Friday, December 19, 2008

»» Ayumi Hamasaki - GREEN / Days / GREEN

Tracklist:
01. GREEN
02. Days
03. TO BE (10th Anniversary Version)
04. LOVE ~Destiny~ (10th Anniversary Version)
The instrumentals :)

I'm back, and so is Ayu. 8 months after the release of Mirrorcle World, Ayumi is back with one of her most impressive singles to date.

GREEN is an odd odd song. It reminds me of her Duty and I am... eras, so it's kind of nostalgic. Since it's Ayu, it's needless to say that the vocals are awesome. The music video has a chinese feel to it (probably 'cause that's the concept) and that gives me a chinese feeling about the song too. And the chorus simply yells 'Duty!!!'. I wasn't too fond of the song at first, but now it's grown on me a lot.

Days, on the other hand, didn't take me more than a spin to fall in love with. It's simply amazing. This is probably this year's Ayumi ballad. There was CAROLS in 2004, then HEAVEN in 2005, JEWEL in 2006, Together When... in 2007, and Days is 2008. I was starting to think we wouldn't get a beautiful ballad from Ayu this year. The melody is endearing, and probably one of the sweetest ones I've ever heard. The vocals are top notch and the instrumental is also very sweet. I can't wait to see her perform this one on the Countdown Live.

TO BE (10th Anniversary Version) was a very nice surprice. While it stays true to the original song, it's also a bit different and absolutely awesome. The vocals are much smoother, and she sounds very emotional. TO BE is probably one of the best melodies Ayu has ever sung and that really shows in this new version of the song. The part of the song where she sings kinda fast makes this song one of my favorite Ayu songs ever.

I'm not sure, but I think LOVE ~Destiny~ was Ayu's first #1 single. The 10th Anniversary Version stays true to the original song a bit too much, and that makes it a bit boring. But it's still an amazing song, and you can totally tell why it went #1 on Oricon: the melody is beautiful, the instrumental is amazing, and the bridge is ground-breaking. It's an amazing song :)

Overall score: 9/10

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by Sairo!