I don't like HS cover, i was really disappointed. But i still think it's better than First Love cover... her hair isn't bad, but style is awful. She really looks boyish.

^ That's why I love it! XD

Good point :yes I hated her first love cover :dead2

I agree.
Except for DEEP RIVER I don't like hikki's other album covers.

i like ULTRA BLUE cover :) Distance cover isn't bad, it's simple and nice. ^^

I love this one!

http://cdinfo.s201.xrea.com/media/1/...u_Distance.jpg

if i had to choose the fav album cover, i'd choose the ULTRA BLUE one^^ and my fav single cover is Wait&See, Can you keep a secret, Traveling, Hikari, Sakura Drops, Easy Breezy, Be My Last, Passion and Prisoner of Love.

Hikari and Passion are the most beautiful ones^^

btw, when she'll release the second english album?

http://soranohana.wordpress.com/2008...tation-review/

hey, i reviewed HEART STATION on my blog!

^Hip 'n cool review!

She looks kind of uncertain/insecure/clueless on First Love.
Her hands look like stumps on the Distance cover, but the idea was cool.
DEEP RIVER was a major success.
ULTRA BLUE is okay, but could have been better.
HEART STATION is the same as ULTRA BLUE. x_x

I really like Distance's cover, it's probably my favourite out of album covers.

Although her best covers in general would probably be traveling, hikari and UH3+ <_<; <3

Distance covers were nice :yes DEEP RIVER's had a really pretty cover, IMO. It was so simple yet beautiful.

If I had to rank my favorite covers (album wise) it'd be:
ULTRA BLUE (gorgeous cover; her eyes and the different colored scarves was a nice touch)
Distance (simply and sweet and beautifully green XD)
Deep River (the whole monochromatic scheme had to grow on me after a while)
First Love (Not the best, but the hair in the face kinda added a bit more innocence to her)
HEART STATION (honestly there's nothing wrong with this cover...just that the lighting made her look more sickly than anything else)

My favorite cover is actually her HEART STATION cover. I like the combination of white background with light blue and pink letters. She doesn't look sickly to me at all - just a pale person under some really strong lighting.

My second favorite is DEEP RIVER, followed by DISTANCE and First Love. The eyebrows on her First Love cover were a little too bushy for my tastes, but her stylist fixed that quickly.

I think her album booklets have the better pictures from their respective photoshoots. I remember there being some lovely ones from the DEEP RIVER one.

FINALLY someone who agrees with me :cry

^ I think it's because both UB & HS are upclose face shots ?

That's true, but I was talking about musically too XD IMO, anyway.

oh ok :laugh

& reg Zach's album take on HS , I will take a look at it later on in the afternoon

Hikki has really bad saggy eyes (I have the same problem ;_;) where she has to much skin on the underside of her eye, always making her look tired.
I think it turns me off to a lot of close up photos of her. Thats the ONLY flaw I ever find of Hikki though. So I'm not crazy about the Ultra Blue cover ._.

I think Hikki looks cute with a boy cut x3 It makes her look.. hmm.. cute? I don't know.. maybe even innocent x3 And it makes her look a intelligent. So that means I pretty much LOVE the Heart Station coverrr <33 I don't like the ugly white shirt ._. But, eh, beggers =/= choosers.

And I think with her longer hair she looks really sexy ._. And even better with Box Bangs .. Like in Be My Last <33 she looked amazing ._. and in Passion omg.. what a sexy and mysterious Hikaru >W<

And I don't even think the First Love cover looks like her LOL!!
I was kind of like that with Ayu.. all the pictures I had seen of her before the internet, she had short blonde hair. and then I saw the.. B&D covers? and was like "OMG AYU DOESNT EVEN LOOK JAPANESE ._." ahahaha x3

My favorite cover is Distance, but as far as the booklet images, it's definitely DEEP RIVER. That booklet was GORGEOUS.

Maybe she's trying to teach us not to judge a book, er, CD by its cover? :innocent

^True, but HEART STATION's pb was groce...

