I've only reached "reminds me" so far, but I can't say I'm impressed at all. NaNaNa and Shake it sound exactly the same to me, and so do call, letter, and reminds me.

Also, I know there's a lot of love going around for NaNaNa, but I seriously hate it. Timmy's rap part, between his singing and the terrible, terrible lyrics, makes my ears bleed. I've heard some bad Jrap in my day, but this takes the cake. :tired But I suppose I might be the only person on this forum that really couldn't care less if Timmy was dropped. He's like a drunken, spur-of-the-moment tattoo. He's entertaining for a week or two, but then you're like, "ok, damn, I'm done with this." Those are my feelings at any rate. :shrug

The verse in return road doesnt really match the chorus imo. But I do love the part from call to tell me why. That is what FIVE should be lol

This album. WOW. Just. WOW.

It's pretty much everything I practically wanted from Ayumi for so long. And it has so much of what Love songs and FIVE lacked. In all honestly, I was starting to lose faith in Ayu after FIVE (Even though I DO love that album to death as well) because it seemed like she wasn't going anywhere in terms of experimenting. To me, FIVE was just an extension of Love Songs.

But Party Queen...oh boy. Faith rejuvenated. I have way too much to say about this baby so...



All in all, I give the album an 8 out of 10! It would've been 7.5 but I like the way she surprised us with those jazz pieces. It's definitely another step up from Love Songs & FIVE.

THOUGH, I also feel as if this album was a continuation of RnRC. It has a song with Organs (Microphone/Return Road), not-so-ayu songs (Don't Look Back, Sexy little things/the next LOVE, ESM), interesting dark rock ballads (count down, Last Links/call,Letter,reminds me,Tell me why) party songs (Lady Dynamite/PQ, NaNaNa, Shake it) and meaningful closers (meaning of Love/HBYA)

The only difference is that Party Queen definitely has a story line to it. Here's my take:



So yeah. That's the end of my rambling :D.

4/10



my favourite track is "Return Road" (actually... is the only song i liked xD)

Party Queen - i used to not like this song that much, but after the radio version come out, i keep it play on repeat....the song become more and more catchy, and i like it now... 8/10

NaNaNa - love the 'tik..tik..tok' part...love the whole atmosphere and mistery...8.5/10

Shake It♥ - love the song..catchy..darker version of My name's women...9/10

taskebab - retro rock style interlude..not the best...silly title..LOL...6/10

call - love western guitar style in this song...remind me of YUI type of song..relaxing.. 7.5/10

Letter - remind me of Life, but definitely better than Life, because i hate Life...LOL...i like the song...8/10

reminds me - love the intro! love the verse! the chorus is not really unique, the interlude is unique, key change? the ending!!! WOW!!! love it...9/10

Return Road - EARGASM! AYU!!! The verse is sooo japanese...The chorus is so strong, the arrangement is so dark! the interlude...WOW... LOVE IT! 10/10

tell me why - not really feel the song...little flat..love the arrangement towards the end...but that's about it 7/10

a cup of tea - love the first part...darker towards the end...and back on cheerful part again...and back to darker version again (>_<) 5/10

the next Love - wow..ayu really sing this?! very unique... i wish Peco still there, she will cry in happiness...LOL.. 7/10

Eyes, Smoke, Magic - (O_O) this is Ayu song?! wow...what can i say..it's just so unique...need time to make it grow on me....cute song though 6/10

Serenade in A minor - very touching, emotional and dark, love it 8/10

How Beautiful You Are - grower song...i hear this song non stop..i love it a lot...9/10

i think PQ is one of her shortest full album...lot of track is under 4 minutes...usually most of her songs is around 4.30 to 5.00 minutes...

But i love PQ...much more than Love songs...
PQ is dark, emotional...i love it...i feel Duty vibe from this album....

i think it's one of my fav album from Ayu..

OVERALL POINT = 7.7/10
OVERALL POINT (Minus interludes) = 8.1/10

VERY GOOD ALBUM!

Wheeee what a refreshing album. It went by too quickly, though! Too short!!

