[Surreal17]

Regarding covers - ayu's wearing all those extravagant colors to give a futuristic edge to the visuals of the albums. Like she also said in an interview, she wants to try new things because the unknown is what makes life so entertaining.
The futuristic theme is also continued in Arena Tour 2009, the accompanying tour of the album with 3D effects, lasers, funky costumes etc.

So, she tried to speed things up a little by entering the trends of the time (electropop, digital era like waterballon also mentioned etc.) mash-uped with her own unique style and the result became NEXT LEVEL - an album intended more towards the youthful generation and her first truly electronic-vibe album.

I loved how she managed to show 'teasers' from all the album sections through the singles (Days/GREEN - ballad & transition song ; Rule/Sparkle - rock & electronica). Also, how she tried to keep the main style of the album (the techno/electro one) even through the singles.
e.g. - techno - Rule (Remo-con _tech dance_ remix) / Rule (80kidz's _No More Rule_ mix)
8bit - Days (8-bits of tears YMCK remix)