^ ._. umm.. no, it wasn't.. "gross"

It was really simple and cute >w>;;

Too simple for me! Like, Hikki had on 2 outfits and neither one were cute... and her hair looked kinda greasy and it was against a white bg. It looked like it costed about $15 to do, I wasn't likin it :no

^ Ughh. I DID hate her ugly outfits, but I liked her messy hair haha x3 And her makeup looked really simple and nice ._.
The lighting was bad, but it looked really professional to me ahaha. x3

^I really love this one :weep

http://i36.tinypic.com/1t4ejb.jpg

^:lmfao

I thought she had too much light on her which made he look so pale. The booklet was a turn-off for me. I thought the UB booklet/cover were okay but she just wore the same type of dress but only different colors. Plus on her cover, it looks like she's about to do an energy blast or something. =/ Distance and First Love have the same type of booklet. Both where just up close shoots of Hikki and nothing more. The Exodus booklet/cover didn't have much to offer at all. :no The Deep River booklet really did over an expression and varitey to it. I wish she would get back with that photographer again. That was a really neat idea and I wish for Hikki to do something like that again with next japanese album. :)

Yes, I luv the Deep River booklet. Why can't we have this in all of her booklets:


:laugh

^OH GOOD LORD, don't even bring up the EXODUS cover. HOTTEST MESS EVER.

^:roflmao

Althought the cover(s) was a "meh", I thought the booklet had very pretty images of her especially the ones in her japanese booklet.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/5...j01s4cs.th.jpg http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/9...j02s1nz.th.jpg

Sexy Hikki! :heart

^She looks GORGEOUS in those! But the cover was just so cheap looking. I prefer the UK version.

^Ewwwww. The UK cover looked like her neck was being choked. :grumpy

^LOL i think this is so much better:

http://i38.tinypic.com/2zjgfgo.jpg

Than this (she looks like 12...):

http://i33.tinypic.com/1secs2.jpg

^..

nnn... both are yummy ;3

^ I like the UK cover. She looks like Kelly Hu sort of in that one.

Oh Gawd Triple D! Did you have to post the UK cover?! It's just not my cup of tea. I do like the color theme tho. Meh, I'm to fond of the color theme Hikki wanted for the American cover. It's something about that jacket that I hate/love about the cover. I can't explain it tho.

^I really LOVE the UK shoot. This pict from it is really nice, too. Her makeup was seriously FLAWLESS:

http://i35.tinypic.com/ourrd3.jpg

^see wut I mean about her neck? Wut is that crap around it? =/ You are right tho, the make is FLAWLESS. I luv the eye shadow color. Very beautiful on her. It reminds me of her Color PV. Her make-up was flawless as well. Prolly my fave pv of Hikki wearing make-up. There's this one pic of her where face was destroyed by the make-up. :weep It make her look like she had big cheeks.

I wonder if there'll be a song like Kremlin Dusk on her new English album <3~

I hope not. Nothing says commercial failure like a harpsichord / hard rock mashup about an Edgar Allen Poe poem.

^:eek you even hate Kremlin Dusk!? Do you have no taste whatsoever!?

I didn't say I hate it, but it had no place on EXODUS. And I really hope she doesn't do anything that experimental if she wants to have any bit of success in the States.

Kremlin Dusk is the only reason, for me, that EXODUS is above Heart Station on my favorite Hikki albums. I'd LOVE an entire album of songs like that, oh my god <3

I luv Kremlin Dusk but let's face it, who the hell wants to hear Edgar Allen Poe in a song? =/ The only flaw in Kremlin Dusk was that fact that it took too long for it to climax. I don't to the song alot because of that reason. I mean, she drags on and on from beginning to the middle and like she gets to the end to only give an big explosion....and I wanted more of that explosion in the song too. :cry

I had no problem with the Poe reference. I thought it made her look pretty cultured, which is so much better than 99.9% of American songs. Seriously.

Although, I'm the kid who read The Raven for fun

I totally agree Shanny :heart

I'd love to see how that would sell for Hikki :lmfao

^I really don't care how good it sells. If the music good, what do sales matter? It's not like she's going to get dropped from her label if she does one thing that doesn't sell morbidly well. And things that aren't so good can sell extremely well *coughHScough*

If she won't do it on her English album, maybe as a b-side =D

I hope to god for Hikki's sake she plays it safe on this new album. No weird experimental tracks, please, unless she wants to bomb again in the States.

IMO, all the songs on Exodus were excellent from start to finish. I luv the flow of the album. Just excellent. I don't find myself listening to Easy Breezy or YMMWBAM that much from the album that much tho. Prolly every one in a while or when I watch the videos (EB pv is luv! :heart) I'm so dissapointed that Hikki picked EB over DI. I mean, Devil Inside is a waaaay better song and it did fairly well on the club charts than EB did. I know I'd luv DI more if it had a pv. :cry Exodus deserved a pv over YMMWBAM. She started on the wrong by making those mistakes. :weep

@Grace: Meh. She should stick to have remixes on her english singles. I did want a remix to Eb instead of a pitty Out Call Hook or wuteva version of EB that was. =/

@Triple D: IMO, she needs to make it big before doing something experimental. Ugh, it's kinda hard giving something new to the american ears. =/

^I read that Devil Inside did to moderetly well on some chart... It was a single too.

