awesome , hope the sales keeps up :cool

I do hope Hikki sells a million as well. But like triple D says, they're not comparable. Oh well, I'm glad it sold so much, even if it doesn't hit the million. It's the best album of 2008 in my book :D

^ Triple D feels the same way too

a piece of news worth celebrating -> http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/special/mid.../2008_all.html

very nice :D

1st HS
65th HS / SG
99th POL CD + DVD edition

wow! this album is soooooooooooooooooo strong.... lol! i'm proud to be a hikki fan!ahah

well, it's obvious that namie's best fiction will sell over a million copies. I dun really mind she outsells hikki, whether it's a best album or a studio album. As long as HS hitting a million copies, I'll be happy :D.

How is it obvious that Namie will hit 1 million? Basing that off of two days is a bit presumptuous, it's still up in the air. I mean, B'z sold 580k their first week and they are struggling to hit the million mark. I actually doubt Namie will, and even if she does it doesn't matter, because it's a best album. Namie could never outsell Hikki with a studio album.

I WANT HIKKI NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm actually hoping BEST FICTION doesn't outsell HEART STATION, even if it is a compilation album. I find HEART STATION to be the better album overall.

Namie is more popular than B'z rite now IMO (at least at this moment). And B'z has already released best album two or three years ago. Namie hasn't released any best album since 2002.

Of course, it's just my assumption. Don't worry. Hikki is still our queen (well.. apart from ayu lol). As I said, I dun really mind if BEST FICTION sells more than HS in the end.

sadly, i feel the exact same way, lol. i haven't loved an utada album that much since DEEP RIVER. :laugh so HEAT STATION better reach one million! because i really love that album, overall.

^ same here, Hikki really deserves to get a million copies sold. She take FOREVER, to come up with new music, but its always worth the wait!!

Heart Station doesn't really deserve a million imo, it's not all that good an album >.>

What did you just say? :gun Hikki Heads unite!

It's true! Heart Station is totally not musically good enough to sell a million! UB deserves it ;_;

Anything put out by Utada Hikaru deserves to be the #1 selling album of the year, IMO.

^ That's in my book as well :laugh All her hard work deserves to be no.1 every single time. She's an amazing artist, and HS is my fav album from her now :D

That's just...wrong. LOL.

Not if it's not musically up to par with her other music >.>... Heart Station is a giant leap in the wrong direction for me. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate it, I just don't think it's good enough to deserve a million copies sold.

No it's not. 99% of the Ayu fans here have that opinion about her. It's called being a crazy, dedicated fan ;)

^ :yes I'm with D all the way :roflmao I just love Hikki's experimental material she's been putting out. She does a great job! I look forward to more material like what HS had :D

^Ugh, god no, new direction Hikki-chan. Pull something we won't expect!

I think the majority of Hikki's fan and the Japanese public like what she's doing now. But, she's totally shifting gears anyway with the English album so hopefully we get something we all like!

I'm sure the English album wont disappoint! With stargate and all, it should be great :yes
I just really want to see the covers to the album =O

I hope she grows her hair long.

^ I miss her pretty hair too *cries*
She even use make up now.... WHO MAKE HER THAT???!!!!
I want a Hikki-woman not an Hikki-tom-boy *cries*

I hate to admit it but you're right . I definitely think that UB deserved the million status .

HS not really though , that's why I'm still surprised at the extraordinary sales success pertaining to the album but hey everyone's a critic

I guess the reason why HS is selling so much is because of the mega hit Flavor of Life. XD

AND maybe because she's single again. D: (but she does have kuma O_O)

mmm yeah I guess so with regards to FOL ballad version

not sure whether did her status played a part in it lol :laugh

You're a crazy dedicated hikki fan, it's not really surprising you're saying that.
They will think that every album ayu need to be #1 and you will think that everything hikki releases need to be #1 and sell millions name fans think that namie should, kumi fans think that kumi should and all of you are wrong though that's how you all feel because they are your favorites :laugh

For me like some people here said HS wasn't a strong album.
DR, Distance and even UB were way better albums imo.
HS had some strong single songs but I don't find myself listening to nijiiro basu, Celebrate and now even Fight The Blues and teiku 5 (teiku 5 used to be my favorite but now it's back to Beautiful World).
HS and SG sound very generic now and I don't listen to both of them too.
I mainly listen to BW, k & C, FoL and Prisoner of Love which are the albums' highlights.

