sad like in those albums. I think it also has better vocals than LOVE COOK or LOVE PiECE, because although she was squeaky at times, she just seemed to control her voice better. The booklet is also very cute, since it's filled with jelly beans and milk and lollipops and random vegetables being used as balls for sport things. And in my memory, there was at least one picture on every page...

After LOVE PUNCH, I would say LOVE JAM. She's evolving more towards the "cutesy rock" style there, but it also has "daisuki dayo." and "kingyo hanabi" which are pretty nice ballads.

LOVE COOK would be my third choice. It has some nice songs, but I find some of them so annoying. But everyone seems to like the singles from this album, so. Like: neko ni fuusen, Planetarium, Cherish (which isn't a single, but everyone loves this song apparently)

Lastly, LOVE PiECE. It has some good songs like mirai taxi, yumekui (which probably has her best vocals to date). But to me a lot of the songs on this CD sound really alike to each other or like songs from LOVE COOK.

[Foxxy_Fuyumi]

LOVE COOK is the one!!
This album contains some of her best singles since PLANETARIUM, BIDAMA/SMILY, Cherish, etc. This album is filled with beautiful songs like Haneari Tamago, and fun songs like RAMEN 3-fun COOKING. It's a more mature album...
Then the art work is just amazing. Good photos indeed!

[~Matt~]

LOVE COOK is my fav <3
it has amazing songs

[aqua_crystal]

Thanks for the advice! But is Ai Otsuka's pop/ rock songs better or are her ballads the better songs?

[Foxxy_Fuyumi]

Very difficult question.
She really has amazing songs: ballads as well as cachty.
For the first time listen AI AM BEST cause it's a compilation of her singles.

[elepop]

Best album = LOVE COOK
Second best = LOVE JAM

Least favorite = LOVE PiECE

You can go for her best-of compilation too, but she has so many wonderful album tracks. I'd definitely go for LOVE COOK.

[pommy48]

of course love cook!

[TITANIC]

i said Ai AM best and LOVE COOK

[Satsuki]

I chose LOVE PUNCH and LOVE JAM because... well, I like the singles from LOVE PUNCH the best, and to me, that album has the most flow. I don't really like her now, but her earlier stuff before LOVE COOK I think are really fun to listen to. They're very much like pickme-up songs.

I like LOVE PUNCH because ... well, kind of like Tom Punks said, I think she has a lot more control over her voice. To me, her voice generally becomes annoying because of how childish it sounds, but in LOVE PUNCH, it sounds much more like she isn't trying to make it cute, and I enjoy the songs on this album a lot more because of that.

I also like LOVE JAM because that was the first album that I listened to all the way, and the songs on them are sooo happy that it's hard to listen to this album whlie being mad. And I also really enjoyed the singles for this album as well, so... @@

I think her voice is the best in those two albums because afterwards... it seemed like she changed her singing style and her voice just to fit the "cute" image still.

My third choice would be LOVE PiECE because I don't really like LOVE COOK. The songs to me aren't as catchy on LOVE COOK, just annoying and repeatitive. Plus, PEACH > planetarium, for me.

[ALPHY]

LOVE COOK. I wish Ai would go back to cooking up a musical storm.

[Kikaru]

I like LOVE PUNCH and LOVE JAM, because like what they said before, she seems to have better control over her voice. Although I'm not as fond of LOVE COOK, I think Haneari Tamago and definitely worth checking out. I think Ai am BEST is also great, because it has all her singles (well most)

I don't like LOVE PiECE, but I do think you should definitely check out Yumekui and Tears and all the covers she done for Tokyo Friends, because her vocals are nice there.

LOVE PiECE.

[apple-pi]

LOVE COOK is the best, IMO!
Neko ni Fuusen is my fave Ai song, Planetarium is great, Biidama is one of her best hyper songs IMO (and such great lyrics!), I don't like Cherish as much as many people I've seen, but I have to admit it has a great arrangement! SMILY and U-Boat aren't as good as the rest of the album, but U-Boat is actually fun to listen, SMILY is the only one I don't really enjoy (especially the chorus......). 5:09, despite being so short is such a beautiful and intense ballad... Ramen 3-pun Cooking is the most random song ever, but so freaking addicting<33 And LOVE MUSiC is a very sweet, simple song with great lyrics too! I love this album very very very much Her other albums just don't seem to have as much "color" as this one... I dunno how to explain haha XD

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by fanmail

Ai am BEST and LOVE PiECE.

Ai am BEST - her singles are pretty much her strongest songs, so you can't go wrong with this.

LOVE PiECE - it has great songs, such as Mirai Taxi, Yumekui and is just awesome. XD

I 2nd that ^^ LOVE PiECE had great singles, and the album tracks are probably the best Ai had.
And yeah you can't be wrong with Ai am BEST.

[TITANIC]

Originally Posted by KaoriNeko

LOVE PiECE.

i'm not really like LOVE piece.. those singles not really good IMO

[stickyrice]

LOVE COOK is definitely her best album.

[ayumixfan]

LOVE PUNCH - By far her best album ever ~! lol =) ~!
Love Piece- I <3 the singles on this album and the album itself =)