If she played it safe, she wouldn't be Hikki. She'd be some alien who possessed Hikki's body. The only way she can make a bang is to find something new that takes off like a rocket. That's the only reason she succeeded in Japan after all.

EXODUS itself is often accused of "not being Hikki," so I think she can do a repeat of that. A more mainstream American style might be just another facet to her, and its one I really hope she shows.

BTW, Devil Inside got #1 on the US dance tracks.

Mainstream American music SUCKS though. I don't want to see Hikki putting on that mask, thank you very much.

The reason Hikki succeeded in Japan was because she used a style that wasn't as present when she debuted as it is now, and Japan ate it up. If she'd tried to be "mainstream" then she would have failed, because Japan was still in love with it's nasal 90s pop, and Hikki couldn't do that. So, she should pull the same thing, she just has to find what that new style is.

Def Jam just needs to give her album promotion. In the States all she got was like a radio and mtv interview. Oh, and she was featured in America Magazine (never heard of that magazine until now..) and had a tiny article written about her on in the New York Daily times, and there you have the promotion for Exodus. Hikki can make the best album in the world but without promotion it's nothing.

I doubt she did any promo for Exodus in Canada/UK...has she even been there before?

I don't know for the last paragraph but yes I do admit that Def Jam gave her too little if not no promotion activities when comes to EXODUS which suck

although it bombed in US , at least it did pretty well in Japan so that's not so bad is it ?

^ Well i believe that's because Hikki was very popular in Japan then so they just bought it :P

haha :laugh

er maybe but to sell a million copies of EXODUS in Japan considering that the whole album's in Eng , I think it's not bad

^ goood point lol, but for some reason I fell hikki is gonna do better regarding the sales in America, since she is going a little "mainstream friendly," (Hopefully not too much)
I hope Def Jam give her more promation, I mean with all the crappy artist we have, in the state already whose songs dont even make sense ,yet the STILL make millions, Hikki has to have a chance !!! All she needs is a GOOD promotion... I wonder why they never really gave her one in the first place ?

^ I think it's a bit weird that when comes to EXODUS , little or no promotion was given to her which's unfair as they sees her like a greenhorn artiste

she should deserve the kinda respect she should be getting . She should have voiced that out in her blog or vent all that out to her Kuma bear :laugh

^ SHE better not make a song about that bear in her english album, I can see it now...
Boku wa kuma (english version). I would cry if she did that!
Back to the subject- Yea but if she were vent on her blog, wouldn't that look a little unprofessional, or something... I mean I dont disagree or anything, but cant she get in trouble for that :( OH well, either way it would get the point to def jam, If I were her I would go vent to Def jam myself lol

if she got the guts to , she should go & ask Jay Z out & have a good talk with him :laugh

LOL! Maybe she should do some more collaborations, y'know like what she did with Neyo...

LOL yes :laugh

her take with NeYo on Do You shouldn't have been released as a digital single :(

at most she should have make a PV with Ne Yo on that one , that will be hot

^ aww the PV idea would be soo cool, I hated how it was a digital single too! That was soo stupid.

:weep R.I.P :weep

LOL

MMMMM Hikki looks great thanks for these!!

First of all, mainstream American music is not much worse quality-wise than mainstream Japanese music. Is Hey Say Jump! much more creatively artistic than, say, Chris Brown, Rihanna or Kanye West in the States? I don't think so :no Both countries have crappy artists.

Hikki was able to introduce a style of music in Japan that already was bubbling under and was exploding in other parts of Asia. I don't think it would be very easy for Hikki to start new musical trends in the States.

As Karen said, I don't think it would've sold over 1 million copies and been the #6 album of the year if it was just going off of Hikki's popularity.

That's my opinion about it, I think that 99.9% of western music sucks. I just do. I only like my show tunes and the occasional Kelly Clarkson album.

I think I agree with you somewhat, America's musical trends are in the crapper already, it'd be impossible for Hikki alone to save them. But that's what she's good at, I don't want her being mainstream, I'd rather her fail than her be mainstream, it's just not who she is.

