I think some of the opinions in here are spot on and others seem a bit cynical.
Namie, regardless of her comeback, hasn't matched her old sales. And we'll be surprised if Uncontrolled outsells PAST<FUTURE. This is partly because she's been around for a long time, and partly because record sales just aren't on par with where they were 12 years ago.
That said, I think it's important to address the fact that someone in Ayumi's position really shouldn't be selling as poorly as she has since 2003. Somewhere between RAINBOW and Memorial Address, the public started losing interest. You can tell that her first week sales for Memorial Address dropped by half of what RAINBOW's were, and this same sales issue carried over to MY STORY. So, truly, I think her sales took a nosedive during the two years between RAINBOW and MY STORY.
Where I think public confidence in her dipped was when GUILTY hit #2. I think this, coupled with a string of very erratic releases is what has shot Ayumi's career down faster than what would otherwise happen naturally.
Ayumi's releases since 2008, starting with GUILTY, have been some extremely off-the-wall albums compared to her earlier works. The fact she's gone from a hard-rock record [GUILTY] to pure electronic [NEXT LEVEL] to alt-rock [Rock'n'Roll Circus] to almost teen-pop [Love songs] to this wacky Party Queen record shows she's been experimenting a bit more than she did in her first 6 years as a recording artist. This isn't bad, but fans like to hear progression in music and Ayumi is coming out with records that are insanely different compared to previous albums. Further, her singles have been quite lackluster and sparse since (miss)understood, which makes each album harder to tell what the sound or content will be.
The few things I would ask Ayumi to change would be:
1. Get rid of Timothy, get rid of Leslie, get rid of anyone who sounds good
right now. If you can't see yourself working with them in 5 years, you shouldn't be working with them today.
2. Find an actual sound and stick to it. Having unpredictable records makes for unpredictable sales, which in this case is just saying that we can't predict how much less the next album will sell.
3. Bring back Kazuhito, HAL, and CREA. Make sure these three names appear for the majority of each record. These were the names that built Ayumi's sound, and these are the names that will guarantee it makes it into every record.
4. The only features you should do are with other big names. Further, take a page out of Koda Kumi's book: Features do not sell as well as solo singles, especially if you're doing them with an artist or group no one knows.
5. Stop playing nice and letting people piggyback on your success.
6. Stop assuming you can rest on your laurels because you're Japan's highest selling female artist. If you even look at a record and think to yourself that something could be different, shelve it and start over.
7. If you decide to try a new genre of music, do not make a whole ****ing record out of it.
I think that sums it up.