1. Party Queen - Yeah... I hate the lyrics still, though it doesn't sound as childish/"fun" as I was expecting it to, and that's a good thing. So tired of Honey & Beautiful Fighters type songs. I like that it sounded more electronic... but... it's still a ridiculous song. And I'm not a fan of her vocals in this song, she kind of sounds like a duck 4/10

2. NaNaNa - Wow, this is certainly an in your face song. Where is the confirmation that Timmy did the rapping in this? It sounds nothing like him (though I know vocals can be easily modified). Like everyone else has been saying, it sounds EXACTLY like Marc Panther from Globe (voice AND pronunciation of words. I happen to really like Marc and would be excited if it were him, but also find it humorous since TK did Love Songs haha). It's very energetic and cool sounding. And corin. is a brilliant & diverse composer, and I can't believe one of Rina Aiuchi's composers did a song for Ayu :) 8.5/10

Shake It - Thank God this didn't turn into a Kumi Koda's Shake It-esque song. Some of the background music sounded like it came out from a mecha anime haha. The "Shake It Lala" parts definitely sound out of place. I'm happy how heavy this song sounds. 7.5/10

taskebab - Yeah, another song this guy ripped off. I'm surprised he made it so obvious sounding. Don't get me wrong, the instrumental sounds awesome, but because this foolish composer has no shame in stealing music, this instrumental gets a 0/10

Call - I wasn't too impressed with this song when I heard the PQ previews. It's a definite filler track... I know it's rock, but it's not really my type of song? I'll take this, though, over many, many of her other filler tracks on other albums. 5/10

Letter - Okay so somehow I guess I got distracted and thought I was still listening to Call when I was actually listening to Letter. Slightly better than Call, but still a filler song. 5.5/10

Reminds Me - Aww. I really love this song. Alot. It's very melancholic sounding, and I love the composition. The guitars are *amazing*, and the strings compliment the guitars so well. The Lalala's don't bother me as much as most people I guess. Here it comes folks: I like this song more than the highly-praised Return Road. It might just be my favorite song on PQ 9.5/10

Return Road - Another strong song by Ayu with beautiful composition. I feel this song has the standard "Ayu sound" that we all know and love. The organs are awesome in this!! It kind of amused me how in the middle of the song Return Road all of a sudden becomes "Phantom of the Opera" for several seconds hahaha. Timmy's OoOoOoOoaaoaahahhhh was so unnecessary and I wish I could delete his vocals off this track. 9/10

Tell Me Why - Alright, so it's kind of "blah" that this song is from another singer. But it's not like Ayu hasn't done this before (i.e. Memorial Address, multiple songs from (miss)understood). She made this work for her very well. It has a nice beat & flow... nothing extremely memorable (could be from MY STORY), but a nice solid 7/10.

A Cup of Tea - Dubstep is a guilty pleasure. Though this instrumental doesn't really go anywhere, so: 6/10

The Next Love - Okay this style of music is obviously not for everyone. For me, I *love* musicals and I think she handled this genre of music REALLY WELL. Jazz is awesome & cool in my opinion. Obviously experimental, as is Eyes, Smoke, Magic. It's really cool hearing Ayu's voice with this style of music, and I think her voice sounds really sexy :B 7.5/10

Eyes, Smoke, Magic - Haha. Someone saw Chicago. Cute, playful song that works for me, because again, I like this genre of music. 6.5/10

Serenade in A minor - Ehhhh this is SO sad... And I look at the cover of this album (the CD+2DVD) and feel even WORSE. I think if you listen to most of the songs on this album and then look at the covers of this album at the same time, you can actually feel what the covers are trying to portray & the overall concept of the album. Weird how that worked out. 8/10

How Beautiful You Are - Wow, she really has like one TRUE ballad in this album. I feel like this hasn't happened in forever, but I could be very much mistaken ahaha Alright...I have to admit this song grew on me a little. Timmy's chanting, again, is out of place. But as "typical" of a song that this is... it's quite pretty. 6/10

Overall: I feel like my scores are kind of all over the place with this album, but I feel this album is one of her most solid & strongest releases in a VERY long time. It's an extremely refreshing album that taps into genres that I'm very fond of. I know alot of people have been comparing the songs on this album to songs on previous albums, but for this album, I feel like almost every single song has a fresh sound to it!! Ayu did NOT disappoint with this album. I gave it an A-

I don't know about you guys, but Eyes, Smoke, Magic was one of the greatest things I've ever heard.

