Wings is the only song off of Ultra Blue that I don't particularly care for. While I like most of the tracks off of Heart Station, they're... boring >.> UB's tracks where more out there and exciting to me than Heart Station's "1 song broken into 12" feel.

^Girl... you did not just diss WINGS and also hate on HS in the same post... :gun

WINGS is gorgeous, especially once you read the lyrics. Also Kiss & Cry, Beautiful World, Stay Gold, FTB, and Teiku 5 own pretty much everything off of ULTRA BLUE.

... ._.... Do I seem like that much of a girl? I'm not, you realize this right?

Wings is alright, I don't hate it, it's just not one I particularly listen to. I'll probably fall in love with it one of these days (like with Letters), and UB has Be My Last, which is my favorite Hikki song(haters of BML stfu), so it wins.

^Sorry, lady! :lmfao WINGS and Letters are totally sister songs, IMO... that's so funny that you mention that song, cuz I've always found them to be related.

Letters was another song I couldn't stand for a while, and then I listened to it one day and fell in love with it, so I'll probably fall for Wings someday, I just don't care for it too much right now >.>

^Read the lyrics, both Letters and WINGS have gorgeous lyrics that make me wanna cry :weep

I've never really read Utada's lyrics before o_o... I probably should >.>

^She's one of the greatest lyricists in J-Pop... I've heard from quite a few Japanese people that her lyrics are touching, but also easy to relate to and understand, as opposed to someone like Ayumi whose lyrics are very cryptic.

:yes Both of them are really nice.

!!! Triple D! (Hmm, I've never called you that before...) Did you just say you don't like Nichiyou no Asa!? Wahh!!~ I loved every song on Ultra Blue, like every song! Although I do agree with you that HS was a lot more cohesive!

Also, there is a new post on Hikki's site: Something about a painting of a tissue

ティッシュの絵かいたーー

ヽ(´ｰ`)ﾉ わーい

I've never really paid attention to Utada's lyrics, but I'll start now. I can't seem to find WINGS' lyrics though - anyone know a website?

There is one section of Passion's lyrics that I particularly like:

If we remember, that far far away
the future is shining somewhere
we only have to be afraid a little bit
as we sit here under the beautiful blue sky

WINGS lyrics :)

You can find Hikki's translated lyrics here at this lovely site.

WINGS's 1 of my fave songs on UB :cool

I think it's a bit silly to include the original version of FOL as a bonus track . I rather that gets axed & be replaced with another song or just don't put it in the 1st place because that's the only track I tend to skip

^LOL, it's pretty hard to skip the last track of an album. XD But yeah, WINGS is one of my favourite songs of Hikki's, in fact Keep Tryin' was my favourite single because it includes two of my most favourite songs ever!

LOL

I think it's a bit funny that the original version of FOL's included since everyone's so used to having the ballad version but sorry hands down the ballad version wins

I love the melody going on in WINGS & the PV for Keep Tryin's just too cute for words & not to mention it's so entertaining to watch too :D

^I know the Keep Tryin' PV Is just so... delicious (I couldn't think of any other word!) Yeah the ballad version of FoL won me over as is the quiet version of PoL at the moment!

Lately when I listened to HEART STATION I got bored from most of the songs too (a thing that didn't happen with UB).
ULTRA BLUE succeeded for its quality, HS mainly for the good marketing and promotion.
ULTRA BLUE was so much a better album.

that's quite a weird way to describe the Keep Tryin' PV . For me it's a fun 1 !

FOL Ballad Version - hands down it's superior than the original version to me that's

Yeah, that's why I took off FOL -OV-. Here's my edited tracklisting that I use to listen to HEART STATION:

01. Fight the Blues
02. Nijiiro Basu
03. HEART STATION
04. Prisoner of Love
05. Kiss & Cry
06. Stay Gold
07. Gentle Beast -Interlude-
08. Celebrate
09. Beautiful World
10. FOL -BV-
11. Boku wa Kuma
12. Teiku 5 (fan-made remix that doesn't end all weirdly)

Uhmm... just wanna say the only track that i used to be addicted and love to death is COLORS... but as years and years passed, i found myself skipping it whenever i listen to UB. Haha... I Love almost all the songs,. As for heart Station, i really can't stand myself from listening to Boku Wa Kuma. Other than that, the tracks are OK for me.... Take 5, takes the top while Prisoner of Live precedes on my List (^_^)

and yeah...

LETTERS and Wings have a brilliant lyrics. They're so straightforward to the point that i can also put my foot on hikki's shoes (wew. such a puN! )jhahaha... anyways... I Love Letters Better... specially on the part:

Even if you're not here,
the sun will still shine
and another brand new day will start.


...or something like that... haha

I have to agree with you. I love HS, but I get very bored and skip many of the tracks very often, but with UB I rarely do that...

I feel like most Western fans seem to love UB and DR... but nihonjins all love FL, Distance and HS. Interesting.

