RAINBOW

This is my first album of Ayumi. I like it. My favourites songs are "real me", "every where nowhere", "july 1st" and "Hanabi". This is a great album!!!!!

It's my second favorite album with I am... because there is HANABI a great song of Ayu. Free&easy and Heartplace are very great. Dolls is so nice. A very fantastic album.

This is probably one of if not my favorite album from her. As the title would suggest, this album really is a rainbow, serving up all kinds tunes from fun catchy pop songs to beautiful and forlorn ballads. The singles of 2002 were undoubtedly some of the best works of her career; it was also a time period she exercised control of almost all her works under the pseudonym CREA. Combined with DAI's composing prowess, they really were a duo to reckon with. As such, they made this album extremely worthy acclaimed. Voyage was my particular favorite single of this album. The arrangement of the strings flowed impeccably and the sheer beauty of the song just cannot be compared to anything else. I would argue that it is the gem of RAINBOW. This is not to say that the three tracks of H and Free & Easy weren't just as excellent. As far as album tracks, hard pop songs like Real me and WE WISH were excellent. This was the first time Ayu started to use English lyrics, and I think she used them to great effect, especially in the song Real me. As others have said too, I do not think she could have gotten across her idea of the song with Japanese alone. Heartplace was my favorite album track though. What made it all the more special to me is the fact that it is a work solely of CREA's. The unique composition with the raging guitars and the strings has her signature all over it. It is an ingenious song; the addition of violins into this song makes it very unique. I would never think strings would have a place in a raging song such as this. It's filled to the brim with emotions and the way Ayu sings just affirms the fact. I do admit the English verses sound a little off, but everything makes up for it. Overall, this album stands alone. It was one of her most diverse works until maybe (miss)understood in 2006. That's nearly 3 years. RAINBOW will always hold a special place in my heart. The only regrettable thing is that the actual song "RAINBOW" was not included. I'm of the opinion that a secret track called "RAINBOW" would make it THE Ayu album.