^ totally agree. and it keeps getting stuck in my head. definitely one of my favorites from the album.

tell me why and reminds me are both at the top of my list, though. both are just so tragically beautiful in that way, i can't help but have a need to listen to both of them on repeat all night long...

the whole album sounds pretty good except ayu's voice :yes

okay besides that, I really like the album track rather than the tracks that been leaked before. I HATE Party Queen, i cant stand her voice in the song and like someone mentioned before the song sounds so empty like it lacks of something, but I'm not sure either. I can imagine this song would be sing for some J-idol singer and that would be more suitable rather than ayu herself.

I really like the middle part of the album, like call, letter and return road, she reminds me of the middle part of MY STORY too where songs like liar, HOPE or PAIN, HAPPY ENDING etc, they sounds rock-pop but they are very emotional in a good way. I like how they put the strings in these songs too, everything blended pretty well.

EDIT: WAIT I've changed my mind, but the BURLESQUE-ish songs are really making me WTF. Not because they sound awful but it just doesnt fit into this album, the difference and contrast is too much, making me feel like riding a rollercoaster while playing this album

i don't care what everyone have to say but this album slays BIG. PQ is an album of the most diverging opinions, and probably the most talked about in Ayu's career. And because it easily tops off anything since Guilty, I rate this album 8.5, on which half of it is from Return Road alone. lol

MEH HATERS BUT RETURN ROAD IS THE HOLIEST SONG IT'S NOT EVEN MADE BY HUMAN OMFG

Return Road is just in a league of its own...can DAI just come back and compose forever? Maybe it would get CREA to come out of her shell (has anyone ever tweeted Ayumi and asked her why she doesn't compose anymore?). It's just so wonderfully Ayu...gah. I can't even take it, it's so good.

Timmy is cool but doesn't need to be so front and center in my opinion. Hopefully she will kind of be done with him before the next album rolls around.

The rest I really loved, except Eyes, Smoke, Magic...it's just not really my thing.
But overall I'm really loving it!

I've only heard NaNaNa but IMO if Timmy wasn't on the song, it wouldn't be anything special..just like Until That Day.../Not Yet/Sparkle/Last Angel/etc but not as good. At least NaNaNa has a twist to it..

Why are you guys obsessed with MY STORY? The album is sooo blah, I give kudos to anyone that sit through it without skipping a track, so many boring songs that go nowhere.

is it just me or NaNaNa background music almost similar to ladies night

The album is okay, better than I thought. I would prefer Return Road to not have the background vocals at the end, but eh...

Also, Eyes, Smoke, Magic is clearly a song written whilst someone may have been under the influence. "I smoke magic."

Ladies Night's beat ripped off a Daft Punk song and a song on this album rips off another Daft Punk song so probably not a coincidence.

Are my friend and I the only ones that heard "All That Jazz" from Chicago when we listened to that one?

If she called THIS album "Rock 'n' Roll Circus", that would make more sense.

I like the diversity in this album, it doesn't sound as mainstream as her other albums.

Timmy is overused and not in a good way.

It's like the exact same beat from Ladies Night lol
How did we not see it.

I was disappointed with this album. I've been a fan of her for many years now, and this is by far in my opinion her worst album....Im not trying to start any fires here....But for real. The ballads were eh...ok. Nothing we havent heard before. The random jazz....lol. That made me giggle on many levels. Party Queen the song....i'm going to deny its existence. Ayu singing about partying and getting a drink and CHEERS!!!.....lol.

Return Road is the most overrated song on this album IMO. Idk, I think they could have really toned down the arrangement. The way the arranger tried to make it "epic" seems a little forced and contrived.

I thought that DAI retired as a composer? My guess is that the song was composed during the I am.../RAINBOW sessions and ended up not being recorded.