Time Out Tokyo's James Hadfield reviews Party Queen
 

And as what I expected, this one's negative:
I kind of agree on this. What do you think?

Wow, that is pretty harsh. But I have to say I agree sadly :(

Review was purely on personal taste - James like dem Asian Skanks.

Makes you realise the album sort of caters for all ayu's fans (those who like her pop, those who like her rock, those who want something different and those who like her ballads). Whilst this is not unique of ayu's album, I guess the different sections on this album is more obvious/abrupt (it's like there are 4 different singers on this album!) and thus feel most disjointed.

Haha kinda agree with that article, but for me it still one of my favorite Ayu's album. K-pop (with their boyband and girlband not to mention their drama tv too) is getting world wide so I guess no wonder this album or even J-pop is decreasing in sales.

Yeah, I have to pretty much agree with him.

I don't agree at all since I loved this album so much, so, yeah, his opinion is completely different from mine.

Humm.. interesting but I don't agree with his points.

I agree, this album is more towards her fan than for general public

lol wat is that first sentence, safe TVXQ,SNSD and KARA
the rest of those Hallyu acts are giant flops

anyway I don't agree but I kinda do
I wish the album was more aggressive so less ballads, needed more SHAKE IT!

and IA on hbya

This guy's opinions are rather...weird, anyone should notice by the moment he seems to insult Falco. Like...WTF? Falco was a musical genius and revolutionized a whole genre.

I don't know if it's because I'm not a native English speaker, but I barely understand his point of view... He doesn't use direct phrases to express his ideas, and at the end, we don't know was all about. :confused
I'm just ... confused, don't know if I agree or not.

Someone with sense it seems.

It seems like a rather typical music review to me, they always use elaborate language, usually to hide that most reviewers don't know all that much about music in the end. A friend of mine once said: "almost all music reviewers are just bitter amateur musicians that never got succesful or are angry they didn't get into a music university" xD

I suppose it's understandable for a non-fan to appreciate the alleged depth Party Queen delivers; I get why he's disappointed that the 'partay' songs end after track 3 and I guess any layman would, too, after given an album with such a title and cover and all the hoopla. I guess this album's execution just reeks of faux-pas.

It's really sad to see her getting bashed, nevertheless.

I think if the concept would have been more obvious, people (non-fans) would have understand it better.
The whole production of this release is the cause of this flop, that's all.
You can't elaborate a concept and say "Only my true fans will understand".

I don't think that's the problem really.

ayu's problem each year is that less of the casual music buyers interested in her and with this, she didn't bring multiple hits that casual buyers would buy. She needs the right songs at time right time with the right promotion in order to maintain (or bring to miracle of increasing) sales.
That always have been the reason and in here there is no exception. The numbers aren't that horrid to think that a lot of fan/TA stopped being fans or buy an album for example.

The concept is rather obvious from the lyrics though(at least it is from the translations), that's why many of us western fans are missing it. And reviewing an album for a professional publication(or at least I think it's a professional publication?) without taking lyrics into context is a joke. I'll just guess the reviewer probably is fluent in Japanese so he should understand them(even if he wasn't, NaNaNa is pretty clear about it...)

Same here!

James Hadfield seems to be a thoughtful, intelligent man =D

I couldn't have expressed it better than he did!

Thoughtful and intelligent maybe, but anyone insulting Falco in a music review should not review music. What's next? Insulting Queen, Michael Jackson and The Beatles? xD

I am not sure if he really intended to criticize Falco as a singer. Maybe he just tried to express some awkward feeling as if Timmy's voice just doesn't fit into Ayumi's songs because if compared with Falco you can tell that he's located in a completely different genre of music :)

I find it strange that I got the feeling he believes the best way to save jpop is to make it more similar to kpop, what I strongly disagree... Not because kpop is inferior or something, but because not sounding the same is what make both genres interesting...