And popularity totally could push an album. Look at Heart Station, if it weren't for Hikki's name, and the two major tie-ins, it would have bombed.

I think EXODUS definitely did sell well because it was her. Highest selling English album over there yet, ain't it? Although, heck if I didn't adore that album <3

You discount how easy HS is to get into, GRACE.

HS was more accessible in terms of music and far less.....out there than UB was, imo. I'd imagine a lot of people saw it as a return to form for Hikki. Not MY own opinion of it, but I can definitely see that.

I honestly think that a combination of FOL's tie-in, POL's tie-in and Hikki's name are responsible for how well this album has sold. Don't misunderstand me, I still think the album would have done well enough, no matter how bad it really is, but nowhere NEAR as well as it is with out them.

Uhhh, how do you explain ULTRA BLUE selling over 900k then? It had crappy singles sales and even crappier tie-ins. Hikki just has a very stable fanbase who loves her music. Tie-ins have nothing to do with it.

Oh, tie-ins help a whooolleee lot, but I don't think they're ENTIRELY responsible. Those tie-ins help get her music out there and played. Last Friends was an utter coup for Hikki in terms of helping stabilize the longevity of HS.

I have nothing notable to say other than I completely agree with you. You're one of the few sane non-Japanophile people in this entire forum.

Any artist that can sell in excess of a million copies of any album is mainstream, in my opinion. Even if their music is very experimental, if it can be enjoyed by the masses it qualifies as mainstream, which really isn't a bad thing. Even though in the US Utada may seem like an underground, avant garde act that is exclusive to select saavy hipsters, in Japan she sells like mad, and therefore she is very pop.

Anywho, I'm very eager to get some concrete news on her upcoming English album, because I found the most comepelling material of her career thus far to be on Exodus. Even though I love her Japanese work, both Heart Station and Ultra Blue had awful production that was at times too muddy and messy, or otherwise simply outdated. Thankfully, her undeniable songwriting talents are what made both of those albums great, but her quirky, playful songwriting in combination with the slick production on Exodus is what made that album my favourite. I think it was a flop in America simply because of the lack of promotion and the bad timing. If it were rereleased two or three years later and promoted aggressively, I really think it could have been a huge success because the album's style is very much in line with current North American trends; it has tons of great dance tracks and club anthems, catchy hooks, Stargate-esque guitar-driven songs (Easy Breezy, About Me), and perhaps most importantly Timbo.

Oi.

Japanophile..?? LOL is this a real word or what? :P

Anywayz, even tho I dun like Exodus, I would rather to see her releasing Exodus part II than releasing a mainstream album. That's all I wanna say.

And I won't say all the mainstream JPop suck, but at least 80% do...

bah, the only thing keeping EXODUS from being mainstream is the fact that it wasn't accepted by the mainstream. Otherwise it'd fit right in, save for the fact I think Hikki's compositions are better.

I'm guessing you're saying that because I don't find everything Japanese to be automatically better than everything Western, which, unfortunately is the mindset of many people I've met :laugh I love love love Western music :heart

Why are YOU here?

Really? "Kremlin Dusk" is mainstream? Just look at the title :lmfao

I totally agree with you here. However, I think Timbaland's two songs were two of the weakest on Exodus. "Let Me Give You My Love" is seriously TERRIBLE.

Japanophile: Link

( Sorry for double post. I didn't feel like editing :thud )

But yeah pretty much. After being in J-pop forums like these for years I get annoyed with 98% of posters. So when someone with sense comes along I'm like "Thank God I'm not the only one."

But I also agree with you on your views with Hikki so...:D

I love that song!!! :weep

^What a day, young boy next door passed away, ooo it makes me wanna say, hey! I don't wanna waste another day!

Seriously, awful lyrics. I'm sorry tho :laugh

^ LoL, yeah the lyrics were stupid. I just liked when she said "let me give you my love" in the chorus. Kremlin Dusk though, hands down was my favorite song on the album. I absolutely loved the second half of it. Upon second listening, some of the tracks aren't as bad as I originally thought, but ugh, I still hate some of them (Easy Breezy, Wonder 'bout, etc.)

^ I was sorta like soul searching, but your body's soo jaw dropping, some say it's rule breaking, but times are changing lol

It's ok if you dont like it, I think the workout's lyrics are even more corny lol

" So I showed him, how people in the far east get down" that song makes me laugh so much

The best song for me is "Hotel Lobby". Great lyrics, great production and KILLER hooks. That song and "Tippy Toe" just blew me away the first time I heard them.