GOD, me too...

If Hikki releases crap after all this long ass time I will friggin burn every cd of hers that I own...or just sell them.

But the hikki fans here said that everything she release is good and should be #1 :grumpy

j/k

Well I'm hoping for something good too, hopefully the English album already but hikki sure takes her time...
I thought she started recording half of it before she released HS =P

Agree... is the dorama-pawa!!!... the sales are good for Flavor of Life and Prisoner of love.
About the "single" theory... with the boyish look... I don't tink so :thud

And is true, UB is better than HS for many reasons, but even so I like HS :yes

Of course she takes a while, I mean she does write all of her lyrics, composes all of her songs to make it perfect (Which in my opinion all of her music is ^ ^)

Nothing Hikki releases is ever or will be 'crap' how dare you say that! :irked

I'll have your CD's if you don't want them, because obviously if you think it would have to succumb to that, you mustn't like her or have much faith in her to begin with!

No artist is perfect. :shrug

Oricon 2008

Singles:

57 *,*80,832 ***,556 Prisoner Of Love / 宇多田ヒカル 08/05/21

60 *,*76,762 ***,*** HEART STATION/Stay Gold / 宇多田ヒカル 08/02/20

Albums:

*4 *,974,317 **3,010 HEART STATION / 宇多田ヒカル 08/03/19

FOL had little to do with the success. HS looked like it was going to sell less than ULTRA BLUE until POL started getting promotion, so I'd say it was that song that helped the album so much.

Hikki is for me :)

I think Hikki should release something that wasn't mostly or entirely produced in Garageband. @.@

Wait, what's Garageband? (This is a serious question.)

A simple program for making really really basic music on Macs. The poster is making fun of Hikki!

So is there any new news about her american album?...title?, release date?, special first press?

nope, nothing so far. :grumpy

Thanks guys for defending Hikki... she is our queen!

OMG!, I wish we had something....I think it'll be pushed back into 09 now...but I'm still crossing my fingers for a possible Nov. release.

^Same, I think we all want that! I wonder if she'll release some random Digital Single before hand... And yes, I agree with Triple D, Hikki truly is perfect!!!~

I don't care how long Hikki takes. I just want something awesome. XD

Utada doesn't really need defending. Her talent speaks for itself. It's best just to ignore those certain members less our thread loses what makes it special and becomes what so many others become when such conversations develop.

Anyways, I'm not really expecting or anticipating any huge news. I don't know why. I guess the fact that I'm not all that excited about any "ENGLISH" news factors into that as well. I don't know why I'm not excited. Just not. I'd rather more Japanese Material.

Like when news was first announced that Utada was coming out with both a Japanese Album and English Album, I was hoping like crazy that the Japanese Album would come out first and thank BeJeSuS it did.

I don't want another Exodus...cause as much as I loved the album it never felt Hikki-esque to me, but the way Western Music doesn't compare to Japanese, so I don't think most westerners that don't know her would be able to understand her music as thoroughly if it were all mainly produced by her.

I think when she did EXODUS , she was trying to cater & fit into the masses which can be classified as sorta like a sellout thing

not to mention lack of promo that came from Def Jam which caused the album to bomb which's a pity as I enjoyed it

hopefully in her new Eng album she will be more of herself instead of trying to please people who haven't heard her music at all for the sake of doing that

I don't think she'll succeed in the States if she does the exact same style as she does in Japan.

I agree.

The album for me did sound like it was made on a cheap music program on the computer like greggerz189 said. I like the potential the album had and I still listen to it occasionally, but it kinda failed musically for me. I hope she tries something different this time around.

OMG. "tomodachi demo koibito demo nai chuukan chiten de" gives me chills really often. I totally see where you're coming from.

