Queen Releases Album, Shocks Everyone

I won’t lie, ever since Ayu first announced the title of her 12th studio album, my expectations were only 2 inches away from hitting rock bottom. Now that we’ve finally had a chance to hear her newest piece of work, I can say that I was pleasantly surprised.

Love songs is an album with songs about love, but they aren’t “love songs”.

When somebody thinks “love song”, they think of songs like Ai no Uta, BALLAD, Moon Crying, etc. AKA, ballads. That’s what I thought this album was going to be composed of, a TON of ballads. What if I told you that only 3 out of 17 tracks were ballads and that all of them were previously released tracks?

I feared that this album was going to suffer from a bunch of crappy ballads. That was probably because both MOON and Virgin Road were zzz-fests and gave a bad image for the album. In this case, it’s fortunate that (some) of the single tracks were the weakest songs on the album. EVERY new song on the album is absolute GOLD.

I’m in love with this album and it’s her best album in years(maybe since Secret). There’s a certain elegance and spark to each track that when bundled up together just flows so perfectly that no track feels left out.

♥ Love song: It’s the perfect opening for the album and kind of a hybrid sound for what’s to come. It features that beautiful piano melody along with those flowing, majestic strings which are present in all the new tracks of the album. Perfect song. 5/5

♥ crossroad: Our first single on the album is the sort of epic crossroad. It’s one of my top a-sides of the era and fits in perfectly with the album. 4.5/5

♥ MOON: This song ruins the nice flow the album had going from the beginning. It’s a good song(until after the 25 second mark) and it fits into the album, but after all these months, it still hasn’t grown on me. 3.5/5

♥ sending mail: The second new song of the album is also the most rock oriented. Unlike tracks like MOON and blossom that start of intense and then slow down awkwardly into the first verse, sending mail actually builds up into the chorus. It’s definitely epic and amazing and the string work is beautiful. If you like epic rock tracks, this is for you. 4.5/5

♥ Last angel: Yay, my favorite a-side!  This song serves as the first tracks that starts blending techno elements with Ayu’s signature strings+piano and makes the album seem like a modern version of the classic Ayu album “LOVEppears”. Epic song is beautiful, unique and flawless. 5/5

♥ Insomnia: Can’t have a true Ayu album without the interludes! This short 2 minute song always gets my spine tingling! It’s a dark, post-apocalyptic song that would fit in perfectly into a horror game series. The hybrid of techno+acoustic is present once again. Flawless interlude. 5/5

♥ Like a doll: FLAWLESS FLAWLESS FLAWLESS. This is what every album track should ever sound like. Not only are the strings during the “like a doll” bits my absolute favorite in the album(I think ever from any J-Pop song) but Ayu’s vocals are at her best here. Unlike her recent releases with lots of VIBRATOoOoOoOoOo, Ayu’s vocals are finally back to normal and she sounds perfect. 5/5

♥ aria: Our next interlude starts off sounding just like how any Ayu song would start off these days, that is until it switches to this classy, heavenly interlude that leads into a completely different part of the album… 4.5/5

♥ blossom: Ugh, I forgot about this song. It sucks that it had to be placed after such a nice interlude. I’m not a fan of this song, as you can tell. It’s a little too similar to MOON for me(in structure), although I will admit that I’ve had the chorus stuck in my head some days. 3.5/5

♥ Thank U: Ngl, this is the song that took me the longest to love out of the new tracks. At first it sounds like it could belong into Ayu’s “fan songs” collection(you know, with songs like RED LINE ~for TA~) and it probably does, but in a whole other level. It’s the “happiest” song on the album but thanks to the instrumental, this song makes it out on top. The instrumental breaks sound like something straight out of Sailor Moon! 4/5

♥ Sweet Season: Lovely song~ <3 I fell in love for this simple, spring like track ever since that PV with one too many pink filters came out. It’s extremely simple and pretty and sounds totally natural. It’s good because it follows the less is more formula. 4.5/5

♥ overture: Ending the more “pop and acoustic” part of the album is our last interlude, and also my least favorite. It definitely isn’t bad, but it lacks the uniqueness and epicness of the other two. 4/5

♥ do it again: Remember how I said that Love songs is kind of like LOVEppears 2? Well, this song is the reason why. Ayu is using that lower register on her voice again and it builds up until the chorus, which I’m sure we will all remember because of how flawlessly repetitive it is. To me this is the most impacting and emotionally filled song on the album to me. 5/5

♥ November: Our last new track is the fragile and perfect November. This is also one of my top favorite tracks. It’s strange since it isn’t anything particularly special, but the melody is just so pretty and that simple instrumental(less is more!) all draw me in. Ayu sounds like a fucking goddess and proves why she is Queen in this song. 5/5

♥ Virgin Road: Next are the ballads(typical Ayu, leaving the ballads in the end ;D). Fortunately, she puts the only other song on the album first so that it isn’t the finisher. I just don’t like this song. It isn’t bad, but it doesn’t do anything for me. It takes too long to build up and when it finally does, it doesn’t add anything to the song for me. 3.5/5

♥ SEVEN DAYS WAR: REBORUSHION. Finishing the album is the silently epic and powerful b-side from the crossroad single. I was glad it made it onto the album since I’m one of the few(I think) people that like it. Also featured on the album is Ayu’s Live at Yoyogi on Oct.11.2010 version. Here we hear here only barely singing the lyrics as she cries through most of the song. Oh Ayu~ 4.5/5

All in all, this album is our version of what older Ayu fans heard when LOVEppears was released 11(!) years ago. Ayumi’s vocals are back to normal without that overused vibrato that she’s been holding onto for a while now and the acoustic string+piano+techno hybrid totally works in this album. It’s funny that the weakest part of the album are some of the previously released songs. As for new material, there is nothing that I don’t like.

This album gets…

4.5/5 Ayu hearts out of 5

I wanna know what you guys thought of the album! Did you like it? What was your favorite track?

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