OH I love hotel lobby !! I also love about me and kremlin dusk...

O_O Grace, baby, you need some serious help. Imo, American music is getting better and better. IMO, A-music has always been better than j-pop. I only have a select few of j-artists that I listen to while my list of a-artists listen to...who actually has really good music. 2008 for a-music has been excellent. Leona Lewis, Maroon 5, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Mariah Carey, Usher, OneRepublic, etc...dude, ur missing out. :laugh

As for Hikki putting on that mask, Hikki doesn't have to since her music has been like that from day 1. Err...Automatic, anyone?! =/ So I don't see this whole selling out you getting this from.

:laugh Well, prolly see her with looking hair again since we know that americans is crazy about weave. XD

OMG Thanks austin! :shughug And yea, Hikki has had great dling sales in america. If I'm not mistanken, when I was on hikaru.sc, they said she made it to #56 on the itunes charts. :)

Have can you say that when you listen to Kelly Clarkson? Kelly is so ******* old now. My Decemeber was garbagr compared to her pervious two albums. She was stupid for not going the "Breakaway pt 2" way. :o

Wow! Why is it that most foreigners think that way about American music? Once again, hip-hop is not all american music. (some hip-hop is really good tho. Kanye = :heart)

No, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Avril Lavigne albums have sold more than Exodus. I think Mariah Carey has the best selling english album in japan.

Oh, gawd! Here we go again with the tie-ins crap. :rolleyes Almost every artists on the Oricon charts right now have tie-ins, whether its a great one or not. It's not Hikki's fault that she can get better tie-ins than other artists and sell well when comes to having tie-ins. I never see anyone blaming JE and Mr. Children and Kubukoro for having great tie-ins. It's alreadys Hikki who gets that "without tie-ins she wouldn't sell." :rolleyes

Why are you in here? :irked Tbh, I think you are one of those japanophile. :dead2

First... I AM American o_O... Second, I don't like what I don't like. I'm good with my show tunes and Kelly (I LOVED My December), especially my show tunes(<3 Lord Webber). I started really listening to Asian music because I can't put up with American music, so if Hikki went American, I'd die. Seriously.

I don't think anyone is blaming Hikki for the tie-ins she gets. It's not right to outright blame someone for whatever promotion they do, as long as it's in the boundaries of common sense. [Some meet-and-greets are kinda crossing that line, but that's a different story. :o] But yeah, if she wouldn't have had Hana Yori Dango 2, Flavor Of Life would have not become the #2 single of 2007. If she wouldn't have had Last Friends then HEART STATION wouldn't have had minimal decreases in sales as weeks went by et cetera.

well, utada is american after all, so...:laugh but do you really think she'll be popular if she dosen't go the mainstream route? sadly that's how it is in america now. :weep she shouldn't sell out, it's not worth it here.

First statement: This is an opinion, you can't -nullify- GRACE's by yours. She doesn't freaking like Western music, you telling that an album she likes is bad isn't going to make your argument for Western music any better. No wonder she likes My December since it seems to be outside of Western mainstream tastes, hence why she likes it. How can YOU offer artists when it's obvious she's probably already tried them and doesn't find them to her taste. As a side-note, I like Western music just fine.


Second statement: Yes, I think the idea that HS sold ENTIRELY on tie-ins and her name is ridiculous, but you can't rule out that the tie-ins she got were a big factor. Bringing attention to other artists is a distraction and logical fallacy, doesn't bring any weight to your argument.

What I see is, whenever anyone criticizes HEART STATION's music, it's sales numbers are used to display it's credibility as a good album. Sales aren't a reason to like anything and doesn't change the fact that a person MIGHT NOT LIKE HEART STATION.

-----------

This woman needs something new soon. Also, for the U.S. album, I'd like it if she could work with Bloodshy & Avant or Danger Mouse. Love them.

BUT Hikki has already went there....and back :irked

I mean, that's true of course, but some people make it seem like if she didn't have tie-ins at all, she wouldn't have sold as much as she has in past and present when in fact, that goes for every artists in Japan who has hit it big.

Although she may not really care about it, Hikki would make way more amounts of money if she was to make it big here. It's always been a dream of Hikki's to perform here (in a big way imo). Like I said earlier, Hikki has already went the mainstream route, so I don't get the "she's selling out if she goes mainstream". =/

:yes =D It's all opinion, I don't like Western music, just like I don't like Heart Station, no one's opinions can nullify it, or overrule.

