Interesting thoughts...
Well I will start out by saying this is certainly not, by any stretch of the imagination, her best album. However, it does interestingly enough have some of her very best work.
The only songs of note to me are Not yet, until that Day..., and kiss o' kill.
Seeing as Not yet is more of an introduction than a song, when graded in that respect - it is certainly the best of its breed. The use of the dancey-techno beat is the best it can be, and should only be used the way it is on this track -- to bewilder and trap the listener. Completely destroys all other intros, Catcher in the light's got nothing on this one.
until that Day... is is so hard to classify, isn't? That 80s beat, that riff (that i think someone attributed to AC/DC) and the unrelenting chorus. The fact that the song is so cohesive and all over the place at once probably has a lot to do with CMJK having finished this as its own interlude before ayu came along and made it... well, what it is now. Excellent excellent track.
and kiss o' kill... as the penultimate song on the album, it certainly is the best. The dichotomy in the lyrics comes through in the varying composition and arrangement, not to mention the title itself. All-in-all, this song is very self contained. It has its own story to tell, and it is very unforgiving matter-of-fact ayu at her best. The wailing at the end is what really pushed this one from tied with until that Day... to over the top
JEWEL and momentum, actually, are very good songs too. JEWEL is silently beautiful, and leaves you wanting more. momentum is very much like M meets No way to say, dontcha think? However, I fear these songs are too unremarkable for them to be remembered very far down the line. I will retract this statement if the songs stick with me, of course ^^
Now for the not so positive...
It was? I'm sure ayu said this song was left over from (miss)understood, but it sure sounds like it was the weaker sibling of the whole Liar/HOPE or PAIN/HAPPY ENDING trio of MY STORY... and i really think it should have been left on the cutting room floor.
The interludes are perhaps her least stellar ever. LABRYNTH would be amazing if we hadn't already heard it on MY STORY, and taskinst is the worst interlude he's cranked out for ayu. ever.
1 LOVE probably had the most promise for me before i heard the whole album, but... uhm, no. I dare say this song is very deritive of koda kumi's ningyo hime (Which, to be comepletely fair, was a song completely deritive of Because of You). Granted, ayu owns this style of music, but her vocal technique at the end of the chorus is far too reminiscent of the kuu track for my liking. Aside from that, it is a decent song... just not all it could be.
Startin' / Born to Be... is a part of (miss)understood, and I don't care to hear otherwise. The songs were both recorded during the (miss)understood sessions, sung, mixed and completed in New York along with the rest of the album. That, and their prominence in her 2006 tour really makes them so detached from this album it's absurd to include them.
BLUE BIRD and Beautiful Fighters are OKAY songs, BLUE BIRD did completely capture that feeling of summer (If you happen to have a yacht and 10 or so physically perfect friends to spend it with) but it feels so out of place on this otherwise dark album. Same for Beautiful Fighters, which is again out of place... anyone else think of aqua when they hear this one?
The title track is so unremarkable that i literally have nothing to say about it.
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;-; i had too much to say