:+: No Music No Life :+:

Sunday, January 13, 2008

CD Review :: ayumi hamasaki - GUILTY

CD Only Cover :

CD + DVD Cover :

Tracklist :

1) Mirror
2) (don't) Leave me alone
3) talkin' 2 myself
4) decision
5) GUILTY
6) fated
7) Together When ...
8) Marionette -prelude-
9) Marionette
10) The Judgement Day
11) glitter
12) MY ALL
13) reBIRTH
14) untitled ~for her~

GUILTY is the 9th studio album released by Japanese singer/songwriter ayumi hamasaki . Prior to the release of GUILTY , 3 singles were released from the album which's highlighted in bold .

1st of all before I go on any further , I bought GUILTY for my 21st birthday 2 days ago & incidentally last year , my mum bought for me ayumi's previous album Secret on my 20th birthday so it's a bit of a deja vu experience for me .

Somemore I figured what better way to start the brand new year than to review ayumi's latest offering .

The album kicks off with a fantastic opening no. called Mirror . Just when I thought the opening no. Not yet from Secret was great , ayumi exceeded my expectations with an even bigger & better opening track for an album .

Mirror sets off the initial tone of GUILTY in which 3 different types of mood traits namely angry , angsty & feisty are shown & are in evident for the 1st few tracks on the album after you listened to Mirror .

Track 2's (don't) Leave me alone & it's a feisty rocking no . If you're very familiar with ayumi's previous & older works , (don't) Leave me alone might somehow reminds you of a cross bred between 1 LOVE , is this LOVE ? & GAME musically in which incidentally these 3 tracks that I mentioned are considered a few of the many fave songs that I like from ayumi & naturally , I feel (don't) Leave me alone is a stand out track as I really like the music arrangement of the song .

Track 3's the 42nd single that ayumi released , talkin' 2 myself . The opening of the song presented a more aggressive rock side from ayumi & I really like the song the moment when I 1st heard it . The song was used in the CM to promote Panasonic's LUMIX FX33 camera in Japan which incidentally ayumi is their spokeswoman for the company .

After talkin' 2 myself , it's the B side which was found on the talkin' 2 myself single & it kinda makes sense to put talkin' 2 myself & decision side by side together .

decision's another great solid no. from ayumi & I really like the music arrangement of decision . Even though it's in the same vein as talkin' 2 myself , at least when I listened to either 1 of the songs , I can differentiate both of them from each other real easily .

Track 5's the title track of the album & I absolutely adore this no. simply because of the music background of GUILTY where she incorporated big drums which're normally used in big bands / orchestras into this no. which makes things very refreshing & also the backing vocals of GUILTY added a more unique twist to the song .

From here onwards , the mood of the album slowly began to change & it shifted towards a more subdued form & fated sets the tone of it . fated's 1/2 of the double a side glitter + fated single which ayumi released prior to the release of GUILTY . For some reasons , she decided to spilt glitter & fated up together . It kinda makes sense since fated's a ballad & glitter's an uptempo no. .

Next's in line after fated is ayumi's 1st digital single & an amazing ballad titled Together When ... . Together When ... sorta marks a return to ayumi musically seeing that glitter + fated & talkin' 2 myself seems sub par single/s material wise so Together When ... cemented ayumi's position as 1 of the most respected Japanese female singer / songwriter once more .

I really like Together When ... when I 1st heard it & her ballads are great as well . The song reminded me of her previous ballads such as CAROLS , Dearest , JEWEL , Voyage & I'm glad that she decided to release Together When ... as a single . Somemore she also shot a PV for it in which the final product is fantastic .

Track 8's Marionette -prelude- & it makes another 1st for ayumi as this's probably the 1st time she has a prelude in an album . The prelude of Marionette is kinda creepy as it's in the tune of a musical box but at least it sets another shift in the mood / tone of the album & also on what to expect on the real McCoy itself aka Marionette which's definitely the star of the album .

