Ayumi Hamasaki's "Next Level"

[Madara]

Ayumi Hamasaki's "Next Level" album has two CD discs, one with new songs and one with live tracks from her "Premium Countdown Live 2008-2009" Concert DVD, plus a DVD disc with six music videos and Making of clips.



The videos are great and were clearly shot with some serious money behind them.



Highlights of the videos:

"Green" was shot at a studio in Shanghai, China. It's set in the 1920s. Looks like a movie.

"Next Level" features Ayumi in a red Mustang driving along the Pacific Coast Highway.

"Curtain Call" was shot at the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City, CA, which used to be MGM Studios back in the Golden Age of Hollywood. I actually visited this lot back in July when I was out in L.A. for the Morning Musume trip to AX.



I've got a longer writeup on my blog, complete with links to four of the videos and four of the "Making of" clips.





Also, long story short, I finally figured out how to validate my e-mail address for the Live Journal, so now I can respond to comments. (It took almost four years!)

[neshcom]

I can definitely say Next Level, both in audio and visual respects, was a leap above SHITTY GUILTY, but the majority of the album tracks have not stuck with me. I really enjoyed Curtain Call and I think it was THE best PV from the entire album. The rest of the album tracks seemed like gene-rock to me. I did like the one song with a lot of swing a little. As far as the singles, I liked all four of the songs. Days is really catchy and the PV is kinda cute. Green is also really memorable, but the PV seemed too theme-y for me. Ditto for Rule. Sparkle is a strange case though. The song is great, but the PV is a bad mix of artsy and latex and cute. It was pretty cheap of avex not to include Sparkle on Rule/Sparkle, most likely because of the #1 reference in the intro or how weird it is.



I haven't gotten a chance to see any of the making-ofs...