No thanks. Your point was that English was hard to learn/speak and implement into music. My point was thay the opposite.

I think Hikki sings about fear and fate a lot actually, but it's more hidden.. like you said, more like an atmosphere. Hikki once called it a "theme."

I love them both, and they do seem like they balance each other.

You just keep proving it and proving it.

I didn't mean to imply Hikki doesn't use these themes in her songs, but rather that she expresses them to better effect through anecdotal types of lyrics whereas Ayu can explicitly and generally talk about the broader themes, like a philosopher. Haha, I actually do regard Ayu's lyrics as philosophy sometimes. Even songs that exude poppy shallowness on the surface like everywhere nowhere have an interesting lyrical message, but that's neither here nor Hikki :)

Spread the ayu & hikki great lyrics love :love
They are awesome lyrcists.

Being lyrically repetitive doesn't make a song bad from the get go but it can annoy somebody and make them like it a little less. Just saying so you know, I was borrowing the lyrically repetitve thing from someone else, from TakaSama's descripition of CBTM.

I don't hate Stargate nor Timberland (I know that wasn't directed at anyone) but hearing somthing over and over again is tiring and makes one question their talent. I'll admit to some of their material being catchy but it gets old after so long to hear something copied and pasted, IMO.

Yes, I know I keep proving my point about your point being seriously wrong. :yes

You assume this is about the R&B genre, but that's not the problem to me. I'm well aware she's done R&B in the past and Come Back To Me is probably not far from it. But that doesn't mean the song has to be so bland as a whole. There are good R&B ballads out there and there are some not as good ones. IN MY OPINION, this song is a disappoint for me because I feel she can do better than this. It's a nice song, but it's not her best. I've even grown to like it a bit more but I just hope her future songs are a lot better than this. And to be honest, I don't want to discuss it with you any further. Because all in all, it's my opinion and whatever you say isn't going to change my mind, only Hikki's progression from here on.

Being lyrically repetitive is a tool they use to make songs catchy, right? But if they don't do it right, it can become annoying lol

Yes, keep on progressing Hikki. Get away from the blandness.
What's with the tags again?

Whoever said that I was trying to change your mind? :shakehead I hope that's not what you were getting from my post. It's just that you like to flip-flop in some of your posts about some artist's music. But whatever, your opinion is your opinion. I'm cool with it. :cool

Omg did the amount of tags grow in the last few minutes? :roflmao

People in this thread being over-dramatic ._.;;

Obsessed people's thread? :rolleyes Oh the irony in that tag.

so who produced Come Back To Me?

I finally read the Come Back to Me lyrics (can't get it all only listening xD Even with brazillian music)

I liked it... so... she cheated on he... what a ***** xD

Stargate

@Andrenekoi: I read from another forum that it wasn't about Hikki cheating on him but rather about someone else.

:roflmao

That doesn't seem like her style hahahaha But I'll admit, I was curious about that when I heard it too!

It seemed like Hikki was telling someone else's story in the first person, not her own. She flipped her person several times, so it was sort of confusing.

LMAO @ all the tags...

I haven't been home in a day and I come back to this big argument. D:

I like to look at "Come Back To Me" as being the "Easy Breezy" of EXODUS (as they are both lead singles from the album.) It seems that everyone's general complaint with CBTM is that it's too generic. I agree on that point; as it is very generic, but I still think it's a very good, solid song! Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is look at what followed on the rest of EXODUS, after Easy Breezy, and how vastly different it was from that song.

Hikki is unpredictable. The new English album could be as vastly different from Come Back To Me as Easy Breezy is from EXODUS. No need to get panties in a bunch yet, even if you hate the song! :)

I wonder who's point of view it was...

Hikki likes to tell other people stories on her music...

But this "first person then third person" thing was alread used in hotel lobby...

A-greed :yes

It's a solid song, and she needs something like this to make a splash. I just hope her splash makes her perform here... hm, what am I saying? She has to perform... right? *hopes*

Koda Kumi's :innocent

Kidding n_n;

I thought it was about her husband ._.;

^Me too. I didn't notice the 1st person to 3rd person of the lyrics until I heard it from someone else. lol And yea, it was used in Hotel Lobby but i don't too many people noticed that.

Hahaha it would be interesting if either of the cases were true!

