[1] Then in May 2014, Japanese music publication Jame World confirmed the involvement of Western musicians and producers RedOne, Rodney Jenkins, who uses the alias Darkchild, and Fedde Le Grand, among others that were unannounced at the time.

[2] Titled Colours, the songs on the album were entirely written by Hamasaki, while production was led by long-time collaborator Max Matsuura.

[6] Alongside with several new producers, Hamasaki and Avex Trax enlisted a wide range of musicians and composers to help with the album, including Tetsuya Komuro, John Mamann, AJ Junior, among others.

According to the lyric booklets that came with the physical formats of the album, the tracks "Feel the Love", "XOXO", and "Angel" are performed bilingually, while the remaining content apart from "Lelio" are recorded primarily in Japanese.

[3][A] The album track "Merry-Go-Round" includes guest vocals of Japanese rapper Verbal, who also contributed to the song writing and composition of the single.

Musically, it is an uptempo dance-pop song that was compared by a reviewer at KKBox.com to the work of American recording artist Lady Gaga.

[8] "What Is Forever Love" is a duet with Japanese recording artist Naoya Urata from the band AAA, and includes the instrumentation of pianos and synthesizers.

[9] The sixth track on the album is "Terminal", which was composed and produced by Armin van Buuren and Benno de Goeij.

[11] "Angel" was composed by Darkchild, Andy Kautz, and Ardita Satka, and was noted by Gwendolyn Ng at The Straits Times as an EDM song.

[12] The eighth song on the album was the M-Flo-produced "Merry-Go-Round", which was described by Dinah Congying Chen at Asia Pacific Arts, a newspaper published by the University of Southern California, as another EDM track.

[15] Two limited edition versions of the DVD and Blu-Ray bundles were made available through Hamasaki's fan club website TeamAyu, which featured the same track list on both formats but came with a promo sticker and a Milena's brand aroma candle scented with "Boutique".

An editor from CD Journal complimented Hamasaki's approach to electronic dance music, and commended the variety of producers who helmed the album.

[8] Linshu Yan from The China Times did not review the album extensively, but labelled the sound and production as "fine", and highlighted the track "XOXO".

It became her first to debut outside the top three on the Oricon Albums Chart, ranking at number five, and earned the singer the lowest first week sales of her career at the time, with 39,295 units sold.

[22] The album's opening sales performance was attributed to a lack of promotion and stiff competition by other artists at the time, as described by Japanese publications.

[34] "XOXO" was released on the same day as "Terminal", but was distributed as a PlugAir device in Japan and North American through Machine Shop Recordings, featuring the song, one remix, and three additional videos.

Both tracks had been promoted separately not long after, and "XOXO" received a music video that appeared on its own release format and the DVD and Blu-Ray versions of Colours.

At the three concert date tour, she performed "Feel the Love" and "Merry-Go-Round" from the parent album, and eventually distributed a live DVD on April 30, 2014.

The tour was hosted in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya city, destinations which could only allow "the newest technology and performance techniques" that "allow mechanisms only achievable in these locations".

[46][47] On October 18, 2014, Hamasaki performed as the closing act in the A-Nation premium concert held at the Marina Bay Sands' MasterCard Theatres in Singapore.