Deep Dive: Ayumi Hamasaki Part Two (LOVEppears)

    Welcome back to our Deep Dive series on Hamasaki Ayumi! So many things can be said about this absolute icon who was a gateway for many people into J-Pop who lived abroad. I know she was one of many of the first artists I listened to and loved. She's such a trailblazer and trend setter, you can still feel her aftershocks in the industry even today.

    First of all, I just want to say that I know this album, LOVEppears, like the back of my hand. I still listen to it to this day all the way through and sing along with every word. Like the album cover, it is that iconic. And it hits hard from the trance beginning of "Introduction" to the Hamasaki-esque balladry that is "Who..." We've already kinda started anyways, so let's go ahead and dive.

    I'm flooded with memories right now because I've lived more of my life knowing Hamasaki than I have without knowing her. Just seeing that thumbnail from the "Fly High" music video (there was a time that we called them PVs! Hahaha) has me sighing with nostalgia. Her older works, including LOVEppears, still chart regularly. She's that much of a force. She had a release schedule similar to Rihanna that she never went away long enough for you to miss her, and she always kept the hype raised with her releases. I think the key to everything that makes Hamasaki is her charisma though. When you watch her perform 1998-2012 she just is incredible. She doesn't have the pipes that her peers at the time have like MISIA or Utada Hikaru, but she has a charisma like she's an eternal flame that will burn forever. She always knew how to play to her strengths. 

    I talk like she retired or something, but she still keeps being a driving force. However, medical conditions have unfortunately been something that Hamasaki has had to overcome with mixed outcomes. For instance, she has lost her hearing which is a tragedy for someone who loves music as much as herself. And you can read all about that because it's tragic (I, a grown man, cried when I found it out). I feel that post-2014 she kinda lost her spark or her edge. Some would even argue earlier than that, but I think that's about right. You'll see what I'm talking about as this series progresses. Still, I think that Hamasaki's legacy pre-2013 is unmatched and probably never will be touched. I commend Hamasaki for pressing forward though. She loves what she does and her fans, and she certainly has fans that love her back. I know that I, for sure, love her very much and cherish her artistry. I will never utter a bad word about her. Her work ethic is insane. And she has encouraged me to keep going in times that I wanted to give up. For that, I say thank you to her. Truly. I know people throw the word "icon" around a lot, but Hamasaki is a living and breathing one. 

    I digressed a lot, but let's talk about the first full-length song of the album. It's the LOVEppears album in case you got lost in the plot along with me. Hahaha! That song is "Fly High." This song has given me many a jump scare when I accidentally have the volume turned up too high. That's because it starts out like a cannonball right out the gate. It's the perfect hype song. Hamasaki kind of raps on the verses with vocal effects to drown her out a bit. It's super memorable. The chorus is catchy.

    Literally everything Hamasaki did during this era had all eyes on her. Her fashion, her music, and her happy attitude. Even though she presented herself as being very relatable, she has deep insightful lyrics that she writes herself. We can see this on "Trauma." Which has a cool tickle-y guitar open that launches us into the song. This was the first song of hers that I heard and I was hooked on the chorus, and also Hamasaki's squeaky and unique voice. You can seriously tell it's her on any song that she sings even though she dropped the tone and key and changed up her technique significantly around 2002.

    "And Then" has such a cool atmosphere, and it's just a cool song in general. It's a product of its time, like most of the album, but it's so different that it will stay cool in any era that it is played in. Which brings me to my next point. Hamasaki really found her footing here with this dance album. It laid the groundwork for her to expand into any area she wanted to in the future like the darkness of the follow-up album, Duty. The quintessential Hamasaki pop-rock of I am..., the summery-ness of RAINBOW, the rock of My Story and beyond. She has some really unique compositions and a composition-style to her tracks. You'd be hard pressed to find an artist that can make songs like Hamasaki. She definitely found her style and sound and stayed there (for better or for worse, but we'll get to that when the time comes). It's pigeonholed her at times, but when it was hot, it stayed red hot. Like it does on this album.

