ULTRA BLUE vs HEART STATION!
 

Okay, a little debate had sparked in the Hikki thread and I thought it would be interesting to make a poll to see who preferred ULTRA BLUE and who preferred HEART STATION.

So, which is your favorite? (If you already explained why you the album over the other, just post it in here instead retyping your thoughts back over. :) )

My thoughts:

I prefer ULTRA BLUE since the songs are much more interesting and songs like This Is Love, Keep Tryin', BLUE, Making Love, 誰かの願いが叶うころ, COLORS, One Night Magic feat. Yamada Masashi, Be My Last and Passion are totally awesome!

HEART STATION on the other hand i like Fight The Blues, HEART STATION, Beautiful World, Flavor Of Life -Ballad Version-, Stay Gold and Flavor Of Life. The other songs aren't very appealing to me yet but i'm sure it'll grow on me one day ;D!

ultra blue! i actually liked all the songs. in the other hand, boku wa kuma ( ぼくはくま) and celebrate was rather boring

0w0;; UB PLEASE....

Ultra Blue, because it actually had some variety, which made the album ten times more solid than HS, which sounds the same with the synths, noises and special sounds. I mean UB is the album who has a balled like Be My Last and a powerful song like Passion.. but also something extremely happy like Keep Tryin' and something extremely sad like Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro. It's just really weird that people like the mellow dramaticness (and laziness for recycling many things like the sounds that keep returning and the piece in Kiss & Cry and Flavor of Life that reminds me of First Love with the SAME instruments)

I guess I just like more mature and creative stuff... than children's play

ULTRA BLUE, definitly. HS is still a good album though!

Althought the only songs on Ultra Blue I really liked were basically the singles, I also like This Is Love(digital single), Blue, Nichiyou No Asa, and Making Love.

Usually I can tell whether or not I like an album, I still dislike Fight The Blues to the bottomless depths of where ever is the deepest, and I did listen to a few of the other new songs, and the only good one is Take 5 and the abrupt end is horrible!

HEART STATION (10)
Beautiful World (10)
Falvor of life-Ballad Version-(8)
Boku Wa Kuma (7.5)
Stay Gold (3)
Kiss & Cry (6)
Fight The Blues (6)
Celebrate (5.5)
TAKE 5 (7.5)
Nijiro no BASU (7,5)
Prisoner of Love (6)
Flavor of Life (5)

VS

Keep Tryin' (9)
COLORS(9)
Be My Last (8)
making love (10)
passion(9.5)
This Is love (9.5)
BLUE (8)
WINGS (8.5)
Dareka No Negai Ga Kanau Koro (8)
One Night Magic feat.Yamada Masashi (-1)
Nichijou no Asa (5)
Kairo (5)


I guess ULTRA BLUE wins on this.

Neither! Hikki didn't bring it like she did with her first 3 albums!

lol, sorry, but DEEP RIVER and Distance hold NOTHING on her latest 2 albums. </3

i choose heart station because i like beautiful world..
the best song i think

i didnt find any song is remarkable in HEART SATION
but in ULTRA BLUE theres much of them
i totally in love wz BLUE
hhoohohohoh
thats my user name~

I can't decide...it's really hard!

my fav albums of Hikki are Deep River, EXODUS, ULTRA BLUE and HEART STATION!
the last 2 are somehow different and somehow the same...they both are brilliant for me, I enjoy such music the most...
I love HS for Take5, Celebrate, Fight The Blues and ULTRA BLUE for Passion :luv2

A little too early to say, but I will go for Ultra Blue. It features solid and independent tracks, and as a bonus; a beautiful eye catching cover. To be honest, Heart Station was a little bit boring:/ (And, WTF @ including Boku wa Kuma..) I miss some heavy composition and real instruments. But, I love the heartwarming and positive feeling in Heart Station. Really relaxing.

