Yay, it's time to revisit all of ayu's albums and rank them in order of preference again! Am only including full length studio albums, dis-counting minis.

1. Duty
2. Loveppears
3. My Story
4. I am...
5. Secret
6. Rainbow
7. a song for XX
8. LOVE again
9. Party Queen
10. (miss)understood
11. Rock'n'roll Circus
12. GUILTY
13. Love songs
14. Next Level

Ranks 1 to 10 are super tight since there aren't any album that I really "dislike" or with any weaknesses that bother me overly (or if there are they are really small ones).

Ranks 11-14 are definitely the overall weakest albums for me, albums with tracks that I consistently skip/wish were never made (e.g. You were..., GUILTY, Last angel, November, Energize, etc etc). These were generally albums that had weak track cohesion (i.e. the tracks just sound randomly thrown together), and the songs themselves weren't strong enough for it to be a listenable enough "best of" sort of record either.

Ranking the new tracks in order of preference; this is a no brainer, except for GLORIA, who I now REALLY like after listening to the whole thing. The preview really didn't do it justice.

1. Bye Bye Darling
2. Petal
3. untitled for her...Story 2
4. GLORIA
5. SAKURA

RIGHT NOW i think i like it a lot !!!
The best songs are the ones from the mini-albums

I really love this album. Probably my favorite album from her.
The only problem I have with this album is that almost all of the tracks sound the same.
It's a great album tbh...
Her vocals are great compared to her NEXT LEVEL to Party Queen era...
Though the album's theme is LOVE again... The songs are... glaringly painful...

i like this album and get a similar vibe as Love Songs probably because none of the tracks stand out in these 2 albums.

I could say the same thing. definitely her best since GUILTY for me too. I rarely put forth such statements but this album really got me thinking.
Yes she has amazing songs since that but most songs in the albums really died on me. THIS album has that timeless J-Pop classic sound. It's really beautiful :)

it's nice. that's all i got though.

i mean, there's nothing truly bad i can say about it. well...she included "You & Me," lol. however, i don't really feel anything for it? it's typical ayumi to me. i like her stuff, but how can i be excited over the same old material? there's usually 1 or 2 real stand-out songs on her more recent albums, but this one doesn't really have one to me.

i do like the new album tracks, esp. "Bye-bye darling" and "petal." but i don't expect to spin this album a whole lot.

i honestly dont think she can do any album(s) that are worst than Party Queen

I suppose it's nice. Nothing special imo. I absolutely love petal, amazing song.

Mini album tracks are great but the rest of the record is a yawn-fest. :\

At one point I thought, "OMG just get me LOVEppears!" and that made me feel weird. I've NEVER felt like that about an ayu album. Maybe the songs will grow on me. Or maybe everyone will just have that one album they don't completely care for. Hmph...doesn't mean I'm not gonna spend $150 to get all versions of the album lol

:irked

Well you can't honestly think that the only think Love songs and LOVE again have in common is the word "Love" in the title (No one would compare this album to Love songs if the word "love" weren't in the title.). Yes lyrics are part of the music, but that is just the fore-front. Whereas the music itself has many layers. Well, Love songs does but LOVE again certainly does not. I was listening to the album-only tracks today and they just sound so FLAT! So amatuer-ly produced, sounds like something from fruity loops. I listened to the whole LOVEppears album after that and was almost crying at how lush and detailed that sound was.

Wow we must be listening to very different albums. I can't understand how someone can hate on LOVE again because of its production but love Love songs when the latter has some of the cheapest, most dated sounding arrangements.

Love songs does have a more dated sound, I agree. But it was not as "flat" - there is a lot going on in those songs, despite the library they pulled the instruments from to use for arrangement. There really is not a lot going on in LOVE again.

November and Last angel? Like a doll? Though to be fair the great songs on here were Really Great (crossroad for example is better than most of the songs on LOVE again for me).

And I really disagree that LOVE again is flat. Wake me up, Missing, song 4 u, Bye Bye Darling, Sakura all had Great arrangements, I urge you to listen to a better quality version on earphones again. I'd venture as much as to say that this is a lot coming from me because I HATED song 4 u when the preview first came out last year, cos I thought it sounded like a generic anime song, but the arrangement is really gorgeous.