And I agree to isthisLOL, it just seens like he reviewed the whole album without taking lyrics into consideration... Something bizarre when reviewing music for a professional publishing and something even more bizarre while reviewing an Ayumi review, as the lyrics are the core of her releases...

Well he gave AKB48's last album 0 stars, I don't think that him and the Japanese audience are on the same side of opinions in general. =P

^ sales does not make for good music however...
I'm just thinking this guys has it set in his mind what should be done to "save" jpop and if people dont do it then the music is going to just be bad.

Well, with that I agree myself :) Although kpop is the same (if he implies kpop doesn't need to be saved which I didn't understand that part well).

Speechless. The 4 rock tracks are the best part of the album. The guy doesn't know what he is talking about. And kpop should be banned as it's turning people into idiots.

:yes this is why I don't agree with him.

Actually Falco isn't all that far from Ayumi musically. Songs like Jeanny that were quite popular fit in rather well with Ayumi's music. Orchestrated pop-epics with some foreign-genre influences.

Er... wasn't the point of the album to have the party be over as soon as it started?

IMO, the review isn't so much negative as it is wondering "Well, where's the party?" but there's always more to Ayu than that. I don't think she's ever going to make a full on "PARTY" of an album made up of mainly mindless clubby hits but who knows? Maybe she will in the future but judging from the last 15 albums... I don't think so.

I disagree with him completely; the rock part of the album is the best part. And, JPOP needs to sound more like KPOP? I like a little KPop here and there, but if this happened it would get really old, really fast. In my opinion, the reason the Jpop scene seems more "doddery and conservative", has to do with the dismal (read: nonexistent) way they market to their international fans (Japan-only youtube pages, short version, low quality PVs, and not putting their music on international iTunes stores, etc), whereas Kpop bands try their hardest to market and appeal to as many people as possible.

Also, the idea that it's good and expected that one of my favorite singers sexually objectifies herself to make sure people know that she is just as "nubile" (really gross choice of words there) as her younger competition (not saying that's what Ayu is doing, but that's what the reviewer is implying that she's doing; plus, he says it like it's a good thing) is plain creepy and demeaning. No, thank you.

True.

Ohh, big words. Way to pull out a thesaurus to make you sound like a more professional reviewer.

I feel like he's critiquing the album one-dimensionally. i.e. since the album is dubbed "Party Queen", one would naturally expect an album full of high-energy dance numbers, but instead we have a series of powerful, emotional rock ballads and a few jazz numbers. Perhaps he only considered the lighter side of a Party Queen, whilst ignoring the dark side.

what a douche.

can someone sum that up? His writing style is so dreadfully boring I stopped reading at NaNaNa.

Not gonna bother criticizing a crap review.

This has been my thought as well.

Basically..

- Starts off strong with Party Queen to Shake It
- Becomes absurd from "call" to "Tell me why"
- "the next LOVE" and "Eyes, Smoke, Magic" are confusing
- "how beautiful you are" is a generic piece of fluff

^^good job summarizing what this idiot wrote. lol

He didn't say Jpop needs to become like Kpop, he was commenting on how Kpop is popular because of it's sleek production (e.g. compare tight SNSD routines to AKB48), he's probably also alluding to the fact that Kpop has by far overtaken Jpop in terms of global interest.

And then he says that Ayu is trying to counter that by bringing some of that quality to Jpop, but it falls flat after Shake It♥

Okay... so i cant totally see where he is coming from. But I do not agree...
This is ayumi... she does stuff like this all the time... I consider this typical ayumi...

I just dont like this dude... As a reviewer he is very narrow minded in the music business...
To say jpop you need to have more kpop?

Is it weird that I simultaneously agree and disagree with this review? Maybe it's more than I understand why he feels the way he does. I still love this album. :P
I think the reviewer is looking for something different in the album, however, though. *shrug* Oh well. Enjoy it if you so desire! :)

Well, sorry for keeping J-pop rich in genres and not monotone and recyclable like K-pop :rolleyes

I've never listened to K-Pop before. I tried chinese pop (Show Luo for example) but I guess I am addicted to J-Pop way too much.

