I'm trying to look at it from another point. May be now ayu treats her music very very personal and thinks like "this is my album, these are my songs, this is my life and I want to have a cover with my dear man and me, this is how I am, take it or leave it". May be now she doesn't understand where "ayumi hamasaki" ends and ayu begins. She used to divide them well in 00s.
these photos look really nice. but tbh I'd love them more if she were alone. not sure if her male Japanese fandom will like it, but she doesn't seem to have big male fandom so I guess it's OK
and I'm also not sure if it's appropriate to have covers like this in winter. but since she was filming some PVs in Hawaii, I guess we'll have a summer hit in winter