When I saw the tracklisting of GUILTY , the 1st song title which caught my attention was Marionette & not to mention , there's also a PV to accompany the song too & I wasn't disappointed with Marionette , PV & song wise . The song started off slow & eventually it lashes out & became a mid tempo rock track which ended things off really really well .

Outta the PVs that're found in the GUILTY DVD , I personally think that Marionette's the best PV outta the whole lot . Somemore for a non-released single , it's impressive so to speak .

A bit case of f.y.i , the choreographer for Marionette's the same person who choregraphed ayumi's dance moves in the PV for talkin' 2 myself . His name's ZIN & he also danced alongside with ayumi for both PVs as well . For more info , you can watch the making of the PVs in which the contents of it are found in the DVD of GUILTY .

Track 10 is The Judgement Day in which it's 1 of 2 interludes found on GUILTY . I was hoping that it wouldn't be an interlude but guess not but The Judgement Day sets off another shift in the mood / tone for GUILTY .

Initally the album was all angsty , feisty , angry & slowly , it shifted to a more subdued form & around this point , it becomes happy , relaxed & carefree . The Judgement Day flows things extremely well as to what to expect in the next 2 tracks to come which falls in the whole happy go lucky vibe .

Track 11's the other 1/2 of the double A side single ayumi has released which's glitter . I think glitter's the 'successor' of BLUE BIRD which's the summer song found on ayumi's Secret album . Some people complained that glitter's like a replica of BLUE BIRD but I don't think so .

For once , the melody of glitter wasn't composed by D.A.I & not to mention , I feel that glitter's more edgier , music wise & I really like the bridge in the middle of the song so from day 1 , I didn't have problems with glitter & not to mention fated .

Maybe I'm not picky with what ayumi has released . I'm not sure but that's how things goes . Unlike ayumi's other PVs , glitter + fated strings together a short flim titled Kyo Ai (Distance Love) in which she went to Hong Kong to flim the movie & it stars hottie Shawn Yue as the lead actor in Kyo Ai where Shawn plays her bodyguard & ayumi falls in love with him in Kyo Ai .

Track 12's another song that falls under the happy go lucky vibe titled MY ALL . It's funny but when I 1st heard MY ALL , I thought it sounded strangely overdosed on the happiness factor & it reminded me of HONEY which's found on ayumi's 6th album MY STORY .

Not that it's a bad thing but it has been a while since I last heard such songs from ayumi & I definitely missed that feeling so it was good that she incorporated such a song back into her album .

Soon after that , it was followed by the 2nd interlude in GUILTY titled reBIRTH . I'm not sure why ayumi chose to put an interlude here seeing that it's the 2nd last track on her album but I suppose she has a reason as to why she did that because it leds to the final track on GUILTY which's titled untitled ~for her~ .

untitled ~for her~ was specially written & dedicated to 1 of ayumi's friend who unfortunately passed away last year . In fact , the album was dedicated to this deceased friend of ayumi's that's if you bought & looked at the album sleeves of GUILTY . I feel that the song's great . The opening of untitled ~for her~ sounded very grand & it slowly translated into a slightly mid tempo no. slowly bit by bit & I think untitled ~for her~ closed the album in a very good manner .

Just when I thought ayumi couldn't outdone on what she accomplished with her previous album Secret , she came back with an even bigger & better sounding album . Unlike Secret in which I feel the sound was inconsistent from the start to the beginning , GUILTY flows extremely well because you know what you will expect from the album from the start to the very end & not to mention you can tell that the consistency of the album is there .

GUILTY contains some of ayumi's darker & most serious material to date because I suspect that due to the passing of her friend , the inspiration from her friend's death probably inspires on how GUILTY turned out to be but it doesn't stop you from enjoying the whole album .

Also , I felt that GUILTY was not a rushed project unlike Secret which was supposed to be ayumi's 2nd mini album but it eventually became a full length album due to the fact that ayumi worked overtime to transform the EP into a LP in which I felt she should have stick to the original plan ie. release Secret as an EP , not LP even though I still think Secret's a great album .

GUILTY's another top notch album from ayumi & if you have not make your acquittance with ayumi's material , then it's probably about time you do that with GUILTY .