Well, the message of Party Queen went right over that reviewers head. Completely missed the point. lol Can't say I'm impressed with the review either.

I have to agree call sounds like Michelle Branch's stuff, it reminds me of her 'everything' when I first listen to it

but if you hadn't read Ayu's twitter etc... would you really get the message?

I think his review perfectly shows the difference in perception of a non-fan, casual listener who has no idea what Ayu has said about the concept, and us fans who read her every word.

He isn't bashing or hating, he's really praising the opening tracks for their mixture of styles, impact and power. The reviewer just doesn't think the rest maintains the quality.

Did people miss HIS point completely?

I feel the exact opposite. I hate the first three tracks and love everything after it. Just because this guy doesn't like jazz and loves kpop doesn't mean the rest of the album is ******.

:laugh he likes what some fans seems to dislike.

I find odd he didn't review PQ along with lyrics though. The lyrics make perfect sense with the whole album concept. Maybe he still didn't like it lol but the vote would be slightly higher then.

So negative. But well, it's his opinion.

the guy's a k-pop fan...LOL

i agree that k-pop is really causing j-pop to diminish in the spotlight by a great amount...the rest nayyy...i love this album :)

I think a lot of fans would have gotten the message eventually without Ayu's tweets. The tweets only ended up confirming what a lot of people had in the back of their minds to begin with. Say the album came out and she mentioned it weeks afterward and people had already thought of the 'lonely queen' concept. That isn't the way it panned out, but I'm glad she mentioned it from the moment the covers came out.

I got that he liked the first three tracks of the album BUT I feel like if she had kept that sound up for the rest of the album, she would have lost her "Ayu-ness" completely.

I agree.

And I don't think his love for kpop came across here that much at all.

What's wrong with you people? He PRAISED the first electro tracks for being fundamentally different from kpop and for seemingly bringing something new and interesting to the Jpop scene.

He got lost at Call, which imo is incredibly understandable. As I've said from the beginning, it much more reminds me of the generic songs koda likes to sing. Not that it's a bad thing, I love me my kuukuu. But still.

The Rock section is going to be the main difference of opinion obviously. He didn't feel it was effective, and I appreciate his view being someone who is outside the Ayu fandom, as someone who isn't used to those types of songs from her.

I think it's noticeable here that he would have preferred a whole electro album.


Then he moves on to the jazz, and really, who wouldn't be blindsided by them? I was, and I've been a fan since forever :/

And if people don't agree that hbya is generic...god damn you have some bigger problems.


Yes the songs are beautiful, yes they have heartfelt lyrics. Yes, we love them. But that doesn't mean everyone has to look and appreciate those things when they listen to it. Some people are going to be in it for only the music or the casual listening, and some people aren't going to like it. Big deal.

In any case, maybe one of the biggest things that's hurt ayu in her career, is that she isn't about the casual listening anymore, and maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Jumping back in to second this comment.

I think it's pretty strange for someone who doesn't speak Japanese to be reviewing a Japanese album. There's a whole dimension that isn't being explained her, that is usually touched on in many reviews about american albums. That dimension is the lyrics. He doesn't even know the first thing about them, because if he did he would know Party queen is definitely not the confident song he thinks it is... it's about a girl who has no confidence in herself so she has to drown her worries away all the time.

It's frustrating.

i guess when you are reviewing an album, you should not compare it with any musician or anything else..just the album...you should understand the lyrics and need to listen more than once on the album itself.

A: I don't believe this guy regularly listens to her music.

B: As far as the J-pop scene is concerned, well, when it becomes just about the money, they've got artists churning out song after song, the creativity gets diluted. Like a series that's been on too long.

C: I still believe that it's not practical to think that any artist is gonna have a solid unending streak of success. To say that the music industry is on its last legs simply because it's not always doing fantastic is foolish. It has its ups and downs, like many things do.

