Utada Hikaru

as for her voice, i hear a good bit of late-period madonna in there as well, though sometimes she goes for the histrionic-pop-diva Christina Aguilera-like approach.

How do people read the (quoting from memory here) "this is how people from the Far East rock" line from "Workout"? "Far East" is such a quaintly un-P.C. term: is its usage ironic or just plan awkward?

Exodus is in many ways darker and more sexual than her Japanese albums. Of those, the closest in overall feel would be Deep River, which includes "Travelling," one of my favorite singles. First Love is more conventionally pop, but quite precocious (she was all of 16 when she wrote it.) And if you're really curious as to how she found her legs musically, try to track down a copy of Cubic U, which consists of demo-type stuff cut before First Love.

I love the video to "Keep Trying" despite its cornballishness.

http://noisey.vice.com/blog/ten-years-ago-def-jam-released-utada-hikarus-exodus-the-genius-jpop-crossover-album-that-never-crossed-over
miss u boo

really really love her latest single "Darenimo Iwanai"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKV8huR9EvI

gorgeous sophisti vibes

Woah just had an immediate flashback to playing Kingdom Hearts as a teen and like, weeping while hearing Simple and Clean. Definitely going to investigate her other music.

my recommendation is start with Deep River, which is her best album and has the Japanese version of "Simple and Clean" as the closing track

cool, listening to Exodus atm but I’ll give Deep River a listen.

My introduction to her were the killer R&B jams on Distance, her previous album.

There are also the two volumes of the Utada Hikaru SINGLES COLLECTION, released in 2004 and 2010 respectively. You could try those to see what period/style of Hikki’s speaks to you most, and take it from there.

what period/style of Hikki’s *before her hiatus*, that is.

oh yes, that new song is wonderful!

“Time”, the song she dropped earlier this year, is good too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_DPvZWhXJ8

new song, "One Last Kiss" - co-produced by A. G. Cook:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uhh62MUEic

not quite as transcendent as "darenimo iwanai" but still really lovely

hope she has a new album in the works that's going to have all these recent loose singles on it

this is from a new EP, but it’s the only new track on it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Last_Kiss_(EP).
it also contains older songs that Hikki made for the Rebuild of Evangelion film series.

her previous evangelion themes made it to albums too, which is why i'm expecting "one last kiss" will be on a new album too, i'm just hoping it will appear sooner rather than later. the majority of her singles since 2007 or so have been tie-ins for various films/tv shows/commercials/video games and then later collected onto albums.

it's sure weird to see a.g. cook's name attached to evangelion though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_Ry2dM0B34'

great new single + she's confirmed an album's indeed on the way but no more details yet

So good

Good news. Update appreciated!

album's out today and it's pretty good, only issue is "face my fears" is rather out of place. floating points is a great pairing for her on the three tracks he co-produced and all the other old singles are still excellent, especially "darenimo iwanai"

"not in the mood" is kinda astounding

誰にも言わない, the track after "Not in the Mood", jumps out on first listen.

that's "darenimo iwanai" transliterated, it's really one of her best

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6fHi2hmG1Q

oh this version of "face my fears" is so much better, wish this was on the album

Lovely album overall.

This album is sensational

AOTY

JP twitter's decided the cover to Hikaru Utada's new album has big "wife who's pissed at her husband for buying some big dumb expensive toy" vibes🇯🇵 https://t.co/s5PoIvWJQV

— GSK | https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/#donate (@gosokkyu) January 30, 2022

wasn't feeling it when it first came out but really love this record now. Current faves: "Bad Mode", "Somewhere Near Marseilles" and "Find Love"

Just got an email from Universal Music (US): First Love, Heart Station, Ultra Blue, Deep River, Distance, and Fantôme are all being reissued as double LP sets in August.

http://shop.udiscovermusic.com/collections/hikaru-utada

Netflix has an hour long live sessions. Guess it's been out for a month, but just watched it yesterday. Low-key in-studio grooving, worth catching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-odh-yaREI

new single is pretty nice

Gorgeous new track/video “Naniirodemonai Hana (A Flower of No Color)”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=symoxV67btI