I don't think it was a total downgrade or trash, but since I was disapointed by it, I chose it anyway. D:

Some songs like "the workout" were missing that certain beat to make it a hot dance track, but it came out to be annoying. The other songs were odd and is not suitable for the US audience. They would take "You Make Me Want To Be a Man" the wrong way and wouldn't understand her deep meaning in the lyrics. Also, it was also because of her record company that made it a failure as well. They didn't even advertise properly and released great songs like Exodus '04 as remix CDs instead of a single. >__> Many mistakes have made this album more disapointing than it already is.

I just hope she can recover with her upcoming release of Exodus in the UK and her new japanese singles. -___-

I didn't think it was an upgrade or a downgrade, but it definitely didn't sound mainstream like her past work. It's good to see Hikki experimenting with sounds that's she's never done before. Sure she could just stick with her Japanese style and probably found more mainstream success but she's an artist afterall. Hikki would never evolve as an artist if she never breaks out of the mould she created for herself.

ok , I misread it. * plays the "english not my first language "-card * :P

and you're all allowed to state your opinions , but to some extent :cool

I'd say upgrade. Besides 'the Workout' and 'Tippy Toe' and (Sorry if I mixed it up with Namie's very similar title), I really like it. It took a while to grow on me, but now I like 12/14 so I'm pretty pleased with it. And I love 'Kremlin Dusk', at first I thought it was dull and didn't get what the big deal was, so I skipped it a lot, but after listening all the way through, it became my favorite track. :)

Can you really look at my sig/avatar set and think I'm gonna give it a downgrade? Definately Upgrade hands down. It's daring, different and it just seems like she really let her imagenation run wild with all the different beats, loops and synthesizers all layered intrecately on top of one another. Love every second of it from the intro to the very last track and still listen to it regularly.

Well, the only thing you could really do if you compare Shakira English/Utada English. And Shakira Spanish/Hikki Japanese. Is that Shakira just translates her song (like boa) utada writes completely NEW tracks for each release. Making her both different people since they're styles are different. The only thing you could make a comparison of the same person is when she did HIKARI which the translation song was from Hikki. And upcoming Passion, which I think will also be translated.

I liked the album and Im glas she made a effort

pshhh
This album was ****ing amaaaaaaaaaazing!
I'm going to buy my copy very very soon! It's already late for me! ><

i didnt hate it, i didnt love it

but i prefer all her japanese albums anyway

hmmn.. how come this old thread pops up suddenly? anywayz.. since's it's up here, why not adding me? :D being a hikki fan since 1999... it's really weird that I don't buy the album or even intend to download it. Before the release of Exodus I kept thinking that she would produce something meaningful rather than poppy music like britney spears "oops i did it again" (just an example). The release of Easy Breezy just made me feel ill about her english album. Than Devil Inside came out and I was like "forget about the album. I will not like it".

I understand why certain people treats Utada as a different person. Her jpop music serves lyrics with deeper meaning. e.g., DEEP RIVER, I really like this song; COLORS, sth about life and death (?); DISTANCE/FINAL DISTANCE, Sakura doroppusu, letters, Dareka, and more. The melody is dynamic YET fluent. Her english songs, on the other hand... with shallow meanings and sometimes creepy lyrics (Easy Breezy is a good exmple). of course, some songs have meaningful lyrics, such as Exodus 04's. The problem is that the lyrics are not very powerful at all.

Oh well the thing is that I haven't listened to the whole album yet so I dun have the right to vote at this stage. BUT I'm glad that her jpop songs after the english album aren't creepy at all. (OMG Be My Last is my fav). I wish her upcoming song Keep Tryin' will make us satisfy :D

I really liked the album.

In some ways it was better than her Japanese music, and in some ways it wasn't quite as good.

I liked how it seems a lot more personal than her Japanese music. She did exactly what she wanted to do, even if it was being silly and stupid for a bit. I love the computer-heavy production, and how the album is somewhere between pop, rock, r&b, and dance. And of course, the Asian influences on the tracks are fantastic.

What I really like about the album though, is the general feeling I get from the music. It's very dark, but that doesn't stop it from moving.

With Exodus I think Utada created an album that is unique, dark and alluring. I listen to it all the time, and always find something new to enjoy about it.
In fact there is only one track on it that I don't really like - Wonder 'Bout. And it's not even a bad song.

Another good thing about Exodus - She really learned from this album. You can hear it in Be My Last, you can hear it in Passion. She really took something from that writing experience and is using it in her Japanese releases too. And all for the better - her latest Japanese releases have been just phenomenal.

So, I will vote Upgrade. If not for that fact that her experiements with Exodus have proved progressive for her Japanese releases, then just because I love it. ^.^

i dont know...her songs weren't that great with the exceptions of a few....

Actually it took some time to get into the music because I did not like Hikki that much... her voice and her Japanese song just sounded bad to me.
But once I had it I used to listen to the album a lot of times and with everytime it got better and better and now I really love it. It's not perfect... sometimes it's also a little bit boring but it was something really new to me and I really really really wish there was an 5.1-Dolby-Version of this album. It would be soooo great. I can't wait until it is released in Germany too and I want to know how she made it in the UK ^-^

ja ne

UPGRADE, I think this album was and is very good. I do not compare it to her japanese stuff though. But compared to other english albums, it beats them all

Downgrade. Lyrically wise especially. Easy Breezy is really stereotypical and with bland lyrics even if it was a pun or a joke I didn't find it amusing at all. The songs are weak and I rarely listen to this album simply because I don't like 75% of the songs.

I wonder what she referred to. O.o because Generally I find japanese music WAY more catchy than european and american music. (LOVE MACHINE f.ex or virtually any morning musume song) I guess she was thinking on lyrics, or perhaps referring to the more clear use of repetitive percussive rythms and such vs more melodic songs.

I completely agree. If "Utada" and "Utada Hikaru" are to be considered two different entities, then "Utada's" style has very much influenced "Utada Hikaru's". It's very apparent in her newest releases.

it is a disappointment.... she should have just retired at her peak (deep river) rather than see her career plummet

my my... her peak was between post-First love to pre-Distance era... and why would she retire? after Exodus failure? or Passion not getting no. 1?? Now actually it's a good time for her to show that she doesn't care about the rankings anymore. she can do her own music.

"I dun care about anything"... can't you hear that line from Keep Tryin'?? :P LOL

I really don't think the album was that bad at all. I really liked it as much as her other albums besides maybe 1 or 2 songs. V_V;;; Maybe some downgrade on lyrics, (I really don't always pay that much attention to lyrics though..) but the music is very good. I liked it right away... and I still find it good to listen to here and there.