This review is a failure, with only a slight few points to make toward the album, but in the end he doesn't even make his own point that clear.

I really love this part of your comment;

"Party queen is definitely not the confident song he thinks it is... it's about a girl who has no confidence in herself so she has to drown her worries away all the time."

I just copy and paste this in my Facebook n credited you as "-Maikaru of AHS-":luv2

This guy has no idea what K-pop is. Her album sounds nothing like K-Pop.

^^Finally, we can agree. lol

yeah, wish I hadn't even read it. what a waste of time.

probably cause of how cheesy the songs are :shrug

hate to say but... agreed

But as much as I like RR, I too agree that there was alot of nonsense going on in the middle of the song. Escalating absurdity is a pretty good way to refer to it. The piano, the organs, Timmy's stupid choir vocals; layer upon layer of noise. None of it was necessary, the song is strong enough to stand on its own without all that.

^^I still don't even hear Timmy on RR. I did start to hear him on Shake It, and now that part really annoys me. LOL ugh

Can we just move on to the next (DAI composed) album already please.....

How is it that you can't hear him? The moaning after every line Ayu sings after the piano organ nonsense is him. I wish I could tune him out but I can't.

He has a point about Reminds me, it's like they literally flicked through the book of epic cliches and threw it into the middle of the song but it doesn't really add anything to the song.

So I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks of Michelle Branch when I hear call :laugh...

But I kind of see what he means...as much as I have commended this album & enjoyed it, there is a stark difference between the songs...

Wow, what a harsh review. If I weren't a fan of Ayu's already, I very well may have agreed with it completely, but since I am biased, I actually quite like the album with the exception of the broadway songs. Literally every other song is good but those.

^^Not sure, I just have not heard him yet. Maybe my mind is purposely blocking him out. LOL idk...but I'm using Bose in-ear phones, so it's definitely not the quality.

not agree.i love this album freaking much.

+1

The way Ayu aproach the concept on the lyrics is pretty literal... The "lonely party queen" thing begins already on the 2nd song, on a line written in English... To get the "story" behind the album u don't need to go deeper than reading the lyrics in order...

Sorry, but this review is pretty lazy...

^ but consider how the line is presented, in a quite silly rhyming line that isn't even the focus of the song. It's not exactly a unique line she is presenting, he can't be blamed for overlooking the line as something to add half hearted emotional depth to the album when the rest of that song betrays that concept.

I get the concept, 'cause I am an Ayu fan, but the lyrics - aside from dealing more explicitly with her divorce in some places - really aren't anything we haven't come to expect from her, and her her standard Jpop output now - sans ESM & tnL of course.

I don't think he's lazy, he's doing his job, listen to the album how an everyday consumer would and say what he thinks, it's a sales review not an artistic album critique. Ayu IS only pop music at the end of the day, no matter what fans (including myself) dress her up to be. :/

LOL he's saying the best part of the album is the first three songs? To me, the album becomes a masterpiece after call, so we totally diverge on this.

I'm sorry, but any professional music reviewer MUST know that the tracks order and the way the melodies communicates with each other, and how the lyrics communicates with each other is something to be looked into while reviewing an album... As this is what really makes an concept work or fail... Being this person reviewing Bob Dylan or Justin Bieber.

This. First three tracks I cannot stand but everything after call unfffffffffff

all he did was review the name of the album thinking it would be something else which is a lousy job on his behalf, then bash the album because it wasn't a "party" sounding CD

+1

But casual listeners hardly go into such depth :/

idk whatever. I don't necessarily agree with him, but he makes some valid points.

Points that even people here made in the Thoughts thread.

he might be the biggest douchebag ever...but...lol idk guess I'm used to looking past that.

Well... I don't think casual listeners have any obligation to analyze in depth... I don't think a hardcore fan have any obligation of analyzing the album in depth (unless they are complaining they can't get it and the fact they can't get it makes it a bad album :B), I don't think anyone, not even the reviewer, has any obligation to like it...