    "Immature" keeps the fun going with a chorus that is just a piece of candy. Hamasaki rarely wrote English lyrics for the longest time (even though 99% of her song titles were in English *motions to the whole tracklist of this album*), so all of her hooks are in Japanese. And that is so smart of her! The chorus of this song has one of album's best hooks. 

    Let's go ahead and take a moment to talk about who is on the roster of producers and composers on this album. So we have Max Matsuura, of course. He's executive produced all of Hamasaki's works. So everyone say thank you to Matsuura. The man had a vision and they even made a drama about his and Hamasaki's relationship. Though Hamasaki is the gear in the machine that made it all work. She turned it all to gold. She put in the insane amount of work that made her a phenomenon. 

    Composer wise, we have some super interesting ones here. We have HΛL. A frequent collaborator with Hamasaki. They are music arrangers that became a band that went back to being music arrangers. They made "Sailor Star Song" from Sailor Moon. I listened to their work, once upon a time, and it was similar at many times to Hamasaki's. (Even down to the vocalist, Halna). Though Hamasaki obviously got their best work. We also have Nagao Dai (D.A.I), of Do As Infinity fame, he worked with Hamasaki a lot, but not as long as Hal. Finally of note, we have Kikuchi Kazuhito, who worked with other avex trax artists like Koda Kumi, Every Little Thing, and post-blackballed Suzuki Ami. I like to talk about the people behind the scenes who make the magic happen. I think it's interesting when you think "oh I like X song by Y artist. Then you look it up and you're like "oh! Z worked on this song, and he also worked on X." Just a cool moment of overlap.

    I digress again! So now we are at "Boys & Girls." A breakout hit of Hamasaki's. Dance to it. It's amazing. The hook in the chorus is equally as amazing. It's an iconic song for an iconic artist and one of the songs by Hamasaki that gets covered a lot. 

    We slow things down a bit with the album's first ballad, "TO BE." There's a lot going on with it, and it's rather upbeat for a ballad. A lovely song to sing along with in the shower. Not that I have done that before. The chorus takes us to space and the vocal harmonies of the flurry of Hamasakis are sweet.

    "End roll" is one of those moments of Hamasaki's discography that you remember why she became legendary. It's a song that resonates with the general public, but there's really not much like it. It's slightly danceable yet also slightly a ballad. The bridge adds in some light strings. The result of it is just beautiful. It's mostly electronic, but it's real instruments like the guitars bring it back down to earth. Hamasaki's relaxed vocals on the verses shine. This song along with "Trauma," "monochrome," and "too late" was a part of her quadruple A-side single A. None of the songs had a music video and yet it became her best-selling single. Much like an icon. 

    "P.S II" is a second part of the song from her first album, A Song for xx. The song? "Powder Snow." This is powder snow 2. Both songs are very different though. Lyrically, they connect. Like the choruses. Sonically? Oh no they do not. But "P.S II" sounds right at home here on this dance album. It hits you over the head with a *boom boom clap* beat as soon as it begins. Unlike its first part, it doesn't sound too wintery. It sounds more like a blizzard. Hamasaki's vocal performance is very expressive here. 

    "WHATEVER" is a bop. The "woah, woah, woah" hook is so recognizable. It's so 90s, but that's what makes it so loveable. It's so serious. I love it. It's probably the album's hardest hitter. This is an album version here, but there's a version on its single that is a lot like it. The instrumental shows itself off here as we don't hear from Hamasaki until about a minute and a half in. Then we get a repeating "ta, ta, ta" which is cool. When will songs like this make a comeback? We barely get 3 minute long songs now. 

    "too late" is just SO COOL! I know I said that a lot already, but Hamasaki is just a cool artist, you guys. That cymbal opens us up and then that beat drops and you just get ready for the roller coaster. The vocal effects hype you up. Then they stop mid-sentence. Then the chorus brings you to the peak. THEN the thumping beat of the bridge. It's perfect!!! I like the "tsudzuku, tsudzuku" hook. Very effective. 

