Yes! It’s finally here! I’ve been waiting for this day for a while, past the indignity of the English-language release. It’s back to primetime now, baby!
-Kitsune
PS First person to identify what I’m talking about gets a pat on the back and a warm smile.
Yep! pats Poops McGee and gives him a warm smile
If you’re not familiar with Utada Hikaru, she is a very, very talented pop singer. He work has a definite style and identity to it, because she’s more interested in being a singer and musician and creating music than in being a pop idol. She’s quite awesome, because she still holds the record for the best selling album in Japan, but she did it all without debasing herself like so many other pop idols.
Her music doesn’t go TOO far off the beaten track, it’s not like its super innovative monkey jungle ethnic Antartic bell synthesized spoken word swahili, but its not me-too junk lacking in creative direction either. It usually has some rather interesting progressions, or surprising developments, its slickness doesn’t sound as manufactured and completely lacking in spontaneity as some other pop does. She also SINGS, she doesn’t trill to show off or shout out things constantly to prove she can scream, or mangle everything by oversinging, she knows how to be understated, when to put her all into it and when to hold back.
Her first album showed an artist with lots of potential, with a distinctly jazzier, lower key style than other people, considering she was sixteen, that was pretty cool. Her second album showed her experimenting in some very unusual ways and taking even more of a part in the production. Her third showed a lot of maturity in her lyrics writing and has been my favorite.
From the first six songs I’ve listened to off ULTRA BLUE! thus far, it looks like Deep River (her last) might be dethroned.
She had a brief stint with an English album, but I don’t think she controls her voice as well, nor does it wrap around the words as well it does in Japanese. So it’s good to have to her back. You may know her from the Kingdom Hearts themes Hikari and Passion. If you do, be sure to take a listen to the Japanese versions, as the English ones, unfortunately pale in comparison.
Long live an interesting pop singer who is actually worth listening to!
-Kitsune