Ayumi wants to tell you a Secret, and it's a good one.
(miss)understood, Ayumi's album from earlier this year, was a vocal departure for her; her voice became much richer on many of the songs, but it was too much of a mish mash album. Individual tracks stood out but they failed to gel as a cohesive whole. In Secret, Ayumi Hamasaki continues to mature vocally, continuing the quality of (miss)understood but equally has managed to create a cohesive album in which, the tracks flow logically into each other.
Ayumi begins with the gentle introduction of not yet. It is a short (two minute) opening track of peaceful piano and Ayumi's gentle vocals until it changes direction suddenly and flows into a faster number with an awesome dance beat. It is a fantastic, attention grabbing song though a real shame then that it is a bit too short!
The infectious pace of not yet spills over into the following four tracks until the first interlude of an instrumental piece, used on Secret to effectively to divide the album into sections. Until that Day and 1 Love are rock infused tracks with an underlying electronic beat. Until that Day is particular interesting, using vocal distortions to positive effect. Startin' meanwhile is evocative of Step you from (miss)understood; in fact, it seems to follow the same beat. It is a good song in it's own right though as Ayumi has always been fairly talented at fast paced dance songs.
Labyrinth marks the first interval point. It is an unexceptional instrumental piece, and sounds like Ayumi has recycled Rainbow's neverending dream, but that aside, it is still a lovely piece of music to ease the listener into the calm ballad of JEWEL. JEWEL is not Ayumi's best ballad, but the quiet piano melody allows her new more mature voice to be heard clearly as she sings with real emotion. Another ballad, Momentum, follows with a faster beat that at times threatens to drown out Ayumi, but she manages to remain heard without straining too much.
After another short interlude of takinst, the low point of the album arrives. Born to Be is a weak, generic song that sounds both out of place and quite frankly dull. This is followed by Beautiful Fighters. While Until that day used vocal distortions to good effect, on Beautiful Fighters they just sound childish and is a bit painful to listen to.
Luckily, the final part of Secret is saved by the last three tracks. BLUE BIRD is a generic but solid Ayumi song; kiss o kill meanwhile, uses a church organ with another rock/electro beat and is excellent. It experiments successfully with pace changes, especially in the chorus and is a catchy dance song that just makes you want to move. Finally the title track, Secret, is as many might expect, a ballad. Ayumi sounds genuinely beautiful, her voice is soft and velvety. The low pitch of the melody aids in this by preventing Ayumi from straining for unreachable high notes. Despite the song itself being a fairly generic ballad, it makes a pleasant finishing note.
Taken either as a sum of its parts or individually, Secret impresses. It may take a couple of listens to truly appreciate Ayumi's efforts, but if one can look beyond the shockers of Born to Be and Beautiful Fighters then Secret really feels like her most complete and successful work to date. Individual tracks may not be as memorable as a few from (miss)understood - Ladies Night and Is This Love...? are two good examples - but as a whole, it makes for a highly enjoyable listening experience.
