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アルバムレビュー

Had Amuro's star burnt out so fast? With only two albums under her belt, it seemed a bit premature to have a singles collection out so soon. However, the Japanese pop singer had gone from singing sensation to tabloid fodder — announcing first that she was pregnant and would get married to the father (one of the dancers in labelmates trf), then suffering publicly after the murder of her mother. With all her manufactured innocence shot through with real-life experience, the age of Amuro was at least past its height. That she went on after this to more albums shows her tenacity at least, especially after attention had switched to upcomer Ayumi Hamasaki. Regardless, this compilation simply collects her single A-sides into one easy package. These are high-energy electro-pop songs, with a smattering of ballads ("Dreaming I Was Dreaming" and the monster hit "Can You Celebrate," all products of her work with Tetsuya Komuro). Though the album mixes of many of these songs are superior, this is a short summation of the sound that changed Jpop, circa 1996.