Music Review: Ayumi Hamasaki – Rock 'n' Roll Circus

Album Art

Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus is the eleventh studio album by the Empress of J-Pop, Ayumi Hamasaki.

I’m just going to say this straight up–I believe that this is Ayumi’s comeback.

After her (miss)understood album, Ayumi seemed to have hit a slump in her music, and it just didn’t seem to live up to the tracks from some of her older works, and her songs seemed to lack genuine energy; however, this album seems to be a bit of a return to “the good old days.” (Well, not entirely, but figuratively speaking.)

It’s an obvious fact that Rock ‘n’ Roll Cirucs has a completely different sound from A Song For XX. Her debut-album-style is one that I’m not expecting her to return to anytime soon. Her rock-influenced sound and powerful, somewhat raw vocals are what’s working for her; the only problem that she needs to avoid in this case is songs that sound extremely similar. I think that Ayumi can pull off the pop-rock sound, as long as she doesn’t end up with something like Selena Gomez’s Kiss & Tell album, where almost all of the songs sounded the same (with the exception of “Naturally”). If Ayumi can produce a good rock-ish album without those disastrous results, she should be in the clear.

With all of this said, Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus is an amazingly entertaining album.

Track List:
1. THE introduction
2. Microphone
3. count down
4. Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~
5. BALLAD
6. Last Links
7. montage
8. Don’t look back
9. Jump!
10. Lady Dynamite
11. Sexy little things
12. Sunrise ~LOVE is ALL~
13. meaning of Love
14. You were…
15. RED LINE ~for TA~

*Note: I’m not going to review “THE introduction,” “montage,” or “Jump!” This is because I despise reviewing interludes and introductions.

Microphone is the second track on this album. The beginning of it reminds me distinctly of “Futatsu no Kodou to Akai Tsumi” by vocal duet ON/OFF, and sounds like something that belongs on Vampire Knight. But that’s just my opinion. The whole thing is bursting to the seams with heavy guitars and rock beats, along with Ayumi’s powerful and more energetic vocals. My only complaint with this song is the frequent “Tell me why, tell me why. I don’t know, I don’t know” part that’s laced in with every instrumental break between the chorus and verses. When I listened to this song, I thought “Hey, Ayu’s voice is back!” When I had listened to some of her songs from NEXT LEVEL, I really thought that she was straining her voice and having trouble singing; well, not anymore! This song is definitely a comeback for her, with the strong sound that continues through the piece, even in its slow parts.

count down is my favorite song on the album. Period. It kicks off with these really creepy guitars, and an even creepier piano melody that reminds me a lot of Eiko Shimamiya’s “Diorama.” Ayumi’s vocals at the beginning before the chorus are amazingly executed, and sound incredible. The chorus has been stuck in my head ever since I listened to it, and the whole song carries a quiet intensity that is mirrored by the low vocals, quiet guitar accompaniment, and the slow, mysterious piano part. The whole piece stays somewhat demure and docile, which is a nice contrast to the high energy and upbeat tempo of “Microphone.”

Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~ will lure you in with its beautiful piano accompaniment that sounds like something from a Miyazaki film (particularly the opening scene when Chihiro’s family see their house as they try to get there in Spirited Away). The song makes me think of a summer morning with Ayumi’s soft, melodic vocals. Though this song may be beautiful, it can get boring quite fast; I was ready to change the track about 2 minutes into the nearly six-minute song.

When I noticed BALLAD, my immediate thought wasOh, great–another slow song. Ick. It starts off slowly with what sounds like traditional Chinese instruments playing the background (*coughMulan-eqsuecough*). In my opinion, this song is totally boring throughout, and is something that you should most definitely skip over.

Last Links starts off strong with a beautiful acoustic guitar/cello part, and begins to explode with some kick-ass percussion after Ayumi’s vocals have been in the song for a few measures. My head just naturally bobs to the beat when I listen to this–it’s pretty great, to be honest, and is one of the better tracks on the album.

Don’t look back has a more upbeat, Arabic, belly-dancer feel to it, and is pretty different from all of the other songs on the album. No, seriously–I want to belly dance to this song. Well…I would if I could. Again, this song is one of the more fun ones, which definitely makes it on the of the best. (Is it just me, or are all of Ayumi’s better songs quickly-paced?) Either way, this is more of a neutral song in terms of “should-I-listen-to-it-or-not.” It appeals to different people, and it’s sort of “meh” for me.

Lady Dynamite is the first of Ayumi’s more techno-pop songs that are on the album. However, this one doesn’t really live up to my expectations. It’s a little bit bland, and the synthesized sounds could have been a little crisper than they are. All in all, it’s another “meh” song.

Sexy little things is probably one of Ayumi’s first songs to mention something about sex appeal, from what I’ve seen so far. The synthesizers are great on this–which totally makes up for the lack of good synthesizer sounds on the previous track. I could most definitely picture contestants on Dancing With The Stars doing a quickstep to this song–Anna Trebunskya + Evan Lysacek to be specific. It also has sort of this…um…fifties (?) sound to it, along with something that should be in an old Disney movie. It’s one of the better ones on the CD.

Sunrise ~LOVE is ALL~: I swear I thought my speakers were malfunctioning when this started playing. The only remotely good thing about it is the chorus. I mean, seriously–Ayumi’s become an older, more experienced professional musician, and her sound should be more mature than this song. Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~ is a much better song than Sunrise, and they’re like…the exact same lyrics, melody, and everything. I would definitely skip over this one.

When I heard meaning of Love, I thought, Good God. More slow songs? By now, you can tell that I absolutely hate Ayumi’s slower songs. The only thing I do praise about this song is the good melody, and the nice build up to the chorus with the suspended cymbal, light guitars, and other percussion equipment. That was definitely a good touch.

You were… is, again, a slow song. Damn you Ayumi for writing too many slow songs. But anyway! The piano part to this is lovely, and is something that I would love to play. Just like meaning of Love, this song has a great buildup to a very powerful chorus. This might actually be a slow song that I can listen to, because of the excellent instrumentation.

RED LINE ~for TA~ reminded me of a country song when I first heard it with its bouncy beginning. It’s very, very, very nondescript, but not difficult to listen to. Actually, I quite like it–a lot. =3 The acapella part at the end is quite good–I definitely recommend it.

Rating:

3.5/5

Reason:

This album was really good in a lot of ways, but it still had its problems. For one, there were way too many slow songs on it–and slow songs, to me, are just not her specialty. The more rock-ish, faster paced songs were what kept this album afloat. This album could have stood for a little bit more diversity, and one interlude instead of three.

Recommended Tracks:

Microphone

count down

Last Links

Sexy Little Things

RED LINE ~for TA~