The 17th Tasty Apple & Cinnamon Thread of Utada Hikaru!

[Hanabi_surreal]

Originally Posted by dddaiyamondo

It ends on Wednesday... I think I just might cry, no joke! It's basically been a huge part of the past 3 months for me :'(

awww... I got to watch all the chapters now!!! want to watch the end at time...
I know how you most feel, the dorama was so complete in many aspects and the history is sooo spech less... I want LF2

Originally Posted by Luv ~Venus~

^ I like the ava the most. XD She's like saying, "Tasty!" in that pic.

@Triple D: Exactly...

Like after LF ends, this thread is like gonna be dead and like they wouldn't be an artist that is gonna have my interest in while. I think i got to attached to Hikki doing these awesome three months.

Hmm, either find a new person... or do what I did between DEEP RIVER and ULTRA BLUE: look at Hikki pictures for hours while crying and listening to FINAL DISTANCE

Originally Posted by ALPHABEAT

Love the set, dddaiyamondo! XP

Thanks! Someone really cute, nice, and talented made it for me! He's great

[KarenPang]

a bit off topic here but which was her most critically acclaimed album , critics wise ? was it Deep River ?

[bluegie]

I think Deep River was the most acclaimed one by the critics and the fans (including me) back then. It was the only album breaking 3 million copies back then anywayz. It sold more than 1 million copies compared to the yearly no. 2 album, I am... (which was sold about 2.3 million copies). Personally I think that's her best album to date. The diversity of music arrangements in different songs, the lyrical contents, and different themes of each song merge together wonderfully.

Back to the flow.. Yeah... after LF finale on next wed, I dunno what to do next. I'm sure that LF is the end roll for HS. Then there comes a period when technically hikki and ayu have no big news at all that excite my daily life.. Honestly I'm a bit disappointed that ayu doesn't release a 3A single this summer... so sad... and I hope hikki will do something in the end of the year (not English album.. I want Japanese materials) to celebrate her 10th anniversary..

[KarenPang]

I don't think Utada has put out a triple A side single before is it ? it would be nice if she put out 1 to celebrate her 10th anniversary in the Japan music business

[Amai Yume]

I would love her to put out a triple A-side this year!
I mean Namie did one and she's never done one before so a 10th anniversary would be a great present to her fans.

Only problem is that I'd rather have her focused on the English album and I could see that taking up almost the rest of the year. Depending on how many singles she releases before the album, we could have it by November / December.

I don't think we'll be getting any more Japanese songs for the year and that's okay cause HEART STATION was fantastic and new English songs are what I'm really anticipating.

[ayumisrael]

I actually would hope that hikki could release at least another japanese single this year, and I hope that the english album will be good and be released this year.

HEART STATION really didn't thrill me. It's an easy listening album for me now.
It's a nice album with some great songs (mainly FoL, K&C and BW) and great flow, but I didn't like some new songs to the most (like Celebrate, nijiironobasu, Fight The Blues tried at first though). I liked the songs HEART STATION and Stay Gold, but I barely listen to HS because it started to sound generic but I still like SG because its pretty piano melody but not too much either. So I would hope she will release a japanese single (because that means japanese album at next year's middle). I hope she will have more albums like Deep River or ULTRA BLUE and not like HS.
But a good english album will be nice too I suppose.
Lately I feel like the ethereal pop genre is growing out of me since I listen to hikki's pop/R&B songs more (and it was never like that =P) but I hope I will be back to it sometime.
If she will do another pop/r&b album like Distance it would be great though she moved to ethereal pop so I can't see it.

[KarenPang]

for my case the thing that surprises me about HS the album is that it managed to sell extremely well & even supress the sales of UB despite the drop in CD physical sales in Japan + that almost 80% of the album was released prior to the announcement of HS the album

@ ayumisrael, honestly I feel like Distance was the spiritual predecessor to HEART STATION. Songs like Nijiiro Basu, Kiss & Cry, Prisoner of Love and Heart Station sound like updated versions of some of her Distance songs. K&C particularly sounds like it was cut from the same cloth as Wait & See / Addicted to You. I'd say HS and Distance are closely related, and UB and DR are.

