Old man utada is still insisting that In The Flesh is getting realsed as of 30 mins ago on twitter.

Oh God that thread title is misleading, lol. XD I was getting excited for nothing! 8D

Didn't that concert happen like two-hundred years ago

I never thought of her as a queen, she was definitely different from Ayu, Kumi or Namie, just like Otsuka Ai is different, I like many of her songs but I never felt the hype, a pity she's not active though.

^I guess she's queen in terms of sale and numbers because Utada definitely owns all three of them in that department.

I regret not going to ITF when she came to new York. It was mainly cause I didn't wanna go alone. If it was me now that im older and wiser (lol) I'd have no shame.

I never thought of her as a Queen...

More like the All Powerful Wizard who'd never want that title.

Thread title almost gave me a heart attack. LMAO

Title was supposed to be a literary reference. Guess no one got it.

I went to the NY show by myself. I had a flipping good time in that gigantic mosh pit that happened during the opening.

I like your description :D. But she is a witch, not a wizard :P lol.

I think she's more like a national representative or symbol in Japan. It's like she's not always the most popular artists in particular eras, but whenever you talk about hikki in Japan, >80% people will think she's great blah blah blah...

I was going through Utada songs today to update the iPod here at my movie theater (English songs) and when I got to This Is The One I was dying over how terrible that album is. I mean, how can we even take it seriously, lol. I was like "Well I think F.Y.I wasn't terrible" and I couldn't get over the lyrics "call me... you know my number" lol.

People took Exodus seriously....that album makes TITO look like a minor offense tbh...

Lol no way. TITO is totally a step down. At least Exodus had Exodus, Devil Inside, Kremlin Dusk, Animato. Even Easy Breezy was fun and she wasn't trying to be serious. But TITO is like, what the Hell. Talking about panties droppin, burning it up like 'a gay parade', ... can you sell out any worse. Lol. I know the whole point with TITO was to fit the American market more but she was trying waaaaay to hard.

Apple and Cinnamon > entire TITO album

Minus the awful bridge in that song dear Lord

I didn't feel like her lyrics were a sell out.

I don't think she really tried to cater to the American market with it either. Cause um, that's not how you cater to the American market lol

She was just, being herself. And she's weird. She is a part of our culture too, as much as she might seem "oh so japanese" to people.

I personally loved This Is the One. I definitely sensed the quirkiness of it the first time I listened to it but I didn't feel like it was out of place. It felt like she was definitely being herself (yes, even with On and On). It felt like it was an album she had fun making and was able to let loose while doing so, which is why the album is a bit odd (for Hikki's case at least) as a result.

@zahara: Mosh pit? At a Hikki concert? I guess New Yorkers will be New Yorkers... I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

Well you guys can continue to love it but I really didn't know how bad it was (in my opinion) until I was going through it today. I'm like "Really?? This One is the only one I can tolerate??" In my memory I thought for the most part I felt the album was just kind of boring but on replay I realized it was just dreadful. Like, downright embarrassing for me, lol. If I had no idea who she was and without complete bias from any of her previous works and I heard this album I would probably play it for all my friends and say "Listen to this awful album I discovered, you will die!" Lol.

I thought it was mentioned that she let the producers handle the second album to really try and push through the American market. I could swear she decided to give up control of the second album in order to garner more success than the first.

I think Exodus has hints of Hikki in it and at least is somewhat recognizable as her work, but for TITO I can't even believe it's the same artist who made such great songs as Keep Tryin', Be My Last, This Is Love, Take 5, etc.