But someone whose job consists of listening music albums (or watching movies, or appreciating fine arts) and objectively analyzing it and saying if it's good or bad should at least take a look on the whole material (lyrics included) and do some research about the context in what the piece of work was made. He is not a casual listener, he is not a random listener... He is someone being paid to give his impressions about it and say on mass media if it's good or bad, if people should buy it or not... So, IMO, the way he did it is pretty lazy.

If he said something like "she was trying to portray how lonely a party queen is and how much they strugle with their own lifes, but it ends being pretentions and empty" for example, I would disagree, but wouldn't find it either bad or lazy...

'How Beautiful You Are'. As Hamasaki emotes her way through this wretched, generic bit of fluff, it's like the hangover kicking in at the end of an all-night karaoke session: it was fun once, but this party ended a long time ago.

I can agree on this line, at least. Overall, I would give Party Queen a B, personally.

maybe. I mean, this review is like, so incredibly short and not very in depth at all lol It gave me the impression that his job is just, listening through an album once, and then writing a short summary/analysis of it.

I mean, if this was a positive review, where for example, he said the rock section was great and effective and emotional...instead of absurd, or whatever he said...would you still feel it was lazy? :laugh

He was hired to write a short review, and that's what he did.

Unless he just decided to make this one brief cause he hates the album and all his other reviews are super long :roflmao

Then I'd be like..."okay the guy's an ass".

Rolling Stone reviews are short and aren't this superficial, for example...

This review is short, yet the majority of his sentences is filled with unneccessarily elaborate language that makes it have even less content and instead more plain judgement. At the same lenght he could go far more in-depth and talk about the actual concept.

I guess lol meh. His elaborate language was quite successful in getting his points across to me.

Sorry, but I don't think it's as necessary for him to discuss the concept. That's just my opinion...and I guess he feels the same.

Maybe that's why he's not as big a deal as Rolling Stone reviews? But like I said, Im not really familiar with him. Other people seem to be idk. I'm not sure how much clout this review is going to have.

I don't see how this guy is really pushing KPOP against Ayu and JPOP - what he says is true in the beginning.

KPOP focuses on catchy "hooks" in their songs, expensive and clean cut production values and gimmicks to sell craploads of music for 3 weeks, then the group goes on hiatus. KPOP is extremely fast, fickle, and is the "now" movement of Asian music. I like KPOP. Some of my favourite songs are from KPOP artists, but if I listen to my non-bias groups' songs, I find myself skipping to the chorus and listening to that only. I only like the hook in many songs after a few weeks. KPOP makes itself out to be fast pasted and savvy, and in comparison, JPOP is "slower, steadier and more boring". I still love JPOP, but once you've gotten a taste for some of the Korean chart-toppers, you can see what he means by JPOP looking dull by comparison, and to an outsider, in need of "saving".

The only thing that bothers me thus far is that he never mentioned the lyrics. Either he can't comment on them for lack of space, or understanding. However, he doesn't really talk about the vocal content. He mentions that songs are "absurd", but not whether the songs themselves are unusual, or if he feels the subject matter is the strange part. The word "absurd" isn't always used in the negative, maybe he's just using it in an archaic way?

Plenty of people on AHS judge songs based on snippets, radio rips, leaks, etc without knowing a word of Japanese - this guy should probably know better, but I can't see him criticising the lyrics or saying anything that is blatantly false.

Nobody who googles Falco for more than 5 seconds can dismiss his work and effect on the industry, but not everyone has to like what his work is. You can appreciate the legacy but not like his actual work that much. Disliking Falco's rapping doesn't instantly discredit someone as a reviewer.

I see this review as a standard review from a non-follower who's coming into Ayu knowing little background. His feelings reflect what a standard listener probably feels picking up the album expecting a fun, upbeat party album based on the title and alluring covers. Of course he's disappointed as the title and cover of the album is misleading to the uninitiated. Casual listeners won't bother to look for a deeper meaning. After all, it's a lot of work just to enjoy a roughly 1-hour album...

