:+: No Music No Life :+:

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

CD Review :: ayumi hamasaki - I am ...

Tracklist :

1) I am ...
2) opening Run
3) Connected
4) UNITE !
5) evolution
6) Naturally
7) NEVER EVER
8) still alone
9) Daybreak
10) taskinlude
11) M
12) A Song is born
13) Dearest
14) no more words
15) Endless sorrow ~gone with the wind ver.~
16) flower garden (Hidden Track)

I am ... is the 4th album released by Ayumi Hamasaki on 1st Jan 2002 & I am ... is possibly the only album to date that Ayumi has written & composed entirely under her pen name CREA with the exception of taskinlude & the melody of Connected .

In case you don't know why the pen name CREA , it's the name of 1 of her 4 dogs & no I'm not kidding on this .

In addition , I am ... gave Ayumi her best 1st week sales to date at 1,751,360 . Unlike her previous albums which contained very autobiographical songs , I am ... focuses more on subjects such as love , faith , hope & freedom, but also reflect many important life lessons .

The songs featured on her first album for example were very personal , she was writing about her own sadness , self-doubt & loneliness, while in this record , her songs chronicle less darker subjects & are mostly addressed to the listeners .

During an interview with TIME Magazine , she explained that the lyrics of A Song is born is about peace . It was composed & arranged by Tetsuya Komuro . A Song is born was directly inspired by the the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She said that when she saw the attacks on TV , she was shocked & she couldn't accept the reality .

The style of the album is dominated by rock music , but remains diverse . She had already experimented a rock genre with songs such as SURREAL or End of the world on her 3rd album Duty , but this album features more pop-rock compositions . Aside from writing the lyrics to all the songs she composed most of I am ... .

Track 1's the title track of the album & it's a nice one . It was followed by a short interlude opening Run . Track 3's Connected which was composed & arranged by Ferry Corsten . It's a mid-tempo trance song & it later received its own music video for the release of CYBER TRANCE presents ayu-trance 2 . Connected peaked at #18 on Germany's MTV Dance Charts .

UNITE !'s a very upbeat no. & the melody kinda draw similarities with the next track evolution as both songs are very fast sounding & upbeat but they're both great . evolution was the 2nd song that she released + composed & it came very close to become a million selling single . It sold 955,250 . evolution's unique in the sense that it's a very fast song which uses a no. of instruments including guitars and other electric instruments .

evolution was used in a TV ad for a Kose Visee mascara featuring Ayumi herself . Next on the line's Naturally & just like evolution , Naturally was used in another Kose Visee ad , only this time , it promoted a lipstick .

NEVER EVER was the 3rd single that she released from I am... . Unlike the rest of her music videos , the clip for NEVER EVER was a short one & if you happen to come across the music video & single cover of NEVER EVER , you would have noticed something similar , image wise in that it kinda reminds you of the video of her 42nd single talkin' 2 myself .

After NEVER EVER , it was a track called still alone & strangely enough , that song didn't register with me when I 1st heard it . It's strange but whenever I listen to albums & etc , somehow , I always cannot remember a track or 2 which's weird .

It was followed by an interlude taskinlude , in fact it's the only interlude on I am ... if you don't count opening Run as 1 . After taskinlude , it's M & it's considered as 1 of Ayumi's greatest songs by fans & it's easy to see why .

M's the 1st single taken from I am ... & it was her 4th million selling single . this single sold 1,319,000 . This is the 1st song that she composed in addition to already writing the lyrics & is considered one of her signature songs.

M can be described as a winter pop/rock ballad using a variety of instruments including guitar , the triangle , strings , among others . The bridge of the song is entirely instrumental using electric guitars . Lyrically , M is about her talking to "Maria" (The Japanese name of The Virgin Mary) , or also possibly to Mary Magdalene hence the title M .

Ayumi came to S'pore in 2002 for the very 1st MTV Asia Awards & I remembered she performed at the event but at that time I didn't know she did M until I did my research & I managed to find out about this which's cool .

After M , it was A Song is born . The song was released as a single as part of avex trax's SongNation nonprofit project to raise funds for the attacks on the World Trade Center which took place on Sept 11th 2001 .

Track 13 & 14 are ballads back to back & both are simply awesome . Dearest & no more words are great & I think Dearest's 1 of Ayumi's best ballads that she has released to date .

Dearest was used as the 3rd ending theme for InuYasha while no more words was used as the ending theme for the 1st InuYasha movie .

The 2nd last track Endless sorrow ~gone with the wind ver.~ was rearranged & the last part of the lyrics were resung to better reflect Ayumi 's own emotions . Unlike the version of Endless sorrow that's found on her A BEST 2 -BLACK- greatest hits compilation , the version on I am ... is more mellow while the other version found on A BEST 2 -BLACK- has a more rock & upbeat sound to it .

Last but definitely not least , it's a hidden track called flower garden which I like . I remembered I 1st heard flower garden on 1 of her tours that she did & I came to know about this song .

On whole , I am ... is a really good record . It's not often you hear of artistes who produce a good follow up especially when it's hard to top up a good record album after album & I'm happy to say that Ayumi doesn't fall into this trap .

She always deliver something different in each album & she doesn't pigeonhole herself which's good & here's to more albums that she will released in the future .