Actually my bf's (who's japanaese) favorite album (and song) of her is DR (mine also) and his least favorite is HEART STATION, (mine's FL but HS after that lol).

HS just wasn't one of hikki's best works, it might've sell good but as I always say, sales aren't everything.

But my favorite albums by her are UB and FL xDDDDDDDD

OH my gosh..maybe I'm secretly half nihonjin! :roflmao

I've always loved "Kairo", but just recently I've been getting back into it again and I've been especially paying attention to the part of the song at 1:53 where she starts going down in octaves to that final low low note. I love it. I guess I just didn't appreciate it enough at the time, or low notes in general, but I'm definitely appreciating it now.

Utada just hits these low notes that I've haven't heard any other artist hit before. I try to hit them, specifically the part I just mentioned above and by the time I get to that deep low low note, it just sounds like I'm moaning. Ha. But yeah. Low Notes don't get enough respect in my opinion. It's not all about the High Notes. I love that Utada appreciates low notes though.

Ok I'm done with random rant.

A lot of people hate Kairo. Never really got that. D:

^I agree, Kairo is absolutely stunning. It by itself is better than 90% of Heart Station >.>

Upon first listen, the first thing that came to my mind when hearing "Kairo" was "This sounds like it could be a Theme Song to some Video Game." It starts off and just builds up to this grand finale.

I've seen many others compare it to a Video Game Theme Song as well.

Also pay attention to the Back Ground Ad Libs.......Amazing.

what's wrong with Kairo ? It's 1 of my fave non singles on UB & the melody of the song's stunning with the orchestra going on in the background

plain love :luv2

Kairo is still a hot mess, IMO. The synth-y strings are irritating, and the lyrics are too obtuse. The melody is just non-existent as well, I can't even remember how it goes, even though according to my iTunes I've listened to it over 70 times O_O

Kaiiro is a very nice song, IMO. I bet you anything the lyrics are really personal because they talk about her father I'm pretty sure.

lmao you're funny man Triple D :laugh

it's , the lyrics are really touching

man I should go & listen to UB and HS again after this :cool

Just recently it occurred to me that "Kairo" does actually flow along like a body of water ergo "Sea Route". Up and Down and Up and Down during those certain parts as she sings the notes. Listen.

kairo is better than all of HEART STATION's album tracks imo :yes

too bad Utada doesn't have a habit of making PVs for non singles , I bet it will be awesome if she did 1 for Kairo

Kairo is bloody amazing... I don't care what anybody says haha. From the first time I heard the 30 sec clip I was amazed.

I don't know her PVs of late are pretty bad so I don't know if it could be pulled through though it was UB's era so it could be awesome!

the only PV that I liked of the HS era's Boku wa Kuma , the rest , not really

I miss her SAKURA DROPS & Keep Tryin' style , PV wise

did HS even have a CD+DVD version?

^Nope, I would have enjoyed it though, I don't think any of her albums were released as a CD+DVD feature

No, hikki release her PVs in Video Clip collection DVDs.

so you feel it's best for her to stick to the traditional CD only edition & to separate the PVs from the album itself ?

so does her video clip collection DVDs sell well?

it'll be easier to fit on my shelf that way. XD No more fat ugly things that take up so much space.

As long as the clips are released in some way or form it isn't that much of a problem for me.

I can't wait for UH5, the PVs will be so terrible :laugh FOL, BW and K&C all had bad PVs. And Stay Gold didn't even get one O_O HS and POL were just okay....

Stay Gold really should have gotten its own PV , it sucked that it didn't :(

^And Beautiful World and Kiss & Cry should've gotten PVs that weren't stupid anime clips. But I digress.

lol that's true but I suppose getting a PV to watch / look at is better than not getting anything in the 1st place

^I guess... the worst part was that BW's PV wasn't even full-length. They only did half of the song. If you ever find a full-version it's just the beginning scenes repeated over and over :lmfao

^ wow. That's really stupid.

I never even tried to watch the videos once I heard they were anime clips :~

BW's makes sense though, since it was the theme to the Evangelion(or whatever) movie. But I think she should have done what Bonnie Pink did with "Ring a Bell" and mixed the animation with a PV of herself.

POL wasn't bad though, I liked the simplicity of it, it was done better than FOL even though they were basically the same thing. And HEART STATION had the Heartless, so it was okay.

Maybe she'll re-do the PVs a little bit? I mean, if she really plans to sell a new clip collection, that won't do very well (in my opinion), so remaking a few PVs might be to her advantage.

That might do well just for FoL and PoL songs, I won't be surpried if it will.
I would like her to make at least few more really interesting PVs.

.....

I know what a waste of time & $

lol

Zach , trust me , you're not missing out on anything with regs to the BW / Kiss & Cry PVs

Utada does have some great PVs like travelling , Keep Tryin' , SAKURA DROPS . I love the concept going on in those PVs .

