1. Duty
It wasn't always the case, but this has to be my favorite from Ayu. I can play it the entire way through without ever getting bored with it, and I just love the moody and somewhat eerie "retro" sound. Plus, I'm blown away by her ability to write lyrics that manage to be simultaneously powerful and simple every time I read the translations for
Duty,
End of the World and
SURREAL. In my opinion, this album doesn't get enough credit.
2. LOVEppears
So many classic and personal all-time favorite Ayu songs are on this that it could almost work as a best-of. Honestly, the only tracks I'm not really into as much are
TO BE and
kanariya, and I don't truly
dislike those either. This album was what made her a superstar, and I can understand why.
3. I am...
I don't always play this the whole way through, but I respect all of it. This album is probably her greatest accomplishment, since she wrote
and composed the entire thing, which is unusual. The title track is one of her most moving songs ever.
4. NEXT LEVEL
The fact that I'm ranking this so high is kind of hilarious to me, since I pretty much hated this album when it came out. At the time I thought all the singles were terrible apart from
Sparkle, and I remember just giving this a cursory listen and forgetting about it. I came back to it after seeing the fantastic AT09 performances of
Rule,
Sparkle and
rollin' on YouTube, and I ended up falling in love. I'm still lukewarm about
Days, though.
5. Rock'n'Roll Circus
This was the album that brought me back to Ayu after losing interest in her for a while. I could do without both
Sunset songs being on here, but for the most part it flows well and a lot of it is actually pretty gutsy (like
Sexy little things,
Microphone, and
Don't look back, which I like to think of as
vogue's evil twin).
6. MY STORY
Another album that contains a lot of my personal favorites. This used to be my top album once, but it's been kicked down a few spots over time because it sometimes feels overly long and hard to get through in one sitting. I also think
HONEY is really bad.
7. Love songs
This one and
MY STORY are pretty much interchangeable for me as far as ranking goes, actually. This is consistently good, and I really enjoyed the singles for this one as they were being released. It's kind of a return to her early sound, which I appreciate. Bizarre interludes, though, and
Thank U is quite annoying.
8. Memorial address
I adore everything after
Greatful days, and the title track might just be my favorite Ayu song of all. However, since it's a mini-album I can't justify ranking it any higher than this.
9. RAINBOW
The biggest "grower" in her discography. It used to sit at the bottom of my list, but I've become fond of it. I still hate the last section, though, and think it would have been better off stopping after
Voyage. That would have been such a classy move, since that song just screams "dramatic end-credits music."
10. (miss)understood
In my personal opinion, this is her most overrated album. There are songs on here I
really love, like the title track and
alterna, but it's just too inconsistent for me. There was really no reason for her to buy the Sweetbox tracks, since she and her team can do much better work on their own.
11. Secret
Another one that loses points for being quite inconsistent, with great tracks like
Until that day... and
JEWEL sharing space with turkeys like
Born To Be... and
Beautiful Fighters.
12. GUILTY
Ironically, I was a big defender of this album when it was first released and lots of fans were complaining about it. Now, I'm just struck by how worn out Ayu sounds on this. She really needed a break, it seems. I do like parts of this, but it just seems rushed compared to her other albums and the abrupt mood shift(s) at the end are very jarring.
13. A Song for XX
First, I'd like to say that I really appreciate this album lyrically when I read the translations. Her writing has never been more raw and honest, and I'd probably be more forgiving of this album's faults if I were fluent in Japanese. However, half of this album really bores me musically. I like all the singles and a handful of album tracks, but the rest isn't very exciting to me.