[Utada Hikaru] ☆ Goodbye Happiness in Utada Hikaru's 45th Thread ☆

[Minttulatte]

I remember when I listened to DR for the first time. I thought it sounds like Distance but it was so different, haha. :') A bit of a shock to me that was, but I love that album a lot, mostly because of the lyrics. So beautiful~ Still my favorite Hikki album is Distance because I love that R&B style she has there. It's the best. x3

[Mirrorcle Monster]

HEART STATION>Deep River>ULTRA BLUE>>>>Distance>>>>First Love


1.Passion
2.Goodbye Happiness
3.Stay Gold
4.Take 5
5.BLUE
6.Keep Tryin
7.Prisoner of Love
8.Can You Keep a Secret?
9.Beautiful World
10.COLORS

[bluegie]

LOL let's doing the ranking again .

DEEP RIVER > HEART STATION > First Love / ULTRA BLUE >>> Distance

I can't make top 10 songs tho... too hard to pick. I can't even pick top 5 from each album...

[isthisLOL?]

I couldn't ever rank all her albums properly...but my top3 is easily Exodus > DEEP RIVER > HEART STATION

[emi♡]

Originally Posted by bluegie

Ugh... I'm getting confused... Do you mean Simple and Clean or Hikari...?

does it even matter lol it's the same song :/

and hmm

ultra blue > heart station = deep river = distance > exodus = this is the one > first love

I guess. Screw Precious.

It's hard to rank the albums...they're such a mess. I think it's better to rank songs or singles...but that would take a long time.

Passion IS her best song ever created though

[ahtka-chan]

oh well, the rank for me is

DEEP RIVER = Distance = EXODUS > ULTRA BLUE > HEART STATION > This Is The One > FIRST LOVE

I think DEEP RIVER is Hikki's masterpiece so far, but my favorite album ever is Distance and I don't think it's going to change.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by bluegie

I think DR holds the title because of the followings:
- Distance was too lukewarm. I know that First Love might not be a super album, but after repeating the albums thousands times, and I would expect something better from hikki. But no for me. Once I received the album along with A BEST, I listened to the latter one for more instead.
- We can agree that she used lots of different instruments to give dynamic arrangements between songs in DR. So far it's the only album with such diversity. The first two albums are R&B driven, and the next two albums after DR contain mostly sync songs.
- Her health went into trouble about two weeks or so before the release of SAKURA doroppusu/Letters, and all of her activities were cancelled. Then before she released the single, toshiba announced the album release. It was a bit chaotic when I received the news. I totally didn't expect her to release an album when her health condition was not good. I believe other fans had the same thought during that moment.
- Also, her health condition actually boosted up her popularity, and dun ask me why cuz I was really confused as well. I just remember how happy I was when the first week sales of SAKURA/Letters passed over 400K (compared to hikari's first week sales - 230K).
- The shocking effect when the cover was revealed. It really shocked through my brain when I saw the cover, as it's trying to tell me the meaning of the album. It's so poetic and philosophic. (probly a bit exaggerate but that is how I felt back then).
- Also, the cover is black and white, and the feeling of the album is quite melancholic. Yet the arrangements of the songs are so "colourful", and thus create a huge contrast.
- The arrangements are so different, yet the songs flow together as a piece.
- The lyrics are so beautiful and powerful.
- Her voice is much better compared to the first two albums. (Of course, her vocal is getting better in UB and HS. But those albums were not released at that time ).
- etc.

If I didn't follow hikki until the release of UB or HS, I might have another feeling towards DR. But I've been following her since First Love, and to be honest DR is a very huge jump from Distance. So you can't blame people on considering DR as a masterpiece during that moment. Of course there were fans who didn't like DR at all in 2002 as well. It's just having different opinions. There's no harm if my fav hikki album is different from you, him, or her . We all love hikki anywayz .

