I'd say for me the best track on UNIVERSE is ECSTASY. I finally come to appreciate the song and it's definitely better than the entire album. I don't even like the title track anymore. Another decent one is You are so beautiful. I like songs like that and JUST THE WAY YOU ARE from TRICK.

It's hard to pick a best track in any album for me because of the attention the singles get but I really loved No way and You're so beautiful in Universe.

Yes!! Me too.

I love Universe. I think its a good solid album with an amazing tour.

Form UNIVERSE i really enjoyed You're so Beautiful, UNIVERSE and Step Into My World....and from the singles i loved Alive and its PV

Damn, I can't believe so few love Work It Out!! I love the little chime sounds in it. I don't know how to describe it but it's like sounds Nami Tamaki would use in her music. It's very Nami Tamaki-like and very Gundam-themed (even though I hate the Gundam anime garbage they have had good music in the series). I loved it and I think it's just very powerful during the chorus. Like it kicks it up a notch. I think that's why I liked it so much is because you knew when the chorus was on and it felt right.

ECSTASY and Physical Thing grew on me more as well. But let's use Physical Thing to compare to Work It Out!! and why I love it so much. Physical Thing - during the chorus, it just sounds so unpowerful. So dissatisfying. With Work It Out!! it's like "HELL YEAH!" I just wanna shout along with her but I can't carry a tune for the life of me, especially one within range of a Japanese female popstar. Lol.

I feel UNIVERSE is a step down from TRICK & I deleted tracks like Stay , Work It Out from my mp3player as they sounded really lazy if not dated :x

then again for every Kumi album being released , there will be bound to be people who say that they like so & so while they dislike so & so

music's so subjective

Why are people already comparing UNIVERSE and Dejavu? o.O It's pretty unfair imo because UNIVERSE is a full album and Dejavu has only few singles + previews released (and I couldn't even listen to the previews) so I'd wait for the album at least to leak before I say anything or compare Dejavu to her previous albums. x)

Of course, I can say that I really love UNIVERSE, but I have to confess that out of its singles I only really loved Alive/Physical thing. That's the most played single from UNIVERSE to me I think. :D Other singles weren't so good to me, and even the album tracks sounded better than the singles to me for some reason (I realized this when I listened the album a while ago). I really seem to worship all the songs many other fans seem to hate (No Way, Stay, Work It Out!) and think those are probably the best songs on the album along with SUPERSTAR and You're So Beautiful. <3 I also believe she should've released You're So Beautiful with Alive since the former seems to be pretty popular among her fans. :)

I really loved Universe! I don't think it's an stunning album overall, but there are some songs on Universe that really become some of my favorites from kuu, like Universe, step into my world, no way, you're so beautiful, superstar, ecstasy and work it out!

I don't know what to think about Dejavu 'cause it's too soon, but even I loved all singles with no exception the true is that I feel tired of suki de/anata dake ga, and hey baby, melting & bambi sounds so similar to me (and so cuttie...) High expectations then on the Prologue, at the weekend, passing by and I don't love you ?!! Let's see :D

I usually prefer the single material of artists. But Kuu is one of the few artists of which the album tracks are some of my favorites (minus the obligatory cutesy songs). Like This is not a Love Song, No Way, Driving, UNIVERSE, Hurry Up, tsuki to taiyou etc. So I'm really forward to the new album tracks :heart

I want to set BAMBI my new ringtone :weep , but it's too short

it's kind of song that you want to jump and dance and bounce on it and everything you learned in your entire life :blove

I guess its because UNIVERSE was so well-received. the songs on it are really good without having too much elements to them. @all.night.raver Work It Out is really good to me :) I love the rock and urban taste of it. It's kinda cool. At times, her vocals are rough but Im fine. Actually, even Stay, which sounds like Kuu's midtempo love songs..are one of the better few of that lot. UNIVERSE set the bar rather high for having variety but completedness.

Dejavu has polar singles at the moment so I want to see how it plays out. I think my fav new track might be AT THE WEEK END haaha

edit: Hey Baby! sounds great from the preview :3

Sorry if this has been mentioned before, but CDJapan has added a "Dejavu" CD-cover-sized calendar as external bonus to both versions of Dejavu. Do you think YA will do this also?

^ I hope they do!!

@allnightraver - I love Work it Out! <3
UNIVERSE has become my favourite album by her but for me after every album release, I tend to like it more than the previous so I wonder if it'll happen with Dejavu. The only songs on UNIVERSE I don't like/hate are Alive (which is nice but boring), It's all Love! (hate), Lick me (don't like) and Stay which again, is nice and my favourite out of my least likes lol

Chart Update
POP DIVA
1st week - #4 - 32,702

It sold a bit more than Can We Go Back's debut week! I hope it can match it in the long run

I preordered the album from YA so I hope they add it too. I just sent them an email about it so whatever their reply is in regards to adding it is going to affect my decision on if I will ultimately purchase the album from them or not.

@all.night.raver dude ur not alone, Work It Out! is one of my fav Kuu songs on UNIVERSE too... I love most of her albums, so I will love Dejavu too!

I also love Work It Out!, it's so unique in her discography and I personally think that her voice fits it perfectly! :heart
But I love UNIVERSE as a whole, not a single song I really dislike. That never happened before, there always were one til three tracks I totally dislike on her albums. Even Stay is pleasant for me, even though I normally don't like this kind of songs.
That's the reason it became my favourite album by her!
I'm just missing Hashire! on it, such a great song! ;_;


Edit:

Top 20 Requested Karaoke Love Songs
1. Sakamoto Fuyumi – Mata Kimi ni Koishiteru
2. EXILE – Lovers Again
3. MONGOL800 – Chiisa na Koi no Uta
4. Koda Kumi – Ai no Uta
5. Shounan No Kaze – Junrenka
6. Ozaki Yutaka – I love you
7. GReeeN – Ai Uta
8. Koda Kumi – Suki de, suki de, suki de
9. Akimoto Junko – Ai no Mama de
10. Kato Miliyah & Shimizu Shota – Love Forever
11. Arashi – One Love
12. Arashi – Love so sweet
13. Superfly – Ai wo Komete Hanataba wo
14. Ishihara Yuujirou & Makimura Junko - Ginza no Koi no Monogatari
15. Kuwata Keisuke – Shiroi Koibitotachi
16. Fujitani Miwako & Ouchi Yoshiaki
17. Saito Kazuyoshi – Zutto Suki Datta
18. SPEED – White Love
19. DREAMS COME TRUE – Osaka LOVER
20. Matsuyama Chiharu – Koi

Source: Barks

Thanks to Angel_Angelic at JPM for posting.

I think the best song off UNIVERSE was You're so Beautiful, followed by Lick me, ECSTACY, Physical thing, and No way.

I really like how Hey Baby is sounding :).

I hope nobody minds, I've made a new thread:

http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showth...44#post2629044