4.0 out of 5 stars
Ayumi's latest album has some nice surprises, December 25, 2009
This review is from: Next Level (2CD+DVD) Edition (Audio CD)
"Next Level" is, as of this writing, the latest album from Ayumi Hamasaki, Japan's reigning queen of J-pop. (The album was first released on March 25, 2009 and I was able to find this Limited Edition recently in a Chinatown store.) This edition offers three discs. The first CD contains 14 tracks, including 11 of her newer songs and three instrumentals. The second CD contains 16 live tracks from her "Premium Countdown Live 2008-2009" concert, which is also available on DVD. And the third disc is a DVD offering her six latest music videos, plus "Making of" clips.
I'm a devoted fan of Ayu's, but mainly of her older material, which means I'm not that crazy about the newest songs on this album. Some of them have way too much rock and techno instrumentation to please this longtime fan of traditional J-pop. The best songs on the disc of newer material are the six that were made into music videos and it was only after watching the videos that I came to appreciate them. Still, I enjoy listening to her no matter what she sings. And this disc remains, nonetheless, quite a pleasant listen. It just pales next to her older albums and the great songs contained on so many of them.
The second disc, the "live" one, contains only two of her newer songs, "Green" and "Days," and fills up the rest of the performance with lots of old favorites, including "Will," "End of the World," "And Then," "Signal," and "Hana." I like listening to live performances on CD and wish more J-pop artists would release their concerts as CDs. Ayu has a different kind of energy when she's live, as do her musicians, and it's exciting to both watch and hear. I enjoy this disc a great deal.
The most compelling draw of this set, however, is the DVD. Ayu's label, Avex, puts real money into her videos and they can be pretty spectacular, from a cinematic standpoint. For one thing, they're all shot on 35mm film, often on stages and backlots in real movie studios. "Green" is especially notable because the beginning was shot at a Shanghai film studio on a massive outdoor set (built for Ang Lee's 2007 film, LUST, CAUTION) recreating pre-war Shanghai. The camera moves a lot and dozens of extras are used. Ayu's image is seen on billboards around the street and we soon follow her, past a group of well-dressed dancing men, into an art deco nightclub where she's the headline act. Elegantly dressed, like an old-school glamour queen, she sings into the mike and is soon borne aloft by the male dancers in new outfits. Soon a tall female dancer, dressed sharply in men's suit and tie and leather gloves, with her hair brushed back, steps onto the stage and dances with Ayu, clearly winning her heart.
"Next Level," the title track, was shot in California along the Pacific Coast Highway and shows Ayu in a pretty summer cocktail dress driving a red mustang convertible past picturesque scenery (filmed largely from a helicopter) and singing the whole way. "Rule" was shot on a lavish set built to resemble a Japanese dojo and offers Ayu in a sexy black patent vinyl outfit lording it over a troupe of bare-chested tattooed male dancers executing rigorous martial arts-style moves as part of the choreography. "Sparkle" puts her into a series of skintight patent vinyl body suits in different colors (red, purple, black) filmed against different textured backgrounds (red padded cell, red satin sheets). "Days" was shot in a studio set designed with intriguing detail to replicate a rundown alley and street corner in an American city.
"Curtain Call" was shot at night in one take on the Sony Pictures backlot in Culver City, California (once the fabled MGM studio), and follows her as she sings, walking off a stage and through the studio streets, with rain and snow falling on her at different points and fireworks going off behind her at one point. There's a "Making of" clip (averaging three-to-four minutes) for each video and we actually get to see how these mini-movies are shot. It's all quite instructive. In a couple of them, no director is evident and Ayu seems to be calling the shots. American crews are used on the two shot in California. They address her in English and she's heard speaking a few words in English. ("I'm ready.") All a must for Ayu fans.
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