LUV

Understanding (miss)understood.

Here she is again, Ayumi Hamasaki with her latest original album (miss)understood.

This album is selling very good in Asia, and I understand that Malaysia actually re-import the album from Hong Kong 3 times already. BUT, so far this album hasn’t reach 1 million selling yet back in Japan after 4 months, who knows this will be the first non-million selling of Ayu’s album. But again, this album is really indeed very good, regardless of the selling point.

(miss)understood assembles a college of styles of music in it, hip hop, rock, R&B, a little bit of Rap, Japanese traditional music, 70’s club electro, gospel and a little dose of love ballads, of course.

Ayumi does screaming more than singing. Ya, I will agree with you when it was 8 years back she did her first album A Song For XX. In this album of 2006, I was so surprised that Ayu not only get an A+ for her lyrics but also to her vocal which is flawlessly delivered in every songs!*clap clap*

This time Ayu has a great team of music producer like GEO of SWEETBOX, HAL, Kazuhiro Hara, CMJK,Tetsuya Yukumi, Miki Watanabe,Kazuhito Kikuchi, tasuku, Shinataro Hagiwara, and Sosaku Sasaki. No CREA anymore this time I guess Ayu was busy to produce her own music at that time. And no D.A.I anymore, thank god, am tiring with their same old style of music compose and arrangement. However D.A.I did create gorgeous songs like Dearest and Voyage.

(miss)understood actually set up a new benchmark for Ayu and to the other artists as well.

Many fans complain that (miss)understood isn’t Ayunish anymore. But I strongly agree that Ayu need a change to globalize herself, to push herself towards the stage of world and not limited to Japan itself!

And please do not compare (miss)understood with her zaman gemilang’s I am… I am… no doubt is her best ever album, during her peak time in her singing career in 2001/2. That is so typical Ayu. But Haloo…Evolution takes place, metamorphosis happens. (miss)understood represents a new starting phase of Ayu.

Back to the 16 tracks. The flow of the tracks is superb! It started with Yayayaya Gagagaga Dadadada Wowowowo, Bold&Delicious is such a happening song, and the chorus is so catchy. Some outstanding songs includes HEAVEN. Notice the chorus is at the last part of the song. And it starts off so peacefully and tranquil. Next will be Pride, notice the background vocal matches Ayu’s voice perfectly and the lady here sings with emotions and touches us deep inside our heart. The theme (miss)understood, rockish, music doesn’t impress me much. What make a big impact is the lyric that Ayu wrote. Two best lyrics in this album, one is this, another will be Pride.

Fairyland is the weakest song in the album. It is a summer song but Ayu fail to deliver it with enthusiasm, guess it is limited by the music though. Prefer Inspire, Grateful Days, July 1st. But I am looking forward to see Ayu to perform this song on stage, with the adorable dance steps. Ladies Night is the series of ‘Lady song’ since “Real Me” and “ My name’s WOMEN”. Ayu represents girl power in Japan, she speaks Japanese teenagers’ mind. Realizing that she is getting more senior, she started to sing songs that pay tributes to the girl/women. Best example is Real Me that sounds like this :’ A woman never runs away, A woman never hides away, in order to survive…” This time, in Ladies Nights, Ayu shouts outs that every night are ladies nights. Check up the two 2/3-minutes music, tasking and Are You Wake Up, they are up-lifting and will wash away your blues…

Video clips wise are superp!!!!!!!!!!! Great quality, great outfit, great storyline, just great…Highlights will be alterna, Is This Love, Pride, Ladies Night.

Overall, Ayu is a full-fledged artist/singer/song-writer/fashion leader. Japan needs her, she represent the music industry of Japan.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 27th, 2006 at 11:07 am and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.