^ Honestly, does Utada have subliminal messages in her music? It's kind of insane...
Anyway, yeah, I agree with your point about people buying it because of the singles all being there and substituting it for an "album-album". I've done that a lot too, actually. If I get interested in an artist and they already have a best album, I generally get that one first and if I still like what I hear then maybe I'll buy the regular albums. I can imagine that may have happened with A BEST.