Oh and I just read that interview. ... Wow, I had no idea. o_o It was really nice of her to say the things she said, though. Makes me understand stuff a little better, you know?

I honestly don't feel that EXODUS was very U.S. friendly...the only track I would even considering "catering" is Easy Breezy...everything else was very Utada, and not at all what you would hear on top 40 radio.

Since she probably won't be that successful in the U.S., I'd rather she just stick with her Japanese style, that way even though it won't sell well, her true fans (aka us) will love it!

I agree with everything you wrote.

I'm pretty sure things like "The Workout" were pretty much U.S. catering ...

For Hikki's next English album, I hope that she just makes the music that she wants to make, rather than trying to cater to the US audience. I think that with Exodus she kind of had this mis-mash of her own style and what she thought Americans wanted to hear.

I think "The Workout" and "About Me" could've been really good, and possibly successful, singles.

I don't think Exodus was a complete sellout - part of me believes that Utada experimented on purpose, trying to make something different from her Japanese releases. Her music base is in Japan, where she's ridiculously famous, but in the US, where no one knows her, she can do whatever she wants. I like Exodus the more I listen to it; it's nowhere near as great as her Japanese music, but it's still nice in itself.

according to utada's new blog entries, she's in the middle of writing lyrics. :)

i think a new release will be out SLOWLY but surely. :laugh

^ at least we have new about her 9_9
...I want the CD this year *cries*

:laugh One CD a year is pretty much all we can hope for with Hikki.

^ is true XD
those rumors about the album for her 10th anniversary were fake :P

anyways I'm happy to know that she's working in the lyrics ^_^

I CERTAINLY thing "The Workout" could've been successful if it was like, actually a single and actually got airplay.

I'm still crossing my fingers for a Christmas album or some sort of mini-album for her tenth anniversary. Even if she's writing lyrics now, she can still make a few songs by the end of the year.

yes yes especially About Me which's like the only slow , non electronic song on EXODUS

It still suck that Exodus '04 didn't get its own PV & so's Devil Inside :(

A couple of posters requested Passion ~opening version~ in 320 kbps a long time ago, and I finally found it! :) This is super-old, but in case anyone still wants it:

http://www.mediafire.com/?4a5ml64vgtb

^Thank you! My versions of Passion are such crap for some reason!

ick! christmas album? ick!
no thank you!

i wouldnt mind a mini-album from her though.
before heart station was announced i was rooting for a mini-album full of childrens songs. (so boku wa kuma wouldnt have to be on a 'real' album :P)

im still thinking that might work. a children's mini-album....could be pretty cute. and hikki would certainly make it fun...



*i showed my boyfriend kuma chang for the first time today, he said "cuuute bear!" hahaaha ^_^*

THANKS FOR SHARING~ :luv2

This is great, thanks! :D

I dun want a x'mas album as well... It has nothing to do with her 10th anniversary.. :P. And no... please dun release a children's mini-album. I dun want her 10th anniversary to be that... kiddy.. :shakehead :P

Yeah, I'm not into this Christmas themed album idea as well.

Honestly, I don't really expect much out of her 10th anniversary. I think the album and the re-cut single was enough.

The only thing I expect now is just her working on the English album, that's it. Just frequent posts from her blog and her working her magic on this new album is good enough for me. ^_^

I think a lot of you read that post wrong. I think Melon Panda meant an album AROUND CHRISTMAS TIME, not an album dedicated to the holiday. XD

I'd listen to Hikki sing christmas songs ._.;;

I'd buy a Hikki christmas album, I LOVE Christmas songs <3 I bought DBSK's. I think it'd be a great idea, what is everyone anti-christmas ;_;?

I don't think the majority would like an entire Album confined to just Christmas Songs. I know I want variety. Not all cheery happy stuff. I like it dark too.

so I assumed that Utada has done some christmas songs in her concerts & performances ?

if so what did she sang before ?

There quality though, I end up liking most or all of the songs she has on an album. except Boku wa Kuma that was just tooo kidish lol

Oh... if this is what Melon meant, then I have to apologize :).

