I believe she's released a number of songs in English already.

I think the best thing about Utada's lyrics is that they are different. She doesn't do the typical love ballad, and that may make her stand out. At first I thought that it was her cheating, but it's instead her talking about another person who has cheated and her speaking through that person.

I don't think her voice is lower per se, but because singing in english requires a different mouth shape, that may be it?

Though I like the song, it is a bit bland and not catchy enough? I don't know, I feel that if one was to debut into the US market, something a bit more uptempo or deeper lyrics would work better?

I also hope she does some English version of her songs. I would love to have an English Heart Station or Sakura Drops without sacrificing the lyrics too much, like what she did with Simple & Clean and Hikari. I do admit that it is harder to get the same kind of eloquence that Japanese has into English, but I believe it's possible.

I love how the song sounds and it's been on repeat since yesterday but some of the lyrics seem out of place. Hikki's voice starts out good but then towards the middle and end, she obviously struggled with the high parts and I almost couldn't understand what she was saying. This song has a higher chance of success than Easy Breezy but I doubt if it will be a big hit because sometimes radio stations only listen to the first few seconds of a song to decide whether to add it to their playlist or not. That piano bit in the beginning sounds too over the top.

I didn't like Easy Breezy at all. I mean I love Hikki and all but I died inside when I heard Easy breezy, because I cannot believe that she rhymed that with Japanesey.

Yeah the Japanesey thing was ridiculous! It's like what the heck was she thinking!

^ she was going for humor. America isn't very humorous with music. (who is?) XP



ah i thought you meant you saw it live in person XP


I wish utada would sing more in her lower register. I like it a lot more than when she sings higher..

Ohh, I love Utada Hikaru <3
I'mm listening to her 'First Love' song right now.
Her lyrics are so beautiful.

english version of PoL!! *crosses fingers* >______<

^ *crosses fingers with you*

I'm planning to get this album. I'm going to preorder it on YesAsia than wait to the 24th.

I love her music but i didnt like Exodus much compared to her new Digital American single

wow, thanks for the update...i'm so out of the loop! so glad i stopped by soompi today

i'm listening to the new song right now and it definitely sounds pretty, but the lyrics don't impress me! (and she buys this and she buys that) booo!...the chorus is catchy tho!

oh and yea, i agree it sounds like a lot of the songs on the radio right now with the repetitive words and lines.

but the problem bugging me right now is whether or not I'll list her new album under Utada or 宇多田ヒカル(like i usually do in my itunes!) hahah

I'm getting more into Come Back to Me, because I really love her voice in it.
But after waiting so long for the new English single, I was a little disappointed that it didn't wow me.
Ah well, I will definitely buy the upcoming album. ^____^



I'm gonna tag it as 宇多田ヒカル, just so everything stays in one place. XD

That was bugging me too. I'm most likely going to tag it as Utada Hikaru.

i tag her us stuff as Utada and her japanese stuff as 宇多田ヒカル
except for a couple of exceptions (Blow My Whistle, Simple and Clean) which i tagged as Hikaru Utada
and her v early stuff which is ofcourse tagged as Cubic U...

but then i'm a bit specific about tagging

i wish i could preorder her album... but i might be moving house before then so i have to wait ._.

I think Exodus was very experimental, some of the songs worked really well (Kremlin Dusk = love) and others failed miserably (easy breezy) and that was possibly because Hikki came in expecting acceptance. She was an overnight hit in japan and they've loved her so much over the years. Her promotion style in Japan is very odd if you think about it. She doesn't do many tv appearances, very few concerts, yet she still sells in the range of Ayumi who does a who lot more promotional activity. If you didn't notice, she didn't exactly promote Exodus either.

And as much as she attempted to adjust her style to fit with American Music, you can't produce mainstream style music without taking out what is essentially the best and most unique part of Hikki. Easy Breezy had humour, but for an artist that isn't known, nobody understood the humour. For Come back to me, you can at least still hear some hikki in there (the notable low voice, like in Flavour of life, the way she sang "go easy on me")

I just hope this time, she doesn't have to lose herself. The music vid for easy breezy felt like a sell out to me (all sexy and whatnot), it isn't that hikki we all know. I just want the real Hikki.

^ beg to differ. i think she came in deciding to be experimental rather than shooting for the #1 spot. but yeah besides that i agree with you completely. hope she doesnt lose herself (i doubt she will)

The problem with CBTM is that it is kind of monotonous. Don't get me wrong, her vocals are very soothing and I enjoy the song, but I just wish she did her usual ad-libbing at the end to bring it to close, or help it reach another peak. The closing is just...Repeated lines and I just really wish there was something more than replaying of the chorus.

i'm planning to buy her english album when it's released.

i love CBTM so much. i fell in love as soon as i heard it. i wish the lyrics/music weren't so repetitive and sometimes lines were kinda...awkward? but i like it much better than most of the songs from Exodus.

QUOTE

ah i thought you meant you saw it live in person XP


I wish utada would sing more in her lower register. I like it a lot more than when she sings higher..

I wish I could go to any concert but sadly I couldn't
Sorry for the misunderstand

--angel

yes exodus was experiemental and i think her next album will be too. i don't think it's necessarily a sell out for her to put out music that conforms a bit more to american music. it's all experimental in my eyes. just because the music that she releases (in japan) isn't like 'american' music doesn't mean she doesn't like those styles. she might want to try making songs like that are different from her usual style.

