[Utada Hikaru] The New Album 「Fantôme」 on Sep 28, 2016! ʕ•̫͡•ʔ the 54th thread

[Maemi]

The Best Fantôme Track!
Favorite Fantôme Tracks?

[DeepRiver]

Originally Posted by Maemi

The Best Fantôme Track!
Favorite Fantôme Tracks?

sorry but, isn't this the same?

[EndOfTheWorld]

Originally Posted by DeepRiver

Credits: U.Blog / Twitter


















































she's everywhere ...

I LOVE seeing all the promo everywhere. I'm glad they actually took her return seriously.
Such a big moment in Jpop history right now.

[Maemi]

^^Of course not

The Best Fantôme Track - which song (only one) is according to you the best.
Favorite Fantôme Tracks - which songs you like/enjoy.

[thinkingoutloud89]

Originally Posted by Gubsi

^^^ i wish i was there...
queen taking over!!

this album is so good!
Ore no Kanojo is amazing
Ningyo is well... idk yet, my least fave
Konya no Okami - love it! the heartbeat... come thru hikki
Boukyaku is EVERYTHING, oh god!!
Jinsei Saikou no Hi - i thought this would be my least fave, but i dig this so much!!

it's like Godtada gave us her "Ray of Light"!!
gonna listen to this the whole day, even at work today
when you look at her discography this is another masterpiece in her collection for me, i think this will end in her top 3 albums at the end of the day!!

well, that is what you get when you only have 6 abums and everyone is craving.

Like all the songs except I still think Sakura is a bit boring. Not my fav album by her, Vacation is one of my favourite tracks by her though.

[DeepRiver]

Originally Posted by Maemi

^^Of course not

The Best Fantôme Track - which song (only one) is according to you the best.
Favorite Fantôme Tracks - which songs you like/enjoy.

ok, now i understand

[Maemi]

I'm actually enjoying Ningyo... it is quite flat but there is something soothing about it...

[Gubsi]

Originally Posted by thinkingoutloud89

well, that is what you get when you only have 6 abums and everyone is craving.

yeah but she has 2 english albums and the mini-album like 5 songs for SC Vol. II... it could be worse

i think Fantôme is already better than First Love and Distance, so time will tell if this will rank higher some day

[js_surrealism]

^ Fantome is wonderful but c'mon let's not kid ourselves into thinking that it is even close to the perfection that was Distance. Lol.

[Gubsi]

Originally Posted by js_surrealism

^ Fantome is wonderful but c'mon let's not kid ourselves into thinking that it is even close to the perfection that was Distance. Lol.

^well for me First Love and Distance were always the bottom 2 in my rank haha
i think Deep River is the Magnum Opus, like the hottest thing ever for now！
so let's see if Fantôme can take the crown

urgh Ore no Kanojo...
the first woman that french kissed me from behind like this, i'm weak lmao

i think Ore no Kanojo, Vacancu, Manatsu, Boukyaku are my faves!!

[js_surrealism]

My current ranking is probably something like:

Distance, Ultra Blue, Fantome, First Love, Deep River, Heart Station

[orbitalaspect]

This album is going to be fucking huge, isn't it? Like much bigger than we actually anticipated... I wasn't expecting that level of promo for a new album.

Anyone want to throw out a guess as to first week sales? I honestly want to say it's going to be a surprising number.

Edit: I just finished listening to the entire album, beginning to end. It may take a bit to grow on me. For now, I think Miliyah Kato still takes the trophy for J-Pop album of the year with LIBERTY. Fantome is beautiful, but it doesn't feel alive to me. And before you point out the irony of me complaining that an album called Ghost doesn't feel "alive", it's simply missing a vibrant side to balance out the subdued tone of the album.

[bluegie]

^ I actually agree with you. I'm kinda surprised that hikki produced an album without much hard beat. My bro and I listened to the album together, and he pointed out that Michi was very upbeat in the beginning, then everything went to quiet side. Still so far I think this album is beautifully produced. I have to find the translation of lyrics cuz I wanna understand more.

I can't give rank now because I just listened to the album once. But I'm sorry js_surrealism, Distance is my least favourite album from hikki. There's no way this album is worse than Distance.

Edit: I wanna ask for those who speaks French. Does hikki's French improve or not?

[orbitalaspect]

Originally Posted by js_surrealism

My current ranking is probably something like:

Distance, Ultra Blue, Fantome, First Love, Deep River, Heart Station

I think, to be fair, my current ranking looks like:

1. ULTRA BLUE
2. DEEP RIVER
3. HEART STATION
4. First Love
5. Fantome
6. EXODUS
7. DISTANCE
8. This Is The One

I personally love Utada's more experimental work. ULTRA BLUE will always be my favorite Utada record because it sounds just as beautiful and complex today as it did 10 years ago.

Originally Posted by bluegie

^ I actually agree with you. I'm kinda surprised that hikki produced an album without much hard beat. My bro and I listened to the album together, and he pointed out that Michi was very upbeat in the beginning, then everything went to quiet side. Still so far I think this album is beautifully produced. I have to find the translation of lyrics cuz I wanna understand more.

I can't give rank now because I just listened to the album once. But I'm sorry js_surrealism, Distance is my least favourite album from hikki. There's no way this album is worse than Distance.

