[Zeke.]

She can try new things while staying true to her sound; there is a TON of variety over the course of her career yet it remained true to her image and brand in one way or another.

In the case of what keeps people holding on, it's because she still showcases her brilliance every now and then or slips a glimmer of hope and/or excitement into what are for the most part less-than-thrilling tracks. For example, Party Queen had reminds me which for me was so classic Ayu. Wake me up I believe is one of her best songs she has ever released and it was another case of "yes, this is who I fell in love with" - it was compared to Sparkle but it definitely was no copy-cat track. Tell All was another case of classic Ayu (although that bridge is atrocious). BRILLANTE, etc. There are MANY cases where Ayu releases something that clearly has her sound written all over it among a bunch of "new" material and the songs that show some sort of familiarity about them (just the SLIGHTEST) are always the most raved about. She can still try new things without abandoning her sound. It's still there, it's just less and less likely to come by. If I wanted something COMPLETELY different, THEN I'd go listen to another artist. That's the thing, Ayu is the only artist who can deliver "her sound" and I can't find that sound anywhere else - even though she is producing it less and less, the chances that SHE create something that infuses that magical HAMASAKI AYUMI sound into it is 1 million times better than any OTHER artist doing so. It is her sound and her ability to evolve that sound while remaining true to it that I've come to love for a large part of her career.

She is a J-Pop artist. I listen to her because she has always made really great J-pop. Colours was anything but...

It's like if you have this really great jazz musician you listen to and suddenly they started making country music.