^Well, if you career lasts long enough, people will say that kind of stuff no matter what.

Like, I don't want her to go back to her older stuff, I just want her to release more uptemo stuff. "Michi" was uptempo enough for me, and I would love for her to keep doing more of that.

Exactly and if she were to release her similar sounding music everyone would complain about that too, they would say that all of her music sounds the same.
She can never win.

I’m just glad that she’s back!

Nothing related to hikki for this post (since we're still waiting for Anata's release, which is in December...).

But I'm glad to come back and chat with you guys again... :cry. I thought AHS would be down forever this time :no. Have been around for these many years and I don't want to leave at all...

Being innovative and pushing boundaries doesn't mean she has to sound like her old stuff, but even so, much of her older stuff was ahead of its time. I find her current output (at least her single choices) to be very safe. Safe isn't bad, but it doesn't excite me.

Does the general public in Japan like her recent singles (the ones that were released this year)?

I get the same feeling. even though I liked everything she has released so far, anata is the one I'm looking forward the most. Forevermore sounded like she was going for something not as safe, but in the end I found it to be safe as well. The MV is on another level, though, not safe at all for her standards imho. I guess most of you put anata in the same level of her previous two releases after fantome, but I don't know... it sounds different to me? uahuhua

Well, she stayed away for years, so, it's natural she comes back safer so she can regain her public.

But it doesn't excite me either. Fantome is good, but it's also Hikki's album I listened the less

Apart from 忘却, which I completely ignore, Fantôme has been one of her most listened to me hahaha I really really liked it

I take it people want another traveling? I'm down for that. But I also love how everything she's releasing is soooo... Utada. They're just signature Utada. Anata reminds me a little of Dareka no negai ga kanau koro. I'm a huge fan of Utada from DEEP RIVER forward, but my absolute favorite Utada album is still ULTRA BLUE. I mean, my phone is named Ultra Orchid. My PC is named Ultraviolence. My hard drives are named Ultra White and Ultra Blue. My email address has been heart.station for ~10 years now. I love the DEEP RIVER > ULTRA BLUE > HEART STATION era so much.

I'd love Utada to fill out the production a bit more but I'm just thrilled that her music is really building on a lot of maturity and confidence. I'm glad Utada isn't like, "Hey y'all! I'm doing a hip hop album where every song is about how wet my vagina is. And it's my most personal record to date. And I'm baring my soul on this, and the first single is, 'Sexy Texts', and it's about you know, how your man don't text you back and you know it's over and then he does text you and then you like back together but you know he be like playin' games witchu b'cuz he aint text u back lyke as soon as u txt him. and i put my heart into this... #bringbackourgirls" And then you play the song and the lyrics are like, "His tongue lick my ovaries/o- o- o- o- ovaries / His pretty pony~pretty pony~pretty pony~pretty pony~ up in my uteries / u- u- u- u- uteries..." And then people start calling it a uterie, and then there's the hashtags, and she be all over IG talking about how she's in Dubai rollin' them papers.

Our girl makes music for adults, and she posts people's left behind shoes on her Twitter account. So, I'm just glad we have this weirdo pop star who's still amazing.

I just can't imagine what our faces would look like if hikki releases a song about a guy licking her o-o-o-... :roflmao

I don't have any specific want from hikki, probably because I trust that her music can't be bad. Of course I'm quite surprised the direction she goes this year, but I have faith that her next album will be as good as, let's say, HEART STATION at least (and I like HS more than UB...).

I actually can't decide whether Fantôme or DEEP RIVER is the best album. Probably I would pick DR for sentimental reasons, but Fantôme should be really close. And I don't think Fantôme is "safe". (Hmmmn how should I say...) Before Fantôme, all of her albums were not about herself. She mostly wrote lyrics in someone else's (or a third person's) perspective instead of her own self. Through Fantôme I can actually see part of her "true" emotion (about her mother's death, what her life is after that incident, and her vulnerable feelings towards her late mom). Also, I really appreciate her vocals in this album. I think her hiatus is pretty worth it (even though we all suffered from absent hikki's songs for the past 6 years (except Sakura Nagashi).

I do think Anata will be more dynamic than Forevernore, which (I agree that) sounded unsafe, but yet another safe release after Oozora.

Sexy Texts lmao

Just updated the 1st post, I love anata's cover :)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbK6w0wA4D2/

Looks like we might be getting something very soon! New album potentially?

Well, during 9 to 5, she's thinking 6 and 9.... ;)

Oh, that's right. Totally forgot Utada is already a pervert. lol :D Anyway, carry on

she looks so pretty in the photo :luv2 I hope we get a new album next year

Those in the US:

Fantôme is now available to stream on Spotify! Unlike her english material (which is under simply Utada), Fantôme is under "Hikaru Utada"

^I think it's just for US, right? Tried to find here in Brazil and wasn't lucky.