I think HEART SATION have amazing songs!!!

but I prefer ULTRA BLUE... ^^

hmm...HEART STATION. i'm listening to the album alot more than i ever did with ULTRA BLUE.

ULTRA BLUE, only some tracks in HEART STATION is good.

I chose the third option because honestly, she went down after her Single Collection Vol. 1. Everything after that was just too bleh, ESPECIALLY this entire album. ULTRA BLUE was at least a good album, if not kind of dull compared to her older ones. HEART STATION is just not doing it for me. Hikki got damn boring, and I've kinda stopped caring.

Heart Station has nothing on Ultra Blue. If you don't like UB, Luv, you probably won't like this one either, if all that's bothering you with UB is the abrupt change. Heaert Station has bigger changes from her early works that Ultra Blue. Honestly, I'm really not feeling this album, at all. DX

Actually I can see where Luv ~Venus~ is coming with her comparison. This album (HS) has a few songs that date back to her RnB roots: Prisoner of Love has a RnB beat that resembles some of the songs in Distance/First Love. And Nijiro BASU actually mixes elements from her oldest works (the RnBish beat) + elements of her new works (the ethereal/mysterious/calm essence). Kiss & Cry also has a bit of guuitar infused RnB, elementswe saw on Distance songs. Fight the Blues has elements from Deep River in it. stay Gold also has a Deep River feeling. HS has a bit of the "radio song" feel from Hikari imo.

HEART STATION for overall quality, but at the moment I don't think it, unlike ULTRA BLUE (a lot of meh, a couple of wows), will have songs I'll still want to listen a year after the initial release. But I voted for HS for being so pleasant (not awesome) to listen to.

Ultra Blue is better!
I didn't like too much Heart Station. I loved the singles on HS, but the other tracks weren't as good as the single tracks

So i pick Ultra Blue, i really love it!

Now that I think about it, Kiss & Cry's beats arrangement is the same as taimu.rimito's beats arrangement XD

HEART STATION because it changed my opinion of hikki! i'm a reborn fan!

Ultra Blue, I made all my arguments against Heart Station in the Hikki thread and really don't feel like re-typing them ^^;;

I'm sorry to say this, but Heart Station sounds so ordinary. Several of the tracks seem to riff off Flavor of Life's composition (which itself riffs off Colors') without really trying to do something interesting, so they comes across as redundant. Hikki's not a great lyricist, so it's business as usual, which I don't mind. Although individually-speaking the songs in Ultra Blue aren't as impressive as in her previous three albums, taken together as an album they work in lovely, mysterious ways. I'm still trying to figure out Ultra Blue, but I think it's worth the effort. Heart Station sounds like a very tired album and not as organic as Ultra Blue. It's sometimes pleasurable, but it has no mysteries under its surface. None of the vocal affectations Hikki pulls off so well, too. But thank God for small miracles like Beautiful World!

Someone said it has been downhill from her Singles Collection onward. I agree. For me, she used to stand toe-to-toe with Ayu (I couldn't make up my mind whom I liked better back then). Now she's slowly fading away. It's sad since she has so much talent.

LOLI actually think she's getting better! I do think she slipped a little on HEART STATION, but still she managed to release AWESOME jewels. I just CAN'T stop liostening to HEART STATION, Beautiful World and Flavor Of Life -Ballad Version-...They are so awesome!

'HEART STATION' for me, although I already knew that 'ULTRA BLUE' was winning. I mean don't get me wrong, 'ULTRA BLUE' is an awesome album, but I like the diversity in 'HEART STATION' a little more (since they are both pretty diverse in their own ways). I still can't get over that so many people think the album is 'bland' and 'plain' because I personally, thought it was really interesting. I really don't know why I prefer this one...possibly because it's new and fun material? I can't decide but I thoroughly enjoyed this album, and am very sad to see it get put down so much, but hey, it's just my opinion I guess.