    "appears" is half-the-title track. It was released as a single the same day as an album. I cherish this song so much. First of all, the opening sets a mysterious mood and is cool as all hell. Yes. The choruses (plural because there's different ones) are a joy to sing along to. Yes. The instrumental is what has made Hamasaki Ayumi Hamasaki Ayumi. Yes! Like we talked about earlier. The lyrics are genius. It sounds wintery at times too. Which brings me to my next point and a reason why I rushed this deep dive out: Ayu tells us "Merry Christmas" in the bridge! Merry Christmas, dear normal dudes!

    "monochrome" appears (lol) as our next song. It's a happening little number with cascading pianos in the chorus. The beat, itself, is catchy. The atmosphere of it continues the mysteriousness we've witnessed throughout the whole album. It's definitely a highlight of the album. The ending here is changed from the single version. It just ends abruptly and then moves onto "Interlude" which I guess kind of brings an electronic end to the song in and of itself along with setting us up for the R&B to come. The single version of "monochrome" had a guy on it that said "you're great," slams the record down, and then goes out a door. Fans have debated how this song should end and made edits of it for years. I honestly didn't mind the guy at the end. It's my preferred version just for the meme-ability. It feels like a natural conclusion to the song to me too. Now, if the song ended that way after 2 minutes, I'd probably feel differently. Instead, it feels complete. 

    

    This album throws a lot at us. It's predominantly and undeniably dance. But it also has ballads and... R&B?! Yes, that's right. R&B. "LOVE ~refrain~" which is very different than the piano-ballad single, "LOVE ~Destiny~" (which has the killer Tsunku♂ collab "LOVE ~Since 1999~"), is an R&B song! The melodies are the same, but sonically we have an R&B number and a straight up ballad. Hamasaki never did dabble in R&B much. As when the pop world was split into R&B and rock in the 2000s, she chose the rock path, mostly. Besides pop. Right off the top of my head, I can think of one other R&B-ish song of hers during this time, "Bold & Delicious" from (miss)understood? If that counts. That said, I love "LOVE ~refrain~." It's so chill and just sounds like dream. Hamasaki calmed her vocals again and they're lovely here. It's very engaging. 

    Then we come to the last *ahem* song on the album, "Who..." Let's get one fact straight. Hamasaki knows how to craft a ballad. We have vinyl record cracks in the beginning. Then we get those electronic dings. A twangy, southwest guitar. Then the voice of an angel from Hamasaki humming to us. She ends a lot of her concerts with this song (and it even appears (lol) as the last song on her first best-of album, A BEST), and it is the perfect wind down song. Ballads are only boring if they're not engaging, this one, however, is engaging. It throws enough unexpected punches and is just sonically fun to not be boring. The chorus soars and is singable. It's just a lovely song. 

     BUT WAIT!

    We aren't done here, my friends! Oh no! There's a secret track! I think it's so fun when album's do this. Hamasaki has done this on several different occasions. I think Japanese albums do it more than English albums but still. Our last song is actually the R&B number, "kanariya." Not only does the fact it's a secret song make it interesting, but the fact it's an R&B genre song does too. There's a soulful unknown male vocalist featured on it (ooh more secrets). To keep with the canary theme, Hamasaki's voice is also been tampered with in the studio to make it go higher (outside of her range) for the chorus. (Which is super interesting too). As a result, Hamasaki did not sing this song live for the longest time (like 2 decades almost) even though it was re-cut as a single. I really love this song too. I highly prefer this album version here than the single version. 

    To conclude, LOVEppears remains as one of Hamasaki's most solid and engaging efforts as it doesn't let up as soon as it begins. It's a fun listen from beginning to finish. Which is what everyone loves about an album. It helped to establish Hamasaki as not only a singles artist, but also an album artist. Which is pretty rare no matter where you are in the world to have success in both formats. I think even if you had never listened to Hamasaki before, and you listened without the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia that I have, you'd still appreciate and jam out to this album. Give it a try! You won't be disappointed!

Ranking: S Rank! Ayu already told you Merry Christmas on "appears," but I will too! Merry Christmas!

Recommendation: I listen to this album while internet surfing.

Standouts:

    The whole album. You heard me right. It's jam-packed with singles.