When I speak of the album come release time I am strictly speaking about the new songs. I love Wake me up, and I really enjoy Missing. Bye-bye darling has a great arrangement. Sakura is pretty simple so nothing to brag about there. But petal is just horrible. It sounds like a cut & paste synthesizer.

And November is flawless. There are SO MANY layers to that song, every time I listen to it I focus on something different. If you try to look behind Ayu's voice and the main melody, there is some GORGEOUS string work going on there! It's genius.

The vocal harmonies on Sakura (and snowy kiss as well, for that matter) are gorgeous!

I guess we prioritise different things then, because I can't just "look behind the main melody" - for me that's 50% of the whole song, if the writing is bad, it doesn't matter if you have 3 million instruments in there unless you're Bjork and the whole point of your music is to use different sounds to create a tapestry; Ayu's music clearly operates on a different level, as is most pop music. The hooks matter, and the melody (also, cheap drum machines - which to be fair she uses in most of her songs, but they sound ESPECIALLY emphasised in November) just makes it a bad song for me.

EDIT:

I couldn't find a good way to say this earlier but I think I know what it is that bothers me about Love songs - while there was some attempt to use different sounds, for the most part the arrangements and production didn't fit the songs. To use Last angel as an example - the main chorus hook is great, but the cheap synthy sound does it no favours, and the way the verses are so slow and low just sucks all the energy out of the song. In contrast to snowy kiss, and the way the synths works with the percussion, and the way the strings come in during the bridge, it's just so thrilling to listen to. If Last angel came on during a concert (like for that CDL) I'd be fiddling my thumbs, but if snowy kiss came on, I'd be so pumped.

And - THAT GUITAR SOLO IN GLORIA!!

There gotta be something wrong with you if you think petal is a horrible song wtf

I have to agree that petal sounded a bit off for me. It has a great and catchy melody for sure, but the arrangement is missing that "oomph". Nonetheless, it's still a good song and it's still stuck in my head

I'm kind of disappointed with SAKURA. I feel that the song has a potential to be like HEAVEN part II from the previews, but it didn't. I feel that the verse + bridge is to short and because of that I don't feel the "build up" for the song. The song has a lovely verse, a lovely bridge and an exciting chorus, but the flow is just not right for me... I'd prefer it to be verse 1 - bridge - interlude - verse 2 - bridge - chorus - the aaa... part and lalala - end. I'd love to re-arrange that song someday...

GLORIA was unexpected, I really like the verses and the uplifting lyrics
Bye bye darling was catchy as hell, loved it. Now I think this song has a quality arrangement and production.
untitled for her...story 2 was okay. the build up was there but I was hoping for a louder guitar riff sound in the last chorus. I still prefer the 1st untitled for her.

The new tracks have great potentials but they're still missing that grandness I'm looking for in the songs. The mini albums (singles) sure did raise the bar of my expectation for this album, but of course, the best songs are usually the ones they put on the singles right? I was just hoping to find another Microphone, SURREAL or Love Song as an album track.

However, as a whole, the tracks have a nice flow and there's not a song that I've skipped (unlike Love Songs where I always skip Thank U, Sweet Season and the interludes). I'm going to be listening to this album on repeat for awhile I guess :)

I'll rate this album 7.5/10 mostly for it's cohesiveness and all like-able tracks (no annoying tracks like Thank U / most of the tracks in party queen). Duty is my fave album and that one is 9/10.

You're completely focused on the sound, which is why I consider you to be small-minded in this case. My reasoning for finding similarities between LOVEppears and LOVE again is that the lyrics of several songs are quite similar. Love songs was lyrically linear while LOVEppears and LOVE again are not so homogeneous. I must say that in terms of similarities to Love songs this new album has a similar booklet, but I still find more similarities with LOVEppears. The lyrics are not just the forefront. I don't get how you think that lyrics do not have many layers like the music does. Seems to me that you hardly care about the lyrics, which is strange since ayu's biggest draw is the honesty and insight in her lyrics. If all you care about is the music, then listen to Melody and TO BE and tell me they're not similar in several ways.

it is true to me that LOVE again is not like Love songs, people might think it so because the booklets are kinda the same and they're both filled with acoustic sound and ballads
Love songs still seem much much better for me