Does anyone know if she has any performances lined up for this song?

Nothing is planned publicly yet x;

I get what you're saying.

However, it's just that there is a very good chance that, that won't happen. That theyre going to be "smarter" about things this time...and go with a specific style.

Maybe that's giving them too much credit lol I hope you're right though.


And...the tag's are great. "obsessed person's thread" Makes sense to me. :laugh

Hmm... I wonder how they're gonna do it considering it's being released here and in Japan. I didn't pay much attention to the EXODUS release cause I wasn't into her at the time, so I don't know.

I know the flopped on it here, so maybe they'll do more promoting this time?

^She performed Exodus songs only 5 times I believe.

YMMWTBAM 2 times, Devil Inside 2 times, and Kremlin Dusk once.

Wow I never even knew that. The word "Kremlin" makes me think of a cross b/w Krillin form DBZ and a gremlin :roflmao

I hope she performs a good amount of songs from this album :)

I hope she performs in NYC :mischief because then I will definitely be there. BoA's performance at MTV studios was packed, imagine Hikki D: I might just have to crawl through some legs, I'm relatively small.

If she held a concert there, I would go!

But not for one performance hahah I don't live down the street -_-;....

When she was promoting Exodus, she had a private event. That wasn't really good promotion for her.

Yea I had about that. Though some of the people who went said it was pretty good. I guess we'll see. Everything's clouded in mystery lol. She's in NY now right? If only she was staying in some hotel that everyone knew about like when Ayu went to Paris. Then I could go harass Hikki :P

But I feel like if I saw her on the street I'd just be "Hey, I like your music. Pretty cool." While inside I'm exploding. Or maybe I'd fainted and be speechless... hm.

I bet if Hikki met American fans she would be super nice *w*;
And take a few pictures with them and stuff!

-can't see Hikki being mean-

I always saw Ayu as being a Diva, but she was really nice to her Chinese fans D:

Exodus wasn't very comercial... and people didn't get the whole Easy Breezy idea :P
But it can be different with this album... it looks like she wanna be famous now xD

Can't see Hikki being mean either. Unless you get too close to Kuma-chang.
Just realized we're gonna need a new thread soon. D:

Btw, [kokoro♥], love your sig.

Thank you n_n~

Yea I'm acutually watching it quite closely :D

I can see her as the very down to earth type. The hard part is waiting to see what IDJ is gonna do with her promotion and everything.

Hopefully the promotion will be better this time around. Mainstream music in America is moving toward an electro-pop direction, though, so her style might just fit in perfectly.

I was thinking the same thing too, about them narrowing the style of this album a lot. But I still think the album can be a lot different from "Come Back To Me." If not style wise, lyrically and production-wise. I'm sure Stargate didn't produce the entire album. x_x

I, personally, hope that she worked with Bloodshy & Avant. They're remix of YMMWTBAM was amazing!!!

About live performances-- For EXODUS, she did a showcase (but we never got to see anything but clips of that) and she preformed Devil Inside and Exodus '04 on Japanese music programs. At UU06 she did YMMWTBAM, Kremlin Dusk, and Devil Inside.

If I were betting, I'd say she'll preform CBTM at least once on J-Music shows around the Japanese release date of the album. :yes

Who else is secretly hoping, against their deepest musical instincts, that the album is delayed? The chaku-uta was already pushed back by a month. I know someone already mentioned Hikki's most recent English message and the inevitable conclusion that Hikki rushed things if it indeed is released on March 4th.

I'm willing to wait as long as it takes to get done...
How long are you willing to wait?

I kinda wish they were...only because...

I wish they were promoting her already!

omg seriously. No promotion yet...is :no

but then I was kinda waiting to say that because I'm not really sure the time frame for this kinda thing...but I think if they built it up...we could at least hope for some recognition...

Maybe they're just going to do it after?

Well, the song isn't even on the radio yet. And it's not a club song, so it won't be played in clubs. But the MySpace page is promotion. And utada.com still isn't up and running like before. They really need the site up by the single release date (February), if that isn't delayed too.

I'm assuming that when it airs on the radio, utada.com will be revamped to match the Japanese site. I think the US version is the way it is now so that people can listen to the track before hand if they happen to stumble upon the site.

