1. (miss)understood - What this album lacks in cohesiveness it makes up for with the sheer quality and amazing versality of the songs. (miss)understood is just packed to the brim with awesome songs in styles never seen before or after (Bold&Delicious, Ladies Night, In The Corner) and the songs with more familiar sounds are also of utmost quality. (m)u is a pretty clear choice as the winner for me.
2. RAINBOW - RAINBOW does a wonderful job of maintaining a distinct, unique, ethereal and beautiful sound even with the songs varying from pure, catchy pop to heart-wrenching ballads and emotional rock. Not every individual track is super strong, but the album as a whole is a joy to listen to. It's also wonderful that despite coming out almost a decade ago, the album still sounds fresh, modern and beautiful.
3. Love Songs - This album gets love for the same reason as RAINBOW - it has a beautiful style tying all the different tracks together. Why is it after RAIBOW then? It wasn't really an easy choice to make, but in the end RAINBOW's more modern sound won over Love Songs' style with more traditional elements. As far as individual tracks go though, Love Songs might even be a bit stronger with the only disliked/uninteresting tracks being insomnia, Like a doll and do it again.
4. Rock'n'Roll Circus - Choosing between Love Songs and Rock'n'Roll Circus comes down to the choice between individual tracks and cohesive sound. This time around, strong, individual tracks come second. Rock'n'Roll Circus also gets the questionable honor for having the worst interludes in Ayu's discography. Aside from these pieces of awfulness, the rest of the songs are pretty much great.
5. Duty - Duty's oppressive and dark atmosphere is to be loved. I love how every song in the beginning keeps up the feeling in their own way and it then climaxes beautifully with SURREAL (the album's best song and one of my favorites). Duty is hurt by its end though; the album is pretty unremarkable once SEASONS finishes. There's nothing wrong with teddy bear or Key and I really like girlish but they don't really evoke any reactions after the emotional roller coaster of the first three quarters of the album. Also, Far away is awful. It doesn't hurt Duty's greatness for me though.
6. LOVEppears - Let's get the negative out of the way first: kanariya is probably Ayu's worst song ever (at least with the arrangement on this album), LOVE~refrain~ is dead boring and Trauma, P.S II and the instrumental pieces are higly uninteresting. That's it though. The rest of the songs are pretty much completely amazing, the sound of the entire album with all the electronic is extremely enjoyable and even though nasal, Ayu's vocals work perfectly with most of the songs. This album is a blast to listen to and also gives enjoyable 90's-nostalgia kicks.
7. Memorial address - With the title song being probably my all-time favorite, one might think this album would rank higher. There are two reasons it doesn't: Greatful days sucks and No way to say is pretty bland here (I find it stronger on its own). On a short album like this, these thigs really hurt. I also have never grasped the all-consuming love for HANABI ~episode II~. It's good, but not amazing. All the songs not mentioned are amazing though, which is why Memorial address easily wins a spot in top 10.
8. NEXT LEVEL - NEXT LEVEL is great everywhere except the rock part - and the ending. The rock department is just really boring as neither Rule nor identity have never really stood out to me (LOVE 'n' HATE is good though). And Curtain call is really not a good way to end the album - it's unfitting for the end and pretty unremarkable as a stand-alone song too. NEXT LEVEL has to be praised for its interludes though; Bridge to the Sky, Disco-munication and Pieces of SEVEN are all orgasmic. The best in any of Ayu's albums, easily.
9. MY STORY - MY STORY suffers the curse that easily falls upon long albums - too many uninteresting and similar tracks. Especially the album's middle section is rendered pretty boring due to songs that on first listen sound almost like carbon copies of each other (Liar, HOPE or PAIN, HAPPY ENDING, walking proud). But MY STORY also has its fair share of blindingly shining gems (GAME, Moments, HONEY, winding road) and its simple, laid-back rock sound works wonders in a certain mood.
10. I am... - Blasphemy! Ayu's most revolutionary album ranked so low! I think it deserves its low rating though. For me, I am... stands out more due to its bad tracks than the good ones. It is a pop album with many good songs, sure, but the whole package seems a bit underwhelming with bad songs appearing at an alarmingly constant rate. The good songs may outnumber the bad ones, but listening to I am... still leaves a slightly bitter taste in my mouth, because I know I could be treating my ears to something I find easily more enjoyable.
11. Secret - Secret faces the same problem as I am... It has all the building blocks for an amazing album, but the result sounds less than the sum of its parts. Secret's songs seem to work better on their own rather than together on one disc.
12. GUILTY - GUILTY is pretty forgettable an album. The only songs I really love are fated, Together when... and untitled ~for her~. The rest of the album is pretty bland - the songs are actually quite nice when I listen to them, but I almost never feel the need to do so. Also, the sudden 180-degree turn from rock songs to glitter and MY ALL does all kinds of bad for the album. Both of the mentioned songs would be better off not existing and breaking the album's mood only makes me dislike them more. I think GUILTY would be better for me if not for these out-of-place songs ruining it.
13. A Song for XX - I think the reasons for this album being the least favorite are pretty obvious: horrible vocals, boring songs and even more boring arrangements on the said songs. It's too bad some good songs go to waste on this album though: A Song for XX, FRIEND II, YOU and POWDER SNOW's compositions have potential, as the title song's newer (and live) versions and YOU's rearrangement on A BALLADS have proved. Now I'll just keep twiddling my thumbs while waiting for the day someone will uncover FRIEND II's potential...