It's exactly that ! It depend of the perspective. If it's compared to her own discography it's so so ...(nothing really news I think for her) but if compared to what is currently trendy in Japan or in the world I'm sorry like it or not but songs like NO FUTURE or The Show Must Go On are not safe ! They can be revival of the 90's but that don't make them less interesting than a trendy song.

Maybe for you but it's not true they are both (from what we can hear from Out of control) Pop-rock mid-tempo ! Zutto... is a conventional ballad not Last minute or Out of control.
4 Ballads/2 mid-tempo/3 upbeat (we will see for "anythig for you") it's well balanced to me !

Jumped on the bandwagon of what is trendy in the world is not "edgier"

Seriously people not many of Ayu albums had compact concept. It's usually mix of various type songs just to satisfied different fans. For example "NEXT LEVEL" was fast and up-beat album with about 2 ballad fillers and 1 mid-tempo (title track). Upcomming album gonna be ballad album with some 2-3 fast tracks. It really smells like "Love songs" and I wouldn't be surprised if Ayu's housband would starring in PVs (that was sarcasm).

just gimme the covers already lol

Perhaps 'edgy' is another way to express how 'cool' the new album is?
Oh well whatever. Come on A ONE! Waiting is terrible.

Ayu will never be edgy like Angela Aki. She gave us monkeys for god sake! When would Ayu.

Zutto has some waltz influence on its chorus... What while not edgy on anyway, is not that usual for pop ballads either.

Ayu always mix influences from different genres and more often than not gets an unique but accessible result. But when I read people complaining about an album that wasn't even released yet I have to keep in mind people around here believe Ayu's music is generic and Namie's music is avant garde. :P

^
What I meant by conventional ballad was not negative at all (I wanted to refer to the slow tempo) but what you said is interesting !

That's what I love about it!

Oh, I got what you meant^^... I was just pointing that the song does have some surprises on its own, while people tend to dismiss is as a generic ballad.

Eh... I don't want `Edgy Ayu`. I fell in love with her ballads (including progress and Song 4 u) and would love for her to keep writing more. I guess nowadays being predictable is not too good for business. I hope if she ever strays so far out of her comfort zone it'll be from the heart and not because Avex and her fans pressured her.

Ayu is always going to be more than just a 'ballad queen' or a 'rock diva'. There are so many sides to Ayu and we've seen so many with more to come imo.

Angela Aki gave us monkeys when she gave birth. She also gave us those steel drums, a ukelele, and some weird jazz. If Ayu will step out of her comfort zone it will be when something life changing happens. She's already been married like 3 times or something so it won't be marriage that changes her. I don't know about breakup though. When she mistakenly broke up with her long time boyfriend we got guilty, which was great. When she broke up with the grass eater we got a rehash album. When she broke up with the Australian we got party queen. It's 1 hit 2 miss. Maybe she needs to visit Africa and see the situation there. Then we'll get I am 2 or something.

Wait until the font of the cover is released :P

I thought GUILTY was sort of a more ironed-out, poppy version of the rather raw and surprising Secret and I didn't like it that much, whereas I thought PQ was risky and personal and dark and brilliant but with some arrangement issues... so to me it's 1 hit and 2 misses but not quite the same as yours lol... All 3 albums certianly had their issues, whether you like them or not is really gonna depend on personal taste.

im seriously dying for this album...its great Ayu actually gave us long previews..so that we can judge the song in more entirety than 45s previews... and i really long them more and more each day

Colours is not a bad album at all.. but so many people criticized it.

The idea of Colours are different colours, each track represents different colour.. That's why no plain music or intro for this album..and this album seems to have many different tracks not connecting each other.

Colours: 8 new songs (Pray, Hello new me previously released, but new songs for me)
A ONE: 8 new songs (3 previously released)

If we delete Pray and Hello new me we have 6 new songs from Colours
And if "a Bell" and "Anything for you" are intro/interlude we will have 6 new songs on A ONE

So maybe she reduced the numbers of new songs for some reason but I don't understand why, but maybe with less songs we don't have 2 or 3 songs that no grown on us and we can enjoy more the new 6 songs xD

"Total 11 songs produced by famous songwriters will be recorded in the album"
The 2 songs are full songs ...

Giving me namie uncontrolled vibes.

lol and i am going to be one of those complaining for sure :D