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GUILTY is just Ai Otsuka's LOVE PiECE... the singles totally own the album tracks AND the singles practically take up the whole album. But still, I'm just meh with the album for now and now I shall analyze the tracks.
Mirror: One of her best intros ever. The starting seems very mysterious yet a little scary; after switching into that until that Day... alike "chorus", Mirror starts to fade back into a simple piano outro. Simply amazing.
9/10
(don't) Leave me alone: It sounds pretty good for a poppish/dance song. It may sound repetitive and has beats similar to GAME/1LOVE/until that Day... but dlma still has its own magical feel. I like it.
7/10
talkin' 2 myself: Her best rock song after (miss)understood and is this LOVE? IMO. The last line of the chorus is LOVE and the song sounds pretty unique with a mix of the rock beats and strings. Fantastic
10/10
decision: Hmm... Ayu is sly. Putting decision after t2m only highlights the obvious difference in style between the two rock songs, albeit they both ARE rock songs. decision starts off with a mellow piano intro before it starts to rock. Subtle verses, heavy bridge and rock chorus! Not as good as t2m but still good.
8/10
GUILTY: Eew... don't even get me started on this. GUILTY, honestly, to me, is one of her worst title tracks. (miss)understood, being a similar genre to GUILTY, is much better. In (m)u, you could hear the frustration in her voice as she belts out the chorus. But GUILTY... it's so mellow and soft and... dead? Not impressive. (m)u had that 'oomph' compared to GUILTY, IMO.
1/10
fated: One of her more unique summer ballads as it took a bit of a rock path. Nothing much to say since I've heard it for quite a while. Very nice, still.
8/10
Together When...: The best song out of the whole album to me. It has emotions, composition, arrangement, the voice, just everything. Ayu's vibrato sounded appropriate and pleasant in TW...!
10/10
Marionette -prelude-: Sounds creepy, but a little off track from the interpretations of a marionette.
6/10
Marionette: Oh well. The verses are stellar but the chorus doesn't seem to have that X factor, if you get what I mean. It's like hearing the verses and expecting something out of this world, but in the end, you're just thinking "That's it?".
7/10
The Judgment Day: Forgive me, TJD! I hated you in the previews but now listening to the whole thing, TJD IS the BEST interlude EVER! I love how it started very creepy at the start but suddenly it just became a trance track. It's very unique and I love how Ayu made it sound very smooth. Wonderful! But I wish the trance part would last just a little longer.
9/10
glitter: glitter's lyrics displayed the guilt in the album. Therefore, it fits the album lyrically. Ayu is so smart as well, for using TJD to make glitter sound less awkward. So... glitter in this album actually sounds nice, although it is a good track. And er... did I mention? The instrumental in the middle sounds PERFECT! The single and album version sounds a little different in that part, however. But I still like it.
9/10
MY ALL: The guitar solo in the beginning already got me into bobbing my head, tapping my feet and fiddling my fingers. Ayu's voice sounded very different for a pop song. Compared to songs like HONEY, MY ALL may just seem a little bad. Oh well, I will take time to like MY ALL. MY ALL holds promise however.
9/10
reBiRTH: ... This fights with GUILTY as the worst track on the album. reBiRTH holds no meaning at all whatsoever than being filler. Er, it doesn't provide any transition at all whatsoever! It's like argh! I wish Ayu would either take this out or really have one more pop song. Oh well.
1/10
untitled ~for her~: This mellow ballad is the 2nd best track on this album. Overflowing with emotions, Ayu brought me to tears upon hearing this. Not much to say, just that... it is really very nice.
10/10
Overall, GUILTY merely scores a 7/10 for me. Too many single tracks and the album doesn't wow me. Having said that, I think the main problem is not the album nor is it Ayu. It is us, fans. We were all so hyped up about the album and everyone one expected it to be a classic, stellar, perfect. But when the album came out... quite a lot of people were just "meh" about it. If GUILTY was just a sudden release, or maybe only announced 2 days ago, would our reaction be any different? Think about that...
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