Also, incredibly minor, but I'm a guy... ^^;;

And by "go American" I mean, go into the American mainstream. Seriously, I have respect for her since Exodus was not the mainstream when she released it, if she were to go mainstream, I'd lose a HUGE amount of respect for the woman.

My bad. lol.

You bring up a true point although, MD was mostly mainstream.

When I brought those other artist into it, I was making a point that Hikki isn't the only one who has tie-ins plus their name to be thanking. Just about anyone of those artist I named have tie-ins plus their name to singles that sold fairly well. I'm not pulling their names in it to start up trouble. I was just making a point.

Good point but most fans do that with any of their favorite artists. I've listed it times and times that I luv HS because of it's flow and mainstream-ness. UB was okay but I wasn't use to that type of music and it's just an album you wouldn't normally play on a daily bases unlike HS and her other albums.

OMG! I'm so with you. This silence from her is killing me. I went back to listening to Exodus and man, I have fell back in luv with Exodus 04. It has this certain mood to it that makes you feel all good inside. lol I really luv the medley to it. I do agree with you on B&A. I really like their remix to YMMWTBA. Their works are pretty decent.

I think Exodus had potential, but some of the lyrics when compared to some of the stuff we know she's capable of sucked. The album sounded like it was done on a MAC, and the collaborations with Timbaland were complete let downs. The only good song he did to me was Exodus '04, and even then the song left me feeling "It's good but not great". The Exodus album just had no feeling. It was stale and it didn't seem like she brought that same spark of musicality that she does when she's doing her Japanese albums. It's like she tried too hard and we all know that when you try too hard and don't let things come you fail. With that being said I think doing the album brought on a new sound that was already forming when she released "COLORS" and "Traveling". So in that aspect I think doing "Exodus" was just like the meaning of the word: A departure.

I hope she sticks to doing something similar but more out there like "ULTRA BLUE" for her 2nd English album. I wouldn't mind seeing her pulling a Bjork and going all "Hidden Place" on us. But I'm hoping we won't be hearing the same type of music that we're already getting with this next English release. Here's hoping that it gets better promotion than Exodus and that the woman actually tours for a change. Noone knows who the hell she is in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. She needs to do a Dir en grey and start doing some shows.

I think doing mainstream music isn't as horrible as your making it out to be. You can do mainstream in the States and not conform to whats already being done over here. Prime examples are Bjork and Pj Harvey. They release whatever the hell they want to release; which both of their more recent albums are masterpieces and sold quite well. So getting more exposure doesn't necessarily mean you have to sell your soul. But I will agree with you on your point that American popular music does suck in recent years. But it's not something new. In fact most people who actually use their brain over here and don't watch reality shows 24/7 know this. But I will disagree with you're point in saying Japanese popular music is better. I think we've all seen various acts from Japan. In some cases brilliant people like Dir en grey are heavily in the forefront, but then you have your Koda Kumi's, Leah Dizon's, and BoA's, which can be seen as brainless fluff. Not to mention "idols" releasing albums titled "Big☆Bang!!!" like Shoko Kakagawa. But..your opinion is your opinion. I disagree with half of it though.

P.S for people who like Heartstation that's cool. But personally I thought it was bland as hell. I even think it's one of her worst albums. I can say I like 2 songs and thats it. Not a very good reason to buy an album, which I haven't and I won't. At least the covers were cool.

I agree with you Lisa. Nowadays it's really hard to make it into America and get noticed. Although I don't mind one bit, I like to hear Hikki's English music, it's great IMO. So I don't really want her to stop making music here. I'll buy every single album :laugh And who knows, maybe she'll get somewhere far later on in the future, it could happen :yatta

I doubt she'll go mainstream for the sake of selling albums - she's not desperate for money or attention in America. I hope she uses her next English album to experiment in ways EMI wouldn't let her in Japan, so her next Japanese album can be even better.

EXODUS has a sharper sound than UB and HS on it which is what I like about it. It was raw and clean at the same time.

Exodus '04 is probably one of my least favourite songs on the album, but that's like me saying HS is my least favourite album from Hikki, overall I enjoy it all.

I wouldn't mind her going mainstream as long as she keeps her touch on it, she's going to HAVE to have some kind of 'popular' sound to gain a fanbase, with which she can start experimenting with. See her Japanese career for proof of this.