[Article] Rock'n'Roll Circus - Professional album review from allmusic

[Maxker]

Rock'n'Roll Circus from Ayumi Hamasaki
- Written by Alexey Eremenko © allmusic



Released: April 19, 2010 | Genre: Pop/Rock | Label: Avex | Length: 62:08

The first cuts on Rock'n'Roll Circus really live up to the album's name and may induce the audience to believe that Hamasaki is serious in her attempts to intrude on the terrain of Olivia and Anna Tsuchiya -- powerful and melodramatic gothic rock in the vein of Linkin Park and Evanescence. But these are only obligatory novelties, thrown in to give the album something to differentiate it from the rest of Hamasaki's output, and the main body of the record is pure and classic J-pop, with the occasional dash of commercial J-rock (think Uverworld) appearing here and there.

Rock'n'Roll Circus is pretty versatile: there are a couple of pop/rock tracks, a Middle Eastern techno tune, a playful plastic pop song, even a jungle interlude, and, of course, a slew of epic, string-drenched ballads that no J-pop singer seems to be able to resist performing, probably because their lack of originality makes them great anime-credit fodder. The music is meticulously arranged, and multiple stylistic layers ensure that the record does not wear thin after the first few listens -- but although Rock'n'Roll Circus is a testament to veritable professional skills of Hamasaki and her producers and songwriters, its emotional power is questionable, to put it mildly.

The record is compiled of J-pop and J-rock cliches, which gives it a lackluster feeling, at least for those familiar with the genre. The ballads are the worst offenders in this case, but it's easy to tune out on the rest of the songs as well, despite all of their bombast.

This is Hamasaki's eleventh album, and so songwriting routine is to be expected, to a degree, but she would have been better off going all the way with the alt-rock gimmick instead of meekly complying with the already trite conventions of J-pop, even if she had created those herself.

allmusic Rating:

[Yumsushi]

Rock'n'Roll Circus is a testament to veritable professional skills of Hamasaki and her producers and songwriters

Thanks for sharing.
Agree with all of the review except for the above. I don't feel that the album's production as a whole is any more professional than any of her previous works.

[Andrenekoi]

Well... most of the time i don't like Allmusic reviews... And it's pretty much the same this time

[thinkingoutloud89]

just because it makes it bad?
I love the album but i don't have to speak against this cause it is about Ayu. Pretty much everthing this article is right and some thing also speak for the Secret album.

In this case, she called it RnRC so she could left of the Ballads (or at least everthing but you were cause it think it fits in somewhere, despite not beeing one of my favs) and the complete LOVE is ALL single (same goes for blue BB/BF on secret) and put on more of the rock tunes ala Microphone to live up to what she was aiming at.

She always has great concepts, but she sticks to what JPop is famous more half of the time cause otherwise it would be a bit to risky.

As I said on JPM, she should screw her singles or produce an album image and put out singles that are fitiing. Secrets, NEXT LEVELs and RnRCs Singles are all pretty much out of place and are only there because its seems to be a JPOP, and more over an AYUMI rule.

[primavera♥]

The little comments on jrcok, jpop, and anime help me to not take it very seriously at all. Ah well~
Yeah SLT, LD, DLB, and Microphone, and count down are perfect cliches.
I don't see how half of this album is really at all like jrock but oh well
And apparently if the ballads are good or not doesn't matter. They're just a bunch of generic jpop ballads which = bad
Oh well~ three stars is gracious.

Its amazing they even slightly liked anything from what they said.

Thank you for sharing this ^___^

[thinkingoutloud89]

I just read their Reviw of RAINBOW and they tend to get way to personal and expecting abit much from an artist it seems. As a result, i agree their writing style is a bit meeh but not everything they say (at least for RnRC) is wrong as I just wrote...

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by Monkey_D_Ruffy16

just because it makes it bad?
I love the album but i don't have to speak against this cause it is about Ayu. Pretty much everthing this article is right and some thing also speak for the Secret album.

In this case, she called it RnRC so she could left of the Ballads (or at least everthing but you were cause it think it fits in somewhere, despite not beeing one of my favs) and the complete LOVE is ALL single (same goes for blue BB/BF on secret) and put on more of the rock tunes ala Microphone to live up to what she was aiming at.

She always has great concepts, but she sticks to what JPop is famous more half of the time cause otherwise it would be a bit to risky.