It's not even her 10th anniversary yet when HS and PoL were released.. I'm not saying she should release a new song.. But at least I hope she will be doing something for celebrating her 10th anniversary in December (e.g., making a "the one and the only hikki 10th anniversary" concert). I will feel sad if there's nothing popping up towards December.

And no, I dun want she releases the 2nd English album as the celebration of her 10th anniversary.. This 10th anniversary is quite about her Japanese career, so I rather want she uses Japanese songs/concert to celebrate this important date.

And again no, I dun wanna see EMI releasing a few more free ringtones at the end of the year as a make up for the celebration... That will be too lame..

(yeah i'm too picky about this LOL).

speaking of EMI , should Utada decide at this point in time on whether she want to start up her own record label or switch to another major label since there're currently problems happening at EMI

not really sure what type of problems , I think it's financially wise ?

the reason why I'm doing so is because there're rumours floating around that EMI Asia will be closing its doors , especially its S'pore branch :dead2

Well I can see that may happens.. The only major selling artist in EMI Japan rite now is hikki. Glay is not selling well, ringo is not... probly hikki is not selling that well in terms physical, but her digital sales are really high.

If she's moving to another label.. I hope it will be Sony. At least I can see Sony giving more freedom to its artists on releasing music. Avex is just a factory, milking its artists 365 days per year LOL :P.

Well hikki is like the only one who makes money for EMI so it might not be enough as a whole label? (in Japan).

I would like her to release Japanese releases and do something special like ayu for her 10th anniversary.

A 10th anniversary tour could be cool or a special compilation or a whole new japanese singles with an album coming afterwards =\.

I actually would love it if hikki would move to avex.
She would release way more and all of my favorites would be from avex lol.

LOL that's true . Avex's not really counted as 1 of the big 4's in the record label/s world although Avex's 1 of the largest independent music companies in the world .

Sony & BMG used to be 2 separate entities til they merged together as Sony BMG a few years ago & yes I see your point if she decides to move to Sony BMG should things at EMI are still unstable at this point in time

@ israel: Well I'm the opposite. I dun want hikki moving to avex. I'm used to her releasing schedule. Like you say, moving to avex sorta means becoming another milking machine. And I'm so sure that the quality of her music will drop sharply. That's how I feel about ayu, ai-chan, and kumi. When an artist releases music like crazy because his/her company wants him/her to, that'll lead to the destruction of music quality...

@ karen: true, avex is never a big company worldwide, but it's currently the biggest company in Japan IMO. It has ayu, kuu, namie, exile, ai-chan (well even she doesn't sell anymore), etc. Look at this year's oricon album chart... exile got 2 albums selling over million copies, and the remaining two best albums probly aiming at 800 - 900K at least. Namie's best fiction will definitely selling over million copies. Ayu's asian tour + the upcoming best album... even she doesn't sell like crazy, her cd sales are at least consistent. Kuu isn't selling as good as used to be (esp after the early incident), but she's still a valuable "cow" in avex. I'm pretty sure we'll see at least 4 - 5 of the top 10 albums will belong to avex..

^ that's true , you can definitely tell the way things are done between EMI & Avex are so different

at least Utada takes her own time to come up with the goods & like what you said , once Avex artistes started to put out so many singles non stop like there's no tomorrow , the quality of their music starts to falter

I highly disagree.
I don't think that time affects quality unless if it's really harshing the artist.

ayu and kumi released like crazy were their musical eras determined by a lot as the best.

"ayu's best musical era was around 2000-2002" and even started to compose where she released like crazy and kumi around ~12 single collection~.

Even now ayu really slowed down and some say that the music isn't like it used to be (when she released a lot).

Therefore I don't think that time is really a factor for making good music or not unless if the artist is really stressed for like making something big in a few hours.

^ I guess but then again I think it all boils down to the individual

you know.. I wasn't fond of ayu's music during 2001 - 2002. I didn't even buy I am... back then. I was kinda disconnected with her during that moment because her music quality was decreasing . I dunno if you guys were ayu fans back then, but lots of her fans complaining about the recycling of her music (M vs. Free & Easy; evolution vs. Naturally, etc.). I wasn't gonna buy RAINBOW until I saw the cover. It's so sarcastic that I bought the album because I loved the cover, not her music. That is one of the reasons I dun really want her to compose music. True, it's good to see her making the entire song herself. But I must admit that she's not trained to be a music composer. Lots of her melodies are like deja vu to me..