Not sure what happened after that

BW was for the Evangelion Movie! It makes sense that the PV advertised it >.>

But it wasn't even full length. And just because something has a tie-in doesn't mean it needs to be a whole video of footage for that product... I just miss seeing Hikki in PVs :weep

^You don't like rehashing really old conversations and topics? :laugh

Isn't Evangelion like... megas populars in Japan? It sort of makes sense to me ^^;;

^HYD2 was a bigger tie-in, and her PV didn't have anything to do with it. Fact is it was a crap PV (if you can even call it that) and it deserved better. Artists have bigger tie-ins than Evangelion all the time, and you don't see them making their whole PV a montage of footage from the product.

^True, true enough. It still makes sense to me for some reason.

I can see how it makes sense, but I still agree with DDD.

I mean honestly, people would much rather see Utada, I think, than characters from Evangelion.

^ Agreed o_o She needs to get someone in there to help her out with miraculous PVs again :( I want to see the beautiful Hikki in another PV!! =O

She lost her miraculous director husband, what do you expect with him not doing her videos anymore >.>

Yeah.

That's the only thing I miss because of the divorce.

Kiriya PVs ...

They were amazing!

*mourns Kiriya PVs*

His PVs where awesome, but we all have to move on sometime... PVs probably reminded her of him, so right off the bat it was probably hard on her to make them, so as time goes on I'm sure they'll get good again~

I just hope her MVs are going to be good. I so can't wait for the first new english single >W<

It's not like Kiriya is the only PV director in the world. Hikki can still make great music videos (maybe even ones better than his). I just wish she'd try.

^Her good PVs where mostly directed by Kiriya, she'll get better again, she just needs time to get good again =D

Thank you! :roflmao She just needs to get her bottom in gear and find someone!

True, but COLORS was amazing and it wasn't directed by him. I think he's a fantastic director but there are definitely better ones out there for her to work with. She's going to have to make a decent PV if she wants to make it in the States!

talking about PVs , You Make Me Want To Be A Man scares the crap outta me

doesn't help matters that I 1st watched it at night :S

It'd be nice if she tried. but no matter what, I don't think they can be ever as nice as the Kiriya PVs, those are some of my favorites PVs everrrrr :~

True, true, but MOST of her good PVs are directed by Kiriya

unfortunately but true

some of the best PVs that Utada put out incidentally were directed by her ex husband .

who can forget Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro :(

That's exactly what I was thinking of.

Ugh, I would love another Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro-esque PV

that might just be my favorite PV ever.

it's & I love the fact that it was shot in black & white to give it a more classy/old school feel although when I saw the making of the PV , it wasn't really terribly exciting :laugh

I must say I hope one of her upcoming PV's is as... let's say... mystic, like Sakura Drops!

^ I just want a good decent PV that takes her outside of the studio :innocent

that happened for FOL & POL isn't it ?

yes! that's one of my favourite PVs ever! I love Kiriya's artistic vision and how Utada's music go hand-in-hand with his videos.

And so was Hikari. :thud

^ are you serious , Triple D ?

I was going ??? when I saw Hikari . It's like what's up with her washing dishes & taking a break & drinking water lol

^LOL! I thought the exact same! Gosh HS is getting closer and closer to the million! I think shes at 974,317 units sold domestically at the moment!

haha :laugh

total waste of time watching the Hikari PV , I mean do I really want to see her washing dishes while singing :dead2

^VERY True, the PV actually sort of ruins the song a bit, I must admit I enjoyed it a bit more before watching the PV, LOL! Also she has added two more hilarious posts to her blog: It appears she's back in Japan! Aww, I want some unagi aswell XD!!~

i haven't been here for a long long time (like.. probly 1.5 months? :P)... anything new about hikki?

Nothing. =\

aside from the fact that we been talking & speculating what Utada's next moves are , other than that zlich

About 25,000 copies left until the million mark! Yay.

by the end of this year, i better see HS at 1,000,000. :grumpy

Yeah.

I'm going to have a little party when HS hits the million mark. =P

this thread should have a party too. who's gonna bring the food? :laugh

i think i'll play HS the whole day on the day when it reaches the million.

Five more months until the year is up. She'll have to sell at least five thousand a month, or something along those lines.

While waiting for her to hit the million, I wrote a nice little review of HEART STATION on my brog if anyone wants to read it ;)

She's probably still working busily on some new material. It's normal for her to take her time (a long time) to release something new.

And I'm not sure if I care anymore whether HS sells a million or not. It's still an amazing album; it's probably the best album of 2008 so far. The quality of it alone overshadows whether it sells a million or not.

^I think it's just about being able to say that it's a million-seller. That would be so nice :heart

from Hikki Station

whooooooo! thank you AyUta! :D

OMG I really hope Namie doesn't outsell Hikki overall. I want Hikki to have the highest selling female album of 2008! Even though it's not even comparable because it's comparing a best to a studio album.

yea, as much as i love namie, utada better get the million. it's been charting for soo long that i just want it to get a million already, lol.

(and i also love HS too :innocent)