Ayumi Hamasaki: Party Queen

For a glorious few minutes on her latest album, it sounds like Ayumi Hamasaki is out to save J-pop itself. After 18 months of sustained onslaught by the slicker, savvier hit makers over in South Korea, Japan's pop scene has rarely looked more doddery and conservative – more in need of a good kick in the nuts, basically. And on the opening tracks for Party Queen, that's exactly what Hamasaki delivers. Though she's still working with her regular stable of writers and arrangers (expat Timothy Wellard is the one notable addition), the singer appears to have caught up with her competition; as her bikini-clad cover poses seem determined to remind us, she's still just as nubile too. Opener 'Party Queen' is a confident disco stomp that's already found its rightful place in a Peach John advert, but that's nothing compared to the pair of songs that follow. Anyone who's enjoyed K-pop's magpie approach to genres should appreciate 'NaNaNa', a collision of heavy metal guitar riffs, electro beats and shimmering trance synthesizers so barmily brilliant that even the presence of a rapper who sounds like Falco can't ruin it. 'Shake It' sustains the momentum, while also finding space for '80s orchestral stabs and a dubstep breakdown – but after this invigorating gambit, Party Queen gets fatally sidetracked. 'Call' adopts Michelle Branch's pop-rock template wholesale without making any notable improvements, and the trio of power ballads that follow are notable only for their escalating absurdity, culminating in a barrage of choirs, church organ, string orchestras and discordant piano on 'Return Road'. More questionable still are 'The Next Love' and 'Eyes, Smoke, Magic', a pair of cod-Broadway musical numbers that suggest Hamasaki has her eye on a role in an upcoming production of Chicago, though both are preferable to the closing ballad, 'How Beautiful You Are'. As Hamasaki emotes her way through this wretched, generic bit of fluff, it's like the hangover kicking in at the end of an all-night karaoke session: it was fun once, but this party ended a long time ago.

Time Out Tokyo rating:

‘Party Queen’ is out now on Avex