OMG! I know. Lady GaGa is doing really well with her kewl electro-pop style. :heart This makes me think that songs like Devil Inside and YMMWTBAM were way ahead of its time.....shoo, the whole album IMO. I hope that she has a song like Devil Inside on her album tho. *prays*

specifically, i think Devil Inside was ahead of it's time more than the others.

Utada is featured on HX's Most Anticipated: 2009 Edition. HX is magazine marketed towards gays.

Maybe she'll re-release EXODUS....?

If this new English album has even one minor hit, then I'm all for re-releasing EXODUS. :yes
And that article posted above mentions Timbaland and Darkchild! I wonder where they got that information! So now we've got word of Stargate, Timbaland, and Darkchild. OH PLEASE USE BLOODSHY & AVANT ALSO HIKKI!

^Meh, I can do without Bloodshy and Avant. I luv their remix production of YMMWTBAM but I haven't been too fond of their works lately. Maybe if they just stuck to remixing then I'd be okay but producing her songs, I don't know. lol

^ Their work with Britney is really good imo and Eat You Up is fantastic! I don't care what anyone says, it's amazing. Lol.

Yeah, most of Circus was amazing (not quite sure how much of that they did, but I know they did some...) and Eat You Up is really good too. I really wanna see what they'd come up with for Hikki.

From the HX article:

Where It Could All Go Wrong: Kuma-Chan…‘Nuff said.

LMAO.

That was really funny. I miss Kuma Chang, though.

Daw, you got there before me xD

Their stuff on Circus is amazing. "Unusual You", "Phonography" and "Trouble" are my favorite songs on there. If they did something for Hikki like any of those songs I'd freak! :luv2

Also, I'm reporting this thread for spam tags. I hope whoever is spamming gets banned.

Haha xD But I really do miss Kuma Chang. I hope he'll make a reappearance somewhere. Maybe in the booklet of the album (assuming it comes with a little booklet, for lyrics at least)

Who is Kuma Chang?

Hikki's teddy bear/lover

This is going to sound dumb, but is she REALLY in love with a bear or does she just love bears a hell of a lot? xD;....

^ She probably loves bears. ^^

~~ I hope there won't be any bear song on her new english album...

^ LOL!!! XD

Wasn't Kuma-Chang a bear bought in China by her former husband?
I guess part of the story why she likes him that much is that she has something big and fluffy to grab and hug whenever she wants ^^;


...Hey, I've been thinking about something. Wouldn't you guys love her to collab with some american musicians?
Myself, I'm really wondering what the combination Kelis-Utada would give ^///^
Or Dido?

Anyway, I hope there will be an English version of Prisoner Of Life. The song has full potential for being a hit overseas, I think.

I wonder how collabs would turn out, hmm... sounds exciting! haha.

I'm hoping there's an English Prisoner of Love, too. She did write it in English first, so we'll see :D

So much to look forward to!:thud

No. It was brought buy her dad and she named him Kuma. Hikki noticed that Kuma was made in China and she said something about how the name system works in China or wutever and it lead to her naming Kuma last name Chang.

Kelis? OMG no. She's not even hot anymore. She'll come out with a lil hit and fade back into the background. Dido is okay but she really aint going to boost Hikki's career and I'm not sure if Hikki is familiar with her music either.

Collaborations aren't just for boosting another artist's profile... I think this kind of thing really shows how many people have embraced the idea of music primarily being run as a business (along with other comments like "CBTM is what she needs to break through, so she can go back to doing original stuff afterward!", making it seem like generic music is a-okay).

Kelis is awesome. Dido, not so much IMHO.

Kelis and Dido? This thread is making my head hurt and really reinforcing the idea that most people here don't have a clue about the American music market.

ROFL. Are you thinking about "collaborations as profile-boosters" too? I have to agree with your post, though.
I mean, she had the drummer (Jon Theodore) from The Mars Volta, which I think worked out awesome. With Timbo, a little less so (I love Wonder 'Bout and LMGYML, but Exodus '04 seems underwhelming by comparison). It's all about finding complementary sounds...

But if Timbo would let Hikki do whatever with a track or two he made for her (like he did with Bjork), I think the results would be great.

