Your Love Songs reviews!!!

[sxesven]

As I just wrote in my review for Party Queen I'm catching up with what I've missed, which is more or less everything from GUILTY onwards. I'm listening to everything I haven't heard in reverse chronological order, so I started with Party Queen, which was a major disappointment.

As I described in that review, the whole listening experience was alienating. My Ayu was gone and had been replaced by some woman with a different voice who seemed all to keen to jump on poppy bandwagons. Diving into Love songs headfirst is a decidedly more pleasant experience. Just loading the thing into my MP3 player already invokes feelings of old. The album is 74 minutes in all, just like all the good ol' albums used to be. You got 74 minutes of space you better fill it out boy! I've never really felt it was a necessity myself, but at least there apparently was enough material that was felt to be good enough to fill 74 minutes, which is reassuring.

The opening song immediately strikes the right chord. The hurp and heee singing is back (or rather, it wasn't gone yet), and while I do perceive some change in pitch it's nothing dramatic yet. The song itself also seems classic Ayu. Great drive, sweet arrangement. Goodness, I couldn't have been more positively surprised. crossroad continues in a similarly awesome vein. Again, this song breathes vintage Ayu. It has everything that makes Ayu songs stand out. Good composition, great arrangement, the occasional vocal ayucrobatics. Boy oh boy. Two songs in and I'm in love. Suitably so, yes. Keenly observed, young Ayupan. MOON is ace, too. I get the feeling I'm listening to some lost material from 2006. Not the worst of experiences, seeing my partiality to Secret. Cool, epic, impressive song.

Sending Mail is where Love songs takes a turn for the worse. Too sappily poppy for my tastes, especially in its first minute, which is when I swear I was turning gray and then going bald from sheer annoyance. Thanks, Ayu, now how will I pick up the ladies. When it breaks out in the chorus I guess it's kinda decent, but overall, this isn't too good. On a quirky sidenote, I always used to discuss with a friend of mine how cool it was Jpop could be about such trivial topics like your dead canary or taking the cab home from work. But sending the mail? Really? If there ever was a chore... What's next, then - WASHING UP? Doing the LAUNDRY? Puh-leez sis.

I already said Love songs feels like vintage Ayu here and there. As the dance beat in Last Angel kicks in it suddenly feels like nineteen-ninety-LOVEppears. Whut. Compelling track with its tapping into so many different styles and moods - strings, dance beats, slow parts - that is quite alright indeed. A decent interlude follows. Nothing spectacular. Like A Doll seems to pick up where Last Angel left off a bit, both songs working mainly in the up tempo range and being fairly idiosyncratic takes on classic Ayu dance tunes. Another track I'd call quite alright - it certainly intrigues, though it doesn't move, unfortunately. Still, this is far from bad.

Another interlude, and a nice one at that, before we move on. I love strings. ME LOVE THE STRINGS. Yes. Okay. So. blossom. Sup wit dat. Nothing spectacular, in my book. Fairly standard Ayu, something I'd hesitate to call filler for the simple fact that it's enjoyable but which doesn't stand out really. Personally, I'm not too into these sort of mid-tempo choruses. Okayish. Thank U reminds me of quite a few other similar Ayu songs - there's probably a template for this sort of thing, somewhere, that gets dragged out every once in a while. Do I care? No. I like it. It has this excellent unifying, let's-get-together feeling that you can't help but dig. The nananana-ing can get on my nerves a bit (there's only so many times you can do it and pull it off, and I think Ayu has done enough of that - and yes, NaNaNa was definitely too much; plus, whose nananana is ever going to be as memorable Katamari Damashii's? That's right, no one's ever going to be...).

Sweet Season is slightly too sappy for my tastes, and by slightly I mean way. It lacks any particular drive or anything memorable or anything that really stands out. At 5 minutes, it really drags, too. Boring. Another interlude, an okay one. Moving on. Alright, so I am in a good mood, but Do It Again very nearly ruins it for me. The first minute must be one of the annoying minutes of music I've heard ever, and I sure listen to some annoying music on a regular basis (don't believe me? Go on YouTube and search Incapacitants, or Hijokaidan. I dare you. Double dare you.). Terrible arrangement with the vocals way too loud in the mix (seriously - there is promise of good arrangement waaaaaaaaaaaaay underneath but we'll never know if it really is good stuff - couldn't hear, she was DO DO DO DOING IT AGAIN). Awful text and delivery. Somewhere around 3:30 the song bursts into an epic string section sequence the song doesn't warrant or deserve. What a mess. Honestly.

Thirteen down, three to go. November is decent but quite sappy, too. Compared to Do It Again it's pretty much magic, but it just doesn't play at the level achieved at points in the first half of Love songs. Again I'm missing some power, some drive. Too MOR. Virgin Road is a very pleasant surprise. Great, subtle arrangement, wonderful melodies with some great twists and turns, and a slightly melancholy mood to it that is just right. Truly wonderful song that wouldn't have misstood on I am..., I think. Brilliant! Seven Days War (a bonus track? not available on all versions then?) is okay but unnecessary. Virgin Road is a perfect closing song. This isn't really. The vocal delivery annoys me a bit. Not bad, but not the best ending you could wish for.

In all, Love songs took me by very positive surprise. I love this album. I do. There's some weaker moments, here and there, but it's easy to get over them when there's such great material elsewhere. Solid, solid, solid album. Totally restores my faith. Would've made a worthy follow-up to Secret. Kudos!

[susiowong]

Originally Posted by sxesven

November is decent but quite sappy, too. Compared to Do It Again it's pretty much magic

LIES.