(miss)understood is an album I appreciate a lot and adore, as it was my initial favorite during my original discography deep dive with Ayu. Of course that has changed as I have sat with her music more as time went on. But, moving along, something I really find interesting about this record is the fact that 1/3 of it is made up of compositions of Sweetbox songs (with Ayu rewriting different lyrics) which I do want to talk about separately because they really deviate from her usual sound, but ... read more

It’s alright. It’s not super groundbreaking nor an experimental/satirical masterpiece that some people have been claiming it to be. It’s probably one of her most “nothing burger” songs she’s released, and the fact that it’s less than two minutes doesn’t help that. And while I do like the editing on her vocals during the chorus and the guitars, they stay pretty stagnant and don’t do anything that interesting.
It’s not the worst thing ... read more

'MY STORY' for me is the start of Ayu's second chapter in her career, she had a lot of creative control for this album with its sound and especially in its lyrics. And as you would assume with the album title, the songs were very autobiographical from either her own life or career and came from a place of dissatisfaction with how Avex was treating her as an artist. And my favorite thing Ayu does is rock, and an entire project where she channels early 2000's pop rock (and a ... read more

Ayu decided to create one of her best and most diverse projects ever... and only make it 8 tracks long. But to be honest, I think it ends up benefitting from the shorter track length as it is one of her projects I tend to pick up and just listen front to back more often than the others. And like I sort of just mentioned, I think it's because the different types of genres she chose to do here really keeps your attention, no two songs sound alike.
'ANGEL'S SONG' as the ... read more

I just need to say, releasing two albums in the same year for the second time is genuinely insane. But anyways.
'RAINBOW' was the perfect way to transition from 'I am...', the sort of craziness from the prior albums that we have come to expect from her has now changed to be a lot more smoother and relaxed, even the dance tracks that come in this project are a lot more toned down. And something that I realized about myself a few years ago is that I feel a little detached to ... read more

So controversially, out of all her releases in the 2000's, this is my least favorite of them, which really isn't saying much if we're being honest as they're pretty much... all good.
This album is a good encapsulation of Ayu's artistry, as it really does go into every genre she's done up to this point. It's a great rock album with hints of electronic dance music, which now that I have done my re-listen, a lot of this project does remind me of Madonna's ... read more

The rating for this album will be very familiar for my future reviews of a lot of Ayu's projects in the 2000's just fyi..
So, new decade, new year, new Ayu album. 'Duty', as much as it does has some similarities between her past projects, it really completely diverges into something entirely new for her. And I want to split this up into two halves, the first side of the album and second, because I feel like there's a small distinction between the two.
The album is ... read more

Really with her debut, it didn't feel quite like a classic Ayu album. That changes immediately with 'LOVEppears' with its's first single 'WHATEVER'. Only one month after the release of 'A Song for ××', she goes ahead and releases it as the lead and it sounds completely different to her debut. It's techno, dance perfection, and I mention this release in particular because in my opinion, this is where we see the beginning of modern Ayu now, ... read more

Finally after a 4 year break and an unfortunate start to her idol career (plus some acting/modeling gigs in between) Ayu finally releases her debut album A Song for ×× in 1999.
It's your average teen pop album, and there is a lot of charm in that. The amateur-ness from her EP is still present here, especially in the vocals which I WILL get into when I start my complaining and my whining. Genre-wise this album does cover a few different ones it can range from some rock ... read more

This being her first project and the last thing of hers I listened to is very funny to me.
Hip-hop is not the direction that I would have chosen at first but with how underdeveloped her voice was at the time I understand. And I say that knowing my favorite part of the EP was her singing ironically. But her rapping wasn't really awful either, which I think the type of hip-hop they chose to do really helped her out. The EP is pretty laidback production-wise, and even though Ayu's voice ... read more

My Kind Of Woman might be getting a run for its money for being her best cover....
Initially when this released, I believed it was going to be apart of "Zig"... little did I know it was a cover of a group called "Kittie" who I should probably check out now because what a song!
Comparing it to the original, this might be an unpopular opinion but this version really does give this song that umph that the original needed. I like how much sharper her screams are while the ... read more

Another amazing cover, I could never tell that this was not her song because it sounds exactly like something she would write and release herself! Her voice sounds really well paired with the fast paced beat and guitars, and the way she easily manages to sing and then scream interchangeably is so impressive to listen to. One of my favorite covers she has released officially and it really makes me really wonder how much she diverged from the original in terms of melody or tempo. And the cover ... read more

I, like many other people, tend to not like Christmas music, even on Christmas, besides the Mariah and a couple other songs, I do not tend to listen to holiday music. So with that being said, I did really enjoyed this project. It isn't super in your face holiday season, but you can still tell it is holiday music, which is what I prefer.
All of these tracks really showcase a really nice sweetness in her voice that I just love, it has a very slow tempo that is consistent throughout the ... read more

This being released for pride, Poppy the ally that you are.
Obviously a cover, the original being by t.A.T.u, I believe this really does kind of blow the original out of the water, I like Poppy's tone and her voice in general more than the original and I really just love the guitar solo incorporated here, it all works so well to remake this pop rock classic in a modern lens. If I had to change one part about this cover, i really wish for the bridge portion on that final line she just held ... read more

My history with the song "X" itself was very rocky, I just could not get into the full song for the "Icky Babies".. growling? Yelling? So when I discovered this version I was very happy to see that they were not so present in the track, so this became my favorite version of the track for a while. While of course I adore the original track itself now even more than the acoustic, I still really love this version and how the chorus still incorporates the heaviness of the ... read more

Such a random track released for the tour delays and it makes me so grateful that they were delayed. It has a really great sound incorporating these 80's like guitars and synths that really make me think back to Madonna's "Express Yourself", especially with the lyrics relating to fashion and showing your true self to others. It really could have worked so well on the main track list and I really wished it was, but I'm just grateful that she decided to release it out of ... read more

This has honestly aged really well for me, at first when I listened to it originally I thought the production was really repetitive and I found myself really bored unfortunately. When I relistened to it recently, I found out how much I enjoyed so many aspects of the song, the zany synths and the random squeal in the middle of it really just adds a lot of personality. As a track released between her first two projects, it is a great mixture of both sounds and how they managed to use synths in ... read more

I really can't believe she has released he sixth album already, and really what a comeback from her previous project "Zig" released the year prior. This album is notably heavier than her previous albums, being more akin to her EP "EAT" that she released a while back. It is very consistent with the use of her screams which has just improved so much since 2019, it is so crisp and feels so controlled that makes it such a pleasure to listen to.
The album uses this blend of ... read more

Zig was a strange album in general, it stripped Poppy from her rock/metal sound she has been going with to something more akin to the Choke EP out of all things. It is very obviously electronic and has a lot of heavy beats, which really made me excited since the singles really made me had high hopes for the project. This is only my second time listening to this record and it has been over a year by now since I originally had my first listen, so what changed for me?
I always felt like this ... read more

I do not have much history with this EP, I listened to it whenever it first came out and and never really listened since then. Looking back at this, I could see what she was going for, a somewhat pop-punk sound mixed with electronic until the final and track which uses a more natural instrument, a regular acoustic guitar, and is much slower.
Overall it is a really nice project, a few complaints could be said with some of the melodies especially in tracks like "FYB" and ... read more