Ehm, they know how her last album performed and they know how her singles this era performed. If they desperately tried to relaunch her career then it failed. They would've already dropped her if that was the case. They already knew what they were getting with Crystal when they signed her. A woman who is among the most famous J-pop divas of the last decade, but also a struggling one. They need to have a lot of faith in order to get something out of it.
I'm not sure if I agree with the bolded part but the rest makes sense.
For me she'll probably have the crown until GG's 2nd Album or Utada's 6th
But you never know one of the other J-Pop girls may throw a curveball and slay my soul
I personally prefer JAPONESQUE. I would've said Party Queen but I think Namie's album has a lot more songs that I like even if Party Queen may have the better 3-4 stand out tracks. Uncontrolled will probably end up in my Top 5 J-Pop albums this year. Ayu may release a new one at the end of the year so theres that to look forward to plus Kumi may even release her 11th this year so we'll see.
I'll give her the first week sales then. CD+DVD or CD only?
The DVD has nothing new so I'd go with CD only if you just wanna support her. The lack of new album PVs on the CD+DVD edition really put me off from pre-ordering it.