~Darker lyrics only add jewels to Japan’s “Guilty” J-pop crowned Queen!

It’s been eleven years since Ayumi Hamasaki began what looked like a timid singing career but has since flourish into the sensational phenomenon that has filled Japanese arenas and has wowed international fans. The Queen of J-pop, as I like to call her has not slowed down, even with the loss of her hearing. She is seizing the moment and pushing herself, and her career to their limits. Her 9th Studio album “Guilty” is just one testament of her continuing projects that just keeps getting better and better, and reminding us why this cute mini-Japanese Kogal is a star.
“Guilty” is funky, it’s dark, its emotional, and its exciting. It is one of the best albums the singer has produced with a lot of new flavors. She is famous for her upbeat tunes, and high vocal songs you can get up and jump on your bed to, but now she’s famous for the complete opposite. While “Guilty” does contain some cheery tunes, such as “Glitter” it is also filled with darker, harsher songs. A little unusual for the star who even in concerts is anything but downhearted. However, instead of getting depressed, the songs are moving, touching, and refreshing. They bring out many different sides of the star, turning her from the sweet, fairy princess into almost someone we can relate to. We have laughed with her and now we can cry with her. And that feels good. She makes it feel good.
The music, accompanying her vocals are incredibly well executed and mixed. There are some instrumental pieces that are beyond impressive. Take the song “Decision.” It starts out smooth, with sweet sounding violins and the charming and heart breaking piano. Then in a blink of an eye, the bass, drums and guitar comes in, illustrating the a peaceful landscape suddenly taken by a tornados and storms. And when Ayumi comes in, she tells the story of betrayal, of sorrow, begging, pleading for relief, but there’s none and it sounds golden. It is just one of the beautiful songs in this disc that tells such an intense stories you can dance to, hum to, sin to if you’re Japanese or have memorized the songs.
Something familiar she has brought aback in this disc is combination of different genres, or pop, rock, metal, and even dance. She is classified as a J-pop artist, but I have always believed she is more than that, being the vocalist, lyricist and composer of most of her music. She has a unique gift to take inspiration and express it in many different types of music and combine them together. She has done it against in this disc and it is for that reason that I believe she has touched so many fans all over the world. There is something for everyone and anyone can enjoy what her music has to offer.
If you get a chance to find her lyrics translated, Ayumi has come back with amazing imagery and story telling in her music. My favourite translation is for “Decision.” The song really is about the struggle for power and control of the self, but the way Ayumi describes it is endearing. The only thing I can say without giving too much away is she made the sorrowful story it sound so sweet, gentle and delicate, that the pain she was talking about became almost too painful of an experience. The actual song expresses nothing less which is amazing.
The one thing I can comment on, for me personally, is that her discs are never a solid listen. She has created so many beautiful songs, so well written, so well sung and played that engaged the listeners, evoke emotions of joy, the celebration of youth and feminity in carefree delight. And now, the sharing of sorrow with Ayumi, who acts like a fellow girl friend with a shoulder to cry on. But, there are always two or more songs that don’t keep up with the rest. They can’t stand alone and fall on their faces. But in this disc, I found none! So I couldn’t be prouder of her. Every song is very strong and makes it a great album to play over and over and over again.
The version that I got for my birthday was the CD and DVD Edition. Unfortunately I couldn’t watch the DVD because of the regional code. I’m sorry that I can’t tell you anything about the behind the scenes sections of the making of portions, but thanks to Dailymotion.com and You Tube, I can talk a bit about the music videos featured on the DVD. I thought the mini 2 part film for “Glitter” and “Fated” were so sweet and adorable. I was impressed to see them filmed like a soap Opera, and ending very much like a real Soap. Ayumi is a decent actress and I was particularly impress with her during “Fated.” My two favourites of the videos were “Together When…” and “Marionette.” Both used puppets imagery which was genus. Marionette impressed me the most. It had very little story but lots of symbolism, dance and was very stylized, similar to a lot of Ayumi’s most captivating videos. I adored the costumes and make-up as well. “Together When…” was a favourite because of the story. It was sweet and tragic and just the kind of thing I love. It was also very simple and again had a lot of symbolism. The “Together When…” video seemed to clarify the song, and made it easy to understand what the song was about, or at least for us English speaking North Americans. But if you look at the translation, its not telling the story the music video tells, but that’s ok. Most of Ayumi’s videos are like that, but often they do have factors that connect them together and in the end the song and the video support and complement each other as these videos did. The weakest video out of the bunch was “[don’t] Leave me alone.” The song is so jazzy, so I thought a lot more could have been done in the video. Really, all it has is Ayumi in a flashy outfit walking about and three of her back-up dancers spring out every now and again to steal and replace her tie. Perhaps understanding the song might have helped a little bit but there simply wasn’t a lot to the video. There wasn’t a lot of performance, dancing, or any other form of expression to support the song. So, it made me wonder why it was even done in the first place?
This album is combination of many things old and new and is almost like a new, vamped up resume for Ayumi. It has secure her place in the industry as an icon and international success. It has revealed many new and awesome sides to Ayumi’s music and has showed us just what she is capable of. If you’re a Ayumi fan and don’t have this golden disc in you’re collection, you are out of your mind! This is the best of the best of her works. And just goes to show you, that age is just a number, and illness is just another obstacle you can jump over. Ayumi is “Guilty” of having the whole package: Talent, dedication, passion, hard working, beautiful in mind, heart, body and soul. And she is here to stay!