^ good point.
lol its still experimental cause she hasnt done that yet.

heard come back to me the other day,
it grew on me.
like all her songs!

def going to buy her next album!

yayyyy, another supporter^^
seems like most people who post say theyre going to get it lol

No I don't think she ever expected to be a hit. And in Japan promotion is a lot less than in Korea, because of the music industry there. It's the 2nd biggest in the world (behind the US), and it's an industry that you don't have to promote a lot to sell well. Ayumi Hamasaki and Utada Hikaru and all the big acts don't promote nowhere near as heavily as Big Bang or Wonder Girls, yet they still sell more. It's a different mentality there. It isn't just her not promoting, most artists only perform on tv once or twice. After that, it's only the pv, and maybe a concert if it's an album.

Her style is still very experimental. Prehaps the only "Americanized" song I think of is About Me, because of how low key it is with the guitar. Other than that though, much of Exodus was experimental to the American mind, and it was the lack of promotion that made it not sell well.

I believe the release of Exodus was in a manner of speaking a way to test the waters. She had marginal success with the release but not nearly enough promotion. Hopefully this time around her management company does a better job in promoting her and beyond the normal markets. I don't really understand the need to always push for a huge California or New York presence wen there are other markets they could tap into. I don't want it to something silly like there are a lot of Asians living in both of those states so it makes sense to promote in those locations and not others, that's just narrow minded thinking.

I didn't know that "come back to me" is her new song for her english album... I found it the other day and have it playing on my myspace... I really like the song and her voice is really nice... I just didn't like the whole cheating part where she admited that she cheated... if only I can take out that lyric part...

where can I listen to her whole album and when does it come out?

it comes out in japan on march 4...
if the album leaks i guess you can hear it earlier... but atm the only song that is out is come back to me~

Is the single just the one song, Come Back to Me, or do we know if there will be other songs included?

Yeah, but promotion wise, they should've done what americans do to advertise, not what works in japan. She would've gotten more exposure instead of just selling her album to mostly americans who were already fans.

Exodus was actually intentionally experimental. She says in an interview that she wanted to do everything she hadn't tried before and she said although she was glad to have done that, she's okay with doing more "standard" music of sort now (so i guess that's why we may thing CBTM sounds generic?).

I think the "failure" (the quotes because i didn't feel it was a real failure if you consider that she didn't even get the exposure required for people to even hear her music) was more a timing problem. If you think about it now, had she worked with timbaland now, even if her music sucked, she would've had a huge following. Timbaland was famous then, but now he's got way more weight. Also indie and alternative sounds are a lot more in now than ever. I mean look at Fiest's rise to fame and the popularity meaningful music like that of M.I.A . I think it would've been okay for her experimental sound and complex lyrical compositions had her album been released now.

She sing 'live' so beautiful~!!! i luv u :-x

AHH so I JUST LISTENED to Come Back to Me~~~
What a horrible fan I am, considering the fact Hikki is like, my favorite Japanese singer next to Namie.

Wait, so she DID cheat?? Confused here.

yeah i think so. she admits it in like the 2nd verse i think.




________

anyways, i'm loving CBTM. i really can't wait for the album. i so wanna buy it. but no money.
and i haven't really kept updated on her, last thing i heard from her was "prisoner of love" which is also a good song.
well, i hope that her new english album at least gets air play in the states, that would be so awesome to hear it. haha.
anyways, hikki has such an awesome voice, and i love all of her songs. she's really talented as well.
can't wait to for a mv of CBTM as well.... so much to anticipate. (^___^)

^ Maybe that's why she divorced??
I mean, I thought she just WROTE those lyrics... because, they're just lyrics? idk.

CBTM is a good song; it kinda repeats a lot, but still it's pretty good. It's been such a long time since I've heard something new from her~~ so I was like freakin out when I realized she had a new song out~~

...I'm assuming the lyrics are just lyrics. I don't think she would be so open to an admittance of "cheating" via lead-in single to new listeners lol. Everything she writes doesn't necessarily correlate with her real-life; just like how 'Exodus' wasn't completely autobiographical.

They uploaded an image to her myspace.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?...imageID=4017997

Oh ok, thanks for the info... I thought her album came out already... is it only in japan or is it her english album that will come out here in the US?

It's her US album but it'll be released in Japan also. Just like Exodus.

Which just made me realize she'll be perfoming it. Can't wait for that.

if she ends up doing a US tour, i am gonna spaz and be the first one in line to get a ticket LOL.
did she ever tour in the US when she released "Exodus", or did she not get enough promotion to even do a tour?

oh no. i'm pretty sure it didn't become like that. i think it's just lyrics.
her real life, they split because of busy schedules and different view points over time.
hehe, freak out some more, because i'm thinking it's going to be an awesome album. (^__^)V

Source: Utada's Official MySpace


I have no clue if this is the official cover for the single? It looks like it.

If that does turn out to be an official cover they're wasting their money. It looks like a 30 second paint project.

yeah, seriously. they could've at least used a better font if all they were going to do was type her name and the single on the cover. :/

Just now I heard a little bit of CBTM and it's so good


--angel

ROARRRR
she better, id die happy x]

& i hope thats not the cover, maybe theyre experimenting cause they have that other picture too. where its just a faded black, white and pink, arrow striped pattern thing. it kind of reminds me of the thing they use in filming to re-do a scene? its like yellow and black, and you lift a small part of it on the top....never mind...LOL

i just listened to her new song!
love it!
hope her album does well.

Wow... I really hope that's not the official cover for the single.
If I wasn't a Hikki fan I think that would actually deter me from buying the album.

i think she said once that she doesn't write her lyrics from self experience,
so i doubt she did cheat... and if she did then i doubt she'd put it in a song like this~
just my opinion of course~^^

Oh hey Miracle Hikaru
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phgYhMweozI

It really looks like something Hikki would wear.

I really hope that is not the cover of her single... really bad photography...
if she's planning on doing a US tour... I want to go to one of her concert...