Not every reviewer will spend hours listening to the entire back catalogue to be able to write a 500 word puff piece on the latest albums coming out. Most likely, this guy turned up at work on Thursday morning with this on his desk and a note saying "plz rvw 4 tmrws ppr THX!".

You have to take reviews with a pinch of salt. I just view them as interesting opinions. A review in a paper has never made me go and buy an album without previewing or knowing 100% that I want it to support the artist (I only do this for Ayu, SNSD, B1A4, Gorillaz and Lenka) - has anyone here read an album review and gone an bought the album based SOLELY on the reviewer's thoughts?

Sorry for the scroller - as usual, didn't realise how much I wrote ;__;

I think he's bashing Jpop =]]
His review of Jpop album is bad =]]
http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/featu...rls-Generation

Actually, I have no idea who this guy is. Does he really understand AYU's songs?
Ya, maybe now Japan has been kicked by the Korea songs, but still , I think AYU has been working on to progress herself in this album. Like, I've never heard she singing songs like Broadway style, I think it's great, a really different try for herslef, and the two songs "the next LOVE" and "Eyes, Smoke and magic" is really cute and amazing, why can't she sing like Broadway? Right?
And, I think he really don't understand the meaning of Return Road, this one is amazing, cuz I love AYU singing with chorus, especailly like opera style, why can't she try it? Only foreigners can sing opera and Broadway?(No offense, really, but in my idea i think this writer is too conservative.)
Anyway, he sounds to me that he doesn't understand AYU at all, maybe he needs to try to understand her more before writing this kind of articles to complain.

Did he actually imply that Return Road is absurd and confusing? That's one of the simplest, honest and touching (albeit slightly rock) song I've heard from Ayu. Got me choked up, even. This guy....annoying.

To each his own, i suppose.

^ Return Road is simple? o_o Melodramatic orchestration and choral vocals isn't my definition of simple...

I don't blame him for ignoring the context, even if he had lyrics, because it's still not that obvious. Loneliness has been a theme in all of Ayu's albums, why should he think it's any different and has something special about it in this one?

If I were reviewing PQ, knowing a little about Ayu, but not about the theme, I would see this album as her doing her same old thing, with a few new tracks on to give it a different concept. I kinda do see it this way. A bit like how RnRC is criticised for losing it's theme for 3/4 of the tracks.

When I first got into ayu I didn't know any lyrics, so it's kinda weird that people are screaming that this guy should have read the lyrics etc. before writing review. It does not work like that, he was supposed to deliver a review from the point of a "commoner". How many non japanese casual listeners even care about her lyrics? I know WE do, but we are FANS. This review was kind of harsh, but I have give him credit that he gave 0 stars to AKB48, lol.

^ I thought 0 stars for Koko ni Ita Koko was a bit harsh. The Girls' Generation album is better, but Koko ni ita Koko has Beginner, and while I found most of it to be filler, the singles are seriously catchy.

This guy does seem to have a bit of a problem with Jpop lol

I basically disagree with everything this moron says. I don't find her attempt at portraying a lonely party queen pretentious or empty at all. wtf.

From the article:

Onyanko's debut single carried the improbable title 'Don't Make Me Take Off My Sailor Suit', and contained couplets like 'I am a little scared / But it's boring being a virgin.'

:roflmao

I dunno, this guy is allowed to have his opinion about the album, and he doesn't even state it that rudely. I don't get why people even care so much, he's no one. And there are worse snap judgements that could be made.

Would any of you be mad if I punched him in the mouth? LOL :P

:bgiggle

yes, we should send him hate mails, how dare he say ayu's album is not heavenly made piece of astonishing art. :thud

One thing I agree and I would've been super happy is that the dance tracks should've been 5 and not 3 :P

But yeah, whatever.