Bumping this thread to say that I enjoyed the two albums that Aimer had released, last month. Sun Dance and Penny Rain. I enjoyed Sun Dance out of the two more, but Penny Rain had probably my favorite song from the bunch, Black Bird. I don't know if this is the right thing to say, but I think these two albums are really different from each other. Sun Dance had a more pop/rock vibe, more upbeat, more hopeful in tone (especially in Sun Dance and the two One songs). Penny Rain incorporated more orchestral elements, a little more slower in some parts, and some of the songs sounded more sorrowful or dramatic (like in I Beg You which is one of the theme songs for Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel which is a really dark series of anime films). The best part is that it all works really well with her voice that the music wasn't really forcing her to sing stuff that doesn't feel like it belongs with that music.
In the end, two good-to-solid albums from Aimer makes me a happy listener and I have no issues saying Sun Dance is my favorite so far this year.
On another note, I'm looking at the credits of her albums prior to these on Wikipedia and it looks like there's a lot of credits to a lot of different people providing lyrics, music, and producers, similar to the album credits that one might see with pop stars here. If that's the case, how in the world is Aimer's so much more enjoyable for me than the western pop stars here? Japan's really ahead of the curve here.