Ah ok, so it wasn't just me! They were indeed, r&b-like. 'Prisoner of Love' and 'Nijiro BASU' are my two new favorite songs, but all of the new songs were good. But, I basically got the same insight as you on the songs.
(redundant lol)

I'm gonna bet that in three months.. we should do the same poll. I'm pretty sure people will have changed their minds because probably 75% of my friends said HS was "SOOO MUCH BETTTTERR THAN UB!!!"... now they're already sick of it and it's been... what... 5 days?

Ultra Blue for sure. Love every song on the album. Heart Station is just OK...only like 2 songs I like on it (not counting the singles) Plus it's the first J-pop album I ever bought..nothing can beat it.

HEART STATION easily. To be blunt, Utada makes very strong singles, and weaker album tracks. But in this new one, the songs flow nicely into each other, and my least favorite are just there, while on ULTRA BLUE, the album tracks are bad.

LOL that's exactly why I try to take breaks for a couple of days between my listenings. I don't want to say 'I love it' and then a few days later say 'I hate it.'

HEART STATION was amazing, in my opinion. Yes, the songs all give off the same laid-back vibe, but that's what makes the album work. ULTRA BLUE felt more like a collection of songs; while its singles are stronger than HEART STATION's singles, HEART STATION as a whole is a better album.

(I also prefer HEART STATION's individual tracks to those of ULTRA BLUE, with the exception of Passion.)

HEART STATION, most of my faves from hikki are on here!

ULTRA BLUE

HEART STATION

ULTRA BLUE. Dareka no Negai Koro Kanau and Making Love are the only two songs I dislike.

ULTRA BLUE is the superior album....just a beautiful style and tone about it...Heart Station is amazing in its own way too...but personally, I think ULTRA BLUE wins.

ULTRA BLUE is better

Ultra Blue. :)

For me HEART STATION is better. It has only one song I don't like but ULTA BLUE has two songs I don't like. Although the olter songs on both albums are amazing. Actually, I think HEART STATION is my favorite album from Hikki, with This Is The One of course. But ULTRA BLUE has my favorite song, Passion...

...this is so hard. XD Anyways, I say HEART STATION.

ugh this's difficult because I like both of them

but I go with ULTRA BLUE because that was 1 of the 1st few jpop albums that I listened to when I started my jpop music journey 3 years ago

I love both! but I think Ultra Blue is the better out of the two.

Neither! Hikki didn't bring it like she did with her first 3 albums!

Ultra Blue. Heart Station is a very generic/average album. There's nothing special about it, except for a couple of singles. Ulltra Blue is a diverse and complex album :yes (and more melodic)

Heart Station.

I pick Heart Station because even after I played it what seems like a billion times and had to take a break from it when the break was over I still loved it.

The tracks flow together very well.

Ultra Blue is nice too but I'll have to go with Heart Station.

Heart station ^^ .

HEART STATION hands down imo. I like ULTRA BLUE but I really prefer HEART STATION more. <3

Ultra Blue is <3

A perfect blend of sounds.

ULTRA BLUE is better. Although HS has Flavour of Life, which is my fav. song from Hikki.

HEART STATION

ULTRA BLUE, but I LOVE HEART STATION TOO!
What made me pick UB was because I only like HEART STATION, Nijiro Basu, Teku 5, and Prisoner of Love. I enjoyed more songs on UB. HS will always have a place in my heart since I was in Japan the time of it's release :)

ULTRA BLUE, but I love HEART STATION too :)

ULTRA BLUE

HEART STATION omg love that album

ULTRA BLUE :heart

The first 3 track are great~
I enjoy Utada experimental pop very much~

ULTRA BLUE to me :yes

ULTRA BLUE

ULTRA BLUE!!!

I even got the album!! I love it. I think it's better than HS album. =D

HEART STATION, her best album.

ULTRA BLUE

ULTRA BLUE by miles

HEART STATION!!!

I never felt a Hikki album at all, I always like 2 or 3 songs from an album, but I like ULTRA BLUE more.

UB for me. HS fell completely flat.

HEART STATION