As I said on JPM, she should screw her singles or produce an album image and put out singles that are fitiing. Secrets, NEXT LEVELs and RnRCs Singles are all pretty much out of place and are only there because its seems to be a JPOP, and more over an AYUMI rule.

Nops, I do agree with the review about it being an average generic album But most of the time they tell they hate or love an album, but never really say why... And they don't really seen to bother about the context (both cultural and musical) of the albums they review

[aura~]

Did they forgot she is a J-Pop singer?? XDD

I agree on what some of you said abou the singles... with Born to be & BB/BF in secret, Glitter in GUILTY, GREEN/Days in NL and S/S & BALLAD for RNRC kind of killed the album theme. Because when she releases singles she's not thining about the next album's theme... it's a pity... but well... in RnRC all new album tracks are way better than the singles for me, so I'm just happy with that... For me this "un-fitting singles" in RNRC are not as "un-fitting" as Born to be..., BF and BLUE BIRD for Secret... seriously they killed the rockish, melancholic atmosphere in Secret.. BLUE BIRD before Kiss o' kill is terrible XDD

but this is just my opinion, of course

[U-GO-BOY]

I didn't know Linkin Park are making Gothic Rock '-'

[Yumsushi]

Originally Posted by StrawbariSnowAyumi

Yeah SLT, LD, DLB, and Microphone, and count down are perfect cliches.

LD is not a cliche song? Its an anime song, lol!

[gallowsCalibrator]

Thanks for sharing this ~

(Although I don't agree with it, it's still interesting to see what people think~)

[love in music]

powerful and melodramatic gothic rock in the vein of Linkin Park and Evanescence.

Uhh I never thought that's what she was going for. It's a pretty nice review, though I don't agree with it. I like the way they stated their opinion.

[Delirium-Zer0]

I almost completely agree with the review... but I don't think the cliches used (which are pretty much only in "Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~" and "You were..." in my opinion) bring the album the whole way down to 3 out of 5 stars. Those songs are MINOR offenses in my opinion. The album overall deserves 4 or 4.5, I think.

[hsienko]

I agree with the part about the ballads. Beside Yw.../B the others are painfully boring.

[Kazeyomi]

Linkin Park = Gothic rock?
So Britney Spears is Brutal Death Viking Metal I guess, oh well

I don't know how much Ayu's albums did the reviewer have listen to, but this is not the first time she does a pop rock album lol.
I kinda agree with ballads though, except for Yw and BALLAD but three stars are too few for RnRC imo

[primavera♥]

Originally Posted by Yumsushi

LD is not a cliche song? Its an anime song, lol!

If by anime u mean lively, which in that case yes

If by anime u mean animation, no. I wouldn't consider that. For me. Anime themes are more ikimono-gakari type or where An Cafe and SiG have gone XD
not reall lady dynamite

However its hard to give one placement to anime as I mean Eiko Shimamiya does tons and her music is excellent and not at all like lady dynamite

[Calico]

"slew of epic, string-drenched ballads that no J-pop singer seems to be able to resist performing, probably because their lack of originality makes them great anime-credit fodder. "

This would make more sense if she had more than 2 songs used in an anime. =P

[AyUta]

Thanks for sharing.

[kagami]

Of course she makes Jpop; she is a Jpop singer after all.
Sometimes I think people expect Ayu to be an indie singer or something...Her music has always been pop. And none of these songs (aside from maybe sunrise) really sound Anime-ish to me. Oh well.

[Ranma Matsuri]

Originally Posted by Calico

"slew of epic, string-drenched ballads that no J-pop singer seems to be able to resist performing, probably because their lack of originality makes them great anime-credit fodder. "

This would make more sense if she had more than 2 songs used in an anime. =P

Thank you. I've seen this comment made by a person before and it absolutely baffles me. As much anime as I watch and anime themes that I've listened to never EVER have I thought a single Ayu song sounded anime-ish (even the very few she's had used in a anime barely makes the cut). I have no idea where people are getting this idea from, unless they seriously know little to nothing about jpop aside from the occasionally ending theme they hear in Inuyasha and Naruto.

And Linkin Park... gothic rock? O_o Does this person actually know their genres?

Aside from those tidbits I agree with most of this article, most specifically the part about the ballads and Ayu being stuck in her own conventions.