I follow her since 2002, 2003 (I believe I heard her albums in 2002 and finally could call myself a fan in 2003, during COLORS era) so I had to hear the first 3 albums a lot since I got into her music on a period she wasn't very active (I remember reading rumours that she was going to retire), I don't need to tell you how much Exodus shocked me! Haha! My only problem with Deep River is that IMO, until HS her albums sounds more like a collection of random (amazing) songs than a whole body of work, and even if I do love all the DR songs, it just don't work as a whole to me... Still, there are a lot of my favorites there (Hikari, Deep River, Letter, Tokyio Nights...). After I recovered the shock, Exodus turned out being my favorite (translating the lyrics for a brazillian fan site helped, as I noticed how deeply worked her lyrics are... Never had so much trouble translating pop music after that), and right now, it's Heart Station.

Heart Station > Exodus> Deep River> This Is The One> Ultra Blue> Distance> First Love> Mai Kuraki> AKB48> Precious

And my top five songs are:
Keep tryin' > Letters > Beautiful World> Kremlin Dusk> Ai no Anthem

[Polyrhythm]

The greatest masterpiece in Jpop history aka DEEP RIVER> ULTRA BLUE> HEART STATION>Distance>First Love>This is (obviously not) the One>EXODUS

[RikkuK]

That April fools joke sent me into a spiraling depression.

[Zeke.]

Never thought Passion was that great. It's nice and I love the overall feeling of it but it was a letdown after the amazingness that was the Planitb Remix of S&C. Mind you, Passion is an original song, but the English version is terrible and I just felt like it was kind of... dragged out. Somewhat awkward sounding. I like it, but it's not her best by a longshot. It's actually not even in my top 5 from Ultra Blue.

[emi♡]

I find the english versions of both songs awful. But Sanctuary does take the cake.

But idk it doesn't influence my feelings for Passion at all. And idk why they didnt do a planitb remix for it. I was disappointed with that.

[bluegie]

Originally Posted by emi♡

does it even matter lol it's the same song :/

Originally Posted by emi♡

I find the english versions of both songs awful. But

You help me to reply your post lol. Simple and Clean is very awful indeed. How can it be the same with Hikari?

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

My only problem with Deep River is that IMO, until HS her albums sounds more like a collection of random (amazing) songs than a whole body of work, and even if I do love all the DR songs, it just don't work as a whole to me... Still, there are a lot of my favorites there (Hikari, Deep River, Letter, Tokyio Nights...).

That's the beauty of DR. The songs' arrangements are so different, yet they combine together and flow very well. To me, DR is like a sphere with darkness on the surface. Once you immerse into the sphere, all of the sudden you realize that that world is full of vibrant colours. From the pink sakura to the brownish Deep River, the freshness of Letters, the lively Tokyo Nights, and the brightness of hikari, etc.

I think I will include UB as "whole body of work" if she didn't include COLORS and Dareka. I think Dareka can flow better if she placed the song somewhere else in the album, but COLORS definitely sounds like a DR track to me.

[emi♡]

lol you are such a pain

even though there are differences between the english and japanese, and the small compositional changes that make S&C awful...they're still the same song.

At least here, that doesn't matter. The PlanitB remix is the first version I ever heard, and I heard it before uso no mitai whatever~


DR is a transitional album for me~

[amorphose]

Apparently L'arc en Ciel covered Sakura Drops at a show in London a few days ago. I'd love to hear this!

[ALPHY]

Originally Posted by amorphose

Apparently L'arc en Ciel covered Sakura Drops at a show in London a few days ago. I'd love to hear this!

*FAINTS*

[Lady~Deviance]

Are we ranking Hikki's albums? Ok then.

For me "Deep River" owns the latter and that's all that matters. I'm not even going to bother ranking the others.

I would LOVE to see L'arc~en~Ciel's cover of Sakura Drops. My favorite j-rock band covering a song from my favorite female singer is pure win.

[taskinillusion]

From Nintendo Power magazine March 2012 edition (article about Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance):



I wonder if it'll just be a new remix or a same old one? Surely not a new song... Considering she's totally done with Disney 'cause they "don't pay enough" or whatever... The game releases on July 31st so... I guess we'll see?

[emi♡]

[CoriKaru]

^So pretty much non-news. Not that I would expect a new song for a handheld anyway even if she was still worrking with them.

[Polyrhythm]

Uh...didn't they use Passion as the theme song for the past 4 or w/e KH spinoff games (btw where the f is KHIII?) anyway? I doubt it'll be new material.