[ayumisrael]

Originally Posted by dddaiyamondo

@ ayumisrael, honestly I feel like Distance was the spiritual predecessor to HEART STATION. Songs like Nijiiro Basu, Kiss & Cry, Prisoner of Love and Heart Station sound like updated versions of some of her Distance songs. K&C particularly sounds like it was cut from the same cloth as Wait & See / Addicted to You. I'd say HS and Distance are closely related, and UB and DR are.

The only song that reminds me of Distance from HS is Kiss & Cry (which reminds me taimu rimito's backgroud beats) besides that, the other songs you've mentioned might be a bit r&bish but nothing compared to what's in Distance...
The songs just aren't outstanding like Distance's.

At the beginning I liked all of HS a lot (mainly because I didn't pay attension to the new songs much) but lately I tried to listen to the whole of it couple of times but I couldn't get through it and ended up choosing some songs of it and listen only to them.

With Distance I would never do such a thing.
Though HS is not as good as her other albums imo (besides First Love which is my least favorite) it's not so bad either.

You don't think POL could've been on Distance? It sounds kind of like a mix between For You and Wait & See, IMO.

I feel like HS is a return to form after ULTRA BLUE. I love ULTRA BLUE to pieces but it has some issues, flow-wise. Some of the songs are just WTF, so it feels quite inconsistent. I also felt like we were getting some sort of new Hikki with ULTRA BLUE, but HEART STATION feels much more personal, like we got the old Hikki back. UB has some tracks that are the best in her entire career, but it is just not good all-around, IMO.

[ayumisrael]

POL is one of the nice tracks (forgot to mention it ironically enough =P) it's pretty catchy, I can see it on Distance yeah, but I still like the songs on Distance more.

UB holds my most favorite song by hikki which is Passion, its flow might not be as good as HS but most of the songs there are just outstanding and the "wtf, how did it get here (, that's awesome!)" can be actually positive to the matter XD.
It's quite easy to listen to UB because of that because a lot of songs are just awesome.
In HS half of the album is awesome, the other half is either nice or just there...
Sometimes the songs themselves can be stronger than a certain great flow and fit-ness, it all depends.

That's why I like UB more but Deep River and Distance are hikki's best.

[KarenPang]

regarding UB , the only grouse's that why did she put an interlude as the 2nd last track on the album ? it seems a bit silly to do so .

at least for HS , I can understand since it's in the middle of the album

[ALPHY]

Originally Posted by dddaiyamondo

Thanks! Someone really cute, nice, and talented made it for me! He's great

Oh, I see!

A triple A-side single to celebrate her 10th anniversary sounds great! Funny if Hikki released Celebrate as another recut single for the festivities. XD

[criminal]

I apologize beforehand, but it's just too much fun.

Spoiler:

Utada Hikaru x avex divas ~*~10th anniversary commemoration singles~*~!

Utada Hikaru x Ayumi Hamasaki - Celebrate alone / talkin' 2 くま
Utada Hikaru x Namie Amuro - Fight The FEELING / Beautiful LOOK
Utada Hikaru x Koda Kumi - Prisoner of JUICE / Take 5 to SHAKE IT

[Amai Yume]

The title "Celebrate Alone" kinda makes me think of some really sad song about being by yourself without anyone to be happy with, that actually sounds good

I would love it if she put out another Japanese single. If she did do that, I would not want another recut single from HS though. Although she would HAVE to do Niji-iro Bus if that was gonna happen...

[Celaphorce]

I heard Take 5 was recorded during the Ultra Blue era and it sounds very much like the music from that album...is this true?, cause to me it really sounds more like an Ultra Blue song than HS.

[AyUta]

^ Yeah it was meant to go to her UB album but decided to place it in the next album HS.

[Amai Yume]

It really does feel like it could belong on Ultra Blue but I think it also works perfectly on HEART STATION

Originally Posted by Celaphorce

I heard Take 5 was recorded during the Ultra Blue era and it sounds very much like the music from that album...is this true?, cause to me it really sounds more like an Ultra Blue song than HS.

I think the music was done as a song for ULTRA BLUE, but she had no lyrics, so she saved the music for later. Then on HS she brought it back out and wrote the words and melody for it

Also, HEART STATION is #10 today