
Track Listing
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Party queen
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NaNaNa
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Shake It♥
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taskebab
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call
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Letter
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reminds me
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Return Road
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Tell me why
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a cup of tea
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the next LOVE
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Eyes, Smoke, Magic
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Serenade in A minor
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how beautiful you are
1. Party queen
Like her last album, “Love songs”, we begin a new album with the title track first. Already I’m surprised by the fact she’d start with something upbeat (something she needed so badly in recent times). Also she ditched Komuro which is good. I do like the electro arrangement which is good and the weird glass clicking is odd but cool. Another thing that I’ve noticed since “Love songs” is that she does sound different like her tone quality has changed since “Rock’n’Roll Circus”. It’s odd and I have to get used to it but this isn’t a bad start.
2. NaNaNa
The first of the four promotional songs for the album, NaNaNa is another electro song but this is a little different from how “Party queen” stood. Now the producer of this song, Timmy is also present in the vocals (he’s been the recent go-to-guy it seems for her since “BRILLANTE” so I was curious to how this was gonna end up. At first I was like oh this is a nice follow-up from “Sparkle”. The dirty electronic feel with Ayu under auto-tune was interesting but then we hear Timmy kind of speak lines in the song which surprised me a lot. Sadly, it felt like it was more of his song and Ayu was the guest. Weird right? It’s a good song but I would’ve loved less of Timmy >.<
3. Shake It♥
Third aggressive song huh? I do like that the song focuses on the guitars than the synth barrages of the previous two tracks. I do think it brings back the old Ayu tone which is great because I’m used to this from her. While I don’t think the song is anything remarkable, it’s pretty good and she powers through the song pretty nicely. Though why are you hear Timmy? and why is there dubstep in the song? WEIRD!
4. taskebab
Wow it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a tasuku interlude on an Ayu album…not since 2006’s “taskinst”. Well the interlude is really simple with just electric guitar and some dance beats. At the halfway point, it gets into this electric riff that totally reminds me of Daft Punk’s “Aerodynamic”. It just blew my mind hahaha after that though it just kind of lays off the energy but ends with the 8-bit-ness and electric guitar stuff.
5. call
How “taskebab” leads into our next song left me confused and just wondering what was the use. Now she’s done these kind of plain pop/rock songs in the past (a lot of “Secret” and “Last Links” to be exact). Kind of basic and run-of-the-mill so I kind just forget about it.
6. Letter
Ok I take that back, Letter sounds like “Last Links”. It’s the whole pop/rock mixed with strings arrangement that just gets to me and I’m finding myself just not being impressed here either. I feel that it’s just so plain and white for me…but some people might like this because it sounds like old Ayu…but there’s other old facets of Ayu that were better IMHO.
7. reminds me
After those two boring songs, reminds me actually is standing up amongst the song by being a little more dramatic. Kind of like an acoustic version of “criminal” almost. However, unlike the mentioned song, the melody has a little more life to it and it does grow the longer it plays so it doesn’t drift on boring. This is the Ayu I missed and she came back in a powerful way with this song!
8. Return Road
The third song promoting the album, (second was “Shake It♥”, mind you), Return Road begins with pipe organ (“Microphone” much?). However it doesn’t follow that epic direction since Return Road is a powerful ballad for Ayu. Kind of harkens back to olden days and a little of “BRILLANTE” with the dramatic chanting and such. I will say that the male chant was freaking random as hell…why were they put in?!? Get em’ out!
9. Tell me why
If there was one song that I couldn’t forge the melody out for no reason to not to, Tell me why would be that song. It is a ballad for sure and the music is simple enough to listen to…but I honestly couldn’t remember the song on the album for some reason. I remember “call” and “Letter” as the two boring pop/rock tracks but Tell me why isn’t a bad song…it just comes up short in my memory. I will say it sounds like it could’ve been a good “Love songs” song…but I’m not even sure of that either.
10. a cup of tea
Another interlude pops up in a cup of tea which kind of starts with the strings playing a bouncy melody and transforms into this electronic amalgation of dubstep, the string’s bouncy melody and filtered vocals. It’s just somehow not working with me and kind of is just all kinds of messy. It’s probably her worst interlude yet.
11. the next LOVE
I love that Ayu decided to tackle new styles on the next two tracks on the album, unfortunately one of them didn’t work. the next LOVE though actually did because it sounds so classy and jazzy. I was kind of like, she can pull this style with flying colors since it sounds so gooood! It worked and is the album’s true gem on here oddly enough.
12. Eyes, Smoke, Magic
Sadly, the album really hits a very odd bump in the road in the shape of Smoke, Eyes, Magic which sounds like some nod to something like Moulin Rouge though but I kind of hate this song. It just didn’t work for her because it felt so out of character for her and I just couldn’t handle her vocals for the song. I will admit that I do think her experimentation was in good mind…but ewwww I just don’t like this song.
13. Serenade in A minor
The final interlude, Serenade in A minor seems like it could’ve fit elsewhere on the album like somewhere before or after “Return Road” would be a better place actually. All it really is is just a strings solo so it doesn’t really impress me even if it leads into the final track on the album.
14. how beautiful you are
The final song on the album is oddly enough the only song to be released prior to the album as a digital single. I felt that it was nice that she closed the album with a ballad…but honestly what stands out from “Curtain call” and “meaning of Love” to be honest. I will say that hearing Ayu saying the title was a nice touch but it doesn’t stand out for me…
Tracks Recommended
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the next LOVE
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reminds me
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Return Road
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NaNaNa
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Party queen
Song of Avoidance
Let’s get this out of the way first, Party Queen is better than both “Love songs” and “FIVE” so that’s a good start right? Now getting that out of the way…while it might be better than her last two releases, she still hasn’t fully captured the magic that I loved in “NEXT LEVEL” and “Rock’n’Roll Circus” for some unknown reasons. Maybe it’ll be the next album, but I’m not holding my breath for that…While it did have songs that stood out and worked…overall I felt just more bored than excited for this release.