I think Fantome certainly could have been helped by replacing Ningyo or Kouya no Ookami with something like Fight The Blues, Making Love, Show Me Love, or even Beautiful World. I would've even loved something like SAKURA Drops. Nevertheless, Fantome is a beautiful album, it just suffers from a similar issue as HEART STATION -- once you break through the first three or four songs, the rest of the album loses that energy.

One thought that crossed my mind is how emotional Take 5 would be if it appeared on this album. I would love to hear Utada revisit this song in a ballad arrangement.

I love Miliyah's LIBERTY because it sways from upbeat to ballad to relax and back to upbeat. There's a lot of body to the overall record. It made me realize why Ayu's latest efforts feel stale, why Namie's latest albums are exhausting, and why Koda's last few albums can leave me with a headache (they're good though!). I really respect that Miliyah fleshed out that album. There's truly something for any mood, and I think every record should have that full-body feel to it.

[thinkingoutloud89]

^I certainly disagree. It very much comes to the point in which mood you are in, which tone of voice the artist has and what picture the overall album is going to draw.
I agree with you on LIBERTY, but there are times that I need a coohesive album in another sense - and that could be a fully ballady album or a fully upbeat album some artists have. I'm at work now and can't wrap my mind on examples, but there certainly are a few album that benifit from such an effort.

Yet I see what you want to tell, and I as said, it depends. Fantome for me feels very complete as it is...I only still think Sakura feels kinda "added" (something I can't shake off when I know that the last song is an old single title like "oh I just plaster it on")

[Corvina]

Fantome is a pretty average album to me.
Ore no Kanojo is great, the best for me from the album.
But after that with Hanataba no Kimi ni it starts to drag.
Hanataba sounds so bland coming right after Ore no Kanojo and I liked it before...
And there's one problem I have with almost all of the songs - they're repetetive and feel much longer than they actually are, even though apart from Michi and Jinsei Saikou no Hi they're indeed all over 4 minutes long. I do think shorter would be better for most of them.
(and btw. I think Boukyaku is awful)

[Baco__]

I feel like sakura nagashi is to Fantôme what COLORS is to ULTRA BLUE and I think they both fit perfectly where they are, thankfully.

I can't put Fantôme in any place on my Utada's favorite albums just yet, I need to listen to it more, and I think it hardly will surpass ULTRA BLUE as my favorite, but I'm loving it. I'm listening it for the second time and I can't say I dislike anything besides boukyaku. I really want to feel this song, but I really dislike those "raps" :C (but I'm still not there on my second listening, let's see if it's a grower or if it will be the first (!) hikki song I dislike. like... ever lol)

EDIT: and I have the feeling that the lyrics play the most important part in this album, like they never did before, so let's see how the average Japanese will react to it.

[bluegie]

Originally Posted by thinkingoutloud89

I agree with you on LIBERTY, but there are times that I need a coohesive album in another sense - and that could be a fully ballady album or a fully upbeat album some artists have. I'm at work now and can't wrap my mind on examples, but there certainly are a few album that benifit from such an effort.

Yet I see what you want to tell, and I as said, it depends. Fantome for me feels very complete as it is...I only still think Sakura feels kinda "added" (something I can't shake off when I know that the last song is an old single title like "oh I just plaster it on")

I have to agree that Fantôme is pretty cohesive. And now the more I listen, the more I'm getting into it, maybe except Ore no Kanojo and Kouya no Ookami. Ore sounds like a snoozefest to me and I don't know why.

The problem with Sakura Negashi as the end track is that Jinsei Saikou no Hi sounds too joyful. I can accept that Jinsei is placed after two depressing songs (Manatsu and Boukyaku). Sakura should place before Jinsei. This will make the flow smoother. (Unless, it has to do with the lyrical contents, that's why I wanna read the lyrics asap).

I would place this album above UB, First Love, and Distance for sure. I never really like UB as much as the others do. And actually I love HEART STATION more than UB (when both used synth instrumentals majorly). I love First Love, but I must admit that it's more like a teenage girl album. Distance is always at the bottom of my list.

Originally Posted by Baco__

EDIT: and I have the feeling that the lyrics play the most important part in this album, like they never did before, so let's see how the average Japanese will react to it.

That's what I think too. And after reading your message. I have a sudden thought about hikki placing Sakura after Jinsei. I haven't read the lyrics of Jinsei, so I don't really know what it is about. But based on the name of the song, lemme make a wild guess. After talking about the best day of her life as the "end" of the new album and the curtain went down (to isolate herself from the public), she went back to the place (Sakura Negashi) to think about her mom... Okay I'm not really good at guessing, but this is how I see why she put Sakura at the end.

[prussian blue]

The album is pretty average, compared to her previous 2 albums, which I really enjoyed "dreamy" tune and atmosphere songs like Passion, BLUE, keep tryin, making love, nijiiro no BUS, take 5, beautiful world etc.

This albums doesn't have any "dreamy" vibes which is a bit disappointing, but hey we've been years so I'm not really complaining

PS: I thought it would be better if there's an interlude before Sakura Nagashi, which I found the song doesn't really fit with the album's flow

[Violently Happy]

I love the album! *_* The only song I really don't like is Boukyaku. The rapping for KOHH just sounds so off from the melody. Like the melody doesn't match his "rapping." Utada' part however is beautiful!!! I kinda wish it was just her on the track. :/