Review of NEXT LEVEL in the Sept issue of Singapore's TEENS magazine
 

I finished my Business Finance final exam today & earlier on before I went back home , I went to the petrol station to check whether should I get some food/drink before dinner (which in the end I didn't lol) & I saw that the latest Sept issue of TEENS is already up & the writer Raine Koh reviewed NEXT LEVEL .

The cover boy for the latest TEENS is chinese pop singer Nicholas Zhang & you can read the review if you have a physical hard copy of it on page 69 .

I took these photos with my camera phone :

http://i31.tinypic.com/16b12c9.jpg

upclose shot of it

http://i26.tinypic.com/2hp3z2u.jpg

in case you guys are not able to read the review because of the sub par pics that I took :dead2 , here it's :

One of the most productive entertainers , ayumi hamasaki (or Ayu for short) returns with her 10th studio album , NEXT LEVEL . For the 1st 6 tracks of the album , the listeners are thrown into a game music fantasy of with hints of 80's retro . The tracks are fun , but 6 tracks of similar sounding songs does not rank high on originality .

Ayu finally serves something different on the plate from track 7 onwards . GREEN highlights Ayu's vocals with the use of traditional Japanese instruments . In this writer's opinion , the song Rule , part of the Dragonball movie soundtrack is a breakthough for Ayu . The pop-rock number is awesome in every aspect .

rank - 4/5

email TEENS for positive/negative & whatever feedback via teensea@epl.com.sg .

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mmm I honestly don't know how should I feel about this review . The part where Raine Koh wrote 'The tracks are fun , but 6 tracks of similar sounding songs does not rank high on originality' kinda ruffled up my feathers a bit but other than that , I'm OK with it .

A bit annoyed that she didn't commented on the later part of NEXT LEVEL & let alone Curtain call , Sparkle & even Days :grumpy

thanks for the upload and typing ^^

IMO it gives me a feeling that the writer is not quite familiar with ayu's songs.

i think that is a terrible review, it must have been written by a young teenage fan? what is "game music fantasy" anyway, does it mean videogame music? and if it did mean that then it is an even worse review!

thk for such the great info!

lol thanks!

I get the feeling that Singapore writers always suck at reviewing Ayumi.

lol yeah

it's not just ayumi , it's practically every jpop artiste which totally blows

that's why nowadays whenever I read the local media on their reviews on artiste's singles/albums , I will get real embarassed about it

hey even I can read better reviews than this Raine Koh via my music blog :innocent

thanks for sharing!

way to be vague, mister. this review means absolutely nothing to the actual album. he clearly listened to it once, not really paying attention.

Really crap review. Sounds like it has been written by a 12 year old that has no idea about music.

Instant fail.

bad review...

thanks for uploading, Karen

It's a bad review lmao how does Bridge to the sky/NEXT LEVEL sound anything like the 80
's??? The only retro songs are like Disco-munication & EnergizE? lol.

i agree with what it said.. EnergizE, Sparkle, rollin' and Disco-munication are pretty much in the asme electronic genre..

So short and pointless... That's barely a decent review of any album let alone NEXT LEVEL.

It almost feels like a product placement when she praises Rule and mentions Dragonball in the same breath.

Also, to say that the "first 6 songs are similar sounding" really just shows she didn't really listen to the album.

But she rated it well and didn't really criticize it much, so... I guess it's alright. It was neat to see a review for it, though, so thanks for the pics! :3 (Also, I could read it fine from the pictures--they weren't too bad.)

woah... 4/5 is a lot o.o

wow... that review... he should go listen to ayu's song more often~

lol such a lame review, the tracks are fun? XD