♪♫ Official thread for Rock'n'Roll Circus Album Reviews ♪♫

[Tony G]

THE introduction
This is totally now how I expected an ayu album to start. Feels like the soundtrack to an 80s sci-fi movie. The ending sounds more modern and current though, which sets for a decent transistion to Microphone. It stills feels a bit disjointed from Microphone though. It would have been nice if the track led right into Microphone, instead of a couple of seconds silence leading into the next song.
7/10

Microphone
Loved this song from first listen. Love the softer section before that fierce-sounding chorus. You can feel the anger and attitude in Ayu's voice, something I haven't heard in her rock songs for a while. and "tell me why, tell me why, i don't know, i don't know" - what a hook. Just an insanely catchy rock eargasm. For some reason though, I think this track could have started off the album instead of an interlude.
10/10

count down
There's a definite (miss)understood/it was/guilty vibe here, but I think I can honestly say she has outdone most of those songs here. Emotional lyrics, and FANTASTIC guitar work. The guitar in this song has to be the best on the album.
9/10

Sunset ~Love is All~
Horrible, terrible, boring. Its listenable, but thats about it. Sunrise is SO much better.
3/10

BALLAD
One of her best ballads. Perfect placement on the album, glad she didn't lump it with You were... at the end.
9/10

Last Links
Really like the mellow rock sound from Ayu, and she does it well here. Catchy chorus and melody, and I like the varying pitches to her voice. Does anyone think the instrumental bridge before the last chorus sounds like Moments? The acoustic guitar is <3. Ayu sounds way too good doing pop/rock, she is at home with this style.
9/10

montage
By itself, this is a nice instrumental. Reminds me of Marionette ~prelude~. But as a lead into don't look back, it doesn't work.
6/10

don't look back
Easily the best track on the album. Its perfect in every single way. The asian/arabian themed instruments.. the pulsating electronic beats and drum machines.. the lyrics and meaning behind the song... perfect. The PV makes the song even better, it just has a fantastic meaning to it that everybody can relate to. I love when she whisphers 'don't look back' before the last chorus.
10/10

Jump!
The best interlude on the album. It does its job - smooths the transition from don't look back into the electro-rock section of the album. JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP! Becomes epic when the guitars kick in. Anyone else think she'll open her concert with this song? It makes my car shake, which is always a plus <3
9/10

Lady Dynamite
So. freaking. catchy. Nothing new though from her, this would have easily fit after Sparkle/rollin' on NEXT LEVEL. I can't help but love this song. But it will forever remind me of Ayu grinding against gay men in a club. Doesn't ruin how good this song is though. The composer (who also did Sparkle) is a genius.
9/10

Sexy little things
When I first heard this song, I thought WTF is this. Couple of more listens, and its the catchiest song on this album. What stands out more to me is the composition/arrangement. Its electronic.. its pop.. but its nothing like any electropop you hear these days. I hear some 8-bit/chiptune inspiration here (was also in Disco-munication) and ayu's use of vocoder is love. Nothing like any song Ayu has ever done before, and there probably won't be another one like it.
9/10

Sunrise ~Love is All~
Catchy electropop, hard to not like this. Perfect placement on the album.
8/10

meaning of Love
This has taken a couple of listens to grow on me. Its probably the weakest of the new tracks. That doesn't mean its bad though. It sounds pretty, but I don't feel the emotion from Ayu as well as the other ballads. Decent song, and it does have its moments, but on an album full of very strong ballad/mid-tempo tracks, this track just doesn't cut it.
6/10

You were...
THIS is a rock ballad people. Not count down or Last Links. This song just comes alive when the guitars kick in. Perfect.
9/10

RED LINE ~for TA~ [album version] -
way better than the original. Its amazing what a few little changes can do to a song. And the acapella ending just tops it off. This is going to be an epic ending for the concert, and is the perfect ending song for the album.
8/10

OVERALL
8/10

This met each and every expectation I had for this album. Whether its the best album she's ever made.. I'm not sure yet. Its not perfect, but none of her albums are perfect. I need to listen to this for weeks and months before I can compare it to her other albums.

[js_surrealism]

I can't really decide what I feel about this album I will just talk about what I like and what I didn't like.

LIKED:
- The awesome pop-rock songs that mysteriously appeared out of nowhere (count down, Last Links) - she can sound So Good with a stripped down guitar + bass + drums arrangement and a great hook (see Memorial address), I don't know why she hasn't been doing it more often! This is such a refreshing change from her usual bombastic tunes

- The campy/quirky i.e. Lady Dynamite and Sexy Little Things; both are great, great songs. Endearing and musically interesting enough to not bore me. I liked them a lot.

- meaning of Love - a ballad with a half decent hook, fancy that! Best ballad since Days, which still isn't saying much but...yea I liked it.

DISLIKED:
- Uh, circus theme? Okay to clarify, I didn't really have a problem with the circus theme as I do with the fact that it seemed really RANDOM and incongruous, considering the music. What on EARTH do count down and Last Links or ANY of the ballads have to do with a circus?

- The interlude/intro pieces; they seemed to be there just for the sake of creating the circus theme, and given that the music didn't really fit with it, these pieces just seemed really incidental. And it isn't like they were great songs to begin with; the intro here must be one of the worst she's ever done.

- The identity crisis that this album suffered from. There were a handful of great songs, but I thought definitely songs like count down and Sexy Little Things don't belong on the same album. It's just...weird. I thought with count down and Last Links and maybe Red Line and Sunrise she had a great opportunity to do a great, unpretentious, pop/garage rock album, but she decided to do a mixbag kinda thing instead, except this time it didn't really work cos the range of songs is just far too drastic, and the interludes just don't match the quality of the ones on her previous albums.

MEH/DIDN'T CARE MUCH FOR:
- Don't Look Back; I really hated this song when I first heard it, but now that I'm used to it, I think I can sort of tolerate it. It's just a very bland song for me though. I don't really care that she used interesting instruments here when the melody of the song is so monotonous to begin with.

- The singles - most mediocre bunch of singles yet, no? NEXT LEVEL at least had Sparkle, GUILTY at least had decision, Secret had loads of good singles; the singles here were just kind of blah. Not horrible, but mostly just lesser versions of things she's done better before (upbeat summer single, emotional ballad, ballad with Asian sounds etc). But then again, I don't know I kind of want to kill something each time I hear You were..., yet I allow it to play in its entirety, so there must be something there... I don't know, maybe a couple of weeks later I will start liking it. Maybe.

- The over the top stuff ala Microphone - I do kind of like Microphone? But it's just really something she's done a million times before. I can't bring myself to WANT to listen to Microphone when there are songs like Because of You, like decision, like kiss'o'kill. But it's not a bad song by any means.

OVERALL:
This was an alright album with quite a handful of likable songs, some of which I would even say are the most refreshing to come from her in awhile, and are songs I will continue to revisit in time to come. But overall the album was kind of let down by the incoherent theme and the weak writing on the singles and the really blah instrumental tracks. If by circus she meant a random assortment of songs with no relation to each other, then she surely has succeeded.