EP review: Ayumi Hamasaki - Trouble

Ayumi Hamasaki's seventh EP Trouble came at a point in her career where she really took her foot of the pedal when it came to releases. And one thing I wondered about Trouble after I listened to it was if it was ever intended to actually be an EP. It’s one of Ayu’s few, if not only EP’s which features songs which were heard up to 2 years prior, due to them being released digital or concert exclusive singles. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it causes me to look at Trouble differently, and also highlights an issue which I have with it; which is that it doesn’t feel as considered as a package in the way that Sixxxxx and Five did. It feels like it was either intended to be part of something bigger, or just a way to tie singles and previously heard songs to a release at a time when Ayu didn’t want to release an album. And it’s a shame, because Trouble kinda falters because of this, amongst other things.

Trouble is no different from the EP’s which came before, in that it doesn’t feature any drastic departures from anything Ayu has already done, but she does eek out on occasion, sparking intrigue into what could be if she ventured a little further. Trouble is a combination of the two brands of J-Pop that Ayu is known for; uptempo thrashy numbers, and string and guitar laden ballads - the former of which continue to make Ayu sound dated, and stuck in an era and a sound that she should have long moved out of.

"We Are Queens" is awful. My initial thought was that it sounds like something for some D-list video game, just to then find out the song was used as the theme for a mobile game. The intro is the best part of this song, mainly because it reminds me of an A-list game, SoulCalibur. It’s the drama and opulence that Ayu has given for album and song intro’s many times before. But then it devolves into some TV commercial sounding type mess. The problem with the song, aside from it sounding really dated (and not in a cool throwback kinda way) is that it's trying to pull from different genres and sounds to create this cool pop hybrid, but there’s no sense of actually tying them together in a way that makes a good song. Rina Sawayama's "Snakeskin" is an example of what "We Are Queens" was trying to do, except the arranger of the song Yuta Nakano didn’t have the finesse to wrangle the style together in a way that felt cohesive. But I imagine this will be fans’ favourite song, because the general sound of it is what had become Ayu’s signature sound.

“W” is also another one of Ayu’s rock led songs, which sounds like all of the others. It’s fun and it’s super camp in the ways that the likes of “Sparkle” was, but that’s really it. In the lexicon of Ayu’s campy rock songs, “W” isn’t bad, but Ayu has better versions of this song in her bag, so there’s no real incentive to run “W” over the others.

The uptempos on Trouble aren’t that great. But thankfully Ayu delivers on the ballads.

"aeternal" is really nice, because it's not a style of song that Ayu does often. "aeternal" reminds me of “What is Forever Love” from Colours, the album that EVERYBODY hated and fans act like they can’t remember; except in a package which feels a lot more tailored to Ayu, as opposed to some Stargate-esque anybody sound. The arrangement of "aeternal" is really cool because it features some elements which are pretty unorthodox, such as a key change half-way through each run of the chorus. No part of this song went where I thought it would go. In and of itself "aeternal" is such a coolly arranged song, but for it to be an Ayu song off the back of a bunch of songs which are the same ol’, same ol’ and so predictable, it really hits differently. It’s an example of how Ayu CAN do something that’s still true to her sound without sounding so templated and samey.

“Words” is a far more typical ballad affair, but is no lesser of a song because of it. As with "aeternal", it has a really great arrangement. If you liked “Why” from Ayu’s Five EP, then you’ll probably dig this. It doesn’t bang the way “Why” does, or share its subtle R&B elements, but it shares a similar energy overall. It’s a shame this wasn’t made a single or pushed to be the theme of a J-drama.

Now, we gotta talk about these vocals. Trouble is the first album where it’s evident that Ayu’s voice is changing, or has changed. It sounds lower and there’s this new texture to it which wasn’t there before, and she sits into both of these really well...some of the time. I can’t say with complete honesty that Ayu sounds consistently good on Trouble, but I can’t say she sounds wholly bad either.

As with her sound, Ayu needs to settle into something which works for her, but also shows that she’s willing to evolve and admit something isn’t quite working. Even the singers with the best voices have to adapt and change the ways in which they sing and approach songs as their vocals change over time. Ayu doesn’t seem to be there all the way yet, but she’s clearly aware that her voice has changed, because she accounts for it in the way that she sings at least half of the songs on this EP. I really don’t know what it was with Trouble, but the whole energy across it is one foot in, one foot out. With the music, with the vocals, all of it.

Trouble doesn’t really push Ayu in any new directions, but at the very least there is a sense of refinement following M(a)de in Japan. "aeternal", “Words” and “The Way I Am” sound like amalgamations of songs from M(a)de in Japan, but executed far better. In fact, the whole of Trouble sounds like a more refined and condensed version of M(a)de in Japan. Yes. Even with the outdated shenanigans that is “We are Queens”.

Whilst Trouble does feel more refined than M(a)de in Japan and also A One, and I’d say it’s a better package than both of them because it does what both albums did in a far more condensed form; it still feels like Ayu is reluctant to move as far forwards as she needs to. The ballads on this EP are what ultimately save it, because the uptempos on this thing are so forgettable and just don’t register in ways her past takes on the sound have done. If Ayu isn’t going to take risks with her albums, then the least she could do is use EP’s as an outlet to try new things. I thought that this was going to be a format for her following on from Five, where she said ‘Ya know what? Fuck it’ Lemme try a couple of new things’ and delivered something really damn good. But in true Ayu fashion, every time she takes one step forward, she takes two steps back.

Trouble as a whole isn’t memorable for anything other than being the release where Max Matsuura grabbed her titty on one of the covers. It’s another non-essential release in a discography which is becoming littered with such releases. At the very least there are a couple of good songs on this thing, but you could say this about every Ayu album. If you take the good songs on Trouble for what they are, they’re great. But by this point we know that there’s no point in expecting Ayu to translate what works here into anything which comes next, because she’ll be back to doing the same old shit all over again.

VERDICT: WE ARE PARTY KWEENS

Highlights
■ aeternal
■ Words 🏆