I dun even need to discuss kuu. Her music quality has been dropping like crazy after 12-single era.

What are you talking about?

M is one of the best songs composed ever and the single did great (and really helped for A BEST as well).
Let alone other songs like evolution Dearest, Endless sorrow which are my most favorite compositions of songs ever.
ayu released a lot mainly until I am... album afterwards the amount of singles she had was decreased so that's the era I meant and that's the era were her music were the best (for most people, fans etc.) I personally think that some of the songs she does now are better than some older songs. But of course I have favorites from both eras and actually a lot of people want ayu to compose again.
Even my japanese bf told me that a lot of her japanese fans are dying for her to compose again.

hikki's music sounds exactly the same too in UB and HS (the whole ethereal pop) but I don't see you caring for that. I don't think it affected UB but it definitely affected HS (for me) and half of the album sounds generic. No one's perfect.

And sometimes bluegie your comments look like you will always find a way to put down ayu and make hikki the best thing ever just because you know both from their debut or 2000 and you are a hikki fan.

I don't like hikki's First Love (except for Automatic) but because it's hikki I bought it and I want to own all of her albums so I got it. What's the point? :shrug

For kumi - but she released 12 singles and 12 weeks and that's considered as her best musical era.

I don't think that avex is the best company in Japan for nothing.
They have a lot of successful artists and not for nothing.

I only discovered JPop proper 2 years ago so no I didn't came aboard during the time when both ayumi & Utada were at their peak

anyway ...

I assumed that Utada has done some christmas songs in her concerts & performances ?

if so what did she sang before ?

hikki never sang a christmas song in one of her tours =P
I think that she didn't perform any on TV too but I'm not sure.

ooh ok

I myself am not sure too , maybe someone can help me in here ? :dead2

If Utada Hikaru moves to another label, which I doubt she will do, it better be Warner, so she, ayaka and BONNIE PINK could create some supergroup.

OH YEAH and DJ HASEBE would arrange everything. <3

I think Hikki should go independent if moving. She'd make more money and her stuff would be even better as she'll have complete control. What I wish for most artists instead of labels always telling them what to do. The independent label market is taking course world wide because album sales across the globe are on a record low because of downloads etc. Mass releases do help though because people think your better because you have a lot of material to work with and you know how to work it and deal with the pressures of the industry and its why a lot of these compilations and such always do well and what they have to offer. I don't agree on the fact she should have a lot of compilations for Hikki i think promotion is her key to success. She put her song on a drama and bam thats it everyone loves it. Lack of tv and promotion for Hikki brings in low sales and for Ultrablue and of course her Exodus album i felt promotion for it was fairly slim and the fact Passion was on KH2 didn't seem to make much difference.

I don't think Hikki is like Ayumi or any other artists who likes to celebrate their own anniversary. It just would not be very much like Hikki to make a big deal out of that, she seems like a low-key person who doesn't take herself that seriously.

HELL NO, avex's release schedule is so fast that it makes their artists lose any quality in their work. Look what happened to Ayumi, after years at avex now she's putting out junk and her sales have fallen so hard. Kuu too, they both putting out the same crap. And look at Ami Suzuki, she'll have put out 3 singles and 2 albums this year. Hikki is FAR too laid-back (lazy) to join avex.

I think her Kuma has something to do with influencing her personality :laugh

Don't you think that it's contradicting to say that what makes the quality of their music be less good is that they release a lot of things while they both were at their top musical era while they actually released a lot of things?
You said yourself that now their music isn't good as before but now they don't release like they used too a few years ago (at least ayu doesn't nothing like she used to in 2000 or 2001) and kumi like when she released the 12 singles in 12 weeks.

And hikki's music as well isn't as it used to be but I don't excuse it upon releasing fast (which she doesn't) but like ayu and kumi she still pull some amazing songs.