Deep Dive: Ayumi Hamasaki Part Twenty-One (LOVE Again)

    We're back again with the Deep Dive series! It might as well be the Hamasaki Ayumi series! We're on part twenty-one. Wow. Hahaha! It's probably going to be awhile before I cover an artist with a huge discography again. I actually thought about doing AKB48 but holy cow! That would have like... Over 100 parts. 

    Anyways, let's get into it. 

    So here we are with Hamasaki's 14th studio album, LOVE again. If it looks familiar, that's because she does a stylistic return to her 2010 album's aesthetics, Love Songs. See? The titles are even similar. She also teamed up with the same people here. Sonically? LOVE again certainly has its highs, but the lows are quite low, I feel. I also feel like the rollout for this album was kinda... sloppy? Which we can argue the same for 2012's Party Queen. LOVE again saw two singl-... I mean, mini-albums released before the album. Titled Love and again. They were pretty much singles. All tracks besides exclusive remixes featured on the album. So not much of the album itself was new to us. The album was also released two days after the tracking week started. To coincide with Hamasaki's 15th anniversary project at the time. Another odd choice though one that showed Hamasaki wasn't worried about charts.

    Anyway, let's love again and Deep Dive. 

    Hamasaki really does fit this style and it fits her like a bedazzled glove. First up we have "Wake Me Up" which is a more electronic take on the sound we heard from Love Songs. Though the influence is still undeniably there. Hamasaki herself sounds a little worn out here at times. I still think this is a good song though. The production is nice. 

    Our second track "Song 4 u" keeps the fun and craziness going. It sounds lush and beautiful. I've always really liked this one. It's classic Hamasaki. The piano is absolutely top. The strings make it feel Love Songs-ish. 

    The hook of "Missing" proves that even though Hamasaki is 15 years into the game, she still knows her way around a pen. The writing is really good on this song. I will still randomly sing the hook at times when I hear the word "Missing." The chorus is the best part here. Hamasaki sounds nice as well.

    "SAKURA" is where we begin to wind down a bit, and the Love Songs presence is really here. It's a fine song. 

    "Melody" is also nice. I just don't come back to these two songs that often. Though I come back to this one more than "SAKURA." These two aren't as memorable as "Wake Me Up" and "Song 4 u." 

    "task'n'bass" joins all the other interludes of Hamasaki's that should have been elevated to a full-length track.

    "Bye-bye Darling" is one of my favorites from the album. It's easily likeable from first listen. The guitar is great. It's another classic Hamasaki. It's like she took a song from Love Songs and experimented with rock for it. The bass at the intro will get stuck in your head. 

    "snowy kiss" is not her best winter ballad, but everyone has a dud every once in awhile. It's not bad. It's just not super memorable either.

    Hamasaki retreaded old ground for "Sweet Scar" too. She definitely tried to play it safe with this album after the lukewarm reception of Party Queen. You can't blame her, but an artist that thrived on reinvention and making the world hers. It was quite a shock to see her reuse a previous template without an overhaul. She has always had songs that are in the same vein. You can chop that up to her artistry and brand. But never as blatantly as the reused formula here. 

    "Petal" is nothing new either. Very inoffensive.

    "Glasses" is the album's second interlude. Next.

    "Untitled For Her... Story 2" is a sequel to the first track originally featured on GUILTY. It completes Hamasaki's feelings about the friend she wrote the first track about. Sonically it's a continuation of the other tracks we've come to know so far. 

    "Gloria" also continues the album's themes and sound and safeness.

    "Ivy" should be the album ender. It's just like the rest of the album in sound and lyrics. It's one of the stronger filler tracks. And it was promoted a decent amount.

    Instead! We get "You & Me" for the umpteenth time as the album ender. I thought it was a choice that Hamasaki included an orchestral version of this song on A Classical like gee. What I always wanted. A orchestra version of a cheesy dance song. I think that version would have fit in more here. Not that this original mix doesn't. It just would have felt more like a new addition instead of a track we've seen rehashed again and again and again. Hamasaki commits this sin of adding tracks that should have been on their original album to another album in the future quite frequently. Another song in the vein of "Wake Me Up," "Song 4 u," "Bye-bye Darling," or even "Missing" would have been a much-welcomed addition here. But eh. It is what it is, I suppose.

    I can see how the general public would latch onto this album as it never takes risks or crosses the street without looking both ways. It's likeable. But they didn't. There's not much reinvention here. There's not a lot of meat on the bones. I think Hamasaki should have just thrown caution to the wind and did a whole album of orchestra sounding originals in place of this album. It would have been ballsy and felt like a natural progression. It would have been timeless as well. I don't think we'll ever see a Hamasaki that creates an album to satisfy the true artist inside of her, but at this point in her career we miss the Hamasaki that took risks. 

Rank: B Rank

Recommendation: if you loved Love Songs be prepared to fall in LOVE again.

Standouts:

    Wake Me Up

    Song 4 u

    Missing

    Bye-bye Darling