Well, yea. That's true. But like I said, I don't think Hikki is familiar with Dido's music. And she's prolly not even familiar/don't like Kelis music either.
:laugh :laugh :laugh

Cool Story Kind Of xD;

Today in my college music class my teacher asked me for the song to review today, and I gave her a CD with CBTM burnt on it ;3

It was really cool like, the class listened to the song and picked apart the harmony and melody and things of that sort for about 15 minutes.

And my teacher picked out the piano part in the melody and went over it a few times.

It was really fun, and the class all actually liked the song.

n_n

^ Wow, very interesting story, thanks for sharing with us! ^^

I understand that working with artists who aren't the "it" singers of the moment is still good. But Dido and Kelis are total hasbeens, working with them would be more of an embarrassment than anything.

I noticed something while listening to Come Back To Me on the streaming link:

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/b...er/compare.jpg

The pattern used for the vector image is the same pattern that is on the hem of Hikki's hoodie.

It's a very small, minute detail but it's interesting.

that's common in works wit images... using more then once some elements... =)

I noticed that too. And also the U.Blog had that pattern too. :yes

Keep going with something that works I guess.

It's coincidence =/

It's probably a common theme. Nothing wrong with that though, it's artistic sorta

It's more interesting that the vector came out before the single cover - so the photoshoot took place a while ago I'm guessing.

I'm getting so antsy. I'd like a confirmation on whether or not the album will be getting pushed back. I sure hope not. I think they should only withhold the release if Hikki feels that have to.

for a collaboration, i still think she should really beech it up and work with trent reznor.
they could make some wicked stuff, then play nintendo together. :D

Hmm... I think that Utada should collaborate with Ne-Yo some more. They blend nicely together. If she was gonna collab with some other big names-- the only people I can see her flowing nicely with are Mariah Carey (as much as it pains me to say that XD) and Rihanna.

If I had it my way, I'd like to see her team up with some alternative rock band like Katy Perry did with P.O.D. on the song "Goodbye For Now" although I'd like Hikki to get a much bigger role than Katy had in that particular song.

I wonder if I could picture Utada and Rihanna together, haha. That would be fun. They are label-mates, so who knows. I wonder if they've already met =o

Utada is label mates with a LOAD of artists. Island falls under the bigger umbrella IDJ which falls under the even bigger umbrella that is Universal. That's like half of all American artists, I think. Most of the popular ones are on some branch of Universal.

Wow so many branches! I'm not sure who I would like Utada to collaborate with... but I'm sure when the opportunity arises she'll pick someone great :yes

I think it could be a good marketing strategy for BoA and Utada to go on tour together. That is, assuming that one of them makes a big enough splash to go on a tour.

Yeah! I think so, too. BoA-only fans get to see BoA, Utada-only fans get to see Utada, and BoA+Utada fans get to see both! I think that'd be a lot amount of people.

But if they did do something like that, they'd probably only play in big cities like L.A. or NYC.

^ Yeah, they may go to major cities to test the waters.... then maybe branch out if the demand is high enough! :O

If Utada is anywhere east of the Mississippi, I will be there for sure. As long as it's not another one of those stupid press only things! >_<

Yes, please no press-only performances. But I think some regular fans got to go too! How'd that happen? A raffle?

If Utada ventures anywhere inside Tennessee lines, I'm so making the effort to her. Pretty sure all the closet Jpop could come out and depending on size, she might sell out.

I know you guys are just throwing ideas out there, but I think Utada + BoA would be a horrible idea. They're probably both going to be lumped in together as part of an "Asian Invasion" (if Utada's album comes out on time, that is); having a tour together would make it worse.

I wonder how many Utada fans there are in the states that would actually want to see her live...

Personally, I wouldn't want BoA x Utada tour but definitely somebody under IDJ. Ayways, they're not even doing anything together and there's already someone saying it's an "Asian Invasion", lol.

There's a new thread, so let's post in that one. ;)

Awww wow. That is cool. :heart Did they ever ever explan where that piano melody is from?

I don't think Hikki and BoA would do a tour together...since their styles aren't that similar. But it's a nice thought!

^I don't even think Hikki acknowledges BoA's music. :no I don't like the BoA x Hikki tour either. Kinda reminds me of that girl who called a radio show that Hikki was on and asked about ayu and those two touring. I was grossed out by that. I'm like no. I want those to keep their stuff separate and do their own thang.